Cheers to Informal STEM Education: Highlights from 2024 and Anticipations for 2025
Blue jay in the snow holding a peanut in its beak
Happy holiday season to all! At this time of year, many are taking time to reflect on their accomplishments and looking forward to what’s to come in the new year. We’re joining in with some highlights from our work (and some personal achievements!) and a few things we are excited about in 2025.
2024 Highlights
In June, we got to celebrate Dr. Sarah Dunifon’s successful defense of her dissertation, An Examination of Evaluation Policies and Funding Priorities in Informal STEM Education. We took some time in August, September, and October to discuss some of Dr. Dunifon’s findings, and you can find more about her work in our Insights.
After wrapping up her dissertation and several big evaluation projects, Dr. Dunifon took a well-earned sabbatical in July. During her time off, Sarah took some time to travel to Acadia National Park in Maine and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and also explored some fun STEM-related activities closer to home (you can read all about it here!). Overall, it was a wonderful time to reconnect with the outdoors and spend some quality time with family and friends enjoying all kinds of summer activities!
Though 2024 had some great opportunities for rest and reflection, we were still busy working with our amazing clients on meaningful informal STEM projects. These included evaluation work on informal STEM education programs for children focused on conservation and wildlife; the conclusion of a massive project evaluating the landscape of STEM learning in the state of Ohio; and a project centering environmental stewardship. Sarah also served as a columnist on evaluation and informal learning environments in collaboration with NSTA’s Connected Science Learning journal. Her first article was published in March 2024 and is accessible here. Keep an eye out for her second column coming soon in 2025!
Our most recent development is that Emily Neill, Evaluation Assistant, joined the Improved Insights team full-time on December 1st. Emily brings a history of project management and administration to the team (check out her articles about evaluation project planning and project management resources in our Insights!), paired with a foundation in research and the humanities. She is excited to continue learning more about the informal STEM education community and to grow her career in evaluation.
Coming up in 2025
Looking ahead, 2025 is already shaping up to be a busy and productive year. Sarah is excited to continue supporting our informal STEM education clients and community through our consulting work, program evaluation, and our newsletter Insights & Opportunities. She is also looking forward to advancing and sharing more about her dissertation research on evaluation policies in the field. In 2025, Sarah also aims to visit more museums, spend more time exploring interdisciplinary ideas and art, and enjoy time outdoors. She looks forward to cooking, baking, and spending time with friends and family over the holiday season.
Like Sarah, Emily is looking forward to working with many dynamic partners on evaluation projects in 2025. Several of these projects will present new and exciting opportunities to increase her knowledge of evaluation processes and to continue to invest in the informal learning community. Emily’s homeschool background has given her a unique perspective on informal learning, with much of her early science education taking place in informal contexts like children’s museums and science centers. Informal educators were a huge part of building her enthusiasm for the sciences and value of transdisciplinary learning, and she looks forward to giving back to a community that contributed so much to her childhood experiences. On a personal level, Emily is also excited to spend more time gardening and tending chickens on her farm in Arkansas with her husband, two dogs, and their orange cat (if you know, you know).
We’re Taking a Break!
Thank you all for tuning in to our Insights and the newsletter this year. Like many of you, we are taking a break from some of our daily tasks in December to spend some quality time with loved ones. This will be our last article of 2024, but we are looking forward to seeing you with more informal STEM education insights and opportunities to connect and learn together in the new year!
In the meantime, we are leaving you with some fun, STEM-related activity ideas to carry you through the holiday season.
We’ve talked about this in one of our newsletters before, but there’s a reason we’re still talking about it! The Apexel MS008 Portable Microscope is one of Sarah’s favorite ways to explore her immediate surroundings. She has used its surprisingly good zoom capabilities to check out insects, plants, soil, and other small items. If you’re looking for a last-minute gift idea, this is a fun one for kids and adults alike!
Apexel MS008 Portable Microscope magnifying an aphid
During the winter, you wouldn’t think of your local botanical garden or arboretum as a top destination. However, many of these centers (especially in milder climates) have exhibits and activities that are open year-round. Emily recently visited Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center while on a visit with family in Austin, TX. Though the gardens were certainly not at their peak, there were still plenty of amazing plants to see, and the trails around the park and sculptures from local artists provided a great opportunity to get some fresh air and explore the environment.
Courtyard of Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX
As self-admitted nerds, we are always excited about citizen science projects! Zooniverse has a huge number of projects that capture a variety of interests (Astronomy! Biology! Ecology!). We also love Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, the longest-running community science bird project in the U.S., that takes place December 14 - January 5.
Screenshot of Zooniverse projects page
And, of course, your annual holiday baking efforts are also part of STEM! Try making different batches of cookies with different proportions of baking powder and soda, or white sugar and brown sugar. You might even find that your experiments perfect your secret (and now secret-er) family recipe!
Thank you all again for investing your time and attention with us this year. We are so grateful for this amazing community and are looking forward to even more opportunities to hear from you in the coming year.
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