CILS has been charged with undertaking research that can inform practice and strengthen the informal science education infrastructure.  To do this in the nascent research domain of informal learning and its relationship to schools, CILS has initiated work at multiple levels of activity—from the learner level to the institutional to the systemic and policy levels. Research can be grouped in seven areas representing the lines of work being pursued by the faculty and their CILS graduate students and postdocs.  These groups regularly confer across institutional and departmental lines and in many cases overlap in terms of individuals, methodologies, settings, and questions.

1. Science Communication and Explanation
2. Cultural Variation in Learning
3. Conversation, Interaction and Learning
4. Identity, Teaching, and Learning in Informal Environments
5. Digital Learning and Informal Environments
6. Organizational and Institutional Theory and Informal Science Institutions
7. Systemic Interactions Between Informal Science Institutions and Schools

1. Science Communication and Explanation
   Lead Faculty: Jonathan Osborne (King’s College London) and Doris Ash (UC Santa Cruz)
   Students and postdocs at both UCSC and King’s are exploring a range of issues related to the nature of science communication and explanation in informal science institutions, encompassing exhibit design, labels, staff facilitation, and program structures.  This area of work looks at what kinds of science is being explained, who it is being explained to, and how informal science institutions best explain ideas to different visiting groups, including non-dominant cultural and linguistic groups, school children, and teachers.

   Osborne, J. (2005).  Communicating Science: Roundtable Summary. Topical paper developed from roundtable working group from the 2005 CILS Bay Area Institute. (also available on PDF file)

   (review related CILS studies)

2. Cultural Variation in Learning
   Lead Faculty: Barbara Rogoff (UC Santa Cruz) and Alan Cribb (King’s College London)
   A number of students at both UCSC and King’s, in developmental psychology and education policy respectively, are examining how culture mediates learning; how learning designs take into account and build on opportunities provided by cultural variation among different communities; and issues related to science education and social justice.
   
   (review related CILS studies)

3. Conversation, Interaction and Learning
   Lead Faculty: Maureen Callanan (UC Santa Cruz) and Jill Hohenstein (King’s College London)
   An interest group has been formed around the role of conversation and interactions in learning and learning environments.  This group primarily looks at conversations that happen in informal science institutions, in both the US and UK.  It examines how these environments are designed to promote and develop conversations that can contribute to learning, as well as how these designs affect conversation and participation in science learning across gender and culture lines.
   
   Hohenstein, J. (2005).  Discussing the role of conversation in learning at informal science institutions. Topical paper developed from roundtable working group from the 2005 CILS Bay Area Institute. (also available on PDF file)
   
   (review related CILS studies)

4. Identity, Teaching, and Learning in Informal Environments
   Lead Faculty: Justin Dillon (King’s College London)
   A group of students and postdocs is examining issues related to the development, identity, and support of informal educators as well as of formal educators attending programs in informal science institutions.  Settings range from science centers to outdoor education programs.  Issues range from professional preparation, practices, and beliefs, to the nature and role of professional development.  Studies examine the relationship between informal environments and the types of teaching practices and beliefs they engender and support.

   Dillon, J. (2005).  Outdoor Education. Topical paper developed from roundtable working group from the 2005 CILS Bay Area Institute. (also available on PDF file)
   
   (review related CILS studies)

5. Digital Learning and Informal Environments
   Lead Faculty: Christian Heath and Dirk vom Lehn (King’s College London) and Sherry Hsi (Exploratorium)
   Several CILS studies are examining how technology mediates learning in out-of-school settings and between in- and out-of-school settings.   This work seeks to explore how technology can contribute to, and assist the learning of science and develop new forms of scientific literacies and practices.

   Hsi, S. (2005).  Digital Learning and Play: A Synthesis and Elaboration from a CILS Bay Area Institute Roundtable. Topical paper developed from roundtable working group from the 2005 CILS Bay Area Institute. (also available on PDF file)

   (review related CILS studies)
   
   
6. Organizational and Institutional Theory and Informal Science Institutions
   Lead faculty: Rodney T. Ogawa (UC Santa Cruz)
   This research team, based at UCSC, is applying new institutional theory to an analysis of informal science institutions.  This group’s general focus is the influence that social and political forces have on science learning and teaching.  Specifically, they seek to understand how social norms and policy contribute to the unequal distribution of opportunities to learn science in both informal and formal settings.  Using a theoretical framework that combines two traditions, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Institutional Theory, their work seeks to shed light on how learning and teaching are influenced by social contexts in organizations whose structures are shaped by forces in their social and political environments. 

   Ogawa, R., Crain, R., Loomis, M., Bell, T., and Kim, R. (2005).  Linking Socio-Cultural Theories of Learning with an Institutional Theory of Organizations: Implications for Theory, Practice and Collaboration. Topical paper developed from roundtable working group from the 2005 CILS Bay Area Institute. (also available on PDF file)

   (review related CILS studies)
   
   
7. Systemic Interactions Between Informal Science Institutions and Schools
   Lead Faculty: Robert J. Semper and Bronwyn Bevan (Exploratorium)
   Several studies, mostly being led by the Exploratorium, seek to understand the ways in which informal science institutions currently work with and support the school science agenda.  These studies document the nature of such programs, how they build on the affordances of informal settings, and how they contribute to a more robust school science program.  Research is examining museum-based teacher professional development, partnerships between schools and informal science institutions, and informal science in afterschool settings.

   Bevan, B. and Semper, R.J. (2005).  Mapping Informal Science Institutions onto the Science Education Landscape. Topical paper developed from roundtable working group from the 2005 CILS Bay Area Institute. (also available on PDF file)

   (review related CILS studies)