Georgia Bracey

Galaxy Zoo: Exploring the Motivations of Citizen Science Volunteers.

The Galaxy Zoo citizen science website invites anyone with an Internet connection to participate in research by classifying galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. As of April 2009, more than 200,000 volunteers had made more than 100 million galaxy classifications. In this paper, we present results of a pilot study into the motivations and demographics of Galaxy Zoo volunteers, and define a technique to determine motivations from free responses that can be used in larger multiple-choice surveys with similar populations. Our categories form the basis for a future survey, with the goal of determining the prevalence of each motivation.

Blended Learning Training for Mentors of STEM Team Competitions

This paper describes the findings of a research study of a blended-learning approach to train mentors of teams in the Botball® Educational Robotics Program. Botball is an international team-based robotics competition for secondary students designed to build skills in computer programming, robotics, teamwork, and problem solving. For this study, we recruited new teams comprising 8-10 middle school students per team and a mentor. Teams were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups or a control group. Mentors of teams in the experimental groups received training in one of three types of mentor practices: best practices, mentoring for self-efficacy, or a combination of best practices and self-efficacy. The training format consisted of web-based self-paced tutorials, a face-to-face workshop, and webinars. Dependent variables were student post-test scores on three assessments: Efficacy for Science-Related Jobs, STEM Achievement-Related Choices, and STEM Self-Efficacy. A priori statistical analyses showed no difference between the groups; however, post hoc analyses showed that the use of self-efficacy techniques was positively related to the three dependent measures. Post-competition surveys of mentor practices indicated that students in the treatment groups did not appear to receive distinctly different treatments, revealing some of the potential challenges of the blended learning approach for professional development of teachermentors.

Developing Web-based Tutorial Modules to Support Training for Group-based Mentoring

This paper describes the development and implementation of a series of interactive online modules that serve as the core component of a mentor training program for middle school teachers in the Botball® Educational Robotics Program. Botball is an international team-based robotics competition for secondary students. Over the course of a season, students work together to design, build, and program a robot that will meet a particular challenge. Teachers play a critical role in this process as team mentors, but there is currently no mentor training available that is easily accessible to teachers in a variety of geographic locations. To meet this need, and as part of a larger research study, three STEM educators at a US Midwestern university created five Web-based modules designed to introduce users to the fundamentals of group mentoring. These research-based tutorials provide on-demand distance training that is engaging and reflective. We will discuss formative evaluation of the training gleaned from responses to open-ended survey questions given to the initial group of 33 teachers who piloted the modules as well as from interactive webinars offered throughout the training.