Leah, this is such interesting work, especially at a time when science literacy and media savvy seem especially critical to our future. I remember another project with some similarities, though it focused on print journalism. It was led by Joseph Polman: https://cadrek12.org/projects/science-literacy-through-science-journalism-scijourn I am wondering what kind of professional development you provide for teachers.

Please check out the SRL map to see if there is a Student Reporting Lab near you, and fill this space with ideas about stories that students can produce locally to shine a light on STEM issues nationally!

 It's wonderful to see the engagement and interest in STEM exhibited by the students! I'm interested in hearing whether or not you have been able to track students after their engagement in this experience. Also, what experiences do Master Teachers have that support them to mentor teachers?

Thanks Gillian! We have an alumni follow-up going on right now (challenging because of privacy built into the research, but not impossible!).

Master Teachers have been in the program 2+ years and many have returned to our teacher workshop as "veteran teachers." This has happened organically, as Student Reporting Labs teachers become leaders in their local districts and especially among formal and informal communities and networks of broadcasting and film teachers. We also build off (and add to) the strengths of existing networks such as Student Television Network, Journalism Education Association and National Association of Media Literacy Educators. Thanks so much for engaging in our project and I look forward to more questions!

Leah

I love the line "We are facing major challenges in our country that will need to be solved through science and communication with science." We've tried to get our science undergrads to be more involved with telling their research stories in a way that is clearly communicated, and easy to share out with non-science audiences. Really great to see students empowered. Thanks for sharing.

Amazing collaboration!  I'm curious to know - are all of the videos produced with the intent of quality of production for airing them?  How are those aired selected?  And what happens to those not selected?  

 

We also use science story telling (audio approach) to put science into the hands of students - check out our video: https://stemforall2019.videohall.com/presentations/1513.html on Student Produced Audio Narratives.  

Wow Erin - SPAN seems like an amazing way for students to have fun reflecting on and sharing their work. We love love love when Student stories make it to the NewsHour broadcast (1.8 million people), but most will not. Stories are posted on Student Reporting Labs.org and shared on social and digital local station and school platforms. Some assignments are actually just skill-building exercises, so students get feedback, but the work isn't published.

Hi Leah,

WFSU Public Media is just starting our Youth Media Council and I am interested in the skill-building exercises you mentioned. Do you have a curriculum that you can share that we can use as a model for our group? At this point they are mainly focused on creating a Podcast series, but we would like to expand that out once we get more experienced. Any advice on creating that balance between giving them skills and using the content they produce?

You are spot on - we are constantly balancing coaching/building skills and expectations for really great content for large audiences. The key is scaffolding exercises and growing skills and then being intentional about the great stories that warrant investment of station talent. Also recognizing and honoring all success - small and large. Let's connect w Angee at KCPT in Kansas City who is doing this with the station's Student Advisory Board. I'll also send you the curriculum. Email me!

Wonderful project and an equally wonderful video to match! I think what makes your message extra special is that it is being delivered from a student herself. Great work!

Very interesting project! I'm interested in learning more about how what a student works on in the context of the Student Reporting Lab is (or could be) connected to what they are doing in their STEM classes at school. Or has the project to date functioned much more as an informal science learning environment?

STEM SRLs often work with science classes. I would call it trans-disciplinary rather than cross-disciplinary ...  the program making synergetic connections between different disciplines. For example

Students create app to encourage their peers to be more sustainable, Middle Creek High School
Apex, NC Maker spaces and projectized learning help students find their own pace, Shortridge High School
Indianapolis, IN Pharmacy class is a new way to build STEM skills and career options, South Mountain High School
Phoenix, AZ Students in Colorado are learning engineering skills by building a firehouse, Vista PEAK Preparatory
Aurora, CO College prep center in Kentucky introduces girls to programming, and some lucrative possibilities, Hardin County Schools Early College and Career Center
Elizabethtown, KY

Well done! I saw that video on PBS! What an exciting idea: to get kids producing their own STEM videos. With this background, our next generation of scientists will be better communicators than their predecessors!

Hi Joanne, great to hear. 

What was really wonderful was that Mary was able to do all the revisions for her story with NewsHour, so she got that great real life experience working with real broadcast executives and how you work with their notes.  Learning when you can push back and fight for what you want and when you just need to do what is being asked.  She is pretty special.

This is really exciting work Leah, thanks for sharing! The student in the video - a great representative of your program! - mentioned students being more interested in learning about STEM from videos produced by their peers. I'm curious if your team has been able to document the STEM learning impact of the videos with students/classrooms that did not contribute to there production and how such videos might enhance student interest or motivation as it relates to STEM? 

Exciting work, for STEM learning, but also for its potential in building an audience for fact based vs social media based information dissemination.  I am curious as to how students go about identifying STEM topics/issues to investigate, or STEM related stories they want to tell. 

Great job Leah! Storytelling is a great tool!!!thanks for sharing.we used a short intro visual storytelling of 2 kids to tell the story that lead to our research project :-)

Lovely video. I found it so inspiring! As a team, we've been working to incorporate more storytelling in our outreach efforts. This video is a great reminder of the power of storytelling, especially among peers. Thanks for sharing!

This project has several great aspects. It helps students see that science and journalism are active endeavors that anyone can participate in if they are willing to devote the time and energy. It also helps students understand the importance of asking questions about the world and about the media they consume. I'll be interested to see what long-term impact this might have on both journalism and STEM.

I also love Mary's comment about getting her nieces and nephews interested in journalism and storytelling. Have you seen that happening, not just with Mary's family but with friends and family members of the students involved in the project?

Leah, great program you and your team have. It's given me a couple ideas for our non-majors science program.

Do you worry about accuracy of the information? Is that even an issue? Or, do you have someone fact-checking behind the students?

Second, do the SRL groups ever share video stories beyond their local area? Seems like a shared story archive might get viewers picked up through other media outlets, or even through Google searches.

Your team has accomplished some terrific work! Creating for an authentic purpose is fabulous and the STEM connection is priceless. I too am interested in the "fact checking" notion of the news publications. One additional question, are students involved in any of the behind the scenes work of video production?

Hi Tracey, yes, fact checking is part of the process, but not as formal as for broadcast.  If a story is going to broadcast, it is fully vetted, but usually the fact checking is up to the teacher or me to spot that something seems a little off or is not adding up.  Things like what map is highlighting, or how lead levels are being measured and how students are talking about those measurements and numbers.  We also have STEM Mentors that help the student make sure their work is accurate.  Since we are a part of PBS NewsHour, we take accuracy very seriously, but when I worked for National Geographic TV, any fact in a script would need 3 PhD references in the annotated script to support that fact.  So we are not vetting the students stories to that level, but are always trying to make sure we are presenting accurate information and helping student understand what that means and how you check your facts and that ideally you need more than one source for a fact.

I am not sure what you mean by "behind the scenes", possibly "post production"?  I am proud to say our student do almost everything on their stories.  They pitch the idea, figure out how to make it work, line up the interviews, make the arrangements, get releases, shoot the stories in the field (ideally we get them outside of their school) and edit the stories.  Before they go up on our website or for broadcast, my job is to color correct and level out the audio which take a little more technical know how, and it is time consuming so helps the students make their deadlines.  I also put on the lower thirds and end slate, since those are "NewsHour" style and we have found that for uniformities sake it is better when we have control over that than the students.  There is a wide spectrum of skill levels.  Usually schools participating in STEM are a little more advanced, second year production students as opposed to first year, but it varies from school to school.

Great project, I think more and more that good science communication is going to be the key to success in getting the message out there. I think a lot about how we do not train our scientists to be good ambassadors of science. 

A compelling project! A great example of STEM and literacy integration for authentic learning purposes.  As the young person in the video notes, youth-produced video journalism impacts both the producers and the audience in important ways.  Do you have research publications about this work that I can access?  Thank you!