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Recent NASEM reports relevant to science engagement

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) have released several reports in recent weeks that are relevant to the work of science centers and museums—and others committed to engaging the public with science and technology.

NASEM are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

Assessing NASA Science Activation 2.0: Progress, Achievements, and Strategic Recommendations (2024) provides an update on NASA’s Science Activation (SciAct) program, which has demonstrated success in leveraging the agency’s strong public reputation and resources to engage a diversity of audiences in science education projects nationwide. This new report builds on a similar assessment conducted by NASEM in 2020—NASA’s Science Activation Program: Achievements and Opportunities—and updates made to SciAct by NASA.

The authoring committee considered potential changes that could be part of SciAct 3.0 and offered six recommendations that it believes would strengthen the program and bring SciAct even closer to meeting its stated objectives. These include expanded investment in community-centered approaches to programming, expanded strategies for engaging with audiences and communities that have been historically excluded from NASA and science generally, and continued attention to strengthening the professional learning community of SciAct project staff.

Assessing NASA Science Activation 2.0: Progress, Achievements, and Strategic Recommendations was authored by a committee chaired by Margaret Honey, President of the Scratch Foundation and former President and CEO of New York Hall of Science. The committee also included Darryl N. Williams, Senior Vice President for Science, Education, and Human Resources at The Franklin Institute.

  • NASEM. 2024. Assessing NASA Science Activation 2.0: Progress, Achievements, and Strategic Recommendations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27989.

K–12 STEM Education and Workforce Development in Rural Areas (2024) offers a roadmap for increasing access to STEM education opportunities and workforce development for students in rural communities.

The report emphasizes that rural areas already have many STEM learning opportunities that urban areas lack, such as access to natural spaces, and the opportunity to build on students’ local rural knowledge and experiences. At the same time, however, inequitable access to broadband in rural communities creates challenges for digital literacy.

The report acknowledges the important role of out-of-school learning opportunities—such as those offered by museums—but notes that many students in rural communities often lack access to these opportunities.

To enhance awareness of issues in rural STEM education and workforce development, the report recomends a common measure of rurality that can be used across and beyond the federal government—and to regularly disaggregate data by degree of rurality. It also encourages increased federal attention to rural STEM education and workforce development, such as by the Rural Partners Network and the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education.

The report acknowledges that many rural communities lack the capacity to identify potential funding opportunities, complete the application process, and meet the reporting requirements—and it encourages funders and others to minimize burdens and build capacity among rural communities.

K–12 STEM Education and Workforce Development in Rural Areas was authored by a committee co-chaired by Katharine Frase, Vice President of Business Development at IBM (retired), and Tiffany Neill, Research Scientist at the University of Washington’s Institute for Math + Science Education.

Scaling and Sustaining Pre-K–12 STEM Education Innovations: Systemic Challenges, Systemic Responses (2024) examines the interconnected factors at local, regional, and national levels that foster or hinder the widespread implementation of promising, evidence-based Pre-K–12 STEM education innovations, to identify gaps in the research, and to provide guidance on how to address barriers to implementation.

The report points to the challenges of misaligned policies and priorities across different levels, which can make it difficult to implement coherent educational programs or to propagate large-scale improvements across the country.

This may be particular true in the relations between formal K–12 education and learning in out-of-school or preschool settings. The report emphasizes the value that these out-of-school spaces bring to students’ education, but the important role they can play in innovation development.

To this end, the report encourages local school and district leaders to initiate and sustain partnerships across all levels of STEM education learning ecosystems to bring together STEM education expertise and local knowledge, to build regional connections among communities, and share knowledge.

Scaling and Sustaining Pre-K–12 STEM Education Innovations: Systemic Changes, Systemic Responses was authored by a committee chaired by Christine M. Massey, Senior Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Committee members included Christine M. Cunningham, Senior Vice President of STEM Learning at the Museum of Science, Boston; Ximena Dominguez, Executive Director of Learning Sciences and Early Learning Research at Digital Promise; and Robert J. Semper, Chief Learning Officer at the Exploratorium.

Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science (2024) provides a comprehensive assessment of the literature on science misinformation, its origins and impacts, and strategies for mitigating its spread and potential harms. That inaccuracy in scientific claims is not new, recent changes in the information ecosystem have made the concerns more visible, including the rise of social media and the decline in the capacity of the news media.

Using a definition of misinformation about science as “information that assert or implies claims that are inconsistent with the weight of accepted science evidence at the time (reflecting both quality and quantity of evidence),” the report acknowledged that what is defined as misinformation “can evolve over time as new evidence accumulates and scientific knowledge regarding those claims advances.”

The report stresses the important role that scientists and medical professionals can play in communicating accurate and reliable science and health information—and urges those playing a public role have a special responsibility to draw on evidence-based science communication strategies and to include important context, interpretations, and caveats of scientific findings in their public communication.

The report calls for funders of scientific research and nonpartisan professional science organizations to establish and fund an independent, non-partisan consortium to identify and curate sources of high-quality, accurate science information on topics of public interest, and ensure broad and equitable access to this information. And it calls on online platforms, including search engines and social media, to prioritize evidence-based science information that is understanding to different audiences.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) are seen as particularly well-positioned to mitigate misinformation in their communities because of their ties to local residents, their awareness of local needs and concerns, and the trust they enjoy from local residents. Science centers and museums are specifically called out as “prominent sources for trustworthy information,” especially since the COVID-19 panecmic. As such, the report, calls on funders to provide direct funding to CBOs to determine and fill information voids within the communities they serve and to develop capacity to build resilience against misinformation about science, especially among underserved groups.

Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science was authored by a committee chaired by Kasisomauajula “Vish” Viswanath, the Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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