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Hello Michele,

I cannot speak to the former question (although I would be interested in
hearing what you dig up on the importance of science centers in filling gaps
in formal ed) but when I attended the Bay Area Institute in 2007 one of the
keynote speakers addressed the latter issue:

*Early interest as key predictor of later participation in STEM careers*
Robert H. Tai <http://qt.exploratorium.edu/cils/profile.php?profileID=1217>,
Assistant Professor Science Education, University of Virginia

His webpage is here:
http://www.teach.virginia.edu/index.php?option=com_currypeople&Itemid=253&task=detail&userid=rht6h

I'm not sure which papers of his contain the research he reviewed in his
talk, but I remember the gist of it being that early interest in science
(which he felt was strongly reliant on museum experiences, but I don't
recall if he had evidence beyond the anecdotal - it's been a while) was a
better predictor of later science careers than a whole host of things:
socioeconomic status, grades in science, performance on AP tests, etc. He
was working with a huge longitudinal corpus of data, tracking around 600 or
so kids from middle school through their first 4 years of college (I may be
wrong on some of the particulars; again it's been a while). If I had to
guess I'd say it would be this article:

Tai, R. H., Liu, C. Q., Maltese, A. V., & Fan, X. (2006). Planning early for
careers
in science.  Science. 312(5777), 1143 – 1144.

He also mentioned interviewing Nobel laureates and finding that they
commonly remarked on museum experiences playing a big role in their interest
in science; again, I don't know whether/where this was published (or whether
he did the work or was mentioning work done by others) but I'm sure you
could contact him & ask.

Hope that helped,
 - Leilah

On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 6:10 PM, Michele Laverty <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> I am looking for some data to support information science education - tied
> to decreasing emphasis and funding in schools for science education.  Some
> of our local school districts have cut science positions...is there a
> concrete way to tie the need for science centers to fill in these gaps?
>
> Also, is there any data that ties informal science education to increased
> science career choices?
>
> Thanks, Michele
>
> Michele Laverty
> Director Ag Science Center
> [log in to unmask]
> P.O. Box 4937
> Modesto, CA 95352-4893
> 209-521-2902 office
> 209-604-4916 cell
> Check us out on the Web at WWW.AGISAMAZING.com
>
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leilah Lyons, Assistant Professor
   [log in to unmask]
   851 S. Morgan (M/C 152) * Room 918 SEO
   Chicago, IL 60607-7053
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Computer Science * Learning Sciences
 University of Illinois at Chicago
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

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