Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education

The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) works in cooperation with the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advancing Informal Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Learning (AISL) Program to build and advance the informal STEM education field by providing infrastructure, resources and connectivity for educators, researchers, evaluators, and other interested stakeholders. Established in 2007, CAISE operates as a network of core staff at the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) in Washington, D.C. and co-principal investigators and other collaborators at academic institutions and informal STEM education (ISE) organizations across the U.S. CAISE seeks to characterize, highlight and connect quality, evidence-based informal STEM learning work supported by a diversity of federal, local and private funders by providing access to over 7,000 (and growing) resources that include project descriptions, research literature, evaluation reports and other documentation on the InformalScience.org website. CAISE also convenes inquiry groups, workshops and principal investigator meetings designed to facilitate discussion and identify the needs and opportunities for informal STEM learning practitioners working in media (TV, radio, film, social), science centers and museums, zoos and aquariums, parks, botanical gardens and nature centers, events and festivals, libraries, making and tinkering spaces, cyberlearning and gaming,and youth, community, and out-of-school time programs. As of September 2016, CAISE embarked on a new initiative to explore synergy with the fields of science communication and science public engagement. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (Award Nos. DRL-0638981 / DRL-1212803 / DRL-1612739). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.