Biology subjects

Muindi, F. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Muindi, F. J..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Distribution of the National Science Foundation's Advancing Informal STEM Learning Awards (AISL) between 2006-21

The COVID-19 pandemic tested many fundamental connections between science and society. A growing field working to strengthen those connections exists within the informal STEM learning (ISL) community which provides diverse learning and engagement environments outside the formal classroom. One of the largest funders of ISL initiatives is the National Science Foundation (NSF) which runs the Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program in the United States. The AISL program supports initiatives through six categories that include pilots and feasibility studies, research in service to practice, innovations in development, broad implementation, literature reviews, syntheses, or meta-analyses, and conferences. However, a number of questions remain unanswered with respect to the distribution and ultimately the broad impact of the awards. In this study, we analyzed publicly available awardee information across a 15-year period (2006-2021) to provide a preliminary analysis of how the AISL grants are distributed across individual states, organizations, and the principal investigators. Several states, organizations, and principal investigators stood out as prolific awardees. Massachusetts and California represented the largest share of awards at 14% and 13% respectively during that time. WGBH Educational Foundation located in Massachusetts and the Exploratorium located in California, received the largest number of awards during the 15 year period. Notably, 67% of the AISL awards list at least one co-principal investigator. Our report brings to light a number of new questions and charts new paths of exploration for future studies.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Evolving Structure and Diversity of Human Narratives in the Journal of Stories in Science

Fundamentally, science is about people. The stories of the people behind the science are just as important as the results themselves, even though the results are often what get more attention. Despite the growth of databases storing such stories across diverse mediums, a detailed assessment of those databases is missing. To continue innovating science storytelling, we provide the first assessment of the structure and diversity of the narratives published in the Journal of Stories in Science. In this assessment, a total of 170 published stories authored by 158 authors between 2016 and 2020 are analyzed. Majority (67%) of the authors are women from North America and in the life sciences. The narratives most commonly feature authors from academia (e.g., 23% graduate students, 13% post-doctoral fellows and 21% professors). However, there is also a growing number of authors with PhDs that are working outside of academia (15%). Nearly a quarter (23%) of the database authors come from racial groups (African American, Latino, and Hispanic) that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related sciences in the United States. Using the industry standard Flesch Reading Ease Score, we found that 74% of the stories included in the analysis fall in the target range of 50-70, which represents readability by students in grades 8-12. The analysis here provides the first deep look into one of the databases publishing diverse stories in science using a wide range of mediums. In summary, there is a need for more emphasis on both expanding and studying such databases given the continuous demand for these stories and their inclusion into K-12 curriculums.

scientific communication and education↗