Where to Find Your Next Evaluator
Welcome to Insights & Opportunities: A Hub for Informal STEM Education! Insights & Opportunities is a twice-monthly newsletter for educators, administrators, legislators, and advocates who recognize the importance of informal STEM learning.
This newsletter is brought to you by me, Sarah Dunifon, and my team at Improved Insights. I’m a long-time STEM educator, researcher, and equity advocate. Along with my team, I now work on cutting-edge informal STEM learning research and evaluation.
Each edition of this newsletter offers exciting insights, resources, and opportunities for informal STEM learning professionals, including funding, jobs, professional development, informal STEM learning research, evaluation tips and resources, and so much more! We hope you find it valuable. Now, let’s get started.
Where to Find Your Next Evaluator
In this edition of Insights & Opportunities, Dr. Sarah Dunifon talks about the process of finding an evaluator and points to some handy tools to aid you in your search. To read the full article, check it out in our Insights. In the meantime, here’s a taste:
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There are several ways to find evaluators suited for your needs. One of my most common recommendations is the American Evaluation Association’s Find an Evaluator tool. Here, you can search by city or state to find someone local, by area of expertise to find someone with the background you need, or by name or firm name if you’ve already got someone in mind.
Another strategy is to contact local universities that may offer evaluation services. University of Pittsburgh (my alma mater), for example, is a leader in informal learning and has multiple related labs and research areas. Sometimes academics at these universities will offer contract evaluation services. Or, they might be able to recommend some of their past students or colleagues to do the work.
I’d recommend finding organizations that have specific expertise in your area (likely STEM education, outreach, or informal STEM learning) rather than generalists. Many universities have research and evaluation services for contract services, but few specialize in these spaces.
To read the full article, check it out in our Insights.
60-Second Suggestions
Here are a few of our favorite things this month, usually pertaining to informal STEM education and evaluation, but occasionally some fun personal stuff, too.
Developed collaboratively by the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), COSI’s Center for Research & Evaluation, and Oregon State University's STEM Research Center, Professional Pathways in Informal STEM Learning builds on previous research to support professional learning for anyone working in the informal STEM learning (ISL) field. The pathways contain a suite of tools designed to help guide professional growth, including a Competencies Framework, a Self-Assessment, a Learning Plan, and a collection of resources like articles and online courses specifically directed towards ISL professionals.
This survey investigates how U.S. museums are managing external pressures that affect exhibitions and programs. The findings will contribute to a peer-reviewed article by Dr. Leander Gussman that will appear in the American Alliance of Museum’s Exhibition Journal. Input from museum professionals - especially those at small and mid-sized museums - will help to document how these institutions are currently responding to these pressures.
Related to current pressures affecting museums, this article by Andrea Stevens examines how the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia is continuing to elevate black voices through exhibits that reflect the reality of history and maintain contemporary relevance through the incorporation of new technology and prioritizing community engagement.
Opportunities
Check out these new opportunities for the informal STEM learning community.
Funding:
Community Empowerment Program, Foot Locker Foundation, $25,000-$75,000. Nonprofits are invited to apply for funding to support community organizations that connect youth in low-to-moderate income communities to mentorship, education, career development, and health services. Funds will support current youth programming and/or create new or expand existing programs. Applications are due September 30, 2025.
Early Childhood Education and Play, Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood, variable. Grants will be awarded to nonprofit organizations in support of new programs aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education everywhere a child learns through innovative curricula and designing imaginative play materials and learning environments. Letters of inquiry are due September 30, 2025.
Institutional Challenge Grant, William T. Grant Foundation, $650,000. Partnerships between research institutions and public agency or nonprofit organizations focused on reducing inequality in youth outcomes are invited to apply for funding to support these research-practice efforts. Grantees will pursue four goals: growing existing institutional partnerships; pursuing a joint research agenda to reduce inequality in youth outcomes; creating institutional change to value research-practice partnerships; and enhancing the capacity of partners to collaborate on producing and using research evidence. Youth-serving areas can include education, justice, mental health, workforce development, and others. Applications are due September 15, 2025.
InventEd Regional Summits, inventEd, $25,000. InventEd invites nonprofit partner organizations to apply for funding to host one-day in-person events for a minimum of 60 participants focused on invention education. This initiative is part of a pilot program with a goal of expanding youth access to high-quality invention education experiences. Applicants should involve multiple partner organizations and reflect collaborative approaches at the regional or statewide level. Funds will be used to develop a new or expand an existing in-person event. Submissions are due September 11, 2025.
New York City Good Neighbor Committee, Ford Foundation, $30,000-$100,000. New York City nonprofits are invited to apply for unrestricted funding for community-based work in three focus areas: arts and culture, education, and human services. Funding will be prioritized for initiatives that reduce the barriers of inequality, create opportunity, and improve overall quality of life and well-being. Applications are due September 30, 2025.
Jobs and Fellowships:
Director, Museum Programming & Manager, Museum Programming, National Geographic (Washington, D.C.), $123,000 & $80,000. National Geographic is seeking two team members to join the Museum Programming department:
The Director of Museum Programming will lead the creation, development, and implementation of experiences at the new National Geographic Museum of Exploration. Experiences will engage local and global audiences and showcase National Geographic Explorers. Responsibilities include the development of programs in accordance with organization goals and current trends in museum education, management of public programming budget, team leadership, and audience engagement.
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The Manager of Museum Programming will focus on logistical, operational, and production elements of museum programming, including development of public programs, event production and management, and program evaluation.
Education Coordinator, Marine Mammal Care Center (San Pedro, CA), $65,000. The Education Coordinator will oversee the coordination, implementation, documentation, and evaluation of all education programs and work with volunteer educators and partners to deliver experiences. They will also maintain lesson plans, training resources, and impact reports, and provide teaching support as needed.
Environmental Educator, SoundWaters (Stamford, CT), $42,000. The Environmental Educator will deliver science programs for students ranging from preschool to high school in an interactive field and lab setting. Responsibilities include implementation of educational experiences, preparation and maintenance of educational equipment, and support of special events.
Senior Education Specialist - Online Program Instructor, Monterey Bay Aquarium (Monterey, CA), $68,000. The Senior Education Specialist will manage multiple education programs, including training sessions for professional educators and sessions for PK-12 students. They will lead curriculum development, train, mentor, and coach program staff, manage work plans for assigned programs, and collaborate with the Education Division on evaluation efforts. Applications are due September 12, 2025.
Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program, Smithsonian (various locations), stipends from $10,000 up to $62,000. Graduate students through those who have held a Ph.D. for at least 5 years are invited to apply for the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program. Fellowships range from 10-week graduate student fellowships to up to 12-month senior fellowships in interdisciplinary fields including environmental science, astrophysics and astronomy, earth sciences and paleobiology, anthropology, and others. Applications are due October 15, 2025.
Professional Development:
2026 AERA Annual Meeting, American Educational Research Association (AERA), April 8-12, 2026 (Los Angeles, CA). The American Educational Research Association invites submissions from graduate students for the Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series at the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Graduate students who are engaged in ongoing, incomplete research that is developed enough to contribute to a substantive discussion of the work at its current stage. Submissions are due October 8, 2025.
Connected Learning Summit, Connected Learning Alliance, October 5-10, 2025 (virtual). The Seventh Annual Connected Learning Summit online conference will be held October 5-10, 2025. The Summit gathers innovators to harness emerging technology to expand access to participatory, playful, and creative learning. This year will focus on digital technologies for learning, educational and commercial games, innovative tech-infused curricula, and theoretical and/or empirical exploration of digital media and technology for learning.
MAAM Annual Conference, The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM), October 28-30, 2025 (Pittsburgh, PA). MAAM will host its annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA from October 28-30, 2025. The conference is dedicated to fostering excellence in museums by providing high-quality professional development, networking opportunities, and special events for museum professionals in the region.
The Museum Summit 2025, American Alliance of Museums (AAM), October 15-16, 2025 (virtual). The American Alliance of Museums hosts The Museum Summit, a virtual event that will be held October 15-16, 2025. The two-day Summit themes are Mission, Values, and the Politics of Pressure and The Next Era of Volunteerism. Hundreds of museum professionals will gather to explore these themes through keynote presentations and interactive workshops.
NAAEE 54th Annual Conference: Forward Together, North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), November 3-6, 2025 (virtual). Join NAAEE for their virtual 2025 Annual Conference and Research Symposium: Forward Together. The conference will bring together over 1,000 environmental education professionals to reflect on the power of collaboration in tackling the world's most pressing social and ecological challenges. Pre-conference workshops will take place throughout October, followed by a research symposium on October 30. The main conference will be held November 3-6, 2025.
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