Research

The Hayden Sphere inside the cubical Rose Center pictured from outside the entrance, illuminated at nighttime.

Over the past two decades, cultural institutions such as museums are beginning to develop their capacity for engaging in long-term research on teaching and learning. As part of this effort, we at AMNH have developed an educational research and evaluation agenda that we believe will allow us to build our expertise and knowledge about teaching and learning; grow our own research capacity; bring more coherence to our work; understand our impact more clearly; and put questions about learning, equity and access at the center. Our agenda is designed to:

  • represent a set of focused, specific areas for sustained, long-term inquiry
  • invite investigation from the standpoint of multiple research studies and disciplinary perspectives
  • draw fully upon the resources and assets of the institution
  • build upon current research and knowledge in the field
  • connect to and have implications for practice and policy

Our research team includes learning scientists, science educators, and teacher educators at the doctoral and post-doctoral level. Currently, we have several full time post-doctoral and doctoral candidates working on our research grants and evaluations, and we also host research interns.

See our recent research briefs.

Publications Related to AMNH Research Initiatives

Cover of MAT ESRP research brief

MAT Earth Science Residency Program-Summary of Research Findings

This research brief highlights research and evaluation findings on program impacts and outcomes, situated within the context of research on teaching, teacher residencies, and teacher education.

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Research Staying in Science: Investigating STEM Persistence and Career Pathways in NYC Youth NSF-funded longitudinal research study to contribute to a broader understanding of the pathways of STEM-interested high school students. Research Moving Next Generation Science Standards into Practice: A Middle School Ecology Unit and Teacher Professional Development Model A project to design, field-test, and study an eight-week middle school ecosystems unit and professional development. Conference Stories from the Field: Exploring Culturally Responsive Science Teaching in a Pilot Study This qualitative study is designed to explore teachers’ inquiry into and practice of culturally responsive science education in the... Research AMNH RGGS MAT Faculty Research and Dissemination AMNH RGGS MAT faculty and staff engage in multiple areas of research on and related to the program.   Next Generation Museum Conversations The Next Generation Museum Conversations Grant aims to develop and pilot a new facilitation and visitor engagement strategy. Research Developing a Research Agenda Aimed at Understanding the Teaching and Learning of Science at a Natural History Museum This article describes the Museum's efforts in developing an educational research agenda on their capacity for engaging in long-term... Research What does it take to sustain a productive partnership in education? In this article, we share the history of the partnership, and describe the features of the partnership of eight different cultural... Research How Can Museums Help Teachers with the Next Generation Science Standards? This article focuses on the role of museums in supporting schools and teachers as they address the demands of the Next Generation... Research Evaluation of Urban Advantage by the NYU Institute of Educational and Social Policy This study by researchers at New York University reports the findings of an evaluation of Urban Advantage (UA), a partnership program... Research To Infinity and Beyond: Museum-School Partnerships Beyond the Field Trip This masters thesis explores four partnerships between schools and informal institutions around the country, including the Urban... Research New Educator articles These articles from a "Special Issue on Teacher Education and Cultural Science Institutions" from the New Educator Journal... Research Bringing the Real World of Science to Children This article in the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks describes a partnership model designed to improve the ways in which... Research A Collaborative Diagonal Learning Network: The Role Of Formal And Informal Professional Development In Elementary Science Reform This doctoral dissertation focused on elementary school teachers receiving professional development at an informal education institution... Research Teaching and learning Science in a Museum: Examining the Role of Attitudes towards Science, Knowledge of Science, and Participatory Learning in an... This doctoral dissertation is an investigation of a museum-based astronomy internship for high school students. Research Using Museum Resources to Enrich Urban Science Education: Teacher Agency, Identity Transformation, and Creolized Sciences This doctoral dissertation is an ethnography that documents the experience with seven Lead Teachers in the Museum's Urban Advantage...