Hi Reader,

I intended to send you this newsletter yesterday. But after attending the Science-Art Symposium at Denver Botanic Gardens this weekend, I scrapped our planned topic at the last minute.

I was so inspired by the ideas shared by artists, scientists, educators, designers, CEOs, librarians, architects, and members of the community. I couldn't wait to reflect on some common themes. Well, one theme in particular. Slowing the f*** down.

I wish I'd made tally marks every time a presenter talked about how their work prompted some type of slowing. I knew it was in my talk, and I was so excited to find myself in good company.

This month, let's delve into a variety of ways we've found, over and over, that there's an incredible learning power of just slowing down. This lightbulb moment grew out of one NSF-funded art-science integration project. But the more I reflect, the more I see this core truth emerges in many studies we've done.

Also included:

• ASTC: We have a rundown of where you can hear about some of our recent work (including the "slow down" study!), live and in person.
• Federal Grant Season is upon us again.
• Welcome to our newest team member!

Cheers,

Jessica

Slow Down, You Crazy Child

Since 2021, the JSC team has been part of the Building Insights through Observation (or BIO) project team.* It led to an instructional approach with a basic formula:

Middle school science teachers

+ PD about why & how to use arts-based teaching practices

+ NOAA's trove of geospatial data visualizations on SOSx​

+ A flexible art-science instructional framework

= Innovative teaching & students building data literacy skills

We are learning a ton in the research. But after just our first iteration -- when we were still smoothing wrinkles in the approach -- we heard an interesting statement from teachers. This approach was forcing teachers, and their students, to slow down.

If you've spent time with K-12 teachers, you know that time is a precious commodity. They are often facing a thick binder of required instruction. Many receive "pacing guides" to structure how to cover it all.

Look, I've run half-marathons. Pacing = speed. About 5% of a race pace guide is to keep you from starting out too fast. Beyond that, it's to keep your pace up when the going gets tough.

In other words: A lot of expectations on teachers are about how much they can cover in how little time.

In BIO, our team looked at the idea of pacing and said, "Pass."

I won't go into the full instructional model here. (We'll be releasing a project toolkit later this year! I promise to share all the details when we do.) But I'll summarize a few pieces where students spend a lot of time with just one thing:

• 10-15 minutes looking closely at one work of art
• 10-15 minutes looking closely at one global dataset
• 10 minutes analyzing the design/symbolic strategies of one global dataset
• 20-50 minutes to sketch that dataset in a new way
• 30-50 minutes layering the redesigned data and analyzing for patterns

Students may spend well over 2 hours of class time looking and thinking about just 1 or 2 geospatial datasets.

When was the last time you spent 2 hours staring at a single data visualization?

Art educators? They get it. 2 hours looking at a single visual? That's an hour short of the assignment an art history prof might dole out.

Why does this matter? One teacher said it well:

The slower they look, the more they see.

The more they see, the more they question.

The more they question, the more they construct answers or alternatives.

Right now, Michelle and I are in the thick of coding ~300 interviews with students from those classrooms. Half from before the teachers learned The BIO Way. Half from after. It's very exploratory, but we're seeing hints of change in how students observe, interpret, and wonder about data after spending a year building new muscles in visual and design thinking.

Trust me, I'll be shouting results from the rooftops when that analysis is complete.

*JSC was researching all of this. Our awesome partners were the ones building the PD and instructional model: Nurture Nature Center, EDC's Oceans of Data Institute, and NOAA / CIRES.

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And at DBG's Science-Art Symposium, I heard many presenters reflect a similar theme. Just three that stuck with me:

Artist, Kalliopi Monoyios, highlighted her work A Year of Plastic. Monoyios pieced together every piece of plastic (dutifully collected and cleaned by a family of four) into a massive quilt of consumption. By slowing down the process of disposal, you see the actual size of everyday fleeting moments of tossing packaging in the trash.

​Alex Rose, from University of Colorado, described how the process of transforming climate data into fiber arts caused high school students to slow down. And in the process of that making, they started talking about the patterns they were seeing in the data that they were painstakingly representing with yarn.

I had never heard of a residential land library before. But Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, Ben Sherrill, described its mission as a place to meet the essential need for people to have the quiet, space, and time to connect to the land, books, and their own creativity. The emphasis seemed entirely built on the value of slowing down.

Real World Examples:

All of this echoes decades upon decades of others' research and practice in art making and art education. The arts have always proven to be a natural vehicle for getting people to slow down.

But the many and varied benefits of slowing down? That is not at all limited to the arts. Looking across our research and evaluation, a bunch of examples sprang to mind, including:

Museum Field Trips: A teacher PD program helped elementary school teachers plan multi-visit field trips over the course of the year. Teachers reported that learning to slow down the field trip was key. Instead sprinting around to "see everything," classes spent a whole trip in just 1 or 2 galleries. Students were focused, went deeper, learned more, and felt they belonged at the museum.

PD for Informal Ed Professionals: While iteratively developing a model for onboarding and training informal educators to establish a new outreach program, slowing down and lengthening the timeline of training was critical. A "quick start" model was a recipe for frustration, overwhelm, and giving up. A "slow but steady" model kept trainees in the pipeline and supported.

Object Displays in Exhibits: We touched on this before, but exhibits that showcase "stuff" (objects, specimens, whatever) in ways that spotlight their unique features and let people get a close look can make visitors slow down and notice. (No small feat in the rapid exhibit environment.)

Partnership Building: ASTC's model for Community Science emphasizes partnership-building. And, refreshingly, they have recognized that in their grant-making. Last year, they funded pairs of organizations to invest time in a months-long process of developing an idea for a collaborative, community-centered project. No implementation. Just slowing down to take time it really takes to build an authentic partnership and plan.

We hear a lot about decreased attention spans. Instead of catering to the algorithm, maybe we should give more opportunities and invitations to, in the wise words of Billy Joel, take the phone of the hook and disappear for a while. Maybe we could learn something.

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Anyone else have some good "slow down and smell the roses" examples to share? Reply and tell me!

ASTC: Who's Going?

We are so excited about the ASTC conference in Chicago! Across the team, we have five sessions to talk about our recent work -- two panel sessions about recent projects, a lightning talk about a partnership with AMNH, and two posters. (Those poster sessions are a great time for deep-dive conversations.) Stop by and say hello!

If you're going, here is a full listing of where you can find us:

Will you be there? Hit reply and let's plan to meet up!

It's Federal Grant Season.

I'd say it's the most wonderful time of the year, but anyone who's ever written a federal grant proposal knows that's a lie.

It may not be a wonderful time, but it's an important time. Here are a few current open funding opportunities to have on your radar:

​Institute for Museum and Library Services (November 15 due date)

• Museums for America: good for advancing single-museum projects that align with your strategic plan (including funding that evaluation you really need, but don't have budget for)
• Museums Empowered: single-museum funding for PD for museum staff (and there's a specific category for evaluation capacity-building)
• 21st Century Museum Professionals: PD to support building a diverse workforce of museum professionals, especially working across institutions
• National Leadership Grants: These tend to be bigger, multi-institutional projects with a core idea that will have national implications (and research is one category of projects)

​NSF Advancing Informal Science Learning (January 8 due date)

• NSF prioritizes research. Got a cool idea for a program or experience to enhance informal learning, access, and equity? Great! Find yourself a good research partner to help shape a direction that will answer meaty, generalizable questions about that cool thing.
• Pro Tip: AISL also prioritizes authentic involvement of community partners. Slow down (see what I did there?) and build those relationships to meaningfully include them in your proposal.

​NSF DRK-12 (November 13 due date)

• This is the formal education research arm of NSF. The BIO project I shared at the top is funded through this program.
• We primarily work in the informal space. But, given my background in K-6 teaching and belief in the power of techniques and experts from informal and scientific sectors to enrich the K-12 experience, we occasionally play in this sandbox too.

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Want to discuss your kernel of a project idea? Hit reply and let's set up a time to talk.

Welcome, Rob!

We are excited to announce that we added a new member to the JSC team this month! Rob Kloos joined our team from, most recently, the amazing evaluation team at Space Center Houston.

We're looking forward to roping him into some fun new projects this Fall!

P.S. Got a question you'd like us to answer in an upcoming newsletter? Hit reply and tell me what's on your mind!

P.P.S. Get this email from a colleague? Sign up to get your very own copy every month.

Why the "Evaluation Therapy" Newsletter?

The moniker is light-hearted. But the origin is real. I have often seen moments when evaluation causes low-key anxiety and dread, even among evaluation enthusiasts. Maybe it feels like a black-box process sent to judge your work. Maybe it’s worry that the thing to be evaluated is complicated, not going to plan, or politically fraught. Maybe pressures abound for a "significant" study. Maybe evaluation gets tossed in your "other duties as assigned" with no support. And so much more.

Evaluation can be energizing! But the reality of the process, methods, and results means it can also feel messy, risky, or overwhelming.

I've found that straightforward conversation about the realities of evaluation and practical solutions can do wonders. Let's demystify the jargon, dial down the pressure, reveal (and get past) barriers, and ultimately create a spirit of learning (not judging) through data. This newsletter is one resource for frank talk and learning together, one step at a time.

​Learn more about JSC and our team of evaluators. Or connect with us on LinkedIn:

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