Kent Crippen | University of Florida (original) (raw)

Papers by Kent Crippen

and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research involves th... more and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research involves the design, development, and evaluation of STEM cyberlearning environments as well as scientistteacher forms of professional development. Operating from a design-based research perspective, this work focuses on using innovative, iterative and theoretically grounded design for the dual purpose of addressing contemporary, complex, in situ learning problems while concurrently generating new theoretical insight related to the process of learning and the relationships among the people, tools and context of the problem space.

The field of paleontology, which is based principally on observations of the natural world, inclu... more The field of paleontology, which is based principally on observations of the natural world, includes an active community that is engaged across multiple social media platforms, consisting of museums, academic researchers, amateur fossil collectors, paleontological artists, and commercial fossil dealers. As such, it represents an ideal environment for examining the people, interactions, and flow of scientific information. Using interactions involving the four most popular Twitter hashtags for paleontology, this embedded mixed methods study defined the members of this social world and investigated how they influenced and controlled the flow of information, as well as how their expression of scientific practice was related to their identity. Results provide further evidence for the diversity of people and practice involved in this domain of science and indicate that the magnitude and breadth of the public's impact may be larger than previously projected. Certain types of messages were shown to be effective for different segments of the community, but news posts, essentially media outlet stories, were ineffective for generating any form of engagement. This study adds to our understanding of the important scientific contribution being made by members of the public as they interact with professional scientists and educators as peers in an open social media platform that supports a diverse and active community.

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, Sep 1, 2022

GSA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA - 2019, 2019

Instagram has high potential as an engagement tool for geoscience institutions looking to interac... more Instagram has high potential as an engagement tool for geoscience institutions looking to interact with the public, especially younger generations who use the platform prolifically (Smith & Anderson, 2018). However, Instagram has yet to undergo rigorous scientific study. Here, we provide a toolkit for geoscience institutions to assess education and outreach efforts on Instagram. The FOSSIL Project is an NSF-funded initiative (NSF-DRL 1322725) that seeks to foster interactions with users across the continuum of paleobiological knowledge through social media platforms. To understand the interactions between this social paleontology community and the FOSSIL Instagram account, we developed a set of metrics for both Instagram posts and stories. These performance metrics were then applied to raw data mined from the app over the course of a year and a half. The expansion of the post type taxonomy defined by Lundgren et al. (2014) for Facebook and Twitter allows for a qualitative framework to characterize Instagram post content (Hughes et al. 2019). Applying this framework to the FOSSIL Project Instagram allowed us to determine which category of posts have the highest level of success with our audience. Based on our calculation of post engagement rate, informational posts performed the best, followed by news and opportunity posts. The success of Instagram stories was assessed recently (Ocon et al. 2019) and metrics were defined in terms of performance of interaction tools and retention rate. These metrics provide insight into the optimal length of stories and the most effective interaction tool in regards to engagement. We discovered that shorter stories perform better and that poll tools are the most effective in engaging users. Our work provides a baseline for understanding and analyzing how to craft effective educational Instagram content. As more departments, institutes, and organizations have a stronger online presence, it is to their advantage to learn from our work when trying to engage new visitors and/or students

Abstracts with programs, 2019

The FOSSIL Project, an NSF-funded initiative, fosters collaborations within the paleontology comm... more The FOSSIL Project, an NSF-funded initiative, fosters collaborations within the paleontology community by using social media platforms (i.e. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) to provide opportunities to participate in and contribute to social paleontology. We also foster digital collaborations with our paleontological audience through the myFOSSIL mobile app and the myFOSSIL website. Since creating an Instagram account (October 2017), we have established an audience, implementing strategies to engage with paleontologists from across the continuum of expertise. The FOSSIL Project Instagram has grown to more than 1,000 followers; our team collected data throughout this period in an effort to better understand how this unique platform can be used to further engage with a diverse community, increasing participation and contribution to the science of paleontology. Our evaluation involves the application of an analytical framework that offers unique insights for defining the relationship between the nature of posts created and the response of the community. With this effort, we address the question: “What post types are most effective for generating followers and engagement with social paleontology in this social niche?” We direct our attention to a classification of posts by type (e.g. news or research) and further assess the use of specific hashtags and mentions for adding followers and engagement. Using descriptive statistics, we quantify post engagement to assess changes in level of engagement based on social media post type. Through our description of post types, we illustrate how social media can be effectively used to engage community members in social paleontology. Our results indicate that opportunity and informational posts garner higher engagement rates when compared to other types and have the potential to reach broad, diverse audiences. By purposely crafting engaging posts, paleontology educators can build and maintain their Instagram communities

Special publication, 2014

Characterizing the people who participate in and contribute to face-to-face and digital paleontol... more Characterizing the people who participate in and contribute to face-to-face and digital paleontological practices furthers our understanding of citizen science as an activity with outcomes for science and society. The Paleontological Identity Taxonomy, a new analytical tool, allowed for characterizing members of three online social spaces (two Twitter networks and an online social website). The results indicate that the majority of participants were interested in paleontology, but not credentialed. We use these results to discuss the design of effective scientific learning and communication in online social spaces, including how to recognize and support the diversity of community members’ practice-based expertise

E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Oct 15, 2018

The purpose of this study is to share the development of a new analytical tool, the Paleontologic... more The purpose of this study is to share the development of a new analytical tool, the Paleontological Identity Taxonomy (PIT), for characterizing members of a science community of practice that is sensitive to and descriptive of individual differences, but also inclusive of a broad range of people who identify with the domain, from those that are strictly interest-based to those with professional credentials. Via the use of embedded mixed methods, including aggregating social network data and iterative coding sessions, we present the PIT as a valid and reliable tool which can be used to characterize members of digital social spaces, an issue previously viewed as a limitation for use of social network analysis in social science research. We conclude with remarks concerning the design of effective scientific learning and communication for social media, including how to recognize and support the diversity of community members’ expertise

Paleontology captivates people in the physical spaces of museum exhibits and fossil hunting field... more Paleontology captivates people in the physical spaces of museum exhibits and fossil hunting field trips yet also extends to audiences in online spaces such as Twitter and Facebook via a social media practice known as social paleontology. The FOSSIL Project, a National Science Foundation-funded initiative in the United States (NSF-DRL #1322725), uses social paleontology to bring together paleontologists from across the spectrum of expertise, from novice to expert, as a more formal community. The project includes a public-private partnership between researchers at the University of Florida and a private software development firm, Atmosphere Apps. This case, which illustrates how these two entities worked together to identify, develop, and implement an innovative social media campaign is presented as the result of a three-year (November 2013-December 2016) study which included three iterative cycles of design-based research. The study’s scope includes the development of an evidence-based, educative social media messaging campaign and through follower engagement delimits the people and institutions that constitute the community as it exists social ecosystem niches. Aside from a basic understanding that followers engage with photo posts and posts with intriguing headlines, limited research exists involving the use of formal learning as a frame work for examining the effectiveness of messaging. Using marketing materials produced by Atmosphere Apps that were based on an assessment of the interests and needs of community members, including color schemes and branded fonts, researchers created separate socialmessaging campaigns for Twitter and Facebook. Best practices from various fields were merged to create quality messages including: graphic design principles, use of marketing-centric messaging strategies, and use of educative strategies for sustaining engagement in sciencelearning. The results of this study, including the public-private partnership between Atmosphere Apps and the FOSSIL Project serves as an example for others who seek to create educative s ocial media engagement

The majority of science learning occurs in informal environments such as museums or aquaria, but ... more The majority of science learning occurs in informal environments such as museums or aquaria, but also in online spaces such as forums or social media (Falk & Storksdieck, 2010). In a design-based effort, we report here on the examination of the behavioral engagement of a community of followers with social media messages that were systematically produced by researchers on XXXX, an NSF-funded project focused on building knowledge and relationships that center on paleontology (i.e. the study of fossils). Focusing Twitter and Facebook, we investigated the following research question: what messaging elements lead to increased behavioral engagement? In this presentation, we concentrate specifically on quantifying behavioral engagement with social media messaging and refining Falk and Dierking’s (2013) Contextual Model of Learning (CMoL) as it applies to the social media landscape. We find that community engagement varies dependent on platform, messaging elements such as hashtags, URLs, mentions, and post type. In particular, the use of hashtags without the inclusion of other messaging elements on Twitter showed significantly lower engagement than when used on Facebook. While these findings are significant in and of themselves, we argue that our study provides empirical evidence for use of CMoL with social media

The University of Florida Multidisciplinary Research Experiences for Teachers (MRET) is a 3year p... more The University of Florida Multidisciplinary Research Experiences for Teachers (MRET) is a 3year program bringing together engineering research scientists, K-5 teachers, and industry professionals with the goal to increase interest in and preparation for STEM careers through the incorporation of STEM concepts, practices, and role models into elementary classrooms. MRET includes four elements that are designed to heighten participating teachers’ STEM awareness and expertise: (1) 6-weeks of immersive research experience; (2) curriculum development led by an education expert; (3) exposure to STEM careers through seminars and field trips led by industry professionals; and (4) engineering researcher involvement during curriculum development and implementation. This year-one evaluation is focused on the research question: What elements of the research experience support the project’s goals? and involved a mixed method approach to understanding the experience of six participating elementary...

Regardless of online or physical space, including museum exhibits, social media, fossil digs or w... more Regardless of online or physical space, including museum exhibits, social media, fossil digs or web sites, peopleare fascinated by fossils. In this paper, we discuss the initial phase of design for a mobile app that extends the myFOSSILonline space in order to more fully support public participation in scientific research via remote collection of paleontological data and social networking. This initiative, part of the FOSSIL Project in the United States (NSF-DRL1322725), uses social paleontology to bring together amateur and professional paleontologists into a more formal community of practice. The project includes a public-private partnership between researchers at the University of Florida and a private software development firm, Atmosphere Apps. The FOSSIL App will afford documenting, connecting andconversing about a paleontological find with the established community of approximately 1,000 members. Use of the Appis predicted to increase public engagement and broaden participation with fossils and the science of paleontology. We describe a needs assessment based upon a review and evaluation of existing technologies and science specific mobile apps as well as the design framework, which is informed by social paleontology and citizen science

The Science Teacher, Feb 1, 2009

Day 1 Tue, February 22, 2022

Underwater robots, including Remote Operating Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (... more Underwater robots, including Remote Operating Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), are currently used to support underwater missions that are either impossible or too risky to be performed by manned systems. In recent years the academia and robotic industry have paved paths for tackling technical challenges for ROV/AUV operations. The level of intelligence of ROV/AUV has increased dramatically because of the recent advances in low-power-consumption embedded computing devices and machine intelligence (e.g., AI). Nonetheless, operating precisely underwater is still extremely challenging to minimize human intervention due to the inherent challenges and uncertainties associated with the underwater environments. Proximity operations, especially those requiring precise manipulation, are still carried out by ROV systems that are fully controlled by a human pilot. A workplace-ready and worker-friendly ROV interface that properly simplifies operator control and increases ...

Journal of Research in Science Teaching

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, Sep 1, 2022

GSA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA - 2019, 2019

Abstracts with programs, 2019

Special publication, 2014

E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Oct 15, 2018

The Science Teacher, Feb 1, 2009

Day 1 Tue, February 22, 2022

Journal of Research in Science Teaching

The FOSSIL Project, an NSF-funded initiative, seeks to unite amateur and professional paleontolog... more The FOSSIL Project, an NSF-funded initiative, seeks to unite amateur and professional paleontologists in the practice of social paleontology —an inclusive form of computer-supported collaborative inquiry of the natural world through the collection, preparation, curation, and study of fossils (Authors, 2016). Social paleontology is enacted across a digital habitat of technologies (Wenger, White, & Smith, 2009) that includes Facebook, Twitter, as well as an online social space of our design. Wenger's (1998, 2000) construct of community of practice serves as the theoretical framework for our design. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between potential community members' social media personas and their mental model of social paleontology. We examine the responses of citizens, amateurs, and professional paleontologists who completed a survey, a mental model task concerning the meaning of social paleontology and a follow-up interview. In addition to building our capacity to successfully design a community-centered social space, the results inform our understanding of contemporary science learning, that which is inherently social, technology-mediated, occurs outside of formal schooling, involves people from across the lifespan , and recognizes the value of situated practice.

The FOSSIL Project (NSF-1322725) seeks to unite paleontologists, regardless of experience and/or ... more The FOSSIL Project (NSF-1322725) seeks to unite paleontologists, regardless of experience and/or expertise, in the shared practice of social paleontology. Social paleontology entails face-to-face and computer-supported collaborative inquiry of the natural world through the collection, preparation, and curation of fossils (Crippen, Dunckel, MacFadden, Ellis & Lundgren, 2015). From an ecological learning perspective, social paleontology is enacted across various habitats that exist within a larger ecosystem. These online and offline social spaces include the digital habitats of social networking sites, such as the FOSSIL Project Facebook and Twitter pages and the myFOSSIL.org community site, as well as the physical habitats of college campuses, museums, and conferences.
In this study, we investigate the nature of the participants and forms of shared practice that are expressed across the digital habitats of the Project’s Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as the myFOSSIL community site. User interaction data from October 2015 to December 2016 from all three habitats was compiled, linked and analyzed using the methods and tools of social network analysis. Our results establish the numbers and types of paleontologists participating, the ways in which they engage with social paleontology and the relationships among these habits as elements of the larger ecosystem. The use of digital habitats to communicate about and learn paleontology is widely considered yet poorly theoretically constructed; this research serves to further define the learning ecology within social paleontology. The ecological learning perspective allows for empirical measurement of the reach, diversity, and engagement levels within the FOSSIL Project’s digital habitats, providing evidence about the ways paleontologists learn from one another within a Community of Practice.

Informal science education connects people, organizations, and places by encouraging knowledge bu... more Informal science education connects people, organizations, and places by encouraging knowledge building through explorations of the real world. Bell et al. (2009) postulate that educative experiences occur at all stages of life in informal environments, including aquariums, 4-H events, museums, parks, zoos, and more. Informal learning settings provide Americans with the majority of their science learning experiences, as only five percent of science is learned in formal schooling environments (Falk & Dierking, 2010). This roundtable paper, one in a series describing methods used to design engaging experiences with science education audiences, concentrates on informal science learning settings. Using examples from recent work with the FOSSIL Project, we describe how design-based research (DBR), a framework by which practical and effective solutions are implemented to solve existing problems in the real world, can be used to design experiences for engaging informal science education audiences (Reeves, 2006; Edelson, 2002). We illustrate DBR’s flexibility by describing the multiple theoretical perspectives and various data collection and analysis techniques that can be applied with DBR. With this roundtable submission, we seek to facilitate cross-disciplinary communication by describing the methods by which educators can design engaging experiences when working with informal science education audiences. To further this aim, we will explore similarities and differences with those methods and practices used by science educators who engage with higher education audiences and with pre-service teachers.

Throughout the U.S., fossil clubs host meetings, attend field trips, conduct outreach, and use th... more Throughout the U.S., fossil clubs host meetings, attend field trips, conduct outreach, and use the Internet to learn about paleontology. In their Internet use, these fossil clubs communicate on social media to facilitate discussion within their groups and among other groups, discussing the fossils found on field trips as well as provide their thoughts on social media posts about paleontology. The FOSSIL Project has actively been uniting fossil clubs throughout the United States to create a Community of Practice (CoP). This networked CoP will “collaborate in blended learning, the practice of science, and outreach” (Crippen et al. 2014). Building on previous research presented at NARST 2014 (Crippen et al. 2014), this study defines a specific component of the FOSSIL Project’s Community of Practice: social media. While the fossil clubs engage in communication on their unique social media pages, the FOSSIL Project seeks to understand cross-group communication occuring on social media through the FOSSIL Project’s social media pages, more specifically, the FOSSIL Project’s Facebook page. This study uses the discourse of the FOSSIL Project’s Facebook followers as well as decriptive statistics to understand the ways in which amateur and professional paleontologists engage on social media.