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Sound Travels is a US-based, federally-funded collaboration between sound researchers, learning researchers, and educational practitioners working to understand the role of soundscapes on free-choice, out-of-school learning experiences. In this paper, members of our research team describe how we have combined approaches from acoustic ecology and visitor studies to navigate the affordances and challenges of studying sound across several complex leisure settings (a science museum, a botanic garden, a park, and a zoo). As an exploratory and transdisciplinary project, our initial work has involved significant deliberation about how to meaningfully and effectively gather data in highly variable acoustic environments, as well as what types and characteristics of sound data are most salient to understanding visitors’ experiences of sound. In addition to grappling with these technical questions, we have also worked to ensure that our research does not detract from positive visitor experiences in these spaces and that it directly engages perspectives from practitioners and visitors about cognition, affect, and culture. We will describe the logic of the methods we have used to date (stationary ambient recordings, a post-experience visitor questionnaire, and a “sound search” in which visitors record video clips), as well as our plans for further study. 

Environmental organizers and their constituents, local community group members concerned about environmental health, operate in a context with rich and varied opportunities for learning about and applying mathematics to communicating environmental data. Prior to Statistics for Action, project partners—organizers at environmental non-profits—spent little time with group members analyzing data. Organizations did not have a method or protocol for considering the most effective way to frame findings for neighbors and decision makers. During the Statistics for Action Project, STEM educators and environmental organizers collaborated to use the context of environmental organizing as a platform for science and math learning. This article describes Smart Moves and Memorable Messages, two approaches that advanced goals for both math learning and organizing 

At Carlsbad Caverns National Park, park rangers blended traditional personal interpretation with technology to showcase park-based research and to advance science literacy among visitors. Interpreters and Scientists Working on Our Parks (iSWOOP) provided interpreters with professional development and a selection of visualizations from scientists’ research on Brazilian free-tailed bats and their habitat at Carlsbad Caverns. After using tablets containing these visualizations for informal interpretive interactions, the interpreters responded to an open-ended survey. The authors examined interpreters’ responses, finding that interpreters regarded tablets as helpful in accomplishing several interpretive goals, especially in particular locations. Interpreters were strategic in initiating and sustaining interactions. Visitors’ reactions were positive; nevertheless, there were challenges indicating that this new form of interpretation is worthy of further research.