The New England Aquarium (NEAq) will develop "Sounds of the Sea", a 2000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit that will provide visitors an opportunity to learn about the importance of sound in the ocean and acoustic oceanography as a tool for research, for such issues as global change. Both natural and anthropogenic sounds will be examined. The goals of the exhibit are to demonstrate the richness of sounds in the ocean, to educate visitors about the physics of sound in the air and under water, and to present current scientific research on the physics and biology of underwater sounds. One of the special features will be real ocean sounds in real time. Visitors will be able to hear sounds picked up by hydrophones in the inner and outer Boston Harbor and view spectral data. The exhibit will reach a broad audience including those with visual and aural impairments. NEAq will collaborate with MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering, the MIT Sea Grant College Program, Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the WGBH Educational Foundation's National Center for Media Accessibility in the development of the exhibit. Supplementary materials for visitors to the exhibit will include an exhibit guide and a web site. Complementary programming for use by formal educators will include pre and post visit materials and special programming for school groups.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William SpitzerJerry SchubelHenrik SchmidtCarolyn Levi
The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History is moving from a long established site to a new 175,000 square foot facility in a rehabilitated downtown railway station. The opening permanent exhibition, "Cincinnati: The Pleistocene Legacy," will comprise 20,000 square feet of natural history exhibits that present in depth the geologic, climatic, and biological phenomena of the Ice Age in Ohio. In addition to large scale, dramatic "walk-through exhibits" and dioramas and substantial use of collections, a large number of interactive exhibit components will illustrate different features of the Pleistocene period. NSF support be concentrated on these interactive components and on work to insure effective handicapped access for the entire exhibit. This highly regarded project will cost $2.8 million, matching NSF funds seven times over. It will generate an annual audience of 875,000 visitors including more than 120,000 school group visitations.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History will develop an exhibit that integrates earth sciences and planetary geology. Currently titled "The Hall of Earth and Planetary Exploration" this 8700 sq. ft. exhibit will consist of a series of ten sections, each one focusing on a different theme including "The Big Bang", "Plate Tectonics", "Earthquakes and Volcanoes", "Ores and Mining", and the like. The goals are to instill curiosity about the Earth and planetary sciences and their interrelationships, to invite deeper exploration into scientific information and processes, to improve general science literacy by organizing the information into comprehensible themes, and to present an exhibit that is relevant to the daily lives of the general public. Visitors leaving the exhibit should know about the uniqueness of the earth with its moving continents, liquid water and living beings. They will also have some sense of the new scientific knowledge about the universe and the solar system and have their desire piqued to explore these topics further. The exhibit will have a number of complementary components including brochures, an expanded docent program, scheduled demonstrations and lectures by museum staff, devices for physically disabled, teacher guides and workshops, and traveling kits for schools. The exhibit goals and complementary activities align with Cleveland's Urban Systemic Initiative. The exhibit is scheduled to open late in 1997.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joseph HannibalPaul CliffordJoAnn Coburn
As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is conducting regional STEM workshops, entitled NFB STEM2U, for blind youth [youth], grades 3 – 6. During this first regional workshop in Baltimore, the NFB operated three different programs simultaneously: one program for youth, a second program for their parents/caregivers, and a third program for a group of teachers who work with visually impaired students. A fourth program, for Port Discovery museum staff, was conducted earlier to prepare the museum staff to assist with the youth program
This report presents findings from interviews conducted with staff from CAST and the Boston Museum of Science about their collaboration on the Engagement and Thinking in Designed Informal Science Learning (ISL) Settings project. The interview asked respondents to discuss the goals of the project and how they related to their organization’s mission, how the partnership and the project developed, each partner’s roles on the project, how the collaboration was conducted, strengths and challenges in the collaboration, the impact that the project had on each partner organization, and future plans
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CASTBabette MoellerPilar Carmina Gonzalez
Funded by the National Science Foundation, The Handheld Science and Math Dictionaries for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Museum Visitors Research Project (DRL-1008546; Signing Science) is a collaboration between the Museum of Science (MOS) and TERC, which studies how visitors who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) integrate iPod Touch versions of the Signing Science Pictionary, Signing Science Dictionary, and Signing Math Dictionary into their museum visit. Through this project, TERC has studied the integration of these dictionaries into museum visits of both school groups and family groups. To