Soundprint Media Center, Inc. and RLPaul Productions, produced a cross-media package that includes a website (capecosmos.org), radio programs, and museum-based family events related to the 50th anniversary of the Space Program. The project, Out of This World (OOTW), is a program that sought to stimulate interest in science by presenting the little known stories of African-Americans and women who contributed to the U.S. Space program, and to provide historical context for the scope and reach of the nascent aerospace science program. Through radio documentaries and collaborations with science centers and museums, including the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM), OOTW broke new ground in developing an integrated media project that reached different audiences. The deliverables included: three radio documentaries (; an educational DVD package with 20 video mini-documentaries, curator interviews with space research pioneers and a learning guide; an interactive website that recreates a space mission circa 1961, and a series of live two-way video conferences between NASM and some 14 partner museums and science centers. OOTW used the power of investigative journalism and the reach of public radio and local science museums to connect with adults and school-age children, to cut across demographic categories, and to include a significant number of minority and at-risk children.
Arizona State University (ASU) in collaboration with Arizona Science Center, Boeing, Intel, Microchip, Motorola, Salt River Project, AZ Foundation for Resource Education, AZ Game & Fish Department, US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Mesa Public Schools, and Boys & Girls Clubs of the East Valley, offer a three-year extracurricular project resulting in IT/STEM-related learning outcomes for 96 participants in grades 7, 8, and 9. The project targets and engages female and minority youth traditionally under-represented in IT/STEM fields in multi-year out-of-school technological design and problem solving experiences. These include summer internships/externships and university research in the science center and industrial settings where participants develop socially responsible solutions for challenging real world problems. The program includes cognitive apprenticeships with diverse mentors, opportunities to practice workplace skills such as leadership, teamwork, time management, creativity and reporting, and use of technological tools to gather and analyze complex data sets. Participants simulate desert tortoise behaviors, research and develop designs to mitigate the urban heat island, build small-scale renewable energy resources, design autonomous rovers capable of navigating Mars-like terrain, and develop a model habitat for humans to live on Mars. Together with their families participants gain first-hand knowledge of IT/STEM career and educational pathways. In addition to youth outcomes, the adults associated with this project are better prepared to positively influence IT/STEM learning experiences for under-represented youth. The evaluation measures participant content knowledge, attitudes and interest in IT/STEM subjects, workplace skills and intentions to pursue IT/STEM educational and career pathways to understand participant reactions, learning, transfer and results. Informal curricula developed through this project, field-tested with youth at Boys & Girls Clubs and youth at Arizona Science Center will be available on the project website.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tirupalavanam GaneshMonica ElserStephen KrauseDale BakerSharon Robinson-Kurplus
SciGirls is a national dissemination project, which puts resources from the PBS science series DragonflyTV into the hands of outreach professionals at PBS stations and educators in after school programs for girls. The current project leverages PBS' nationwide network of member stations to connect the educational research community with practitioners in the field. Thus far SciGirls has trained over 100 educators and community leaders and reached 2,300 girls in grades 3 through 8. SCIGIRLS MUSEUM ADVENTURES has four objectives: 1) to provide museum educators with DragonflyTV videos that model authentic inquiry in museum settings; 2) to expand SciGirls activity guides with new museum-based activities and research-based strategies specifically for museum educators; 3) to create a set of online, streaming videos that demonstrate best practices in gender-inclusive teaching; and 4) to facilitate feedback between our participants and the research community and deepen our understanding of the most effective ways to engage girls in STEM activities. Intellectual Merit--The strength of SciGirls lies in its comprehensive multimedia approach and its foundation in the inquiry-based strategies defined in the National Science Education Standards. The videos provided in SciGirls emphasize the process of science, rather than a collection of science facts. They provide real-world models of inquiry that all girls can do. Taken together, the SciGirls resources stimulate discussion, build confidence and pave the way for girls to investigate science questions on their own. The educational strategies provided by SciGirls are based in research into gender- inclusive STEM teaching and learning, translated into strategies that can be easily used by after school educators to create successful STEM experiences for girls. Broader Impact--SCIGIRLS MUSEUM ADVENTURES will provide museum educators at ten sites with materials that can be used in their programs for years to come. The entire set of resources--streaming videos and Activity Guides--will be available on DragonflyTV's Web site at www.pbs.org. The outcomes of the project will be shared with the informal science education research community. Findings will be reported at the annual PBS National Center for Outreach Conference
SciGirls was a multimedia project to encourage and empower more girls to pursue STEM careers--the first PBS television series designed specifically for girls 8-13. Episodes were made available for distribution on the newest digital platforms, e.g., Vimeo and iTunes for downloads, free of charge. Strategic partners included the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) and The Franklin Institute. The NGCP links SciGirls with its network of 500 community-based science programs for girls. The Franklin Institute coordinated an affiliate network of science museums to implement outreach. The project also wored with the new "Girl Scout Leadership Experience" program.
SciGirls is a national outreach program of DragonflyTV supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Program for Gender Equity. SciGirls empowers PBS outreach professionals and science museum educators, often partnering with local youth organizations, educators and parents, to deliver hands-on science encouragement and career guidance to girls in their communities. SciGirls is based on existing standards-based DragonflyTV outreach resources, which teach scientific inquiry.