The Science Museum of Minnesota will develop "Buildings: A Traveling Exhibit and Permanent Installation with Education and Outreach Programs". This is a multifaceted project that includes a 5,000 sq. ft. exhibit that will explore the science, technology, and human perception of buildings. The exhibit will tell three stories: 1) buildings must obey physical laws to stay up, 2) buildings are complex operating systems, and 3) buildings reflect and shape the societies that create them. The exhibit will initially be developed as a traveling exhibit that will circulate among the member institutions of the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (8 institutions) and then it will be reinstalled in the new SMM $77 million building. Additional partners collaborating on this project include the National Building Museum, the Society of Building Science Educators, Habitat for Humanity International, The ReUse Center, the Vital Signs Program and the Center for City Building Education. Special attention will be given to reaching girls and women and the physically challenged. A broad menu of public programming is planned and school-linked materials will be developed.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is a progressive science and technology center. Its philosophy toward science education is to make it enticing, enjoyable and motivating. It accomplishes this by means of "hands-on", interactive exhibits and programs designed to provide a non- threatening learning environment, for which we are recognized nationally. OMSI recognizes the important national need to assist the public in understanding and being comfortable with advances in, and methodology of applied science. It proposes to design and build a large exhibit that promotes problem solving using engineering principles. The exhibit will pose problems, offer basic information for the solution and provide a variety of tools and building materials from which the visitor can choose. The visitor then devises one or several possible solutions, and constructs a prototype to be tested in one of three large scale testing laboratories. The engineering fields addressed are aeronautical, mechanical and civil. Our visitors will come away from the exhibit with an increased appreciation for the way engineering is done and how solutions affect their lives. OMSI is requesting $577,324 from the National Science Foundation as well as $427,539 from the Port of Portland to design and build this exhibit. The Port of Portland is interested in demonstrating how its commercial activities relate to engineering. OMSI plans to disseminate information about the exhibit to educators and other museums on a national level.
NACME proposes to develop a 20 minute videotape, with a teacher's guide and student brochure, that will use career opportunities in engineering as a vehicle to encourage math and science course-taking among minority high school students. By introducing engineering careers as dynamic, exciting professions that offer excellent prospects for minority graduates, NACME hopes to motivate students to take academic track science and math courses beginning at the 8th/9th grade crossroads and continuing through high school graduation. The video, geared specifically to a primary audience of 11 to 14 year-old minority students (5th through 8th graders) and a secondary audience of non-minority students, parents, teachers and guidance counselors, will focus on the lives of successful young engineers, male and female, from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
THE DR. FAD SHOW is a daily television series for children ages 6 to 12 that encourages creativity, inventiveness and problem solving in a lively half-hour format. Each program is taped before a studio audience and high-lights the inventions of young participants as well as the fads and inventions of the past, present and future. Created and hosted by Ken Hakuta, or Dr. Fad as he is known to millions of young viewers, the series will combine thirty-five brand new shows with thirty previously produced episodes for a total of sixty-five programs. The series will be produced and packaged next spring and summer at WETA-TV in Washington, D.C. and will be ready for national broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as early as fall of 1991. THE DR. FAD SHOW will be accompanied by a significant outreach and promotion effort, as well as an educational component that will include an activity and teacher's guide. The programs have already won the endorsement of the National Education Association and the National Inventive Teaching Association (NITA) among others, as well as the enthusiastic support of parents, teachers and a legion of dedicated young viewers and participants.
The Pratt Museum, a natural history museum in Southcentral Alaska, proposes to bring before the public an exhibition on oil pollution. Using the historic disaster of the March 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the museum presents a dramatic, grassroots story of the desperate struggle to protect the environment and preserve traditional lifestyles. The exhibit's purpose is to increase public awareness of national and global issues pertaining to the development, transportation, and use of petroleum. The 1,500 square foot presentation shows what an oil spill is like through photographs, maps, graphics, and three- dimensional participatory elements. The exhibit is scheduled to open at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in early 1991, beginning a three-year tour of 12 museums that will reach between 1.5 and 2 million viewers. The NSF contribution will support the circulation of the exhibit and the development of interactive components to enhance both the permanent and traveling presentations. Computerized graphic displays and an educational chest of learning tools will enhance the basic exhibit through multi- sensory activities designed for hands-on gallery use, increasing accessibility for children and disabled visitors. This cooperative project invloves private foundations, individuals, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
This National Science Foundation grant was designed to expand NACME's existing information program to reach more teachers, counselors and parents of minority students at the junior and senior high school levels and, ultimately, to provide more and better information to the students themselves. Materials produced under the grant to convey the message that minority students can find rewarding, attainable careers in mathematics and science-based fields, that financial aid is available to help students prepare for such careers, that there are specific academic prerequisites for students interested in studying engineering at the college-level, and that there is a growing network of programs to encourage the study of engineering and related technical fields among under represented minority students. Specifically, this funding was used to develop, produce and distribute: "Engineering, Your Key to the 21st Century" 30,000 brochures with companion posters targeting junior high school students, parents and teachers. "Financial Aid Unscrambled: A Guide for Minority Engineering Students" 30,000 books targeting high school seniors, teachers, guidance counselors and parents. "Students Guide to Engineering Schools" 30,000 books targeting high school students, teachers, guidance counselors and parents. "MEPs/USA: The Directory of Precollege and University Minority Engineering Programs" 5,000 directories for guidance counselors, teachers, program directors and other participants in the field.
Future Scientists and Engineers of America (FSEA) is a structured after-school program to promote math and science through engineering applications among American youth, grades 4 through 12. FSEA has hands-on projects at increasing levels of complexity which provide student members with practical engineering applications of science and mathematics. Students advance through categories similar to the Scouts based on Satisfactory completion of projects. They enter as a technician and advance to levels of scientist and engineer. Chapters are sponsored by businesses, professional societies and community organizations which provided mentors and funding for FSEA projects. Each Project is conducted by a team consisting of a volunteer teacher and a volunteer mentor. A mentor must have a technical background in a scientific or engineering field. Mentors can be volunteers recruited from industry, retired scientists and engineers or engineering students. In less than a year, mentors and teachers have attended start- up workshops and 24 chapters have been successfully organized. Increasing demand for chapter development, with continuing emphasis on minority and female youth, has created the need for further development of projects kits, parent involvement and continuity among feeder schools. The proposal intends to develop the procedures, structure and organization that would enable FSEA to develop an additional 35 chapters in Southern California and become a national after-school program and expand to other states.
This planning grant deals with helping people in a flood prone area, Lehigh Valley, understand climate change and the impacts it can have on their livelihood. Through a series of town hall type meetings and distributed materials, the Nurture Nature Foundation and scientists will provide perspective on climate change and options now available to them. The target audience will range from teenagers to adults. During these discussions STEM concepts shall be integrated into the materials. An important aspect of this planning project is devising strategies for interactions with the local groups in meetings and for effective displays and exhibits that not only address the flooding/climate change issues but also reflect the STEM principles and concepts that are involved.
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences (NSF 03-509) project is based on the PI's current NSF award: SBE-0545361- ADVANCE: Determining national science faculty demographics in order to empower women and guide solutions. This project will help address the need for underrepresented female faculty as role models and mentors in science and engineering. Although the number of female under-represented minority students (URM) in college has been increasing, there are astonishingly low numbers of female URM faculty in each science discipline. This project would produce a series of female URM faculty biographical videos to substitute for the lack of personal contact young women have with these role models. The videos would be widely disseminated through schools, colleges, and minority serving organizations to reach young women.
National Geographic Television is creating multi-platform media to communicate the scientific and engineering stories unfolding in the Gulf region due to the major oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is one of the worst environmental disasters to occur in the U.S., and though traditional news outlets continue to report on the spill, there is little discussion about the scientific factors at play. They include the technology and engineering skills needed to stop the leak and contain the oil; the scientific and engineering efforts to mitigate its effects; and the potential impacts on the Earth system. Communicating these scientific and engineering concepts to the public is both critical and urgent. National Geographic is uniquely positioned to take the lead in reporting on the science and engineering behind the spill and its implications. Deliverables will include: a 60-minute "Explorer" documentary television program to air on the National Geographic Channels in September 2010; 16 weekly online "Science Journal" segments featuring interviews with scientists, engineers, and other experts, promoted through National Geographic's social media channels; ongoing online news coverage and blog reports from the Gulf region; and online content for children. Funding from the National Science Foundation will specifically support coverage of the yet-to-be-filmed science and engineering segments for the television program and digital content. The television program and digital content will reach a broad public audience with critical science and engineering concepts. The entire project is designed to communicate scientific messages from the Gulf in real time and over the longer term, and in so doing, to enhance public understanding of science and engineering as it relates to the oil spill crisis.
The middle-school and high-school years are a period of change and crystalization in terms of life goals, disciplinary and course preferences, and social and political attitudes. The literature provides a number of cross-sectional descriptions and models concerning cognitive and attitudinal development during adolescence and young adulthood, but there are no longitudinal data available to study these processes. The proposed longitudinal study will examine the (1) development of interest in science and mathematics, (2) the growth of scientific literacy, (3) the development of attentiveness to science and technology issues, and (4) the attraction to careers in science and engineering among two national cohorts of adolescents and young adults. One cohort will begin with a national sample of 3,000 seventh graders and follow them through the 10th grade. The second cohort will begin with a national sample of 3,000 10th graders and follow them for the next four years through the first full year after high school. Data will be collected from students, teachers, counselors, principals, and parents. A purposive sample of two or three school districts with exemplary elementary school science and mathematics education programs will be selected and comparable data will be collected in these districts. The analysis will consist of a series of expanding multivariate developmental models that will seek to understand cognitive and attitudinal growth and change in the context of family, school, and peer influences. Each wave of data collection will provide an opportunity to examine cognitive and attitudinal change measures in an increasingly rich context of previous measures. Periodic reports will be issued with each cycle of data collection and the data will be made available to other scholars on a timely basis. The first phase of the project, being funded at this time, provides approximately 15 months for instrument development and pilot testing, for sample selection, for monitor selection and training, and for working with the research advisory committee.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jon Miller
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The middle school years are critical in determining a student's success and continued participation in mathematics. This proposal involves the expansion of MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) model to the junior high/middle school population in the State of Washington. The project will focus on updating and revitalizing middle school mathematics curriculum, the goal being to increase minority student enrollment in algebra in the ninth grade. The MESA model also recognizes the need for teacher support and provides teacher seminars on a regular basis. Additionally, the expansion of the statewide Pre- College Center at the University of Washington will include the coordination of a statewide program at the junior high/middle school level. The MESA model is based on a partnership between industry and educators--a cooperative effort involving scientists on loan from industry, educators at the university level and educators at the secondary school levels working together to develop curricula that will stimulate student interest and achievement in mathematics and science. The staff for the project is well qualified with experience in the MESA program and in curriculum development and teacher training. The proposal addresses a clear need for improving minority mathematics education in middle/junior high schools and promises to have an impact throughout the nation for all students by serving as a model academic program. The project goals are consistent with the Instructional Materials guidelines. Therefore, an award is recommended.