Plantations, the botanical garden and arboretum of Cornell University, is developing a model program of informal education for elementary (K-5) school children. Project LEAP, Learning About Plants, will integrate the academic resources of Cornell University and the informal setting of its botanic gardens with the teaching of mathematics and science in local elementary schools. The project contains five components: 1) a conceptually-based curriculum of biology, ecology and agriculture which will include some components of SCIS (Science Curriculum Improvement Study) and OBIS (Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies); 2) a teacher training workshop to stimulate curriculum integration and modification; 3) multiple two-year visits between Plantations and local schools providing children with direct experience with plants and animals; 4) a quantitative program of curriculum development and evaluation based on learning theory; and 5) a plan for dissemination of the structure and instructional contents of this program. Because children will experience LEAP over a period of years, the complex and meaningful learning of concepts in science will be achieved in the earliest years of a child's education. Because LEAP is being designed to become a model program applicable to many institutions of informal education, two publications will be produced: a notebook which describes the overall structure of the program, and a handbook for teachers which presents the individual lessons of the curriculum and the theoretical background supporting the choice of curriculum material. The notebook will distinguish those elements of the program peculiar to Cornell and Plantations, and mechanisms through which the program can be adapted to other institutions. The project is being split-funded by the Instructional Materials Development and Informal Science Education Programs.
The American Psychological Association, in cooperation with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), will develop a series of exhibits on psychology using a discovery room/science laboratory approach. The exhibition will, for the first time, offer museum visitors a first hand opportunity to explore the tools, methods, and concepts of psychology in such areas as thinking and feeling, dreaming and sleeping, perceiving and communicating. The exhibition will travel to eight museums over 30 months through the ASTC traveling exhibition service and will reach over a million visitors. A wide selection of additional materials and resources such as films, seminars, lectures and workshops will be offered to the participating museums to extend the impact of the exhibition. Plans of the exhibits will be made available to other museums. NSF support represents less than 50% of the total cost of the project.
The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (MMNS) will develop a program over the next two years aimed at teachers and students in grades 3-7. The project will develop teacher kits and "hands-on" exhibits tied to the new state curriculum and to the science television series "3-2-1 Contact". The MMNS is a division of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation and is designated as the official natural science museum by the State Legislature. The Museum has been in operation for 50 years and, since its inception, has served as a resource for classroom teachers. Mississippi has approximately 500,000 public school students attending about 1,000 schools. One third of these children are considered to live below the poverty level and 50 percent are from minority groups--a priority for the NSF. The MMNS has had success with a small pilot project which coordinates science concepts taught in the television series "3-2-1 Contact" with exhibit programs at the Museum. Over the next two years MMNS will expand their "hands-on" exhibits and develop science kits for use in the classroom in coordination with the new state curriculum and the television series. The kits will include museum objects, suggested activities and a teacher's guide. During the first year a series of "Contact Days" will be held with teachers and students across the state to develop and test the effectiveness of the project along with a lecture program by minority and women scientists. During the second year the exhibits will travel to schools across the state.
READING RAINBOW is a 25 part PBS children's television series produced by the Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, a part of the Nebraska Educational Television Network. It addresses the national problem of more and more youngsters reading less and less. This award-winning television series has been successful in using television to stimulate children ages five through nine to read good books. The series attracts an audience of 7.8 million children with ratings equal to those of THE ELECTRIC COMPANY and MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD. Program evaluation shows equally enthusiastic responses from parents, teachers, librarians and, most importantly, children. Support will be provided for a series of five READING RAINBOW programs which focus on scientific themes. These episodes will be integrated into the on-going series and build on young children's curiosity and interest in the world as well as demonstrating to children how science relates to all aspects of their lives. In an increasingly technological society, children need stimulation to seek out books related to science, reinforcing early curiosity and strengthening life-long interest in science. Women and minorities are well represented on READING RAINBOW staff and in the productions themselves. Great care is taken to ensure a broad representation of people including racial and cultural groups, female and male, senior citizens and people with varying physical disabilities. Community outreach organizations involved include: the National PTA, American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, National Educational Association and the International Reading Association. In connection with the science series, Reading Rainbow staff will involve the National Science Teachers Association and a special public relations effort will be organized to promote READING RAINBOW to science museums and other organizations that conduct science education program activities for children.
The New York Hall of Science will develop a major exhibition on quantum theory--one of the most important developments in physical science in this century and one which has not been significantly treated by science museums. This exhibition will be the first major museum program to introduce quantum theory and its applications to the public. Elements of the exhibit will include models of the atom, the puzzle of light, applications of the theory and, finally, the human story of the creation of a new theory. Numerous participatory exhibits will be developed in conjunction with the project so that visitors can learn by doing. Formative evaluation will be an integral part of this exhibit. This technique has recently been adopted by museums as a way to test exhibit prototypes with museum visitors and then redesign as necessary. A workshop will be held for museum personnel and a guidebook, Improving Exhibits Through Formative Evaluation, will be produced. This book will be the first complete description of the formative evaluation process and will be a valuable addition to the museum field.
The California Academy of Sciences, a major natural history institution located in San Francisco, will develop Life Through Time, a large permanent exhibition on evolution that will inform and challenge visitors as they "walk through" a series of exhibits which encourages them to touch and explore. The exhibition will cover the history of life on earth, how scientists recognize and evaluate change through time, the scientific method and process of discovering, and the impact of evolution. A teacher's educational resource kit with hands-on materials will be developed for use in the schools along with teacher training courses. The exhibition will reach a substantial audience, over a million and a half visitors per year. Additionally, 44% of the San Francisco elementary school children are visited each year by Academy docents, the mobile classroom reaches 7,000 Bay Area residents, over 5,000 children and adults take classes at the Academy and 10,000 school children visit the museum each year.
The New England Aquarium will develop an "inquiry-driven" gallery for the study of aquatic sciences in a move to go beyond the "naming" experiences in biology and environmental education. The project will focus on seven conceptual themes: 1) adaptation and evolution; 2) habitat; 3) life cycles; 4) development and metamorphosis; 5) species interactions; 6) energy flow: and 7) signals and senses. The exhibits will challenge the visitor with questions, puzzles and games. Curriculum materials will be developed for teachers along with a users guide for visitors. Outreach activities are planned, aimed at minority students and visitors. The Aquarium serves approximately 155,000 students and over one million visitors every year. The redesigned gallery will house eight tanks, ranging from a series of small tanks with accompanying video clips that display seldom seen behaviors such as the "birth" of seahorses, lobster molting, etc. to three 250-gallon tanks that will display ancient fishes and a variety of species showing different kinds of locomotion, color and sound. A 2500- gallon tank housing a school of fish will demonstrate different ways terrestrial and aquatic animals sense their surroundings. A 4000-gallon floor to ceiling tank will display a salt marsh on one side and a mangrove forest on the other and a 6000-gallon tank will house large groupers, moray eels and small gobies. The NSF award represents $273,971 out of a project total of $857,986.
Maryland Instructional Television, in conjunction with the National Science Teachers Association, will use the expertise of scientists and educators and the medium of television to create an exciting science video series for children ages four through seven. The activities of the project include the identification of content, design of instructional video and ancillary print materials, and formative evaluation. Fifteen video programs will be developed, each containing two or three separate sub-programs. These will be supplemented by teacher and parent guides which will suggest activities designed to expand upon the material covered in the program. The series content and materials will explore everyday events in the lives of young children and will integrate science and mathematics concepts, skills and application into a variety of curricular areas. The companion activities will make use of objects already in the child's world or easily accessible in the home. This project is funded jointly with the Instructional Materials Development Program.
The 4-H organization of Virginia is developing a Marine and Aquatic Education Program with a strong field study component for youngsters ages five through nine. They plan to reach these young people through local and community 4-H clubs and in summer camps. One part of the program is aimed at the handicapped and development of strategies to meet their special needs. Other components of the program include volunteer training of high school students and adult leaders and a series of publications with emphasis on "hands-on" activities. There is a strong national dissemination plan and, through a national survey, the Virginia 4-H have determined that 27 state 4-H organizations are interested in adapting program. The 4-H organization is the largest youth organization in the United States with a membership of 4.3 million young people. They have a strong network, both urban and rural, with minorities representing 22% of the membership, 53% are female and 63% are under 11 years of age. The Virginia 4-H mirrors the national picture but with a slightly more rural membership. This project provides an opportunity to strengthen science learning outside of the formal education system by supporting a test project in marine education. Over the next three years the project will be tested with 38,500 youngsters and 500 adults. The program will then be expanded to all 115,467 Virginia members as well as a strong outreach effort to the national membership. This project is directed at two important goals for the Informal Science Education Program: strengthening out-of-school science programs for young people and the handicapped. The marine science area is one of high interest and significance both locally and nationally. The staff are experienced and committed and the program is cost effective at a little over $3.00 per person.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barry FoxWilliam ChristySusan GilleyMichael CliffordJoseph Hoffenberger
This project at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Durham, North Carolina, will create a 2000 square foot permanent exhibition, "The Science Behind Medicine", using recent advances in medical science and technology to illustrate basic science concepts. It will engage visitors through their strong interest in health and medicine, present valuable information about medical subjects, and use their interest to present underlying scientific concepts they would otherwise avoid. The exhibition will be organized around four topics: organ structure and function and organ replacement and transplantation; advances in medical imaging, including infrared, ultrasound and x-ray technologies; pharmaceutical pharmacology, biological receptors and molecular design; and sickle cell anemia and its molecular biology. Over five years, more than one million people will use the exhibit, including both highly educated residents of the Research Triangle area, and a Durham population that is disadvantaged and 50% black. Extensive subject area consultation and formative evaluation will be used in exhibition design. A close consulting relationship is planned with two museums with similar exhibit interests, and exhibit research and plans will be offered to other interested museums to encourage wider use of the project's results. A strong regional health sciences focus will benefit the project through academic, business, community and industry membership on a project planning committee, and from 50% local matching funding. Two corporate planning grants have been awarded to the project, and a major facilities expansion funded in part by a recent bond issue.
The California Museum of Science and Industry will create a 3,000 square foot permanent exhibition of hands-on participatory exhibits on chemistry and chemical phenomena that will allow visitors to manipulate the variables of chemical systems. Forty exhibit units will be organized in clusters in that represent the basic concepts of properties of atoms and molecules, molecular structure and chemical reactions, stability of molecules and rates of reactions, forces between atoms and molecules and energy of atoms and molecules. The exhibition will use state-of-the-art technology to present chemical experiments previously left to the lab bench or the demonstration table. Interactive computers and videodiscs will be used where danger or complexity prevents the visitor from using "the real thing." Exhibit content will be proved in prototype form and tested on museum staff, visitors, and school groups prior to final design and construction. NSF support will be used in the design and prototype phases, and an "exhibit cookbook" of exhibit technologies for use by other museums will be created. The project has already attracted more than $175,000 of matching funds towards a total of $800,000 in non-NSF matching funds to support its $1,100,000 budget.
The Willamette Science and Technology Center, a science museum located in the university town of Eugene, Oregon, proposes to design, construct and circulate a 1,000 square foot traveling mathematics and science exhibition, "Kaleidoscopes: Reflections of Science and Art" to 15 science museums over a three year period, reaching more than one million visitors. The exhibition will capitalize on popular interest in this 19th century optical toy to provide engaging and stimulating examples of mathematics and physics principles revealed in the exquisite symmetries and surprising patterns of kaleidoscopic reflection. Interactive exhibit modules will be combined with historic examples and the work of contemporary artists to appeal to a broad rang of ages and interests of visitors. Consultants with extensive experience with mathematics and mathematics education will assist in the design of the exhibit units and in the preparation of educational materials that will accompany the exhibition. The Smithsonian Institution Travelling Exhibition Service (SITES), will manage the circulation and maintenance of the exhibition during its travels and will publish the related educational materials and make them available to host museums. Project staff and consultant are highly qualified to carry out this project, which matches an increasing national interest in revitalizing mathematics education and a corresponding increased emphasis on mathematics education at the National Science Foundation. An award $71,310 for FY'87 is recommended.