The Anchorage Museum of History and Art, working with the Calista Elders Council, will develop a 5,000 sq ft traveling exhibition presenting 19th-century Yup'ik Eskimo technologies, their contemporary applications, and the underlying scientific processes. Featuring Yup'ik artifacts, it will integrate indigenous knowledge into the teaching of basic science principles as well as demonstrate the role played by science in everyday life. The exhibition will be organized around seasonal activities practiced in the past and retaining modern relevance. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will develop the comparative exhibits on modern science and technology, and the Imaginarium will develop complementary educational programming. Primary audiences will include rural Alaska Natives, both youth and elders, non-Native Alaska residents and visitors, as well as venues outside Alaska. By demonstrating how indigenous knowledge can be related to modern science, this exhibition provides a model for the informal science education field on how to incorporate cultural aspects of their own communities into museum exhibitions and programs. In addition, it demonstrates how artifacts and hands-on science activities can be combined effectively to create engaging educational experiences.
Voyage of Discovery is a comprehensive and innovative project designed to provide K-12 youth in Baltimore City with an introduction to mathematics, engineering, technology, environmental science, and computer and information science, as it relates to the maritime and aerospace industries. The Sankofa Institute, in partnership with the Living Classrooms Foundation and a host of marine, informal science, community, and educational organizations, collaborate to make science relevant for inner-city youth by infusing science across the curriculum and by addressing aspects of history and culture. Youth are introduced to historical, current, and future innovations in shipbuilding as a means to learn the science, mathematics, and history associated with navigation, transportation, environmental science, and shipping. Activities will take place at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum where students participate in intensive afterschool, Saturday, and summer sessions. Families are invited for pre-session orientation meetings and again at the end of each session to observe student progress. This project will provide over 3,900 K-12 youth with the opportunity to learn mathematics (algebra, geometry, and trigonometry), physics (gravity, density, mechanics), design, and estuarine biology while participating in hands-on sessions. Project deliverables include a 26-foot wooden boat, a working model of a dirigible, a submarine model, and pilot control panel models, all constructed by students and subsequently incorporated into exhibits at the USS Constellation Museum. The project also results in the production of two curricula--one each on celestial navigation and propulsion. Voyage of Discovery informs the literature on inquiry-based informal science education programs and strategies to engage minority and low-income youth in learning science and technology.
The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the Interdisciplinary Center for Coastal Studies, New York Botanical Garden, Puerto Rico Youth at Risk, Boy Scouts, and others implemented a citizen science program for age 12 and older. This project targeted local residents, visitors to Hacienda La Esperanza Reserve, and members of community environmental projects on topics including archeology and human impacts on local ecosystems; conservation and restoration of wetlands; and shoreline and costal processes.
This project will develop a comprehensive Space Weather Outreach program to reach students, educators, and other members of the public, and share with them the discoveries from this scientific discipline. The Space Science Institute will capitalize on its prior successes and the success of other education programs to develop a comprehensive and integrated program that has the following five components: (1) the Space Weather Center website that includes online educational games; (2) Small Exhibits for Libraries, Shopping Malls, and Science Centers; (3) After-School Programs; (4) Professional Development Workshops for Educators, and (5) an innovative Evaluation and Education Research project. Its overarching goal is to inspire, engage, and educate a broad spectrum of the public and make strategic and innovative connections between informal and K-12 education communities. Partners include UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory; the American Library Association; Macerich: a mall developer with nationwide impact; and the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement program. The project brings together a creative collaboration between exhibit designers, graphic artists, formal/informal educators, and research scientists. The project spans a full spectrum of science communication strategies (formal, informal, and public outreach). The evaluation part of the project will examine how well the project elements work together and a pilot research study will explore the efficacy of online digital games for communicating complex space weather content. Results will be published and the findings presented at professional meetings and online. The three-year project is expected to impact well over two million people, including exhibit and website visitors and outreach visitors at various venues such as libraries and malls.
NASA cloud observation project. Ground observation reports are compared to cloud information retrieved from satellite instruments in Earth orbit. Learn how to make and report a cloud observation at the time of a satellite overpass. Observations welcome from any interested observers, especially in places where official weather observations are rare. Get satellite overpass times, learn about making observations, report an observation, and explore the database of reported observations (which includes corresponding satellite data once they are available).
H2O Chelsea is a community-based water research and surveillance program developed collaboratively by the Municipality of Chelsea, the University of Ottawa’s Institute of the Environment and Action Chelsea for the Respect of the Environment (ACRE). The goal of the program is to develop a better understanding of ground and surface water resources in Chelsea that will inform municipal planning and management decisions. The project is volunteer-driven, relying on the commitment of over 70 local residents, municipal employees and professors and students from the University of Ottawa.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Municipality of ChelseaUniversity of OttawaAction Chelsea for the Respect of the Environment (ACRE)Isabelle Pitre
Investigating Green Energy Technologies in the City (GET City) is a youth-based project designed to target underserved middle school students and introduce concepts in energy sustainability and environmental health. Partners include Michigan State University's College of Education and College of Engineering, Lansing Boys and Girls Club, Lansing Board of Water and Light, and Urban Options, a non-profit energy and environmental agency. Participants learn to use IT tools (GIS software, databases, and communication tools) and gain IT workforce skills, research experiences, science knowledge, and inquiry skills. Project components include bi-weekly afterschool sessions (18 weeks), a 3-week summer program with field-based design experiences, community energy events, parental involvement activities, career field trips, and a project website. Youth will also participate in an annual community fair and conduct energy audits. Topics covered include brownouts, environmental health, alternative energy sources, and green energy technologies. Youth will receive ongoing support from energy mentors and gain leadership experience. The project will result in the development of a curriculum that includes IT-based investigations with a focus on core energy concepts. GET City also includes a research component that examines youth identity development in science, engineering, and IT in an attempt to understand how the program supports participation in an IT community of practice. The research, in conjunction with the comprehensive evaluation, will contribute to the field by providing insight into how the program design fosters youth engagement and learning in science, engineering, and IT. Seventy youth will receive 280 contact hours over two years of participation.
Serial Passage: AIDS, Race, and Culture. is a 3-4 hour documentary film series and curriculum enhancement that examines the process of scientific inquiry in the development of the serial passage/contaminated needle theory of the origin of HIV/AIDS as well as the disproportionate impact of the pandemic upon Africans and African-Americans. The long term objective of the documentary film series/curriculum enhancement is to foster a heightened awareness of the need for HIV prevention among African-Americans, particularly teenagers, who are at high risk for contracting HIV, and who have often proved unresponsive to traditional HIV prevention messages. African-Americans constitute 12.1 % of the US population but account for almost 50% of the new HIV/AIDS cases. The documentary film series is being made with a small cohort of 20 inner-city African-American high school students in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The students work on the documentary series as footage evaluators, apprentice filmmakers, and will ultimately be its narrative voice. They are also research subjects. An interim evaluation report showed a dramatic increase in the students' perceived knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and a substantial decrease in their reported sexual activity. A widespread and scientifically significant Phase II evaluation of this project would be conducted via pre and post anonymous surveys administered to African-American teenagers, (high school students), and matching control groups. The ABC and PBS networks have already agreed to screen the documentary series for broadcast consideration. The Phase II application proposes to 1) complete editing and postproduction of the documentary series, and 2) work with curriculum writers and an educational video distribution company on the development and dissemination of the documentary series/curriculum enhancement.
Goals: 1) Increase the number of Alaskans from educationally and/or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly Alaska Natives, who pursue careers in health sciences and health professions and 2) Inform the Alaskan public about health science research and the clinical trial process so that they are better equipped to make healthier lifestyle choices and better understand the aims and benefits of clinical research. Objectives: 1) Pre-med Summer Enrichment program (U-DOC) at UAA (pipeline into college), 2) Statewide Alaska Student Scientist Corps for U-DOC, 3) students (pipeline into college), 4) Facility-based Student Science Guide program at Imaginarium Science Discovery Center, 5) Job Shadowing/Mentorship Program for U-DOC students and biomedical researchers, 6) Research-based and student-led exhibit, demonstration, and multi-media presentations, 7) Professional Development for educators, 8) North Star Website.
In January 2006, the Dolan DNA Learning Center launched its SEPA Phase I project: Inside Cancer, a media-rich internet site that examines the molecular genetic basis of cancer. We now propose a Phase II Project, which will employ a six-part strategy to broadly disseminate the site and evaluate its use as a resource in high school biology and health education. a) A partnership will disseminate the site to 800 secondary science teachers at one-day workshop held at 20 sites nationwide. This cost-effective program will focus on key concepts and relevant teaching standards, and also provide a dedicated base for conducting second-round training and evaluation activities. b) An online Teacher Center will allow teachers to develop custom multimedia lessons based on Inside Cancer materials. Key features will be a Concept Matrix, Lesson Exchange, and Atomizer, which will match content with teaching standards, facilitate a community approach to lesson plan development, and provide a searchable interface of over 3,000 multimedia content "atoms." c) Fellowships will allow three lead faculty to work directly with DNALC staff to develop the Teacher Center and model lesson plans (DNALC Fellows). Eighty workshop alumni will serve as Regional Fellows and receive stipends to conduct second-round training activities reaching 640 additional teachers. d) An annual review will assess fidelity to project objectives and analyze site logs to detect patterns of use. An online survey of 1,500 Inside Cancer users annually will assess differences in site use among teachers, students, science and medical professionals, and the general public. e) A longitudinal evaluation of 1,440 participants in workshops and second-round activities will gauge how teachers use Inside Cancer and the Teacher Center, and how their teaching behavior changes over time. f) A controlled study will compare attitudinal and learning effects among 280 high school students - half of whom use Inside Cancer in their classes an half who don't. Biology and health classes will be selected from a single school district that reflects the ethnic and racial distribution of the U.S. population.
1. Build stepwise a prototype -Virtual Clinical Research Center- (VCRC) for K-12 learners and mentors (diverse peers, experts, and patients) by accessing, mobilizing, and linking the human and physical resources of a prototype national network of Clinical Research Centers (CRC) and translational laboratories through state-of-the-art Telemedicine communication and collaborative technologies and featuring T3 or the 3Ts - Teams, Technologies, Translation - of the Clinical Research Enterprise); 2. Develop the Medical Ignorance Exploratorium (MIEx) as a hybrid K-12 cybercafe-health science museum with key features of a) navigable, game-like, 3D environment including -Isles of Medical Ignorance- and -Questionator,- b) Resource Library, c) Live Performance Theater; and d) Collaboration Space, all to stimulate and guide student-centered inquiry about medical breakthroughs, clinical topics, and sick patients (featuring cyber Q3 or the 3Qs-Questions, Questioning, and Questioners); 3. Evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the curricular and delivery resources and models in SA1 and 2 as well as the dissemination in SA4; 4. Disseminate, embed, and expand the refined Virtual CRC and Medical Ignorance Exploratorium in K-12 schools, the clinical research community, and beyond.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marlys WitteGrace WagnerMichael Bernas
The American Museum of Natural History requests SEPA support for a five-year development and implementation project entitled "Human Health and 'Human Bulletins': Scientists and Teens Explore Health Sciences in the Museum and World At Large." The program has three complementary components: (1) the development of 7 new productions for the Museum's digital media/documentary exhibition program, Human Bulletins http://sciencebulletins.amnh.org) featuring the newest health-related research; (2) a mini-course, entitled Hot Topics in Health Research NOW, an intensive after school program covering genetics, epidemiology, human health and human evolution, including a section on ethics in research; and (3) A "drop-in" Human Bulletins Science Club, where students meet monthly to watch a Human Bulletin visual news program, engage in informal discussions with significant researchers in the fields of evolutionary science and human health. The main goals of this project are: (1) to inform young people about emerging health-related research by using the Human Bulletins as core content for programming and points of engagement; (2) to promote a life-long interest in science among participants by teaching them how health-related science research could potentially affect them or their families; (3) to empower teens to critically assess the science presented to them in the Museum and in the world at large by teaching them to break down the "information bytes" of the Human Bulletins and to analyze how stories are presented visually and how to find answers to questions raised by the Bulletins; (4) for the young people in the program to see themselves as participants in the Museum by developing "mentor" relationships with Museum staff. This will allow students to see AMNH as an enduring institution to be used as a resource throughout their education and careers; and (5) to give students the means to envision themselves with future careers in science, research and in museums (thus fostering new generation of culturally-diverse, culturally enriched scientific leaders) by introducing them to scientists in an informal setting where there are no consequences for making mistakes or asking questions. The students will be given "behind the scenes" looks at new career options through the scientists featured in the Bulletins and the NIH funded researchers on the Advisory Board presenting at the informal sessions. Ultimately, the project aims to give students to critically process the information they receive about public health, see the relevance of human health science to their lives and pursue careers in health science. All of these skills are measurable through formative and summative evaluation. This project will teach young people to understand information about public health that is presented to them through visual and popular media as well as through formal scientific texts. It will also teach them to think about how human health sciences impact their lives and how the decisions they make impact larger human health. Finally, the program will also encourage students to pursue careers and further information about public health.