The American Museum of Natural History and the Environmental Defense Fund will produce a major exhibition on global warming. The prospect of global warming is viewed by many with increasing attention and concern, but conflicting reports have resulted in public confusion about predictions of climate change. Thus, a need exists for education on this timely subject, particularly in the direct and vivid way that only an exhibition provides. Wide-spread awareness of the significance of potential climate change will lead to making informed decisions and taking necessary actions regarding this complex and serious problem. Visitors will learn about the forces that drive climate change, the sources and properties of greenhouse gases, how scientists study climate, and debates on the accuracy of global warming predictions. The exhibition will also focus on potential environmental, social, and economic consequences of global warming and what choices individuals and nations can make to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Visitors will be able to explore these topics in depth and integrate the information with personal experience. The exhibition will present scientific data objectively, clearly distinguishing between what is known and what is predicted. The American Museum and EDF will produce scientific symposia, educational programs, and publications for greater outreach to general visitors, schools and the media. Consultants will monitor and evaluate the content and design, from planning through fabrication and display, to ensure the educational effectiveness of the exhibition.
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
Strange Days on Planet Earth combines a 4-part television series and outreach program produced by Sea Studios Foundation (SSF) for National Geographic Television and Film and Vulcan Productions, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The project comprises three primary components: a broadcast series, website, and a national consortium of informal learning institutions. The project team expects that through consistent messaging and content, these components, when integrated, collectively offer the public enriched opportunities to
This National Science Foundation Informal Science Education project was a "Citizen Science" weather and climate observing program focused on the Central Great Plains region of the U.S. Volunteers of all ages, primarily self selected, equipped with simple and low cost instruments for measuring rain, hail and snow, were recruited, trained and equipped to help measure and report precipitation. This region of the country is well known for its extreme and highly variable climate with strong seasonal cycles, dramatic day to day weather changes, drought vulnerability, as well as the propensity for
Earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, lightning, tornadoes, and other natural phenomena occur regularly as an on-going part of the natural environment of our planet. There is a clear need to increase public awareness and knowledge of these natural forces and their impact on human existence. Educating the public about effective, and often simple, strategies for protection, mitigation, and recovery based on the latest scientific knowledge, and encouraging them to personally take action, is critical to reducing human suffering, loss of life, and destruction of property from these deadly
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bruce W. HallMuseum of Science and Industry
The Chedd-Angier Production Company is requesting support for the long-standing, highly acclaimed PBS series, "Scientific American Frontiers," now in its 13th season. Alan Alda hosts the program. NSF funds will leverage existing PBS support and expand the series from five to six programs and increase the scope and depth of the science covered in each program. Topics in the new season cover a broad range of disciplines including cutting edge scientific efforts in cosmology, anthropology, global warming, brain research, obesity and weight loss, and hydrogen fuel cell research. The funds will also be used to expand the "Frontiers" web site and raise the visibility of the program by enhancing the promotional campaign. These efforts will aim to improve the value of the series to science teachers as well as to the general audience. Formative evaluation will be undertaken by Multimedia Research; summative evaluation, by Knight-Williams Research Communications.
The California Academy of Sciences will produce "Water is Life," a 30,383 square-foot permanent exhibit with educational programming. The exhibit is designed to engage the public with the living world of water, to foster environmental stewardship and increase science literacy. Three habitat components -- Philippine Coral Reef, California Coast and Global Rainforests -- are conceptually and experientially linked through "Water Planet," which explores water's physical properties and how they impact living organisms and lead to aquatic diversity. Each component also reinforces the importance of conserving aquatic resources. Educational programming takes "Water is Life" to local schools and community events and onto the World Wide Web, as well as provides venues for formative evaluation of exhibit design elements. The development of lending kits, plus supporting manuals and workshops, will extend the reach of "Water is Life" regionally and nationally. Similarly, instruction manuals and workshops for creating desktop, living reefs will have national impact. The compelling draw of live organisms, hands-on activities, and exhibit enrichment through educational programming provide accessibility to a large, diverse audience. The exhibit will reach over one million annual visitors, and a larger audience will experience distributed educational programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Margaret BurkeLinda KulikChristopher AndrewsTerrence GoslinerRobert Jenkins
The Hugh Moore Historical Park and Museum will develop an integrated framework of exhibits on the science and technology of canals and inland waterways at the National Canal Museum (NCM) in Easton, PA., which will serve as a model for interdisciplinary public education and exhibit programs at other canal history organizations in more than 28 states, primarily east of the Mississippi River. Representatives from major waterway and industrial history sites and museums across the nation will work with NCM staff and a national advisory panel of leading informal science educators to develop, design and disseminate a series of interactive science exhibits that can travel or be replicated in museums, parks and organizations that interpret inland waterways and related industrial sites
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Edward MooneyRobert RuddKelly Austin
The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida, will develop a permanent exhibition and associated educational programs on natural hazards, phenomena that become "natural disasters" when they interact with the human community and its built environment. The exhibition, 9000 square feet in size, will address the science of these phenomena, the science and technology of forecasting and mitigation strategies and techniques. The exhibition features floods, hurricanes, wildfires, lightning, hail, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes. The exhibition begins with an overview and a focus on the dynamic earth. It then presents a streetscape of buildings devastated by the phenomena and eight interactive areas dealing with each of the hazards. The concluding sections include a demonstration stage and a series of elements that focus on communications, community preparedness and response and forecasting. Ancillary materials include: a family exhibition guide, teacher preparation materials, classroom materials on forecasting, a distance learning program and a brochure for the public (to be developed by IBHS). Central to the project is MOSI's partnership and campus neighbor, Institute for Business and Home Safety, a nonprofit arm of the insurance industry with a mandate to educating Americans about natural disasters and ways to mitigate loss and suffering. Other partners include FEMA, USGS, Red Cross, NFPA, local schools and community based organizations. The Institute for Learning Innovation will conduct the evaluation, supplemented by action research investigations by the University of South Florida. A local high school emphasizing design and art will participate in the exhibition development process.
The Ocean Institute will design, develop, evaluate and install "Sea Floor Science," a 5,200 sq. ft. site-wide exhibition designed in partnership with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. "Sea Floor Science" will provide opportunities for families, students and the general public to use authentic oceanographic equipment, tools and technology to recreate a world of ocean research and discovery. Visitors will experience how oceanographers are exploring the largely unknown sea floor to permit better understanding of the origin of sediments and rocks, paleoclimate reconstruction as evidenced by marine microfossils, and the dynamics of oceanic lithospheres and margins. The project is a new approach to museum exhibits. It will test innovative convertibility solutions that enable public areas to serve as both teaching stations and effective exhibits. It will also implement cost-effective update strategies to keep visitors at the forefront of scientific research. "Sea Floor Science" will reach 4,000,000 people in 22 states including on-site and on-line visitors, multi-state teacher networks, videoconferencing participants, science professionals, and replication sites at science centers and aquaria nationally.
Sea Studios Foundation is developing a five-hour television-based project that will examine "Earth System Science," which will be produced in association with the National Geographic Society (NGS). Geologists, biologists, oceanographers, climatologists, social scientists and others are joining forces to understand the planet's rapidly changing environment. The series will follow the on-going research of these scientists as they investigate the links between Earth's geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. These programs are planned as the first season of an annual series on the topic. Educational outreach will include a hands-on traveling exhibit to be developed and tested by the Maryland Science Center; an Educator's Guide for print and electronic distribution to informal science centers and community organizations; a "resource toolkit" to augment the Educator's Guide and an Internet site hosted by NGS that provides links to existing and new environmental resources. The series content also will be integrated into several NGS venues including: National Geographic Today, the daily news program on the National Geographic Channel; National Geographic Magazine, which will create a "global report card" as an annual feature; and National Geographic for Kids magazine, which is distributed to children in grades three through six. The project advisory board includes: Richard Barber, Professor of Biological Oceanography, Duke University Robert Costanza, Professor of Zoology, University of Maryland Gretchen Daily, Interdisciplinary Research Scientist, Stanford University Robert Dunbar, Specialist in Global Environmental Change, Stanford University Habiba Gitay, Senior Lecturer, National Centre for Development Studies, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, Canberra, Australia Michael Glantz, Senior Scientist, the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, National Center for Atmospheric Research John Katzenberger, Executive Director of Aspen Global change Institute Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology, Oregon State University J. R. McNeill, Professor of History, Georgetown University Harold Mooney, Professor of Environmental Biology, Stanford University Steven Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change, Stanford University Brian Walker, Coordinator of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's Biodiversity Sector, Adelaide, South Australia
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark ShelleyTierney ThysDavid Ellisco
Building on an institution-wide strategic initiative to interpret the process of science for informal learners of all ages, the Museum of Science will work over four years to develop, evaluate and implement a project to communicate the processes of science through weather forecasting. The project is based on the idea that processes involved in short-term weather forecasting are basic to the process of science. MOS proposes to create a 1,800 square foot exhibit, programs for students and teachers, an interactive website, and one-minute television spots aimed at helping people understand weather forecasting. The project is grounded in MOS strategic commitment to engaging people in the activity of science and the use of new technologies. The major component of the project is an exhibition of weather in which visitors will learn how to forecast the weather over the next few hours using different levels of technology, including naked eye observations, data from weather maps, and real-time images from space satellites and ground radar stations. Ancillary programs include educational materials for over 100 WeatherNet schools in New England, an interactive website that will reach several hundred thousand users, and television spots on the process of weather forecasting to be aired on WBZ-TV Channel 4. Over the course of its life the project will engage several million children and adults in the process of science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cary SneiderMishelle MichaelsDaniel Barstow