The North Carolina Museum of Life and Science will develop two areas in a new 70 acre outdoor exhibit "BioQuest Woods: Linking Animals and Plans with Interactive Exhibits". This concept is to pair live animals and plants in their natural setting with science center-style interactive exhibits to communicate key ideas in biology and physics. Support will go to sixteen interactive stations in two four-acre theme areas "Catch the Wind" and "Down to Earth". "Catch the Wind" will assist visitors in the exploration air movement and learning about how plants and animals use air in specialized ways. For example, visitors will experiment with air thermals while observing the behavior of birds of prey and will learn how prairie dogs exploit the venturi effect to ventilate their burrows. In the "Down to Earth" thematic area, visitors, simulate the activities of field biologists, will track bears equipped with radio collars, examine living invertebrates, among other activities. Scientific instruments, including microscopes, in kiosks will aid on-the-scene study of live animals and plans. "BioQuest Woods" will help visitors, teachers and students gain the realistic experience of scientific inquiry in a natural setting. Education programming will highlight curriculum linkages and fulfills the goals of North Carolina's new science curriculum. It directly addresses the State's competency-based goals requiring understanding of natural systems and the interrelations of the basic sciences. Pre and post-visit materials will be developed along with teacher guides and enhancement activities. This project is being developed with the cooperation of the Austin Nature Center, the National Zoo, and the Indianapolis Zoo.
The Desert Botanical Garden will utilize its extensive collection to create a science learning center focusing on deserts and presenting fundamental science concepts applicable to all environments. The comprehensive desert exhibit created by this proposal will feature six thematic trails through 25 acres of the Garden, with the trails' themes ranging from basic characteristics of deserts to adaptions of plants, animals, and people to the desert. Emphasizing ecology and conversation, the trails will include conceptual signs, investigation stations for hands-on, interactive learning, and innovative written exploration guides. The proposal also includes educational programming which will extend the exhibit and encourage use of the Garden as an outdoor laboratory. An exhibit-based curriculum will be developed for use across the state, and an institute will be created to prepare teachers to use the exhibit and curriculum. A newspaper series focusing on key exhibit concepts will be disseminated across the state to reach out-of-school adults. The products of the proposal and the model created will be shred through various networks with a national audience. The local and worldwide population explosion in arid lands mandates an increased understanding of deserts. With this proposal, the Garden will be a catalyst for greater awareness and change.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Kathleen SocolofskyRobert BreunigJoseph McAuliffeRuth Greenhouse
The Brooklyn Children's Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden aim to cooperatively and cost-effectively develop, evaluate, and produce three permanent exhibits (2600 sf at BCM, 1200 sf at BBG, and a 3600 sf outdoor Discovery Garden at BBG) and two copies of an 800 sf traveling exhibit in a project called Breaking Ground: Plants and People. When complete in 1996, these exhibits will teach 1.5 million annual public visitors about basics in botany, ethnobotany, and urban to ecology, promote an understanding of plants' importance to human life, and foster positive environmental ethics among children 6-12 years old. This project is important because collaboration with professional botanists will teach a leading children's museum how to effectively present in-depth science content, and allow a major public garden to experiment with interactive exhibits in a natural setting. Joint promotions using NSF-funded program materials will encourage children in culturally and economically diverse areas around New York City to return again and again to two important community resources for informal science education. This strategy will reinforce learning and promote lifelong appreciation for experiential exhibits in botanical gardens and for a meaningful depth of science in children's museums.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Carol EnsekiRobert Hyland
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Museum of Life and Science will use this planning grant to bring together zoo, botanical garden, and science center professionals to a) assess the feasibility of an "interactive zoo," b) identify animals species that exhibit behaviors in a zoo environment that provide natural opportunities for related interactive exhibits, and c) generate a White Paper reviewing relevant exhibits in zoos and science centers and proposing design criteria for the interactive exhibits. The planning activities include: the development of a "White Paper" that will include a review of key research findings in developmental psychology and visitor behavior as they apply to playgrounds, zoos, and interactive exhibit environments, an overview of relevant exhibit techniques and technologies, and case studies of existing exhibits; a 2-day meeting to discuss the issues; and travel to exemplary museums, zoos, aquaria, and botanical gardens. These results will be used in the development of interactive exhibits in an outdoor setting included in the museum's Master Plan 2000. They have proposed the analogy of a field research station in their approach to learning in an outdoor setting. They envision three thematic "field stations": "Down to Earth," "Watery Worlds," and "Catch the Wind." The specific exhibit plans will be finalized after the completion of the planning grant. Although the Museum of Life and Science will be the primary beneficiary of this planning activity, the background information gathered, the issues discussed, and the critical appraisals will be relevant to other museums with and interested in developing exhibits in an out-of-door setting. The results will be broadly disseminated by means of publications and presentations at professional meetings.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop an interdisciplinary national traveling exhibition about raptors (birds of prey). Created in collaboration with The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota (TRC) and the Museum Magnet School of the St. Paul School District, this exhibit and its related programs will explore themes of biodiversity, ecology, and human relationships with the natural world. It will help visitors understand raptors as diverse, charismatic, biologically-complex animals whose continued survival is linked to fundamental questions of public policy, economics, and environmental ethics. combining the perspectives of the sciences with those of the humanities, the exhibit will present science in a real-world context of human values and actions. Opening at SMM in the summer of 1944, the 5,000-square-foot exhibit will travel for five years or more to other large museums, nature centers, and zoos throughout the U.S. Using specimens, models, artifacts, dioramas, audiovisual programs, and interactive components and supported by theater, demonstrations, and a variety of other on-site programs, it will provide a compelling mix of informal learning experiences for families, school groups, and other general audiences. Beyond the museum walls, the themes of the project will reach schools and other important outreach audiences through videotapes, teacher training programs, educational materials, and other programs. SMM will also produce a scaled-down version of the exhibit that will tour to smaller museums, nature centers, and zoos.
The goal of Science City: New York as a Science and Technology Exhibit, is to increase public awareness and interest in science and technology in daily life by creating "found exhibits" in public places throughout New York City. This proposal is based on a 1986 pilot project which developed criteria and concepts for successful Science City units and a prototype exhibit operating in a tourist elevator at the World Trade Center. Science City will use the streets and structures of New York to present the science and technology of everyday life. It will reach the science inattentive public who do not go to science museums. Eye-catching exhibits such as diffraction gratings mounted on bus shelters will reveal the different spectra of the incandescent, flourescent, neon, and mercury vapor lamps, already part of the street scene. The New York Hall of Science will place Science City exhibits in public parks, subways, bus kiosks, and building lobbies. Ten to fifteen different exhibits/signs, each replicated an average of 10 times, will be installed and evaluated throughout the boroughs of Queens and Manhattan.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Alan FriedmanPeggy ColeTheodore Ansbacher
Interactive science exhibits will be designed, developed, and installed in the Brookings Interpretive Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Brookings Interpretive Center is a new educational facility attached to the Climatron, a geodesic dome greenhouse. The exhibits will be installed in one of five theme areas: Tropical Rain Forest Biome, Tropical Rain Forests at Risk, Global Ecosystem, Desert Biome, and Temperate Biome. In addition to the science exhibits, the project will develop a series of science demonstrations to be used in the Brookings Interpretive Center and will allow for additional signage and audio effects to be added to the Climatron.
This project proposes a new approach for delivering informal science education to the traveling public through scenic highway programs. This pilot project would engage travelers as they drive along the 220-mile Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway between California and Nevada, a corridor that traverses an unspoiled landscape rich in natural resources and unique contributions to scientific research. The project plans to use the new Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) to broadcast informal science education "stories" via transmitters along the highway. Students in afterschool programs will develop the content of the microcasts and related hands on activities. These microcasts would then direct travelers to roadside pull-offs, visitor centers and museums to engage in hands-on science activities that are led by local, trained docents. The planning grant will be used to create, implement and evaluate a pilot test site at an established roadside pull-out that will include signage, radio broadcasts, docent-led activities and participant surveys.
Geometry Playground created by The Exploratorium, playground designers Landscape Architecture, Inc., the Science Museum of Minnesota, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Sciencenter-Ithaca, and Science Works-Ashland is a 4,500-square foot traveling exhibition that includes immersive, table-top hands-on and electronic game elements on spatial and mathematical learning (Shape Garden, Surface City and Pattern Jungle); outdoor versions of selected exhibits from the full exhibition for public and school playgrounds and museums; and a Web site optimized for Web-enabled mobile phones.
The Garfield Park Conservatory will develop, install and evaluate "Sugar from the Sun," a living plant exhibition that explores the fundamental biological process of photosynthesis. The exhibit addresses common misunderstandings and misconceptions about photosynthesis by engaging children and adults in activities that explore the primary concepts that plants require air, water and light to produce sugar, and that the sun is the energy source. The exhibit will be constructed in the Conservatory's Sweet House, where tropical plants such as mangos and bananas will provide the stimulus to engage visitors in learning how plants manufacture sugar from the sun. Exhibits convey the science of photosynthesis and inspire appreciation for the critical role plants play in sustaining life on earth. Supplementary educational materials (self-guides, exploration backpacks and an interactive website) will be layered into the visitor experience, enabling visitors to develop a deeper understanding of photosynthesis. The project also will develop a non-exhibit based model dissemination package for teaching photosynthesis in other conservatories, promoting active science learning about photosynthesis nationwide.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Thomas AntonioDavid Snyder
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Exploratorium will create the "Outdoor Exploratorium," a 10,000-square-foot, open-air exhibit environment comprising 20 to 25 original installations. Each exhibit will allow visitors to interact directly with a variety of elements, that is water, wind, sound, light, and living things, as they exist in the natural world. One of the key components of this project will be the use of "Noticing Tours." Led by staff scientists, artists, educators, exhibit developers, and other "expert noticers," the tours will initiate a dialogue with the visitors as a starting point for exhibit development. To augment visitor learning and unify the museum's entire collection, exhibit text will relate the "Outdoor Exploratorium" experiences to exhibits. The project will culminate in a workbook for the field and two workshops for museum professionals. The Exploratorium Teacher Institute staff will develop two-week institutes that make extensive use of the "Outdoor Exploratorium." Classroom activities and inquiry-based learning experiences will be developed based on the new exhibits.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Peter RichardsThomas HumphreyThomas RockwellTheodore KoterwasJoyce Ma
The Scientific Reasoning Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will conduct a feasibility study for engaging museum visitors in data analysis through this planning grant. Intellectual Merit: This project builds on the extensive prior work of the PI in developing Tinkerplots software for middle school students. At the same time, it potentially takes advantage of the many museum exhibitions that include various kinds of data but provide no mechanisms for visitors to analyze the data and draw conclusions. This project makes the connection by seeking to demonstrate the proof of concept for the transfer of this data analysis program from the formal to the informal setting. Broader Impact: This project will purposefully test three very different settings -- Museum of Science, Boston, MA; Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, MA; and Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO -- to explore the advantages and limitations of this approach in those learning environments. If successful, the software could have very wide application.