The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, PA requests NSF support for a three-year model program entitled "Partnerships for Acheiving Careers in Technology and Science" (PACTS). Building upon a successful pilot project involving African-American students and mentors, PACTS aims to foster positive attitudes about science careers and increase students leadership skills and self-estee. Through bi-weekly hands-on science workshops with African-American Scientists as mentors, students will strengthen their understanding of science concepts and enhance their critical thinking skills. On alternate Saturdays, students will participate in college/career workshops. PACTS students will also have the opportunity to tutor younger students, visit science laboratories, and serve as science museum demonstrators. Additional support and encouragment will be provided through a network of community resources involving partnerships among scientists, professional associations, community centers, corporations and a science center. The PACTS model will be disseminated nationally through museum conferences, the national networks of professional associations and corporations, and presentations by PACTS staff to interested organizations in other cities.
A three-year project, Science Experiences and Resources for Informal Education Settings (SERIES), involves collaboration between the 4-H Youth Development Program, practicing scientists, science education centers, and community service agencies to provide community-based science experiences for youth. Goals for national dissemination of the SERIES project are: 1) Increase the quality and quantity of science experiences for youth as leaders and as learners; 2) For youth to actively experience how science concepts and processes relate to their everyday lives; 3) Provide opportunities for youth to take positive leadership roles in their homes and communities; and 4) Provide opportunities for youth to investigate educational and career possibilities in science and technology through a scientist mentor relationship. SERIES builds upon the materials, and instructional/coaching model successfully developed and tested during the Califronia SERIES Project. National dissemination by 4-H assures SERIES availability to the 5,100,000 youth currently enrolled in 4-H. Expected outcomes of SERIES are: 1) Refine and produce final versions in English and Spanish of four SERIES community service science units; 2) Develop two new units; 3) Development of an "inquiry coaching" module for adult volunteers; 4) Develop and asses apprentice-like mentoring experiences for SERIES teens to work directly with scientists; and 5) Establish four SERIES regional dissemination centers, working collaboratively with 4-H, science centers and other youth serving agencies to provide national dissemination of the SERIES program model to 28 states.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Richard PonzioLaurel DeanHerbert Thier
A three-year project, Science And Youth (SAY), integrates the existing curriculum, instructional design, and training capacity of the 4-H Science Experiences and Resources for Informal Educational Settings (SERIES) project with high school students exploring careers in teaching at eleven existing "teaching magnet" high schools across the country. The SAY project expands the quantity and quality of informal science education experiences by accomplishing the following objectives: 1) prepare one thousand teenage teachers/leaders to present SAY activities to forty thousand elementary school age youth: 2) involve participating youth in a total of five hundred community service projects; 3) involve five hundred teenage leaders in mentoring relationships with local scientists, and; 4) have seventy-five percent of the participants continue their education in science and/or the teaching profession. SAY uses a teens-as-leaders model to engage younger youth (ages 9-13) in hands-on, inquiry-based science activities that result in science-based community services projects. SAY offers youngsters a vehicle for experiencing how science problem solving strategies are applied to home and community problems. The pedagogy of the SAY project represents the best of current research on science education, and offers an innovative model for the preparation of a new cadre of science teachers.
The University Museum at the University of Arkansas is conducting preliminary planning for expansion of their 1994 pilot project entitled "Women in Science." During this planning phase, the staff will meet regularly with experts and teachers to design an exhibit about non-academic female scientists in Arkansas that will travel throughout Arkansas, outline a workshop for teachers that would help them encourage their female students to participate in math and science, and develop a program that enables female scientists to work with groups of students. At the end of the three and a half month planning stage, a final report will present a plan for the exhibition, gender workshop, and scientist program which identifies personnel, gives models/prototypes, and a budget for each facet of the proposed project.
Ornithology is one of the few scientific disciplines to which amateurs can still make significant contributions. Whether they observe birds at a feeder, count birds for a national census, or conduct a simple experiment, their activities contribute greatly to our knowledge of birds. Furthermore, participants in bird study programs not only learn about birds, they also become more aware of environmental problems. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology exists to facilitate such amateur involvement and education. This proposal is aimed at strengthening our education programs and expanding them to include under-served audiences in the inner city. We propose to evaluate the extent to which our radio program, magazine, and Project FeederWatch appeal to various audiences and how effective these programs are at communicating information about birds and in stimulating involvement. Based on this evaluation, we will modify our programs, then evaluate them again. We are also proposing a brand-new volunteer-assisted data gathering program, which we call the National Science Experiment. In cooperation with other organizations, volunteers will look at the biology of pigeons in our cities, food preferences of winter birds across the United States, and the habitat requirements of neotropical migrant tanagers. The results of these studies will be of interest to both ornithologists and birders; furthermore, participants in the project will gain first-hand involvement with the process of science.
Science-By-Mail is a mentorship program between scientists and youth whereby youth have a subscription for three scientific challenge packets each year, create solutions, and receive responses from a personal scientist. Science-By-Mail brings the excitement of science discovery into classrooms and homes of children around the country and provides them with positive, approachable role models of professional scientists. A grant of $622,088 over three years will allow us to strengthen and expand this program nationally, focusing especially on increasing participation by minority youth and scientists. Specifically, support is requested for the design and development of 12 new challenge packets; to increase participation to 47,900 youth, 4,500 scientists, and 26 regional chapters; promote increased corporate and other private-sector involvement in the program; and to conduct an annual evaluation. The AAAS will aid in the recruitment of volunteer scientists. In addition, we will work together with the National 4-H Council to pilot the program within that organization (with a membership of 5.4 million), focusing particularly on minority youth. Anticipated income form the expansion of Science-By-Mail will make the program self-sufficient at the end of the grant period.//
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.
The scientific community is challenged by the need to reach out to students who have traditionally not been attracted to engineering and the sciences. This project would provide a link between the University of Michigan and the teachers and students of secondary education in the State of Michigan with an initial emphasis on southeast Michigan, through the creation of a range of computer services which will provide interactive access to current weather and climate change information. Taking advantage of a unique computer network capacity within the State of Michigan named MichNet which provides local phone ports in virtually every major city in the state, and the resources available to the university community via the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) UNIDATA program, this project would provide secondary schools with access to a state-of-the-art interactive weather information system. The real-time data available via the system, supplemented by interactive computer modules designed in collaboration with earth science teachers, will provide animated background information on a range of climate and weather related topics. While the principal objective of this project will be to provide educationally stimulating interactive computer systems and electronic weather and climate modules for application in inner city Detroit and its environs, the unique nature of the available computer networking will allow virtually every school system in the state to have access. Subsequently successful completion of this project could eventually make the same systems available to other cities and states.
Hoosier Riverwatch promotes stewardship of Indiana's waterways through a volunteer stream monitoring and water quality education program. Hoosier Riverwatch is a state-sponsored water quality monitoring initiative. The program was started in 1994 to increase public awareness of water quality issues and concerns by training volunteers to monitor stream water quality. Hoosier Riverwatch is sponsored by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources - Division of Fish and Wildlife. Funding is provided in part by the Federal Sport Fish Restoration Fund.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Indiana Department of Natural ResourcesNatural Resources Education CenterLisa Ritter-McMahan
The AAAS Black Church Health Connection Project, with funding from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), has developed and field tested a guidebook/manual of hands-on and participatory life science activities and a training/orientation program for use in non-religious education programs in churches that serve the African-American community. The current dissemination efforts of the project have led to increased demands for the activity manual and subsequent training for persons seeking to implement the program. AAAS was awarded additional funding to: (1) Continue dissemination of the project in the African-American community; (2) Expand the project to the Hispanic American community; and (3) Identify and connect biomedical/behavioral scientists to churches and community-based organizations seeking to improve health awareness among African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Products of this dissemination effort include a Spanish version of the Health Connection Activities Guidebook/Manual, a video training kit in both English and Spanish to assist communities in implementing the project, and a database of scientist volunteers who are interested in working with churches and community-based organizations to impact the quality of health science education in the aforementioned communities.