9710718 Kleiman Cultural Research and Communications, Inc. is developing a project that will center around a one-hour documentary program entitled Promises to Keep. The film, now in its planning phase, will chronicle the day-to-day efforts of students, teachers, and parents at one inner city public high school as they work to implement standards-based math and science reform while maintaining their commitment to full educational equity. The goal is to inform viewers about a significant reform effort underway, heighten their awareness of the possibilities of high quality math and science education for all, and stimulate them to support or initiate similar efforts themselves. During the planning phase, the applicants will focus their efforts in several critical areas: 1. Develop a better definition of the target audience so that the next stage can be designed best to address the needs and interests of that audience. 2. Clarify the goals, structure, and content of the program. For example, is the proposed film to be primarily motivational or should it provide a "blueprint for change?" How, specifically, does the school achieve its goals of excellence and how will this be conveyed in the film? How can school around the country relate to the examples set by Thurgood Marshall High School? 3. Design a strong outreach, promotion, and distribution plans to assure that this will reach the intended audience. 4. Assess the location constraints that will be present during production. 5. Familiarize the advisors with the school where the film is to be made. The Co-Principal Investigators and film producers for the project are Vivian Kleiman, an award winning producer of such programs as Color Adjustment and My Bodies My Business, and Sharon Wood who has produced, directed, and or written programs for Portrait of America and Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren. Project advisors include Dennis Bartels, Yolanda George, Donna Gerardi, Nancy Kreinberg, and Tom Romberg.
Under the Planning Grant Guidelines The Invention Factory Science Center (IFSC) develop "The Invention Factory Science Center Phase One Plan". This new science center is the central component of mixed-use redevelopment effort at the 45-acre Roebling Industrial complex in Trenton, New Jersey. Phase One includes the development of a 3200 sq. ft. visitor's center which is scheduled to open in the Spring of 1997. The IFSC will develop "Pathways to Science and Technology: An Informal Science Learning System, which is to be an innovative, interactive computer-based system of activities designed to stimulate self-directed and continuous learning. It will have a strong regional/community base, will leverage resources from local academic, industrial, and educational institutions, and will be disseminated broadly via state-of-the-art telecommunications technology. The planning activities will include front-end evaluation of the needs and interests of the community, meetings of the advisory committee, the development of plans for the "Pathfinders" software program, and development of plans for the overall evaluation of the project. t the end of the twelve-month planning period they will have designs and cost-estimates for the interactive activities and a general plan for the Visitor center. The value that this planning grant adds to their effort is support to bring nationally recognized leaders in exhibit development and informal learning to the planning sessions.
TERC Inc. will conduct a one-year proof of concept study that includes the design, development, and research of two prototype science activities for the virtual Blue Mars Science Center located on the Blue Mars 2150 platform developed by Virtual Space Entertainment. Blue Mars is a science fiction-themed virtual world set on Mars far in the future and will be rendered in High Definition, an important incremental step in the development of highly realistic virtual worlds. It is in this virtual world context that the proposed learning activities and research are to be conducted. TERC's research will examine the challenges of learning in virtual environments and which types of tools and interactions can encourage and support collaboration, the results of which will advance both informal and formal learning in virtual worlds. Avatar tracking data, participant observations, interviews, and surveys will be used to study participants. The project has the potential to advance areas of computational visualization systems and cognitive science and will afford an array of learning opportunities using real time data. Millions of visitors to the Blue Mars world will be able to share in an unprecedented range of virtual activities and experiences. It is anticipated that the research will inform the future development of even more advanced immersive interactivity, such as avatar-based models and computationally-oriented interactivity. The study will serve as a basis for both further development of the Blue Mars Science Center and the advancement of research on science learning in virtual worlds. The investigators are interested in continuing to expand as the scientific community evolves in the virtual world. The online world has the potential to become a powerful attractor for the general public to engage in science learning.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jodi Asbell-ClarkeTeon EdwardsRichard Childers
The Delta Research & Education Foundation (DREF) is following up on a successful planning grant with the Science and Everyday Experiences (SEE) Initiative. The SEE Initiative will be implemented by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, a non-profit organization composed of 190,000 predominantly African-American professionals, that provides programs and services to promote human welfare. The program offers a five-year, comprehensive approach to the delivery of resources designed to help parents and caregivers of African-American children in grades K-8 effectively support informal science and math learning. By partnering with the AAAS, SEE provides members of the 800+ Delta chapters with leadership and professional development training in informal science education. The first phase of training is a three-day professional development workshop for Delta regional officers and members. Regional leaders are prepared to conduct State Chapter Leadership Professional Development Workshops. State Chapter workshops are 12-hour sessions that train 4,200 sorority members per year to sponsor ongoing family science events. Finally, Delta members that are K-12 or community educators will be designated as Parent Educators. SEE Parent Educators will receive 40-hour training sessions from AAAS, which enables participants to provide parents with 24 hours of informal science education. It is anticipated that 2,800 SEE Parent Educators will be trained during the life of the grant. Delta chapters are located in seven geographical regions, which encompass 40 states and will serve as the primary mode of dissemination. Promotion of the SEE Initiative will occur in conjunction with media partners. A 30-minute science radio talk show for families will broadcast nationally on Radio One and inquiry-based science inserts will be placed in the Afro-American Newspaper, which has a circulation of 6.5 million. Other outcomes include an informational website, as well as science activity cards for families and training materials. This project will impact 17,500 families per year.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara DavisSue WhiteLouise TaylorShirley Malcom
Research Communications Ltd. will develop research designs, measurement, and analysis techniques for the assessment of the impacts of informal science learning television programming and other media. Experts in the fields of psychology, science education, communications research, and evaluation and testing will develop methodologies and instruments to: better assess impact on attitudes, cognition, and behavior for specific audiences, take into account the idea that informal science learning may take a variety of forms, and better assess cumulative impacts of television and other media on informal science learning. The PI's for the project will be Valerie Crane, President of RCL, and Beth Rabin and Suzanne Carter, both on the RCL staff. Advisors would include experts in research on children's television programming such as Ellen Wartella and Keith Mielke, specialists in inquiry-based learning and formal and informal science curricula such as Matthew Schneps, and specialists in evaluation and testing such as Edward Chittenden.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Valerie CraneBeth RabinSuzanne Carter
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is conducting a three-day symposium to consider how to use images to communicate science and technology most effectively. Participants will include scientists, imaging technologists, computer scientists, photographers, science writers, illustrators, computer modelers, mathematicians, and others involved with communicating the basic science and findings from research. The focus of the conference will be on communication -- both from the scientific community to the general public, and within the scientific community. The 300 conference attendees will hear presentations from professionals working in the area. However, they will spend the majority of the time working collaboratively on solutions to model problems such as how to represent the interaction of a receptor with a ligand, how to make visually explicit the passage of time at all scales, and how to explain visually a sequence of events. Those who have committed to attend the conference will participate for several months in a conference web site prior to and after the meeting. The web site will enable participants to "critique" and make modification to various images and text used to communicate science. It also will be used to enable participants to collaborate in working groups on the model problems. The PI's for the project are Boyce Rensberger and Felice Frankel. Rensberger is director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships program at MIT. He is a science writer and editor and has worked in these capacities for both the New York Times and The Washington Post. Frankel is Artist-in-Resident and research scientist in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. She photographs and digitally images research data in science and engineering. She has collaborated with George Whitesides to publish "On the Surface of Things: Images of the Extraordinary in Science."
Building upon extensive prior work, the Institute of Learning Innovation is developing and implementing a conference to bring together media professionals, researchers, and policymakers that work in ISE to reflect upon recent research and develop frameworks for future practice and evaluation. Various media-related groups (print, broadcast, electronic gaming, etc,) usually have professional conferences in isolation from each other with little sharing of information and research findings. Despite the rapid blurring of boundaries between various media types in the marketplace, researchers and practitioners remain within traditional silos. This conference will bring together 80 media practitioners and researchers for a two-day national conference in order to consolidate and synthesize the research-based theories presented in a pre-conference publication. A series of 3 post-web conferences will build on the momentum generated during the initial conference and generate broader participation within the science learning media community. Rockman et al will evaluate the conference and post conference web community.
National Public Radio (NPR) has been awarded a grant of $807,335 in declining amounts over a four year period for production of Science Friday, the weekly two-hour call-in radio show that deals with science topics. Over the four year period, NPR will make an increasingly larger commitment to the total budget of $1,763,768 until they assume total budgetary responsibility for the project in FY 2001. The series' goal is to make science easily accessible to the public and to help them realize the relevance of science and technology to everyday life. The format of the programs enables the public to engage in conversations with scientists and science educators to discuss contemporary science topics. Science issues anticipated to be included in future programs include: science and mathematics education, science literacy, science risk assessment and public policy, and the future of technology. In addition to the broadcast series, NPR will develop a web site for Science Friday which will distribute the radio series on demand via the Internet, bring Science Friday to cities and rural areas where the series is not broadcast, create live Internet chat groups where listeners can meet to discuss the program, provide sound bytes and audio files of guests, and create a "Science Day Book" which will be a calendar of events loaded with science opportunities for people in their own home towns. Science Friday also has established a joint project with Kidsnet, an established computerized clearinghouse for education through the media. Ira Flatow will continue as the series host and producer. Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research has been engaged to assess the audience impact of the project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kevin KloseWilliam BuzenbergBarbara Flagg
Project Enhanced Science Learning (PESL) offers learning partners opportunities to engage in authentic scientific inquiry through apprenticeship. Such inquiry is often enabled by dynamic interactions among learning partners in physical proximity. Yet scientific and business practice using Internet and broadband services recognizes that not all partners necessary to an interaction can be co-located. Our vision uses new technologies to extend the collaborative "reach" of PESL to include diverse expertise among remote learners, teachers, and scientists. This work, in atmospheric sciences, extends collaborative media beyond asynchronous text-only email to shared workspaces and two-way audio/video connections that allow for collaborative visualization of science phenomena, data, models - What You See Is What I See (WYSIWIS). Tools for local- and wide-area networked learning environments will enable highly interactive, media-rich communications among learning partners. Research on these learning architectures will provide pedagogy and social protocols for authenticating the science learning experience in classrooms and other spaces. Greater motivation to learn and enhanced science learning in terms of more valid, performance assessments should result from students' participations. The next decade brings widespread, networked multi-media interpersonal computing. This project will provide a blueprint to inform the effective use of interpersonal collaborative media for science education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Roy PeaElliot SolowayLouis Gomez
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Museum of Science in Boston is conducting a workshop/symposium that will focus on the question of how best to address the issue of enhancing public understanding of major, on-going research efforts. The workshop will begin a critical discussion among researchers and some of the most prominent practitioners of informal public education in the areas of science, engineering and technology. The discussion will explore possible directions that might be taken in regard to disseminating information about research to the public and in increasing the public's understanding of the role and possible implications of this research. Issues to be examined include: The scope and aspects of research upon which to focus; The present obstacles to public understanding; The advantages and disadvantages of different approaches for disseminating information; Costs and time frames of different approaches; How to encourage and implement collaboration and networking among institutions that have the goal of increasing public understanding. The general goal of the workshop is twofold: to provide feedback that will inform the creation of new programs to address the issue of enhancing public understanding of research and to share ideas among institutions that have a common purpose.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David Ellis
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) requests support to conduct the second conference on museum learning, "In Principle, In Practice," following their successful NSF-funded conference of a decade ago entitled "Public Institutions for Personal Learning: Establishing a Long-term Research Agenda." The goals of the conference and two related publications are to advance shared knowledge within the field about current research concerning learning in and from museums, to promote effective practice, to identify and disseminate research-based best practices for developing evaluation frameworks and to enhance the infrastructure for research and education. The four components of the project include: 1) a special supplement of the journal "Science Education," 2) a two-day national conference, 3) a post-conference white paper on informal science learning, and 4) a post-conference book on research-based understandings of learning from museums.
AAAS will develop and host a PI meeting for currently funded ISE Youth, Community and ASCEND projects. The goal of the meeting is to maximize the learning and contribution of the multiple NSF-funded projects enabling participants to analyze and document existing models, benchmark best practices and work cooperatively on articulating strategies that improve the quality of community and youth programming. This gathering aims to affect programs in the development and implementation phases, thereby contributing to higher quality programs. Principal Investigators from a variety of institutions (museums, universities, schools, community organizations) across the country will have an opportunity to expand their thinking about program structure, assessment, staff capacity, institutional infrastructure and sustainability. The meeting will allow participants to exchange information, interact with experts and to build relationships. A conference report and evaluation will be published on the web and shared through regional/national conferences