The Sustainability Teams Empower and Amplify Membership in STEM (S-TEAMS), an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project, will tackle the problem of persistent underrepresentation by low-income, minority, and women students in STEM disciplines and careers through transdisciplinary teamwork. As science is increasingly done in teams, collaborations bring diversity to research. Diverse interactions can support critical thinking, problem-solving, and is a priority among STEM disciplines. By exploring a set of individual contributors that can be effect change through collective impact, this project will explore alternative approaches to broadly enhance diversity in STEM, such as sense of community and perceived program benefit. The S-TEAMS project relies on the use of sustainability as the organizing frame for the deployment of learning communities (teams) that engage deeply with active learning. Studies on the issue of underrepresentation often cite a feeling of isolation and lack of academically supportive networks with other students like themselves as major reasons for a disinclination to pursue education and careers in STEM, even as the numbers of underrepresented groups are increasing in colleges and universities across the country. The growth of sustainability science provides an excellent opportunity to include students from underrepresented groups in supportive teams working together on problems that require expertise in multiple disciplines. Participating students will develop professional skills and strengthen STEM- and sustainability-specific skills through real-world experience in problem solving and team science. Ultimately this project is expected to help increase the number of qualified professionals in the field of sustainability and the number of minorities in the STEM professions.
While there is certainly a clear need to improve engagement and retention of underrepresented groups across the entire spectrum of STEM education - from K-12 through graduate education, and on through career choices - the explicit focus here is on the undergraduate piece of this critical issue. This approach to teamwork makes STEM socialization integral to the active learning process. Five-member transdisciplinary teams, from disciplines such as biology, chemistry, computer and information sciences, geography, geology, mathematics, physics, and sustainability science, will work together for ten weeks in summer 2018 on real-world projects with corporations, government organizations, and nongovernment organizations. Sustainability teams with low participation by underrepresented groups will be compared to those with high representation to gather insights regarding individual and collective engagement, productivity, and ongoing interest in STEM. Such insights will be used to scale up the effort through partnership with New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Amy TuiningaAshwani VasishthPankaj Lai
In 2004, WGBH received partial funding from the National Science Foundation to create Einstein's Big Idea, a two-hour docudrama on Einstein and the history of the formula E=mc2. Based on the book E=mc2, A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis, the program highlights the stories of those who helped develop the key concepts that make up the equation, with a particular focus on how Einstein pulled together these concepts to create E=mc2. Through these stories, Einstein's Big Idea focuses on four themes that served as learning goals for the project. The four themes are: (1
With this planning grant, the staff of the Bucks County Historical Society will work with a group of museum professionals and community representatives to develop plans for interactive exhibits that have science and math content that will be placed in an outdoor park. They want visitors to learn about the science, history, and aesthetics of early American hand tools and technology by experiencing various hands-on activities. The planning activities will include meetings of the planning committees, front-end evaluation, and the testing of some prototype activities. At the end of the twelve month planing period they will have 1) a better understanding of their audience and their knowledge of the science and technology to be presented in the exhibit, 2) a schematic design for the activities to be included in the park, 3) plans for complementary educational activities, and 4) results of prototype testing of selected activities.
John Carroll University, Cleveland's International Women's Air and Space Museum and Cleveland Public Schools are partnering in a three-year project to provide a cross-age, collaborative exhibit development experience to increase young peoples' science understanding and interest in science and teaching careers. The program exposes 120+ high school and undergraduate women to the skills of educational program planning and implementation. Content includes science, technology, engineering and math related to flight, and the history and role of women in flight related careers. The project proposes a highly supportive learning environment with museum, science and education experts working alongside students at secondary and undergraduate levels to design exhibits that will meet the interest and needs of the museum, and the young children and families from Cleveland schools who visit. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, the evaluation will measure change in participant career interests, content understanding and perception of science, technology, engineering and math subjects, and skill development in presenting these concepts to public audience members. Public and professional audience experiences will also be evaluated. More than nine hundred local elementary school age children, their families and 15,000 general public audience members will participate in student-designed, museum-based exhibits and programs. Deliverables include a model for university/museum partnerships in providing exhibit development and science learning experiences, three team-developed permanent exhibits about flight and women in science, a set of biographies about women and flight in DVD format and three annual museum based community events. The model program will be informed by national advisors from museum/university partners across the United States who will attend workshops in connection with the projects public presentations in years one and two. These meetings will both provide opportunities to reflect on the program progress and to develop new strategies in the evolution of the program design. Workshop participants will develop plans to implement similar programs in their home locations, impacting another layer of public audiences. The transferability of the model to these new sites will be measured in year three of the proposal. An additional 25,000 participants are expected to be impacted in the five years following the grant period. Beyond the implementation sites, the model's impact will be disseminated by the PI and participants in the program through peer reviewed journals and presentations at national conferences.
This is a request from Claypoint Productions for 124,700 of a total budget of $526,178 to produce a one-hour prime-time documentary program on the Wright Brothers, the processes of science and engineering used in their work, and the science and technology behind their development of the airplane. The PBS program will cover the subjects of aerodynamics, aeronautics, geometry, algebra, applied mathematics, mechanical engineering, the process of invention, and the history of technology. A teacher's guide will be developed to supplement the film.
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is producing a large format film that examines the sun and the relationship between the earth, its inhabitants, and our mother star. SOLARMAX will present some of the newest discoveries about the sun and will place special emphasis on the defining impact of the sun on human life and culture. The influence of solar cycles on global warming will be explored and new, unprecedented high-definition images of the sun will be included for the first time in a large format film. The film will examine how multiple scientific disciplines interact to build a complete picture of the universe by delving into the history and philosophy of science, astronomy, astrophysics, solar physics, helioseismology, meteorology, spectrography, mathematics, and biology. The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, will serve as Executive Producer and distributor of SOLARMAX. The film will be produced by Robert Eather, an expert in magnetospheric physics and a science filmmaker. The Co-Producer, Writer, and Director will be John Weiley who previously served in these roles for the large format film, Antarctica. Advisors in the fields of space weather, solar physics, and archaeoastronomy include Louis Lanzerotte, Paul Dusenbery, Gaerhardt Haerendell, George Siscoe, and Edwin Krupp.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert EatherJohn WeileyJohn WickstromMuseum of Science and Industry
These 16 articles offer a gentle introduction to nano science and technology, and can be used as marketing pieces for discussing nano with the press during NanoDays or other nano event promotion.