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.
National Public Radio is seeking to expand its coverage of scientific issues in two ways: through the creation of a new Environmental Reporting Unit, and through the introduction of SCIENCE FRIDAY, a two hour call-in talk show dedicated to scientific issues. Each of these projects will be supported by an extensive outreach effort targeted at local schools, community groups, science museums, and nature centers. Through the Environmental Reporting Unit, NPR plans to produce eight to ten half hour documentary reports per year on critical environmental issues. Each of these reports will be available to listeners on cassette and will be accompanied by supporting documentation. The SCIENCE FRIDAY team will engage NPR's audience in a lively debate on questions ranging from nuclear physics to archaeology. In addition, SCIENCE FRIDAY will travel to high schools and museums across the country and engage in question and answer sessions with students, teachers, parents and school administrators. These "on the road" segments will be supplemented by live broadcasts from annual meetings of the National Association for Science (NAS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Through these efforts, NPR will be able to draw listener attention to the need for improved science and mathematics education, while helping listeners make informed evaluations of current public policy in these areas.
The North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences requests $544,390 for the design and implementation of Freshwater Westlands: Habitats of Beauty and Function. This project consists of two main components: a 2,800 sq. ft. exhibit and related education program. The exhibit will communicate ecological principles and provide visitors of all ages with an appreciation of the diversity and beauty of freshwater wetlands habitats. The exhibit is comprised of three main areas: an introductory theater, an immersion diorama, and an interactive hall. Exhibits are designed to present many aspects of freshwater wetland habitats, including hydrology, dendrochronology, organism structure, and function, life- cycle, ecological research, and environmental policy. Through interactive exhibits on scientific concepts, visitors will gain an appreciation of both a particular habitat and the process of science and its application to their lives. The major objectives of the education program are to help teachers of grades 4-8 to bring the study of freshwater wetlands into their classrooms and to employ experientially oriented pedagogy. The project will offer a teacher resource guide, prepared in collaboration with state science curriculum staff, a satellite workshop for teachers, a freshwater wetlands edition of Wildlife in North Carolina, a statewide publication prepared in collaboration with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, and a classroom program in the museum.
This project proposes using three complementary strategies to engage, inform and inspire large audiences. (1) A national tour called "Stories from a Changing Planet" that will include in-person presentations and hands-on activities by Polar scientists at science centers, museums, libraries and schools across the country. (2) the "HiDef video Science Story Capture Corp" team of professional videographers HD footage will be made available as public domain materials accessible to government research agencies, universities,science centers and others. (3) Video and Audio podcasts distributed throught iTunes, google, Yahoo and IPY websites. The project will have front end, formative and summative evaluations.
This planning project seeks to study new ways to tap into family vacation agendas as opportunities for increased learning. It will assess and prototype a variety of program development activities related to outdoor and indoor experiences for families on vacation to the Grand Strand coastal region of South Carolina, and potentially to other such vacation spots around the country. Such experiences are intended to facilitate family learning about coastal ecosystems. The planning work is a collaborative effort among professionals in university and museum organizations along with the Myrtle Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The Science Museum of Minnesota will produce a 38- minute IMAX/OMNIMAX film on the topic of tropical rainforests. The objectives of the film include: To illustrate the key scientific concepts relating to rainforest ecology including biological diversity, biological change and human impact; To expose a wider audience to ecological thinking than might normally be exposed through traditional means of science education or science media; To communicate the complexity of conservation issues related to the rainforests. In addition, the film will portray science as an attractive career, particularly for minorities and women. The museum will create an integrated program of science enrichment materials that will accompany the film and will be used for both school groups and general audiences. Linking an education program to an IMAX/OMNIMAX film is a first for the industry and will extend the learning potential of the project. Tropical Rainforest will be distributed to IMAX/OMNIMAX theaters located in museums and science technology centers; it has the potential to be seen by more than 14 million people in its first four years of distribution.
Blue Mountain film Associates Inc., a production company formed by the producers of the large format film, Cosmic Voyage, is requesting a planning grant of $50,000, of a total budget of $130,000 to conduct preliminary work on Biodiversity: Life in the Balance. A 40-minute large-format film will be the centerpiece of this multi-component science education project. The film will be based on what appears to be a critical paradox: while we humans, like all living things, have always been dependent upon natural systems for our survival, our unique cultural development and technological prowess have convinced us that we are somehow "above" nature. The following a among major tasks will be accomplished during the five month planning period: * The project principals, a researcher, and advisors will create a comprehensive project plan to include a large format film; complementary print materials for informal and formal settings; a website; a CD-ROM; a video presentation for museums, schools, and home markets; and a related traveling exhibit. * Work with advisors and other scholars to develop detailed project content. * Write and review a treatment for the film. * Develop the museum exhibit component * Write a detailed script for the film. * Develop draft of outreach plan for advisor review. * Develop promotion plan. The principals in the project will include: Bayley Silleck who will be PI, Director, Co-Producer, and Writer; Jeffrey Marvin, Co-PI and Producer; and Thomas Eisner, who will be a Co-PI and will serve as primary content specialist and chair of the advisory committee. The advisory committee includes: Niles Eldredge, American Museum of Natural History; Jane Lubchenco, Oregon State University; Peter Raven, Missouri botanical Garden; and Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bayley SilleckJeffrey MarvinThomas Eisner
The Great Lakes Science Center plans to enhance an existing facility by adding the Great Lakes Situation Room. This addition makes innovative use of live theater techniques to provide interactive programming for the visiting audience. The Great Lakes Science Center is a relatively new addition to the Informal Science arena but the visitation has double the expected projections. The programs for the situation room are: Science and Information Technology Show; Great Lakes Data Quest; My Own House Data Quest; and Mathematics All Around Us. These new programs, linked to the Great Lakes Environment and exhibitions throughout the facility will further enable the visitor to actually learn about science, environment, and technology using a unique format and "state of the arts" tools made available by informational technology. This project will impact a large, diverse audience in the Great Lake's area and beyond. It has the potential for replication in other museums and science centers. The goals of this project are to enhance the visitor's experiences and learning while at the science center. The themes for the programs will explore some popular topics among the visiting audience. This is a three-year project that will quintuple the programming capacity of the theater, enhance its role in providing Informal Science Education, provide new active learning experiences and expand the center's capacity for accommodating larger audiences of families and school students. The cost sharing for this award is 66.5% of the projected total budget.
This proposal builds upon the current NSF funded POLAR-PALOOZA project (#0632262) extending the "Stories from a Changing Planet" to learners around the world. This project is a tour of seven nations (China, Malaysia, South Africa, Norway, Canada, Mexico, and Australia) featuring stories told by a diverse team of polar researchers who are also compelling storytellers. A museum or science center in each country serves as the host institution and local coordinator for a suite of 1-2 days of additional education and outreach activities. There are presentations for large general audiences, supplemented by small group interactions with community leaders and local media, providing opportunities to interact directly with polar experts in order to learn about these little-understood regions and to appreciate why the Poles and polar research are relevant to their lives. Special workshops for teachers, undergraduates or other audiences take advantage of the researcher's presence on site. At any one international site, no more than 2-3 of the presenters will be Americans with the rest of the team made up of researchers from the region and host nation. In addition to the personal interactions the project will leverage the already-funded POLAR-PALOOZA deliverables, and provide museums and science centers with online access to a growing set of HD videos.
Independent Broadcasting Associates, Inc., is producing a series of twelve radio features for National Public newsmagazines about the Ganges river basin in South Asia. The purpose of this series is to examine the relationships between science and culture as they converge and diverge over issues concerning the Ganga: through (a) examination of the ecology of the river in two key areas; and (b) study of the relationships between scientific and religious attitudes applied to the environmental issues raised in both reaches of the river. The radio series is complemented by a Web site and extensive educational outreach through 11 state Geographic Alliances, an AP Environmental Science module and a pilot Virtual River program developed and tested in collaboration with the Museum of Science in Boston.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Julian Crandall HollickKelly AlleyVinod TareRK SinhaGraham Chapman
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
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