The Garden Mosaics program will develop and test a model in which youth conduct research on community and home gardens in urban settings. Youth ages 11-18 will be recruited to participate in gardening activities in conjunction with elders from their communities. Students learn the science content associated with organismal biology, community ecology, ecosystems and the physical environment, as well as culturally-related food growing practices. Participants then take part in guided research; using methods such as transect walks, mapping, ecosystem models and soil tests, to document food-growing practices of immigrant minority and traditional gardeners. Expanded research investigations will be open to students who want to continue their explorations using the Internet and other resources. Students contribute to new and existing databases of ethnic and heritage gardening practices in the United States. Materials to be developed include an Educator's Manual, a Youth Handbook and a Garden Mosaics website. During the pilot phase a national leadership team will be established to test the program and materials at 10 sites in different cities across the U.S. including San Antonio, Baltimore, Boston, Sacramento, New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. It is anticipated that the dissemination of this model will reach more than 750 educators and 13,000 youth.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marianne KrasnyAlan BerkowitzGretchen Ferenz
The San Diego Natural History Museum is committed to the research and interpretation of the Southern California and Baja California area. New permanent exhibits to convey the excitement and relevance of natural history study is the focus of this planning grant. The planning project has three goals. First, it will devise a master plan that establishes a philosophical foundation and the organizing framework for exhibit development. Second, a schematic design that articulates content, space allocation and exhibit techniques will be made. Finally, a plan for related materials and programs that will fund, enhance and expand the exhibit effort will be constructed. The twelve-month planning proceess will be evaluated and the results disseminated and added to the field of museum learning research.
Native Waters is a comprehensive four-year tribal science education program focused on water. Working closely with leaders from 28 Missouri River Basin Tribes, the project will explore the Missouri River Flood Basin from a scientific and cultural standpoint. Partners are The Watercourse and International Project WET (Water Education for Teachers). Activities include Leadership Institutes for community educators and Native Waters Future Leaders Camps for secondary school and college students. Products to be developed include an interactive traveling exhibit, which will focus on the Missouri River watershed and the physical properties of water, as well as its uses from a cultural and scientific standpoint. The exhibit will travel to cultural centers, tribal colleges and school libraries throughout the ten Missouri River Basin states. A 250-page Native Water's Educators Guide will be disseminated nationally and impact over 500,000 individuals, both youth and adults. Finally, a 16-page student activity book and a Native Waters film will be produced to introduce youth and community members to water resource issues. The training materials will be used in cultural centers, museums, area water councils and schools.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bonnie Sachatello-SawyerDennis Nelson
The University of California, Berkeley is developing "Windows on Research," a two-year experimental exhibit project at the Lawrence Hall of Science focused on engaging and informing the public about current scientific research. The project will develop and evaluate different media to translate the leading edge of nanotechnology research for the science center audience by featuring live demonstrations and presentations, physical- and technology-based exhibits, and Internet-based exhibits. Formative evaluation of all products, including ongoing public focus groups and surveys, will be used to establish which of the several media, alone or combined, work best to communicate research content. The project team also is developing new assessment tools to test usability and effectiveness of the artificial intelligence and technology-based components in conveying content. The results of this prototype effort to present ongoing research in a museum setting will be disseminated to the informal science education field. The PI, Marco Molinaro, and the team from the Lawrence Hall of Science will work closely with scientists representing research in a number of nanotechnology fields. These scientists bring expertise in the areas of materials science, chemistry, education, bioengineering, mechanical engineering, molecular and cell biology, geochronology and isotope geochemistry, and psychology.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marco MolinaroUniversity of California-BerkeleyDarrell Porcello
The Informal Science Education Program has been supporting the radio series "Living on Earth" for several years. The World Media Foundation is now adding environmental science and technology features to "Living on Earth" and is developing and testing an outreach component that will involve youth as researchers and radio producers. The science and technology features, ranging in length from four to twenty-four minutes, will depart from the usual news-driven reports on the programs. Many of the segments will illustrate basic building blocks of environmental science, technology and related mathematics. Others will profile diverse pioneers in these disciplines. The radio programs will be the framework for an interdisciplinary exploration program for youth. Working with a team of educators from the Antioch University Graduate Program in Environmental Education, the project staff will develop a program in which secondary school aged youth cooperate with peers to produce professional, concise reporting on local environmental issues. Living on Earth will feature the best of the student work on National Public Radio and highlight these pieces as an expanded feature on its website.
MacGillivray Freeman Films is producing and distributing "Greek Odyssey," a large-format film presenting archaeology as a sophisticated, precise science that utilizes highly advanced technologies to reconstruct the past. The film will examine research in Athens, the Greek islands and beneath the Aegean Sea where archaeologists, geophysicists and conservationists collaborate to solve and record the mysteries of ancient civilizations. Audiences will discover the process and importance of scientific research to our understanding of Greece's past and its extraordinary influence on our world today. Outreach will include a Museum Resource Guide, Family Fun Sheet, Teacher's Guide, Website and a Scientist Speaker Series. Greg MacGillivray will serve as Co-Producer/Director/Director of Photography, Alec Lorimore will be Co-Producer, and Stephen Judson will be the film editor. The Lead Science Advisor is Mark Rose, a member of the Archaeological Institute of America and Managing Editor of Archaeology magazine. Science advisors include: George Bass, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A & M University; Sandy MacGillivray, Co-Director of Palaikastro excavations on Crete; and Floyd McCoy, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii.
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.
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History is developing a large format film on the Pantanal in Brazil, the world's largest wetland. The film will focus on the Hyacinth Macaw, an indicator species whose health reflects the health of the entire ecosystem, and will explore the relationship between the climate, geology, hydrology and ecology of the region. It also will examine three threats to the region: a large scale river channeling project which would drain 50% of the marsh, gold mining activities that dump millions of tons of sediment into streams, and large-scale corporate farming which pollutes the region with pesticide and fertilizer run-off. Science content for the series will be under the direction of Dr. Richard Smartt, former Director of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. The series will be co-produced by Timothy Aydelott, from the museum, and Constance Bennecke, an independent producer in Brazil. Barrie Howells will be executive producer and Rodney Taylor will be director of photography. Both Mr. Howells and Mr. Taylor have extensive large format film experience. Ralph Adler of RMC Research will conduct audience research during the planning phase The major activities during the planning stage include: Conducting audience research to determine the familiarity of the public with the ecosystem and with the concepts to be presented in the film. In addition to topic testing, the research will assess the audience's current knowledge or misconceptions about wetland ecosystems and the Pantanal; Convening the project advisors to develop the science content, finalize content goals, and to suggest ideas and strategies for presenting the science; Attending a regional planning conference in the Pantanal to establish working relationships with scientists in the field; Developing a script treatment for the film.
Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation is producing three seasons of a regional television series that will enable audiences to explore, appreciate and learn about the relationship between science and everyday life in Northern New England. The project is being developed in collaboration with public television stations in Vermont and New Hampshire and will attract viewers by focusing on content and issues that are of unique interest to this area. It addresses the critical need to improve science literacy in this predominantly rural region of the country. Ancillary materials will be developed for use at home, in the community, and in classrooms and will consist of: Quest "Take-Home" Activity Pages, "In Your Community" Guides, Quest Community Events, and Classroom Lesson Plans and Suggested Activities.
This report presents findings from a comprehensive summative evaluation conducted by Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A), of Exploring Life on Earth, a National Science Foundation funded exhibition developed by the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). The evaluation documents the effectiveness of the exhibition and provides recommendations for remediation. Data were collected from May to August 2002 and include in-depth interviews, group discussions, timing and tracking observations, self-reported path identifications, and focused observations and interviews.
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Milwaukee Public Museum
The large format film unit at NOVA/WGBH Boston, in association with the Liberty Science Center, is producing a 40-minute large format film about the science of volcanology. Volcano: Lost City of Pompeii will tell the story of a diverse group of scientists working together, each in his or her specific field, to understand better how Vesuvius can reasonably be expected to behave - today and in the years to come. Following the scientific teams, the film will impart a basic understanding of magma flow and plate tectonics, the geological building blocks out of which volcanoes emerge. The film will blend geology with archaeology to tell an ongoing detective story - a present-day scientific investigation that integrates state of the art techniques and technology with ancient evidence derived from buildings, victims' remains, and vivid eyewitness accounts that go back nearly 2,000 years to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The range of scientific disciplines involved in the film includes: geochemistry, geology, geophysics, remote sensing, plate tectonics, seismology, archaeology, and volcanology. The film will be available with both captioning for the hearing impaired and visual description for visually impaired members of the audience. The film will be supported by an extensive educational outreach plan that includes: Pompeii Earth Science Exploration, a program targeting underserved and disadvantaged youth at 100 Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide; Pompeii Museum Toolkit, a blueprint enabling museums to integrate existing exhibitry with use of the film and including models for outreach initiatives built around the film; Pompeii Activity Guide, an activity guide for us with upper elementary and middle school youth in both informal and form science education settings, and; Pompeii Idea Handbook, a booklet for museums that shares successful outreach programs implemented by museums showing the film during the first year. Paula Apsell, Executive Producer of N OVA and Director of the WGBH Science Unit, will be the PI. The Co-Executive Producer will be Susanne Simpson who previously produced such large format films as Storm Chasers and To the Limit. The Key Scientific Advisor will be Richard Fisher of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Others on the advisory committee include Lucia Civetta, Director of Osservatorio Vesuvio; Diane Favro, Assoc. Prof. in the School of Arts and Architecture at UCLA; Grant Heiken, President of the Earth and Environmental Science Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory and President of the International Society of volcanology; Dan Miller, Chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Disaster Assistance Program; Haraldur Sigurdsson, Professor in the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island; and Barbara Tewksbury, Professor of Geology at Hamilton College and past president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. Emyln Koster, President and CEO of the Liberty Science Center, will act as key education advisor.
Rutgers University is developing a large-format, scientific, documentary film about the evolving scientific investigation of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Volcanoes of the Abyss (working title) will be produced in conjunction with Volcanic Ocean Films and produced/directed by Stephen Low. It will examine the communities these vents support and their relationship to the surrounding environment. It also will consider the implications vent discoveries have for our understanding of the evolution of life and our search for life elsewhere in the Cosmos. Much of the filming will be done from on board the Alvin deep ocean research vessel. The companion Educational Outreach Program will reach students in middle and secondary schools and at the college level. Print-based and web-based material also will be designed for use by families. The film and the outreach materials together will be the basis of a substantive educational effort to inform the public about the intricacies and significance of the fascinating, but largely unknown, ecosystem.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Richard LutzAlexander LowStephen LowBarbara Flagg