The Department of Geological Sciences at Rutgers, in collaboration with the Liberty Science Center, the New York State Museum, Palisades Interstate Park Commission, Appalachian Trail Conference, and ABS-Capital Cities, Inc., has a planning grant to develop a universal model that will encourage science education in conjunction with outdoor recreational activities in wilderness parks near urban centers. The initial effort will focus on the Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks and the Sterling Forest lands, all near New York City. Current plans for the full project include development of: 1) an illustrated guidebook describing the features chosen as "exhibits" at the sites, 2) a map showing locations of the "exhibits", 3) plaques marking the features of the exhibits, 4) proposals for new trails to access outstanding botanical and geological features, 5) a web site with virtual reality filed trips of the sites chosen, 6) museum displays and media programs at Liberty Science Center, the New York State Museum, and other sites, 7) regular field trips from Liberty Science Center, New York State Museum, and Bear Mountain Trailside Museum, 8) workshops for high school teachers, and 9) special project to get more public use of the park resources. During the planning stage the project will gather data on public interest, determine the most effective means of dissemination, identify and contact other organizations and scientist that could contribute to the full project, and develop a coordination plan and schedule for this complex project. Small examples and/or written descriptions of the web-site, the guidebook stops, museum displays, and field trips will also be produced in the planning phase.
The NOVA Large-format Film unit of the WGBH Educational Foundation, in conjunction with the New England Aquarium, is producing a large format film about Cocos Island, a small, uninhabited island off the coast of Costa Rica that has not yet been affected by human activity. The waters around Cocos Island contain an extraordinary abundance of sharks, rays, tuna, marlins, swordfish, and other pelagic fishes, thanks to nearby upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich water that create a rich food source. The film will focus on the physical oceanography and behavioral marine ecology of Cocos Island, highlighting the animal behavior and interactions of the wide diversity of marine life. Executive Producer will be Paula Apsell, head of the WGBH science unit and Executive Producer of NOVA. Susanne Simpson, executive producer for NOVA Large-format Films will as a senior producer. Howard Hall Productions will produce and direct the film. Howard Hall will be director/producer, and Michele Hall will serve as producer. The Halls are experts in the field of marine natural history filmmaking and are world-renowned for their television programs on such series as National Geographic and Nature. They worked in the large format medium as producer/directors of Into the Deep. Joseph Levine, a marine biologist who has written both science textbooks and television scripts, will be the writer. William Spitzer, Associate Director for Education at the New England Aquarium, will be responsible for the educational outreach materials.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Paula ApsellSusanne SimpsonJerry SchubelKenneth MalloryBarbara Flagg
The Science Museum of Minnesota will develop "After the Dinosaurs", an exhibit that will feature a detailed reconstruction of the ecology of a Paleocene subtropical environment that existed in the North Plains of North America (58 million years ago). Information presented in the exhibit will come from a 25 year research project carried out by SMM curator Bruce R. Erickson and his colleagues at Wannagan Creek Quarry in northwestern North Dakota. This research has yielded one of the most complete assemblages of Paleocene megafossils in North America. Both the increased knowledge gained from this research and process of the research will be highlighted in this exhibit. Visitors will learn that the world's landscape has changed considerably over time, the analysis of fossils helps scientists reconstruct the past, knowledge of former ecosystems help us to understand current ecosystems, and everyone can be a scientific investigator when we attempt to understand our environment in a systematic way. Two versions of the exhibit will be prepared: a 4000 sq. ft. permanent version that will be installed in the new SMM river front building and will open in late 2000. There will also be a 2500 sq. ft. traveling version that will begin its national tour in 2002. Complementary programming will include an on-line interactive teacher guide and student project curriculum, a teachers' institute, and a variety of youth programming including specially developed interpreter training materials. The exhibit will be accessible to people with disabilities.
MacGillivray Freeman Films is producing a 40-minute large format film about a scientific and climbing expedition on Mount Everest. The film will introduce viewers to the methods and significance of scientific field research and the rigor and excitement of the scientific endeavor through an expedition to the top of the world's tallest mountain. An international climbing team of women and men will advance the research of geophysicist Roger Bilham who has been influential in applying Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to the study of earthquakes in the Himalaya. The film also will explore the physiological challenges the climbers face at extreme altitude. Endoscopic and microscopic photography will reveal the human body's amazing adaptations to a cold, low-oxygen environment. A comprehensive package of ancillary materials for teachers, students, film exhibitors, and the general public will enhance the educational experience of the film. Greg MacGillivray, President of MacGillivray Freeman Films, will be the PI and Executive Producer/Co-Producer/Director/Photographer. Stepehen Judson and Alec Lorimore, both of MacGillivray Films, will be Co-writer/Director and Co-Producer respectively. Tim Cahill, a freelance writer with experience writing for National Geographic and GEO will be the other Co-writer. Advisors include: Cynthia Beall, Prof. of Physical Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University Broughton Coburn, Conservation and Development Expert on Nepal James Fisher, Prof. of Anthropology, Carleton College Kip Hodges, Prof. of Geology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Charles Houston, Prof. of Medicine (emeritus), University of Vermont Peter Molnar, Senior Research Assoc. Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences, MIT Audrey Salkeld, Author and Fellow, Royal Geographical Society Bradford Washburn, Honorary Director, Museum of Science, Boston
The Rhode Island Zoological Society will develop, prototype, install, and evaluate "Habitrek", a 3000 sq. ft. exhibit to be placed in their new Education Center. The center is a circular building and as visitors go through it they will encounter habitat displays of a Urban Providence, Woodlands, Wetlands, and Desert. In addition there will be giant scale replicas of a wormhole, a bat cave, a prairie dog colony, and a stream. Their intent is to use live animals, animal replicas and interactives to shift the visitor's emphasis from simply finding and identifying species to learning about habitats where animals live and where animals and humans often have to interact. In addition to the exhibits, several complementary educational activity packages will be developed. These include a family activity pack of activities that can be completed both at the zoo and in the home. They will relate many natural history stories not obvious from the exhibit alone. To streamline the development process, materials developed by the Bronx Zoo's Habitat Ecology Learning Program (an NSF-supported teacher enhancement activity) will serve as the basis for these family packs. The HELP materials will also serve as the basis for activities developed for use by teachers to complement the already existing Kits in Teaching Elementary Science (KITES) program (another NSF-supported program). The zoo also has cooperative programs with the Rhode Island Girl Scout Council and materials will be modified for their use as well. Of special interest is the attention that is being given to going beyond minimum ADA standards to make the exhibit broadly accessible. Ambient sound will be an important part of all exhibit settings, design considerations will be made for those with limited vision, and sightlines will be consistent with wheelchair standards, are a few examples. The anticipated exhibit opening is early 1998.
The New England Aquarium (NEAq) will develop a traveling exhibit and associated programs to focus on parallel scientific and environmental issues facing Lake Victoria (East Africa) and North American fisheries. The NEAq is working in partnership with the national Museums of Kenya (NMK). This project results from NSF supported research on Lake Victoria biodiversity crises and a workshop that involved 70 scientists, policymakers, and resource managers. A 5,000 sq. ft. exhibit "Lake Victoria: Mukasa's Tear" will be developed that will present both the Lake Victoria and North American fisheries issues in six modules including: Biodiversity Then and Now; Changing Life Styles; Lake Victoria Timelines; Fisheries Technology; Global Markets; and Towards the Future. Complementary educational programs will include on-site interpretation, special programs for K-12 classes, teacher workshops and curriculum materials, special events. The exhibit will open at NEAq in 1998 and will begin its national tour in 1999. A second version of the exhibit (which will be funded separately), will be shown in Kenya.
The Science Museum of Connecticut (SMC) proposes a three- year exhibit project called The State of the Environment. This cost-effective project will serve over 500,000 citizens a year by producing two permanent exhibits - 2400 sf for SMC and 400 sf for SMD's Roaring Brook Nature Center -- and eight traveling exhibits for use primarily in connecticut's Priority schools. These innovative exhibits use highly accurate sculptural relief maps which are animated by laser graphics and responsive to visitor inquiries through a research-calibre database containing vast information on Connecticut's environment. Thorough evaluation will help SMC design visitor experiences that make map-database interaction attractive, easy to use and understand, and educationally satisfying. State accredited teacher workshops will give educators a firm grasp of database capabilities prior to its use in the traveling exhibits for schools. Traveling exhibits will support goals in Connecticut's NSF-funded Statewide Initiative. Teacher's Guides will facilitate in-dept investigations for high school science lessons. These exhibits will provide hands- on experiences with professional tools for environmental research, show how environmental maps are made, teach basic principles of environmental science, and provide-in-depth information about the ecology of an entire state.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will develop Lost Civilizations of the Tarim Basin. This will be a 6000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit that will introduce visitors to the extraordinary archaeological discoveries that have recently been made in the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Due to the arid desert conditions the preservation of sites, artifacts, and human remains is exceptional and the artifacts represent some of the oldest extant items made of perishable materials (wood, paper, silk, and leather.) What has intrigued scientists about these remains is the fact they are Indo-Europeans. These remains have challenged the scholarly world by adding fuel to an already heated debate considering the origins and development of the Indo-European peoples who inhabited the Eurasian landmass for thousands of years. Who were these people, where did they come from, and what was their role in the early development of East/West cultural contact? Not only will visitors be able to see the artifacts and learn about the culture of this extinct group, but they will also learn how archaeologists and collaborating specialists work to unravel the mysteries posed by these remains. The exhibit will be complemented by resources for formal education programs. NHM will develop 1) an on-line presentation that will include "virtual" elements of the archaeology sites and materials, 2) teacher enhancement activities, 3) curriculum materials for older elementary and secondary students, and a menu of non-formal lectures, classes, and a symposium. The museum will also produce a comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue in both printed and digital formats. The exhibit will have five venues. It is expected to reach between 150,000 and 300,000 people at each venue.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James OlsonAdam KesslerVincent BeggsDolkun Kamberi
KCTS, the public broadcasting station in Seattle, WA, is producing and distributing15 new half-hour episodes for the children's television series, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Topics being considered for these programs include: Caves Jungles Animal Behavior Entropy Home Demo Lakes and Ponds Felines Convection Smell and Taste Life Cycles Minerals Adhesives Atoms and Molecules Organs Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors The project also will include outreach to viewers, teachers, and parents by providing the following materials: A teachers kit to be distributed to 150,000 fourth-grade teachers nationwide Fifty thousand free copies of a printed parents' guide and 15-minuted video distributed through an off-air off and community partner groups Meet a Way Cool Scientist national print contest in which children will be invited to write and illustrate a profile of a scientist in their community Nye Labs Online, a Web site with series information, science topics, hands-on experiments, and an e-mail connection to Bill Nye and the production team Conference Presentations and workshops about the project's approach to science education for PBS stations, teacher groups, and the three partnering organizations, Girls Incorporated, the National Urban League, and the National Conference of La Raza Rockman Et Al will conduct a summative evaluation to extend the understanding of the show's impact on children's attitudes toward and understanding of science. It also will examine the size and composition of the in-school audience, and will assess the use and value of the outreach materials.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth BrockJames McKennaErren GottliebWilliam Nye
The Science Museum of Minnesota is developing, producing, and distributing a project on the geography of some of the most dynamic regions of the world. This is a joint venture between the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History with additional support from the St. Louis Science Center. The core element of the project is a 40-minute Imax film the examines seven geographically diverse locations on earth: Madagascar Iguazu Falls The Amazon Greenland The Okavango Delta The Namib Desert The Tibetan Plateau Supporting material for the film will include: o Teacher Guide - 36 to 40 pages of hands-on science activities o Family Guide - to help parents share science and geography with children through simple, at-home activities; geography o Geography Museum Trunk - a steamer trunk filled with artifacts, specimens, activities, and resource materials available for rental to school, museums, and other groups o Greatest Places On-Line - A World Wide Web site with activities for youth and adults to explore the interrelationships of earth, air, water, and life in their local region and a "living atlas" as a forum for comparing and sharing observations with others around the world. o Summer Educator Institutes - where formal and informal educators will receive intensive training in utilizing all aspects of the project with multiple audiences. o Accessibility Guide - which outlines programs and options to provide no- or low-cost viewing for underrepresented audiences. The project will be guided by Geography for Life: The National Geography Standards and Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Science. Dr. Mel Marcus, Professor of Geography at Arizona State University, will have primary responsibility for content. He will work closely with an advisory group of geographers, ecologists, and formal and informal educators. The PI and Executive Producer of the film will be Mike Day, Director and Executi ve Producer of the Science Museum of Minnesota Omnitheater and Executive Producer of seven previous Imax films.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mike DayNatalie RuskCharlie WatersMelvin MarcusBarbara Flagg
Kansas State University is producing a two-hour television documentary on the Tallgrass Prairie of the Flint Hills of Kansas, the last remnant of what was once the largest biome in North America. This area has survived only because its rocky soil was too much of a match for the farmer's plow. New scientific research is now beginning to ascertain just how valuable grasslands are to humankind: their salutary role in global climatology and how they provide laboratories for study of soils, species interactions, biodiversity, and ecological processes. A significant amount of this research as been conducted for more than twenty years at the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area, the longest continuous Long-Term Ecological Research site of the National Science Foundation. The scientific data that have been compiled at Konza will form the backbone of the film's content as it examines: the geological and human history of the Tallgrass Prairie, especially the displacement of the bison and the introduction of European cattle and row crop farming; the contemporary culture and economy of the Flint Hills regions which the prairie has formed; and the ecological impact of various approaches to range management, as well as various scientific and social aspects of the debate over how to glean as much value as possible from the grasslands while preserving them for future generations. The PI for the project will be David Hartnett, Professor of Biology and Director of Konza Prairie Research Natural Area. The film will be co-produced by Aimee Larrabee, an independent filmmaker who has co-produced several award-winning documentaries with the BBC, and John Altman, an independent filmmaker who has produced for PBS, A&E, Bravo, and the Discovery Channel. The 19 member advisory committee will be lead by Dr. Hartnett and by Alan Knapp, Project Director of the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area LTER program and Professor Biology at Kansas State University, and John Blair, Associate Professor of Biology at Kansas State University and nationally recognized leader in the field of soil ecology and grassland nutrient dynamics.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David HartnettAlan KnappJohn AltmanJohn BlairAimee Larrabee
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.