The San Diego Society of Natural History (SDSNH) will design, fabricate and install a 9,000 square foot permanent exhibition exploring the fundamental scientific concepts of paleontology, geology, biology and ecology as they pertain to prehistoric southern California and the peninsula of Baja California. Playing the role of paleontologist, visitors will be invited to ponder a mystery, explore the setting, examine the evidence, and use scientific tools to discover answers. Carefully crafted settings will support exploration that engages learners of all ages at levels for both novice and experienced learners. Visitors will discover how natural patterns reveal natural processes, and examine the relationship between past, present and future. Focused activities will enable visitors to exercise their skills of observation and critical thinking, with exhibits that promote learning in a family context. The exhibits and activities focus on the Museum's collections and research, and are grounded in comprehensive visitor research supporting exhibit development. The exhibition and related science education materials will demonstrate how these fundamental concepts can be investigated in a regional setting. Visitors will extend their learning experience beyond the museum through a content-rich interactive website, a popular book on regional geology and paleontology, and related public programs and fossil displays at regional nature centers near the actual discovery sites. Exhibition planning, program evaluation and visitor research will be widely disseminated as contributions to the literature on best practices for interpretation of prehistoric life and landscapes.
Oregon State University will expand its successful Master Science Educators program and create a national model for the delivery of natural science education to elementary and middle school youth. Master Science Educators are volunteers who undergo a rigorous 30-hour training and commit to 50 hours of service to a community site, such as a community center, housing project or school. Volunteers work in teams of two so that each site receives 100 hours of service devoted to the research and development of a natural science project. Volunteers and on-site and off-site scientists who act as virtual volunteers, guide youth ages K-8, in the design, development and evaluation of their project. Wildlife habitat projects provide a means for participants to learn inquiry and are tailored to address local science standards. A trainer's guide, a volunteer handbook, a guide for community sites and promotional and training videos will be produced, as well as a web-based science course. It is anticipated that 240 volunteers will be trained to work with over 12,000 youth during the course of the project. Dissemination will occur through the 4-H Extension service, impacting both urban and rural populations.
MarsQuest Online is an exploration-based website designed to complement the innovative MarsQuest traveling exhibit launched by the Space Science Institute (SSI) in 1997. "MarsQuest Online" will enhance and extend the exhibit, which is currently on a six-year, 18-city tour. TERC, working in collaboration with the Space Science Institute and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will create a virtual version of the exhibit using software such as Java, Quicktime VR and JPL's sophisticated MarsNet Viewer system. Users will be immersed in an integrated, interactive environment complete with the tools and resources to carry out investigations and enhance inquiry-based learning. "MarsQuest" will expand users' understanding of the history of Mars, scientific exploration, the climate and related earth science concepts, while enabling them to follow the exploration of various landers and orbiters, and access NASA scientists. A diverse collection of Guided Inquiry experiences will foster the ability of users to develop inquiry and analysis skills, while offering options for novice, intermediate and advanced learners. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation plan will examine how the website and exhibit compare in promoting the understanding of science, broadening public interest in space exploration, and motivating further learning. The site will be promoted for use by schools as a tool for teaching earth science and space exploration. It is estimated that 300,000 people will visit "MarsQuest Online" annually.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Daniel BarstowPaul DusenberyPaul AndresChris Randall
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center will develop the "Greater Yellowstone Adventure project," encompassing 1,719 square meters of exhibits in the Center's newly constructed Draper Museum of Natural History. The exhibits and associated programming constitute a major cultural and educational resource for underserved residents of rural, northwestern Wyoming and approximately 500,000 annual visitors to the region. The goal of Greater Yellowstone Adventure is to promote understanding of the relationships binding humans and nature and the use of science in exploring those relationships. The exhibits are orgainized into three galleries: Expedition Trailhead, Braided Paths and Tangled Destinies, and Seasons of Discovery.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Charles PrestonMaryanne AdrusEugene ReberRobert PickeringMarcia Britton
The Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) proposes to develop a permanent, one-acre, outdoor exhibition overlooking the San Francisco Bay called called "The Forces That Shape the San Francisco Bay." The exhibition will focus on the geologic and hydrologic forces and the human impacts that have shaped the San Francisco Bay and its environs. The exhibition's interactive components and related programs will involve visitors in learning about erosion, river sediment and deposition, mountain building, folding of strata and thrusting, faulting and seismicity.
The Great Lakes Story is a 3,000 sq. ft. interactive traveling exhibit based on the highly successful and unique permanent exhibition at the Great Lakes Science Center. Its focus is devoted to highlighting the natural history of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The traveling exhibit will allow even more visitors around the country to understand the beauty, majesty and restoration efforts of this important national resource. Through a planned six-year tour, it is estimated "The Great Lakes Story" will be experienced by as many as three million people. There will be several components, including hands-on exhibits, organized with a centerpiece of a walk-around model of the Great Lakes region, and other interactive components. The four major areas of the exhibit are physical characteristics of the Lakes, the natural cycles and processes which shaped them over time, changes and threats to the Lakes (especially human-induced), and finally, restoration efforts to bring the Lakes back to being the rich and productive ecosystem they should be. Along with these exhibit areas, other project components are educational and marketing materials to ensure that host science centers are able to provide a complete learning experience to their youth, family, and adult audiences around the country.
COSI Columbus will develop "Speed," a traveling exhibition. "Speed" is a 6,000-square-foot, interactive traveling exhibition introducing visitors to the science of speed. Visitors experience extreme and slow speeds through a variety of interactives. The exhibition emphasizes the role of speed -- that is, the physical phenomenon of changing motion over time -- in governing biological, geological and electronic processes as well as the central role of mathematics as the language of physical science.
The Yellowstone Park Foundation created exhibits and integrated educational programs for a state-of-the-art visitor education center at Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park. The exhibits and programs focus ong eysers and hot springs on Earth and the unique microbial life forms that live in these thermal waters; current and emerging research critical to understanding issues and solving environmental problems facing society today.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Linda YoungMolly PickallLisa DiekmannLinda YoungDiane Chalfant
The University of New Mexico, in collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS) and the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP), will plan the "Trail of Time," a signed and scaled walking trail with exhibits that interpret the geologic history of the Grand Canyon. Scaled so that one meter equals one million years of earth history, the "Trail" will engage visitors in learning about deep time and how geologic history is recorded in the rock record. The planning activity will involve defining specific learning goals based on visitor studies and work with the NPS Interpretation Division. The "Trail" will help 5,000,000 annual visitors to the Canyon learn about the scale of geologic time, the local geology of the Canyon and the process of science.
Unicorn Projects, Inc. is producing and distributing a project on the origins of life and its connections to the origin of the universe. The project will present the challenges facing scientists working to unlock universal mysteries and the often painstaking but ultimately rewarding process of the scientific endeavor. It will be designed to reach the lay audience by linking what seem to be abstract and complicated ideas -- like how the universe was born, or how stars evolve -- to issues at the heart of everyday life raised by such simple questions as "Where did we come from?" The components of the project will include: * Four, one-hour television programs for prime time broadcast * An informal science outreach component targeted to middle school-age children and families * Activity kits and training guides adaptable for both informal and formal education * A World Wide WEB site The Co-Executive Producers for the series will be Thomas Levenson and Larry Klein. Levenson has been on the staff of NOVA at WGBH and was producer for the NOVA program on Einstein. Klein has been the producer for numerous science films including "Matters of Life and Death" in the Science Odyssey series. The co-producer for the series and science editor for the project will be Alan Dressler, an astronomer and cosmologist whose principal area of research is the formation and evolution of galaxies. Advisors to the series include: Colleen Cavanaugh, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University; George V. Coyne, Director of the Vatican Observatory; Douglas Erwin, Research Paleobiologist and Curator at the National Museum of Natural History; Sandra Faber, Professor of Astronomy and University Professor at the UCO/Lick Observatory, UC, Santa Cruz; John P. Grotzinger, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Matt Mountain, Director of the Gemini 8M Telescopes project; and Ethan J. Schreier, Astronomer and Associate Director for Operations at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Outreach material will be developed by staff at the Pacific Science Center and implementation will be handled by the AAAS.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Thomas LevensonLarry KleinBarbara Flagg
The Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History will develop "Texas Dinosaurs: How Do We Know? -- Regional Dissemination of Science Inquiry Exhibits and Educational Programs on Paleontology." This will be a major permanent and portable exhibition project that will be accompanied by an array of educational programs for formal and informal audiences throughout Texas. The permanent 12,000 sq. ft. exhibit, "Texas Dinosaurs: How Do We Know?", will recreate field and laboratory processes of paleontological research in an inquiry approach to public learning in geology, biology, ecology and mathematics. Portable versions of the exhibit will be distributed to the Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Headquarters, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, the Science Spectrum in Lubbock, the McAllen International Museum, and the El Paso Insights Science Museum -- all in Texas. Regional dissemination of "How Do We Know?" exhibits and educational programs and materials will reach at least 1.5 million people annually, including isolated rural communities in the large geographic region of Texas.
Screenscope, Inc., is producing three programs in the PBS series, "Journey to Planet Earth." The series has the goal of helping the general public understand and cope with the difficulties of developing a global agenda that addresses the environmental concerns of the next millennium. The series will examine the earth using the latest satellite imagery as well as from providing a more closeup view through the eyes of people who inhabit the many different regions of the world. It will use intimate personal portraits to show how people's every day lives are affected by both local and global environmental pressures. The series will link the sciences with economics, politics, geography, and history. Each episode will feature four to five related stories and case studies selected from different geographic regions and about people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The television series will be supported by an informal, community-based outreach program in science museums and neighborhood centers, activity kits and teaching guides, interactive workshops on the World Wide Web, and strategic partnerships with environmental organizations to raise public awareness of the series and the outreach activities. The Co-PIs and producers of the television series are Marilyn and Hal Weiner. They will work closely with a group of advisors including: Chet Cooper, Battelle/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Edward Frieman, Director Emeritus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Vice Chancellor of the University of California; Nay Htun, United Nations Development Programme; Tom Lovejoy, Counselor to the Secretary for Biodiversity and Environmental Affairs, Smithsonian Institution; Per Pinstrup-Andersen, International Food Policy Research Institute; and Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council and former Secretary-General of the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, each episode will have two research scientists who are experts on specific disciplines being featured. Outreach will be developed in association with the Chicago Academy of Sciences.