This award supports a workshop to be held in conjunction with the 2010 World Maker Faire being hosted at the New York Hall of Science. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together the Maker community with formal and informal science and mathematics learning experts. The Maker movement is a recent phenomenon promoted by the Maker Media division of O'Reilly Media. There are currently three U.S. and one International Maker Faires, with attendance of about 30,000 each. The Faires consist of exhibits characterized as technology-rich and innovative and developed either by the exhibitor (Do-It-Yourself or DIY) or increasingly, as collaborative exhibits (Do-It-With-Others or DIWO). Participants visiting the Faires interact directly with the developer(s) and exhibits to learn the technology and engineering skills associated with designing and building their own products. The New York Hall of Science workshop will be co-chaired by Tom Kalil, Associate Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, and Dale Dougherty, Founder of the Maker Faires. It will have approximately 50 participants drawn from academe, business, non-profits, and state, local and federal government. Workshop attendees will observe and participate in the Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science the day before the workshop. On the second day, attendees will then address the following questions: 1) How can the innovations of the Maker movement inform science and mathematics education?; 2) What collaborations between policy makers, education and learning science researchers, and the Maker Movement can best spur innovation in science and mathematics education?; 3) What funding opportunities are possible between the Maker community and the private, philanthropic, and government sectors for the support of transformative science and mathematics education and learning research? The workshop will result in a multimedia report that will propose answers to these questions. The report will inform the education and learning science research communities about opportunities for innovations in education and learning. The workshop is designed to broadly inform both policy and practice in STEM Education. The Maker/DIY/DIWO movement is focused on design and engineering. These processes are important in STEM disciplines. In particular, the movement has motivated thousands of individuals to voluntarily participate in building technology-based projects in a manner similar to the open source software movement. If this motivation can be broadly harnessed, it could transform STEM education through new knowledge of STEM learning science and education research. The broader impact of this workshop is situated in the large numbers of individuals already engaged in Maker/DIY/DIWO projects. If more STEM content can be married to these projects, then the impact to science learning and teaching could be substantial. Since many of the Maker Faire participants come from rural communities, there is an implicit promise that incorporating more STEM content into Faire projects could have the effect of broadening participation to an underrepresented community.
Oregon Public Broadcasting is requesting funds to produce three one-hour nationally broadcast television programs, a project website, community-centered outreach coordinated by AAAS in 7 U.S. cities, a seminar discussion guide and a series of 90-second programs as part of the "Earth &Sky" radio series. The subject and purpose of the project is to attract public interest in nanotechnology by examining the social, ethical, legal and environmental issuers surrounding its application. The television programs will be produced by Fred Friendly Seminars (FFS) and broadcast on PBS. Two science museums, Boston Museum of Science and the South Carolina State Museum, and the University of California, Berkeley, will host the FFS panels. The format of the Seminars is designed to produce thought provoking and nuanced discussions of contemporary issues. Collaborative partners in the project include AAAS, Lawrence Hall of Science and ICAN Productions. The outreach initiative includes outreach to "targeted stakeholders" in 7 US cities, four 90-second radio spots as part of Earth & Sky, a project web site and a Seminar discussion guide. Inverness Research Associates and Edu, Inc. will conduct both formative and summative evaluation of the project components.
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.
Voyage of Discovery is a comprehensive and innovative project designed to provide K-12 youth in Baltimore City with an introduction to mathematics, engineering, technology, environmental science, and computer and information science, as it relates to the maritime and aerospace industries. The Sankofa Institute, in partnership with the Living Classrooms Foundation and a host of marine, informal science, community, and educational organizations, collaborate to make science relevant for inner-city youth by infusing science across the curriculum and by addressing aspects of history and culture. Youth are introduced to historical, current, and future innovations in shipbuilding as a means to learn the science, mathematics, and history associated with navigation, transportation, environmental science, and shipping. Activities will take place at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum where students participate in intensive afterschool, Saturday, and summer sessions. Families are invited for pre-session orientation meetings and again at the end of each session to observe student progress. This project will provide over 3,900 K-12 youth with the opportunity to learn mathematics (algebra, geometry, and trigonometry), physics (gravity, density, mechanics), design, and estuarine biology while participating in hands-on sessions. Project deliverables include a 26-foot wooden boat, a working model of a dirigible, a submarine model, and pilot control panel models, all constructed by students and subsequently incorporated into exhibits at the USS Constellation Museum. The project also results in the production of two curricula--one each on celestial navigation and propulsion. Voyage of Discovery informs the literature on inquiry-based informal science education programs and strategies to engage minority and low-income youth in learning science and technology.
The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, the Interdisciplinary Center for Coastal Studies, New York Botanical Garden, Puerto Rico Youth at Risk, Boy Scouts, and others implemented a citizen science program for age 12 and older. This project targeted local residents, visitors to Hacienda La Esperanza Reserve, and members of community environmental projects on topics including archeology and human impacts on local ecosystems; conservation and restoration of wetlands; and shoreline and costal processes.
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.
INTO THE DEEP: America, Whaling & the World: a two-hour documentary film for national broadcast on PBS in 2010, directed by Ric Burns and co-produced by Steeplechase Films, American Experience, and WGBH/Boston, explores the history, culture and significance of the American whaling industry from its 17th century origins in drift and shore-whaling, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling in the 18th and 19th centuries, and on to the industry's demise in the decades following the American Civil War. Combining stunning archival material with powerful on-camera interviews, evocative live cinematography, dramatic reenactments, and underwater footage of whales at sea, the film will bring alive the complex reality and extraordinary experience of American whaling as the nation rose to the threshold of global power, all the while registering the larger forces, economic, social, cultural, technological and environmental, that shaped and propelled American Whaling.
This two-hour documentary, John Muir in the New World [working title], shot on high definition for PBS' American Masters, will follow the life of the Scottish-American naturalist and place his writing, his beliefs, and his activism in the context of late 19th and 20th century American history. We will show how, through his writings and associations, Muir became an early and influential spokesman for the conservation movement of the United States. Visually, this film will be strongly rooted in the locations of Muir's life, from Scotland to California, which were the prime influences on his thinking and writing. While preparing this documentary, we will look specifically at the emergent field of environmental history and the new scholarship on the definition of wilderness.
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) seeks support to complete the reinstallation of its 25,800 square-foot permanent Gallery of California History and to develop and implement accompanying educational programs. OMCA’s history collections contain the largest, finest, and most comprehensive collection of California material culture anywhere. The Gallery of California History was originally created in the 1960s and 70s, and it has been more than 20 years since it has been updated. The new installation of the gallery will include approximately 2,200 historical artifacts, works of art, ethnographic materials, and original photographs. This reinstallation is part of a major transformation of the entire museum that will realize the institution’s deep and continuing commitment to telling the full story of California and its people. The opening of the new Gallery of California History is planned for early 2010.
This project will reinterpret a significant property owned by Historic Hudson Valley (HHV). Using as a focusing device the experiences of four women who shaped this country estate during its 200-year history, the new interpretation will illustrate important turning points in American attitudes toward nature and landscape. As it forges a more integrated, effective way for house museums to interpret the built and natural environments, HHV will strive to help visitors understand how American points of view about landscape and nature have changed over time and why those shifts matter. Project formats include an interpretive tour of the nearly 400-acre site; web-based programs and blog; and publications. The story of Montgomery Place reflects many of the ideas and values that have shaped America’s land and people. The project addresses how cultural attitudes toward the natural world determine human actions, and how these actions in turn affect people’s environments.
Today's Brooklyn Navy Yard is a rarity: a 19th-century citadel of the Industrial Revolution reincarnated as a model of clean industrial re-use in the 21st century. A historic national icon, the Yard has long been a mystery to its neighbors. Now, for the first time since 1801, BNYDC is inviting the public in and offering a unique and remarkable venue where the Yard can tell its many stories, most for the first time. On September 7, 2011 (Labor Day), BNYDC will open the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Building 92, a visitor center and home of a new exhibition, The Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present, and Future.
The Friends of the C&TSRR, a non-profit 50l(c)(3) dedicated to preserving and interpreting the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR), will advance its interpretive programs to complete the schematic design phase of a permanent exhibition planned for a proposed Railroad Visitor Center in Chama, NM; and to acquire the humanities expertise necessary to further develop and implement interpretive content and planning for this and other key sites along the C&TSRR's 64-mile route winding through the San Juan Mountains of Northern NM and Southern CO. The C&TSRR is a designated National Park Service National Historic Site. The C&TSRR, successor to the original Denver & Rio Grande Railroad-San Juan Extension built in 1880, operates today as a 64-mile "living museum" - a coal-fired, steam-powered narrow gauge railroad between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO.