The Milwaukee Public Museum will develop Adventures in Science: An Interactive Exhibit Gallery. This will be a 7250 sq. ft. interactive exhibit with associated public programs and materials that link the exhibit with formal education. The goal of Adventures in Science is to promote understanding of biological diversity, the forces that have change it over time, and how scientists study and affect change. The exhibit will consist of three areas. "Our Ever-Changing World" will feature "dual scene" habitat dioramas that will convey at-a-glance how environments change over time. "The Natural History Museum" will be a reconstruction of a museum laboratory and collections area to protray behind-the-scenes scientific and curatorial activities that further the study of biological diversity, ecology and systematics. An "Exploration Center: will bridge these two areas and will be designed to accommodate live presentations, group activities and additional multimedia stations for Internet and intranet access. Using interactive devices, visitors will be encouraged to make hypothesis, examine evidence, compare specimens, construction histories of biological and geological changes, and develop conclusions about the science behind biodiversity and extinction issues. Visitors should also come away with an increased understanding of the role of systematic collections in understanding biological diversity. Information on MPM research programs will be highlighted in "The Natural History Museum" section and will be updated frequently. Annual Teacher Training Institutes for pre-service and in-service teachers will present strategies for using the gallery's multimedia stations, lab areas, and Web site links. Special attention will be given to reaching new audiences including those in the inner city and people with disabilities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Allen YoungJames KellyPeter SheehanSusan-Sullivan BorkinRolf JohnsonMary Korenic
The Parents Involved/Pigeons Everywhere (PIPE) project is a collaboration between KCTE-Community Television of Southern California, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. They are developing a three-year model project to engage parents in science education with their children through Project PigeonWatch, a citizen-science program run by Cornell University. The PIPE project will develop videos and written materials for use in a series of parent workshops designed for libraries and community science centers. The materials and workshops will be targeted to low-income parents with children in grades three through five and will be tested at 27 pilot sites around the country. A PIPE leader's Web Site will link all of the pilot sites. At the end of the pilot stage, the video and print materials will be widely available and the applicants will produce a publication that indicates strategies for using and building on PIPE and will provide assistance to new sites that wish to implement the program.
Blue Mountain Films, in association with the American Museum of Natural History, is producing a multi-component project on biodiversity that will examine closely the risks we face if the web of life on Earth is progressively diminished. The central component of the project will be a large format film that seeks to locate and understand humans' place in, and impact upon, the natural order of life on this planet. 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. As a corollary theme, the Life in the Balance film will examine the urgency of the scientific effort to explore and understand ecosystems and the flora and fauna they contain before their unique genetic information is lost due to human actions. In addition, the film will convey an appreciation of how science actually is done in the field. The film will be augmented by: * The Life in the Balance Bookshelf of material currently being developed by the new National Center at the American Museum of Natural History: * Biodiversity: An Action Guide aimed at encouraging children and their families to explore together topics and issues surrounding biodiversity. * Teacher's Curriculum-Biodiversity Counts designed as a middle school-based activity that encourages students to engage in scientific exploration and discover the diversity of species in their own neighborhoods. * Book of Essays designed as a resource book for high school students and their teachers. * Teacher/Educator's Guide consisting of hands-on science activities that can be used independently of the film and as preparation for viewing and/or following screenings of the film. * Life in the Balance "Interactive" Poster with a four-color acetate overlay of pictures which, wen pulled away, reveals a seco nd sheet with science information. * Fun Facts Brochure with biodiversity facts and questions presented in a simple, fun fashion, such as quizzes and games. * Life in the Balance Website feature family activities, an extinction conference section, and a bio-bulletin. * Life in the Balance National Training Institute, a 10 day workshop brining together teams of science educators from community organizations, schools, and science centers and museums. The PI and producer/director/writer of the film will be Bayley Silleck who served in these same roles for the Cosmic Voyage film. The Co-PI and producer will be Jeffrey Marvin. The principal scientist will be Thomas Eisner, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell University. This production team will work closely with an advisory committee that includes Jane Lubchenco, Peter H. Raven, Edward O. Wilson, Andrew Peter Dobson, Myles Gordon, Mary Elizabeth Murray-Wilson, and Lee Schmitt.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bayley SilleckJeffrey MarvinThomas Eisner
The Educational Develpoment Center (EDC) and National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), in collaboration with science centers in AZ, MA, TX, NY, NC and CA, will develop and implement a science curriculum for informal audiences targeting children ages 8-12. Each science center will work with six community centers that serve youth in after-school programs. Science center staff will train after-school program leaders from the 36 community centers at monthly sessions, in addition to holding monthly events for families. Curriculum development will use interesting topics aligned with national standards and structure investigations as games using simple materials. The units will enable children to work in teams, and include follow-up, discussion and extended investigations using websites. It is anticipated that each child will complete 4-6 related investigations. While the six science centers will provide the content expertise, EDC and NIOST will develop the training and assessment program and provide additional technical support for the community centers. The result will be a model to support out-of-school programs that combines science centers and community resource people, centered around an activity-based curriculum focused on inquiry. Up to 1,000 children will be involved in field tests each summer. This proposal builds on "Design It!" (ESI 98-14765), which created an informal science curriculum focused on engineering principles.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bernard Zubrowski
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Bay Area Discovery Museum will expand their "My Place by the Bay" theme with new programmatic elements that "reinforce the theme that people, plants and animals live together and depend upon each other to survive." Three new activity areas will be developed that focus on science learning: A) an outdoor "Tot Lot" for early science learners; B) an outdoor "Discovery Cove" focusing on place-specific elements of their bayshore site; and C) an indoor recreated "Research Vessel" outfitted with a simulated navigaion station and marine biology laboratory. The learning goals for these three areas are: 1) "The Bay environment is home to many living things"; and 2) "I can do science to explore and learn about my world". The "Tot Lot," built into a hill, will be a one-half acre, multi-sensory, outdoor, prepared environment for children under five to learn about animals living in three distinct Bay habitats: woodland, stream and meadow. The "Discovery Cove" will be a two-acre area prepared environment for children up to age eight. Learners will be encouraged to see the bay as an integrated system that includes animal adaptations, ecological relationships and human activity. The "Research Vessel" is inspired by the R/V Questuary and is the place where visitors will use authentic tools to do science. Other features of this project include an integrated system of Parenting Messages that includes special signage for parents and a Families Ask Guide for families with children ages seven and under that is a joint effort of DABM, Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Golden Gate National Parks Association. They will also develop a series of teacher workshops that will link this informal learning space with the needs of formal education. One specific school group with whom they will work is the Junipero Serra, an NSF Urban Systemic Intiative site.
Family Science: Expanding Community Support for Inquiry-based Science is the University of Washington's innovative five-year plan for reaching youth and families in the Seattle school district. This program represents an enhancement of the NSF-funded Family Science program targeting grades K-5 and expansion of this successful program to include middle and high school students. The proposed activities, Science Explorations, Inquiry Science Conferences and Community Celebrations, are designed to help parents understand inquiry-based science instruction while heightening students' confidence in their ability to understand science processes. The hands-on activities also support and complement Seattle's Local Systemic Change project by enlisting teachers, parents and community members to champion science education outside of the formal school setting. The implementation strategy includes workshops to train Family Science Lead Teachers and Parent/Community Leaders to coordinate Family Science programs. Subsequent partnerships between teachers and community organizations are designed to establish regional clusters of community networks to support programmatic activities during and beyond the funding period. It is estimated that Family Science will result in the presentation of nearly 300 school and community-based events impacting 10,000 individuals.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Leroy HoodEthan AllenDana RileyPatrick Ehrman
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The purpose of this project is to enhance African American parental involvement with high school student children by developing skills and strategies for effectively managing the educational careers of their children. It would create a capacity for collaborations with the schools that service African American children by developing the social and organizational infrastructure for continued parental involvement in educational careers. It seeks to increase enrollment and success of Black students in higher-level mathematics and science courses to diminish the race gap in math and science track placements. It uses a quasi-experimental design to implement a series of community workshops designed to enhance knowledge, skills, and strategies for managing placements of children in science and math tracks. The research would create an intervention designed to change the outcome of students. It would conduct ethnographic work to map successful pathways to enrollment in higher-level math courses. It would use findings from these studies to implement workships within the Black communities, and conduct statistical analysis of the growth in achievement as a result of the reduction in course taking.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Roslyn MickelsonLinwood Cousins
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Exploratorium will create the "Outdoor Exploratorium," a 10,000-square-foot, open-air exhibit environment comprising 20 to 25 original installations. Each exhibit will allow visitors to interact directly with a variety of elements, that is water, wind, sound, light, and living things, as they exist in the natural world. One of the key components of this project will be the use of "Noticing Tours." Led by staff scientists, artists, educators, exhibit developers, and other "expert noticers," the tours will initiate a dialogue with the visitors as a starting point for exhibit development. To augment visitor learning and unify the museum's entire collection, exhibit text will relate the "Outdoor Exploratorium" experiences to exhibits. The project will culminate in a workbook for the field and two workshops for museum professionals. The Exploratorium Teacher Institute staff will develop two-week institutes that make extensive use of the "Outdoor Exploratorium." Classroom activities and inquiry-based learning experiences will be developed based on the new exhibits.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Peter RichardsThomas HumphreyThomas RockwellTheodore KoterwasJoyce Ma
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Vermont Center for the Book is developing "Mother Goose Cares about Math and Science," an integrated curriculum of science process skills and standards-based mathematics concepts for preschool children. A college credit course will be developed for childcare providers based on this curriculum. The course increases science and math literacy and the ability to incorporate NCTM standards, and science process skills, into daily interactions with children. Participants are also provided with the tools to communicate the importance of these concepts to parents. The course will be delivered to 600 childcare workers in Vermont and inner-city Philadelphia over a three-year period. Recruitment will include providers in center-, home- and school-based settings in both urban and rural communities. Participants will be provided with books, Curriculum Guides, tools and manipulatives needed to implement the course pedagogy. Materials to be developed include a seven-segment training, which will be used to disseminate the project nationally. Participants will receive a comprehensive training package that can be used to train their peers.
Family Science: Expanding Community Support for Inquiry-based Science is the University of Washington's innovative five-year plan for reaching youth and families in the Seattle school district. This program represents an enhancement of the NSF-funded Family Science program targeting grades K-5 and expansion of this successful program to include middle and high school students. The proposed activities, Science Explorations, Inquiry Science Conferences and Community Celebrations, are designed to help parents understand inquiry-based science instruction while heightening students' confidence in their ability to understand science processes. The hands-on activities also support and complement Seattle's Local Systemic Change project by enlisting teachers, parents and community members to champion science education outside of the formal school setting. The implementation strategy includes workshops to train Family Science Lead Teachers and Parent/Community Leaders to coordinate Family Science programs. Subsequent partnerships between teachers and community organizations are designed to establish regional clusters of community networks to support programmatic activities during and beyond the funding period. It is estimated that Family Science will result in the presentation of nearly 300 school and community-based events impacting 10,000 individuals.
The Museum of Science in Boston is conducting a workshop/symposium that will focus on the question of how best to address the issue of enhancing public understanding of major, on-going research efforts. The workshop will begin a critical discussion among researchers and some of the most prominent practitioners of informal public education in the areas of science, engineering and technology. The discussion will explore possible directions that might be taken in regard to disseminating information about research to the public and in increasing the public's understanding of the role and possible implications of this research. Issues to be examined include: The scope and aspects of research upon which to focus; The present obstacles to public understanding; The advantages and disadvantages of different approaches for disseminating information; Costs and time frames of different approaches; How to encourage and implement collaboration and networking among institutions that have the goal of increasing public understanding. The general goal of the workshop is twofold: to provide feedback that will inform the creation of new programs to address the issue of enhancing public understanding of research and to share ideas among institutions that have a common purpose.