The Coalition for Watershed Education, consisting of the Land Access Information Association, Great Lakes Children's Museum, Interlochen Public Radio and Northwestern Michigan College Great Lakes Studies Institute will implement a comprehensive science education project for youth and adults. The major components include: Watershed Discovery field experiences, Soundscapes radio broadcasts, Waterscapes exhibits, a project website, and the expanded Great Lakes Coalition for Watershed Education. Watershed Discovery is a field-based experience for youth ages 11-17. Teams of 6-10 youth will work with mentors who specialize in GPS, GIS, geology and geography to research and collect data on the Great Lakes watershed. These students will also use their new knowledge to produce radio segments as part of the Soundscapes component. Youth teams will be trained to interview sources, gather information and write scripts for use on the local National Public Radio affiliate. The Great Lakes Children's Museum will design a permanent, interactive watershed of 1,500 square feet, as well as a traveling exhibit of 500 square feet for visitors ages 7-12. Other deliverables include "A Community Guide to Watershed-based Science Education" (available in print and CD-ROM), a one-day regional dissemination conference, and an interactive website. Strategic impact will be realized through the development of a novel model for watershed education, its subsequent replication and summative evaluation outcomes. It is estimated that over 40,000 children will be reached by this community-wide initiative.
The University of Cincinnati Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education will conduct a two-year research investigation to document and understand young children's scientific dialog, interactions, behaviors, and thinking within expressly designed natural play environments called playscapes. Two existing environmental science-focused playscapes will serve as the informal context for the study. Pre-school children and their teachers at early childhood centers, Head Start programs and informal learning institutions such as zoos, nature centers, and museums will participate in the study. The Cincinnati Nature Center and the Cincinnati Playscape Initiative will partner with the University of Cincinnati for this research endeavor. The results of the study are expected to not only address a significant gap in the literature base related to self-directed play and young children\'s scientific thinking within playscapes environments, but the study also has the potential to inform the field more broadly about scientific learning and teaching across informal and formal contexts at the early childhood levels. Nine research questions will frame the study and seek to investigate: (a) children\'s behaviors in intentionally designed playscapes, (b) children\'s scientific thinking in intentionally designed playscapes, and the relationship between access to the playscape environment and children's attitudes about science and their own scientist identities. The study sample includes over 200 children (ages 3-5) will be recruited from local university, child care centers and head start programs. Each child will participate in research activities at one of two test sites, with sixty children participating in research activities at both test sites. As part of the study, the children will visit the test sites at least three different times and will be asked to explore the playscape environments on their own, with other children, and with their teachers. Lavalier microphones will capture the students' self-talk and dialogs with others, as they explore the specially designed playscape environments. Other data collection methods include: behavior mapping, direct observation, dialog analysis, surveys, focus groups, and curriculum-based assessments. A team of researchers, including university faculty and graduate assistants, will employ inductive, deductive, and abductive analytical methods and reasoning to analyze and synthesize the data. Concurrently, an external evaluator at the Evaluation Services Center will employ a mixed-methods approach for the formative, remedial, and summative project evaluations. An ultimate goal of the project is to use the research findings to provide a scientific base for the development of an early childhood approach that promotes scientific thinking and learning within self-directed, informal contexts.
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences project is based on current NSF-funded research, BCS-0342661, a study that is modeling the demographic collapse that occurred in the Hohokam region of southern Arizona between A.D. 1300 and 1450. The Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson, AZ is partnering with the Pueblo Grande Museum (PGM), operated by the City of Phoenix, and the Huhugam Heritage Center (HHC), operated by the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, AZ. The primary deliverable of the 24-month project is the development of a 700 sq. ft. traveling exhibit that provides visitors with experiences related to how archaeologists research questions such as, how to date pre-historic populations, how to estimate the numbers of people in these populations, how to determine their migration patterns, and how to model the decline of their numbers and "coalescence." The exhibit is based CDA's research philosophy of practicing "preservation archaeology" that uses methods that avoid or limit the disturbance of exiting archaeological sites. The exhibit, being designed and fabricated by PGM staff, incorporates some of the latest innovations in computer animation and GIS that help scientists approach these questions. CDA will create a special section of its website devoted to the research and exhibit, along with an exhibit guide and a special issue of its Archaeology Southwest magazine. The project is positioned also as a vehicle for stimulating continued conversations between archaeologists and Native American peoples.
Boston's Museum of Science (MOS), with Harvard as its university research partner, is extending, disseminating, and further evaluating their NSF-funded (DRL-0714706) Living Laboratory model of informal cognitive science education. In this model, early-childhood researchers have both conducted research in the MOS Discovery Center for young children and interacted with visitors during the museum's operating hours about what their research is finding about child development and cognition. Several methods of interacting with adult visitors were designed and evaluated, including the use of "research toys" as exhibits and interpretation materials. Summative evaluation of the original work indicated positive outcomes on all targeted audiences - adults with young children, museum educators, and researchers. The project is now broadening the implementation of the model by establishing three additional museum Hub Sites, each with university partners - Maryland Science Center (with Johns Hopkins), Madison Children's Museum (with University of Wisconsin, Madison), and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (with Lewis & Clark College). The audiences continue to include researchers (including graduate and undergraduate students); museum educators; and adults with children visiting the museums. Deliverables consist of: (1) establishment of the Living Lab model at the Hub sites and continued improvement of the MOS site, (2) a virtual Hub portal for the four sites and others around the country, (3) tool-kit resources for both museums and scientists, and (4) professional symposia at all sites. Intended outcomes are: (1) improve museum educators' and museum visiting adults' understanding of cognitive/developmental psychology and research and its application to raising their children, (2) improve researchers' ability to communicate with the public and to conduct their research at the museums, and (3) increase interest in, knowledge about, and application of this model throughout the museum community and grow a network of such collaborations.
Building on their successful traveling exhibition and Web site, "Invention at Play," funded by the NSF Informal Science Education Program, the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (National Museum of American History) in collaboration with Smithsonian Affiliates around the country developed "Places of Invention" (POI). Major deliverables included an interactive 3,300 square-foot permanent exhibition at NMAH and a Web site that focus on practicing inventive skill-building and illustrating the ways that place and social collaboration shape the creative process. The POI exhibition features six stories about "hot spots" of American invention from the mid-19th century to the present, each providing hands-on experiences that relate to particular "21st Century skills" and to the social, psychological, and spatial dimensions of invention, science, and engineering. The project also intends to establish a new model for the co-creation of exhibition content among NMAH visitors, Web site users, Lemelson Center staff, and 12 partnering Smithsonian Affiliate museums through an Interactive Map. Here both in-gallery and online visitors can explore stories and videos produced by NMAH and Smithsonian Affiliate staff (and their community partners) and also share stories of their own communities as “places of invention.”
This is a Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) award that addresses the issues around the Chacoan people and their impact on the Middle San Juan region of New Mexico during the era of 1050-1150 AD. This area and its people have been the subject of interest to the Archaeological field with studies and a PBS documentary suggesting solar system awareness and use. This prooject goes beyond the past data providing modern interpretation of the site and the Chacoan people's impact via migration. The primary collaborators on this project are the Center for Desert Archaeology, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Salmon Ruins Museum, and the Mesa Verde National Park (National Park system). The project design includes exhibits at two museums (Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins) with interactive touch-screen computer systems which enable the visitors to digitally tour the Aztec and Salmon pueblos viewing architecture, artifacts, and the landscape of the Middle San Juan area. Visitors will also be able to manipulate 3-D animations, deriving their own experiences and choices. Finally, there will be fixed interactive displays. In this way, the visitor will be able to go back and recreate the past. Using the methods and artifacts participants will be able to derive the migration of the Chaco peoples and their impacts on the pueblos. It is anticipated that the digital media will be shared on the internet for extended impact. Evaluation by outside consultants consists of front-end and summative analyses. The intended outcomes include increasing the knowledge of local citizens using the interactive exhibit with two languages and cultural correctness. Youth will be served in a similar manner. In addition, the participants will be acquainted with the techniques used by the scientists thereby imparting logic, methodologies, and interpretation skills.
The investigators plan to design, develop and test a series of exhibit prototypes that build visitors' capacity to engage in discussions of socio-scientific issues, particularly those related to the numerous human-biology and health-related socio-scientific issues present in their lives today. The purpose of this small-scale project will be to explore the feasibility of designing un-facilitated museum exhibit experiences that engage museum visitors in activities where they recognize the components of socio-scientific arguments, evaluate them, and pose arguments of their own. The exhibit will use techniques of interactive exhibits usually applied in science museums to explore objects, phenomena, or scientific and engineering processes but the subject of this exhibit is about words and talk rather than things and physical phenomena. It is intended to give visitors practice in science thinking skills that citizens can use in listening critically, assessing arguments, and framing arguments of their own. This project will support the design, development, and testing of six unfacilitated activities that engage visitors in deconstructing, evaluating, and developing arguments related to socio-scientific issues. The investigators will develop prototypes so that labels, content, and physical design can be changed during the course of formative testing. The prototypes will be developed by members of the Museum of Science Education and Strategic Projects Departments. This project is intended to gather evidence through evaluation about whether an unstaffed exhibit can be designed to increase visitors\' capacity to engage in discussions of socio-scientific issues and health-related socio-scientific issues. The Museum of Science Research and Evaluation Department will conduct the formative evaluation of these prototypes. It will provide new evidence about the ability of museum exhibits to increase the scientific thinking skills of visitors.
The importance of Ice Stories derives from its creative use of the latest communications media to convey the latest polar research. By teaching scientists to communicate, by establishing a Web site devoted to polar research, Ice Stories humanizes science and brings it to a broad, diverse audience with unprecedented immediacy, thanks to the growth of digital media. This project comes when the stakes—posed by planetary warming— have never been higher, when the techniques of media production have never been more accessible, and when the potential audience—fueled by public concern and IPY activity—has never been larger. The Exploratorium will train scientists as correspondents, shape and channel their work, and create the Web site that will be a major international hub showcasing the range of IPY research and commentary. The training and production phases of the project were field-tested with polar scientists in 2006, and the museum is an experienced producer of Web and live programs from the poles. Ice Stories conceptualizes a new model of communication with great implications for informal science education. Scientists can now bring their research directly to the public, instead of having it filtered through traditional journalistic media. Ice Stories achieves this new model by organizing three innovative components: intensive media training for polar researchers; a museum-based production unit; and the project’s informal-education Web 2.0 portal. Scientist-produced video, audio, photo-essays and blogs will be accessed free via the Web site and such technology platforms as downloadable podcasts, vodcasts, RSS feeds and by posting on popular Web sites and by dissemination through journalistic media. Deliverables include (1.) Correspondent Training—week-long workshops in media for a minimum of 20 scientists in spring and fall 2008. (2.) Productions—STEM content from correspondents, each spending 5-10 hours a week producing from the field. (3.) Media Assets Database—fully accessible correspondent productions plus material from other polar projects and collaborating institutions. (4.) Exhibits—IPY Production Studio at the Exploratorium and project material used internationally in IPY exhibitions. The project design benefits from the museum’s 30 years of making science accessible to visitors, its 22 years of creating professional development courses for educators, and its use of scientists as research guides in previous Webcast projects. Project leaders have polar experience and have collaborative relationships with researchers. Instructors for media workshops include top professionals, and project partnerships encompass major projects at both poles.
The Children's Museum of San Jose, in collaboration with developmental psychology researchers at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) and science and education staff of the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), is conducting a 48-month long project that focuses on children's use of evidence to construct scientific explanations. Key deliverables are: a 2,300 square-foot paleontology exhibit with an Evidence Central area three "evidence hubs" at the Children's Museum of San Jose, an educational Web site developed by UCMP, research on children's use of evidence conducted by Maureen Callanan's research group at UCSC, a "state of the children's museum field" study on varieties of perspectives on "science" and "evidence," and professional development experiences for staff at children's museums. Additional partners include the children's museums in Austin, TX, Madison, WI, and Providence, RI and local Vietnamese and Latino organizations in the museum's neighborhood. Randi Korn & Associates will conduct the program summative evaluation process and the "state of the field" study. The project identifies and will work to address two specific needs in the field: (a) a clearer sense of the developmental progression of children's understanding of evidence, and (b) a rigorous and systematic investigation of children's open-ended reasoning about evidence in a rich content domain (paleontology). The strategic impact goal is to build capacity in children's museums, enabling them to offer more evidence-based science learning experiences for their visitors.
"Waters Journey through the Everglades" was funded to impact adolescents by increasing their awareness and their understanding of the relevance of the environment, specifically water, in South Florida. The deliverables were to design, develop and produce technology-based experiences enhancing a new EcoDiscovery wing at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Appropriate use of emerging technology was a cornerstone of the project as the project team sought to research how the depth and breadth of hands-on exhibits could be expanded, allowing the target audience of adolescent learners to explore "what if?" questions around the learning experiences in the new museum wing. The ability to change parameters of the exhibits, to make individual choices that change the outcome of the experience, was seen as a way to create more excitement, more social discourse, and deeper understanding. Research questions revolved around the following areas: -Linking technology to the hands-on exhibits under design for the new MODS wing, and using them to expand the depth and breadth of the hands-on exhibits. -Using augmented reality in appropriate areas not to show phenomenon-based things (like a working heart for example) but as a narrative enhancement to spur exploratory investigation into changing parameters and understanding the consequences of actions. -Researching new ways to get content information to the learners at the appropriate time in their exploration so they are ready to receive the information, rather than putting large graphic panels to relate the content. Only an average of 3% of visitors read labels, and we know that 3% is largely skewed toward older adults. -Researching how to engage the adolescent audience in museum experiences. Educational impact on the target adolescent audience revolved around exploring whether the resulting exhibit enhancements would help them: Develop a greater awareness of how water impacts the environment, from the local to the global. -Gain a clearer concept of the time scales and scope of environmental change. -Raise their confidence level in their ability to understand the relevance of science as they explore the vast amount of scientific data that has been collected, and answer their own questions about the Florida Everglades™ rich and fragile ecosystem, and its importance to their own community.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Eileen SmithKim CavendishCharles Hughes
Museum of Science will develop a 4500 sq. ft. exhibit "Finding the Pattern". The primary objective is to develop activities and programs that encourage visitors to practice scientific thinking skills in settings that have interdisciplinary science content. The main component is an activity area that will encourage visitors to observe, compare, and sort objects and phenomena in meaningful ways; help visitors recognize that systems of organizing and classifying objects and phenomena reveal underlying meaning; provide visitors with opportunities to practice answering questions and solving problems based on museums collections; and encourage visitors to search for the "hidden" meaning in things around them. The exhibit will be composed of three overlapping areas: 1) the sorting area, 2) the mystery area, and 3) the open collections area. This project is one of the six science activity centers that have been described in the museum's long-range plan; two activity centers/exhibits have been completed. The impact of "Finding the Pattern" will be extended via the museum's web site. Activities that employ the kinds of scientific thinking skills targeted in the exhibit will be developed to engage informal learners at home. Complementary programming linking the exhibit with formal education will include the development of teacher workshops and programs for school groups. Teacher workshops will be developed in consultation with groups of Project PALMS teachers. The activities will be accessible to individuals with disabilities. They plan to open the exhibit in the fall of 2000.
The Tech Museum of Innovation will fabricate, install, and evaluate a 6,800 square foot exhibition. Through approximately 66 interactive exhibit experiences, visitors will discover how basic science is applied in practical, real-life circumstances for the design and engineering of advanced technologies. An array of educational programs has been designed to appeal to a diverse audience with a variety of interests and learning styles. Demonstrations, hands-on activities, and interviews (online and/or multimedia) with nationally recognized innovators will highlight innovation as a complex process involving careful preparation, use of the scientific method, the ability to problem solve and make connections, and luck.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dan WodarcykJon BetthauserEmily RoutmanSusan WagemanWayne LaBar