"Have You Spotted Me? Learning Lessons by Looking for Ladybugs" is an innovative citizen science project that targets children from Native American, rural, farming, and disadvantaged communities. While most citizen science efforts target teens and adults, this project enables youth ages 5-11 to contribute to the development of a major ladybug database. Adult mentors in youth programs introduce children to topics such as ladybugs, invasive species, biodiversity, and conservation. Youth not affiliated with a program may participate independently. Project deliverables include a self-contained education program, an Internet portal and project website, a dedicated corps of volunteers, and the largest, accessible biological database ever developed. The database is made more reliable by utilizing records accompanied by an identifiable data image as a certified data point. Partners include the NY State 4-H, South Dakota State 4-H, Migrant Worker Children's Education Program, Cayuga Nature Center, Seneca Nation Department of Education Summer Programs, Seneca Nation Early Childhood Learner Centers After School Program, and the Onondaga Nation After School Program. Strategic impact will be realized through the creation of a citizen science project that provides hands-on interactions, field experiences, and accessible data that creates unique learning opportunities for youth. It is estimated that nearly 10,000 youth will be impacted by this work.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John LoseyLeslie AlleeLouis HeslerMichael CatanguiJohn Pickering
This Pathways project responds to the high level of public skepticism about climate change science despite strong scientific consensus. In 2010, two George Mason University / Yale University polls became headline news in mainstream media (such as the NY Times and NPR) when they reported that 50% or more of our broadcast meteorologists and TV news directors are skeptical about global climate science. A full 30% of TV broadcast meteorologists, who are largely untrained in disciplines other than meteorology and weather forecasting, denounce anthropogenic global warming (AGW) as a hoax or a scam. Such polls strongly suggest that the general public trusts media statements over scientific facts, despite position statements acknowledging dominantly human responsibility for global warming in the past 50 years from nearly every U.S. professional society dealing with Earth sciences. Climate literacy in citizens and policy makers is essential for advancing responsible public policy on energy legislation, carbon emission reductions, and other climate change issues, and TV broadcast meteorologists have great potential for enhancing that literacy.
Backyard Mystery is an NSF-funded curriculum, focused on diseases, pathogens and careers, using interactive paper and physical activities. Content is for middle school participants in afterschool settings, like 4-H and other similar venues. The curriculum engages student interest in genetics and genomics and in the bioSTEM workforce. The curriculum storyline is placed in a familiar setting to students--the backyard--and explores fungi, bacteria, viruses and parasites in a way that is engaging fun and informative. It can be tailored to specific audiences, e.g. participants interested in animal science will gain from focusing on the parasite panel. The curriculum is available in two forms: a combined lesson that brings all of the elements together in one session and another in which the content is broken out into three separate lessons. We would like to share this curriculum with facilitators and educators for both out-of-school time and classroom settings. It is available electronically and free to use. We only ask for users to complete a brief survey to give us feedback, which is helpful for NSF.
Arizona State University (ASU) in collaboration with Arizona Science Center, Boeing, Intel, Microchip, Motorola, Salt River Project, AZ Foundation for Resource Education, AZ Game & Fish Department, US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Mesa Public Schools, and Boys & Girls Clubs of the East Valley, offer a three-year extracurricular project resulting in IT/STEM-related learning outcomes for 96 participants in grades 7, 8, and 9. The project targets and engages female and minority youth traditionally under-represented in IT/STEM fields in multi-year out-of-school technological design and problem solving experiences. These include summer internships/externships and university research in the science center and industrial settings where participants develop socially responsible solutions for challenging real world problems. The program includes cognitive apprenticeships with diverse mentors, opportunities to practice workplace skills such as leadership, teamwork, time management, creativity and reporting, and use of technological tools to gather and analyze complex data sets. Participants simulate desert tortoise behaviors, research and develop designs to mitigate the urban heat island, build small-scale renewable energy resources, design autonomous rovers capable of navigating Mars-like terrain, and develop a model habitat for humans to live on Mars. Together with their families participants gain first-hand knowledge of IT/STEM career and educational pathways. In addition to youth outcomes, the adults associated with this project are better prepared to positively influence IT/STEM learning experiences for under-represented youth. The evaluation measures participant content knowledge, attitudes and interest in IT/STEM subjects, workplace skills and intentions to pursue IT/STEM educational and career pathways to understand participant reactions, learning, transfer and results. Informal curricula developed through this project, field-tested with youth at Boys & Girls Clubs and youth at Arizona Science Center will be available on the project website.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tirupalavanam GaneshMonica ElserStephen KrauseDale BakerSharon Robinson-Kurplus
Stroud Water Research Center (SWRC) will partner with Longwood Gardens (LG) to develop educational materials that help visitors understand the links between the hydrologic and carbon cycles. The goal is to demonstrate how landscape aesthetics can influence land-use decisions, and to offer carbon-neutral methods the public and others can employ to reduce the impact of storm runoff. The intended audience is primarily adults among the 800,000 annual visitors to the Gardens who are landowners as well as professionals such as engineers, regional planners, landscape architects, developers and municipal officials. This project will also communicate research to public audiences through SWRC and LG websites.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Louis KaplanJ. Denis NewboldSusan GillAnthony Aufdenkampe
Formative evaluation of one of four pieces of the Marcellus Matters: EASE project. This study examined the effectiveness of an eight-week adult/community education program about topics related to natural gas development.
Formative evaluation of one of four pieces of the Marcellus Matters: EASE project. This study examined the effectiveness of two "Community Conversations" theater and dialogue/discussion events at a) communicating natural gas development-related science content and community issues, and b) promoting audience members' openness to dialogue about natural gas development-related issues.
The Civilians, Inc., a theatre company in Brooklyn, NY, is producing The Great Immensity, a touring play with songs and video that explores our relationship to the environment, with a focus on critical issues of climate change and biodiversity conservation. The play has been created with a network of partners including the Princeton Environmental Institute and Princeton Atelier Program/Lewis Arts Center, which will maintain an ongoing relationship with the project. The play uses real places and stories drawn from interviews conducted by the artists to create an experience that is part investigative journalism and part inventive theater. Attendance at the performances is projected to be about 75,000. A major goal of the project is to help the public better appreciate how science studies the Earth's biosphere and to promote an inquisitive curiosity about our place in the natural world. The initiative also intends to create and evaluate a new model for how theater can increase public awareness, knowledge, and engagement with important science-related societal issues. Project deliverables include the development and testing of online content, podcasts, and videos as well as special community education and outreach efforts in each community where the play is staged. Performances will be accompanied by post-performance panel discussions with the artists, local scientists and policy makers. After the completion of the initial tour, the play will be published, licensed, and made available to other theaters to produce independently.
The institution is The Ohio State University at Lima, the university partners are the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Fayetteville State University. It's About Discovery is a unique partnership to engage students and teachers in critical thinking skills in STEM content areas. The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS) new science curriculum is the foundation for the project which will include over 700 students and 20-25 teachers. While the primary focus is on students, throughout the life of the project all teachers will participate in professional development focusing on the PAS units to ensure the quality teaching and understanding of the content. Technology will be integrated throughout the program to enable students to create inquiry based projects across state lines and for teachers to continue their professional development opportunities. Community partners will serve as mentors, host field trips, and engage in on-line conversations with students. An interactive website will be created for both teachers and students. The focus is on 8th grade science as it relates to STEM careers, 9th grade physical science and 10th science and mathematics. We are implementing a new Ford PAS curriculum module, Working Towards Sustainability, which comprises of four modules: We All Run on Energy, Energy from the Sun, Is Hydrogen a Solution? and The Nuclear Revolution. Teachers across states will engage in a new professional development model. Students will create projects through on-line conversations. A website will be created for project participants and the ITEST community. These hands-on, inquiry-based learning experiences engage students and prepare and encourage them to pursue science, engineering, and technology in high school and beyond. All PAS curricula use real world experiences, open-ended problems and result in real world applications. Assessments are on-going and inquiry driven. Teamwork and on-line resources and research are built into the curriculum design. The evaluation consists of a multi-method pre-post design. Teachers complete a Pre Survey at the beginning of the program and then again at the end of the school year. Students complete a Pre Survey at the beginning of the school year and a post survey at the end of the school year. In addition, teachers share students' scores on curriculum assessments completed throughout the year, including student scores on the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System's (CASAS) Assessment of Critical Thinking in Science writing tasks.
This project is making enhancements to two existing websites, the Black Hole Encyclopedia and the Spanish version Enciclopedia de Agujeros Negros. The original websites were created by the PI under his NSF CAREER grant. The enhancements include 20 additional black holes in the Directory section, new listings in the Popular Culture section, profiles of six leading black hole researchers (including the PI), audio podcasts, a new section on the history of black hole research, and extensive graphics and animations. The evaluation of the website is expected to add to the informal science education community's knowledge of how the internet is being used to support science learning.
Exploring the Euteleost Tree of Life represents the education and outreach of the Euteleost Tree of Life assembling the tree of life research grant (NSF DEB Grant No. 0732819; PI: Ed Wiley) it includes a curriculum activity and a interactive fish tree. Investigating a Deep Sea Mystery, a curriculum module for high school and undergraduate students follows the research of project collaborator Dave Johnson (Smithsonian Institution) to explore deep sea fish phylogeny. The module includes an investigation of What is a fish?, fish anatomy and morphology, and how different lines of evidence (morphological and molecular) can be used to study evolutionary relationships. A fisheye view of the tree of life is a web module featuring an interactive fish tree of life highlight with a series of mini-stories Web material is still in the early stages of development, and will include a splash page with a simplified clickable fish tree through which the different.
Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of the Evolution Wall and Research Highlight exhibit in conveying the main topics of the exhibit: biodiversity and the research of Burke curators. Evaluation Questions: 1.What is the nature of Evolution Wall and Research Highlight use by visitors? What draws their attention? 2.Do visitors understand that the exhibit is about evolution and biodiversity? 3.To what extent are visitors aware that Burke curators are involved with and conduct current research? Key Findings: 1.The Evolution Wall and the photos were the most interesting components of exhibit for
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ari EinbinderAmy DygertDylan HighBurke Natural History Museum