This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. It describes a Communicating Research to Public Audiences grant project that created underwater robotic fish exhibits.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting held in Washington, DC. It discusses the second season of SciGirls, a multimedia project designed to encourage and empower more girls to pursue careers in STEM.
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Twin Cities Public TelevisionRita Karl
A midpoint progress poster on the Sparks of Discovery Project which connects UW-Madison NSF researchers to produce interdisciplinary science investigations that will be/have been implemented in a number of settings, including participants from underrepresented groups in science. Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) along with the Morgridge Institute for Research staff support the project and implement the education programs at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC.
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University of Wisconsin, MadisonTravis Tangen
This CRPA award addresses the issue of multidisciplinary science and the public's awareness of the ideas. The PIs believe that the prevalence of multidisciplinary science is high and growing fast. Thus, the public and particularly the younger generations need to understand these concepts and to begin thinking in those terms. Thus, they will derive hands-on modules for three age groups that are age appropriate. The project team includes 7 NSF funded researchers who do multidiscipline-based research in biology, mathematics and engineering. These modules will be tested at the Boy and Girls Club of Dane County prior to being exhibited at the Madison Children's Museum and the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. Further, the local PBS TV station (WPT) will air some of the demonstrations giving the project more visibility and impact. Each set of modules designed for the three age groups shall be evaluated separately using age specific goals and objectives. The project is a collaboration between 7 scientists and engineers, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, the Madison Children's Museum, and the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery of the University of Wisconsin.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) is a national program led by the Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL). STAR stands for Science-Technology Activities and Resources (www.starnetlibraries.org). Core partners include the American Library Association, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the National Girls Collaborative Project. Other partners include the National Academy of Engineering, Engineers Without Borders-USA, IEEE-USA, the National Renewable Energy Lab, American Geophysical
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SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE/National Center for Interactive LearningPaul Dusenbery
This poster shows the development of the project Scientists for Tomorrow during the three years of its implementation: two first years under the full funding of the NSF and the third year as a no-cost extension. Also the poster describes how the project was incorporating more community centers and with it more participants through the development of the "self-sustained" mode of implementation. The poster introduces also the next step of the project - the Scientists for Tomorrow - National Alliance.
The impact of two science enrichment programs on the science attitudes of 330 gifted high school students was evaluated using a multimethod, multiperspective approach that provided a more comprehensive evaluation of program impact on science attitudes than did previous assessments of science programs. Although pre-post comparisons did not indicate positive impact on science attitudes, other measures provided strong evidence of program effectiveness. Program benefits were greater among girls, those who had more supportive families and teachers, and those who entered the programs with greater
Sage is a robot that has been installed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History as a full-time autonomous member of the staff. Its goal is to provide educational content to museum visitors in order to augment their museum experience. This paper discusses all aspects of the related research and development. The functional obstacle avoidance system, which departs from the conventional occupancy grid-based approaches, is described. Sage's topological navigation system, using only color vision and odometric information, is also described. Long-term statistics provide a quantitative measure of
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Illah NourbakhshJudith BobenageSebastien GrangeRon LutzRoland MeyerAlvaro Soto
Many biomedical research universities have established outreach programs for precollege students and teachers and partnerships with local school districts to help meet the challenges of science education reform. Science outreach programs held in university research facilities can make science more exciting and innovative for high school students and can offer them much more insight into the nature of science and laboratory research than is available in most high school science courses. This paper describes a long-term follow-up study of high school students enrolled in the Summer Science
The NASA Science Research Mentoring Program (NASA SRMP) is an established mentoring program that presents the wonders of space exploration and planetary sciences to underserved high school students from New York City through cutting-edge, research-based courses and authentic research opportunities, using the rich resources of the American Museum of Natural History. NASA SRMP consists of a year of Earth and Planetary Science (EPS) and Astrophysics electives offered through the Museum’s After School Program, year-long mentorship placements with Museum research scientists, and summer programming through our education partners at City College of New York and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The primary goals of the project are: 1) to motivate and prepare high school students, especially those underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, to pursue STEM careers related to EPS and astrophysics; 2) to develop a model and strategies that can enrich the informal education field; and 3) to engage research scientists in education and outreach programs. The program features five in-depth elective courses, offered twice per year (for a total of 250 student slots per year). Students pursue these preparatory courses during the 10th or 11th grade, and a select number of those who successfully complete three of the courses are chosen the next year to conduct research with a Museum scientist. In addition to providing courses and mentoring placements, the program has produced curricula for the elective courses, an interactive student and instructor website for each course, and teacher and mentor training outlines.
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) project is for promoting public understanding of and engagement with STEM by developing and implementing technology and formats for interactive exhibitions at the interface of underwater robotics and marine science. This program envisions the use of BRUCE (Bioinspired Robotic Underwater Carangiform Exhibit) featuring a shoal of ROSAs (Remotely Operated Swimming Avatars) at the River Project to engage the local New York City community and echo to the broader U.S. non-technical audience in marine science and technology. More specifically, this program is expected to put kids and adults behind the wheel of miniature robotic fish that can swim alone, school in groups, and compete against each other under the remote control of the audience. To further attract youngsters to the exhibit, an application for an iDevice, that is, an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, for controlling the robotic fish while seeing through its eyes will be developed. This is a cooperative venture between New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and the River Project.
The article presents a lesson plan for eighth-grade students on neuromuscular control and biomedical engineering based on the engineering and design of prosthetic hands.
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Justin RyanDavid FrakesTirupalavanam GaneshChristine Zwart