The National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED) is a Science and Technology Center focused on understanding the processes that shape the Earth's surface, and on communicating that understanding with a broad range of stakeholders. NCED's work will support a larger, community-based effort to develop a suite of quantitative models of the Earth's surface: a Community Sediment Model (CSM). Results of the NCED-CSM collaboration will be used for both short-term prediction of surface response to natural and anthropogenic change and long-term interpretation of how past conditions are recorded in landscapes and sedimentary strata. This will in turn help solve pressing societal problems such as estimation and mitigation of landscape-related risk; responsible management of landscape resources including forests, agricultural, and recreational areas; forecasting landscape response to possible climatic and other changes; and wise development of resources like groundwater and hydrocarbons that are hosted in buried sediments. NCED education and knowledge transfer programs include exhibits and educational programs at the Science Museum of Minnesota, internships and programs for students from tribal colleges and other underrepresented populations, and research opportunities for participants from outside core NCED institutions. The Earth's surface is the dynamic interface among the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere. It is intimately interwoven with the life that inhabits it. Surface processes span environments ranging from high mountains to the deep ocean and time scales from fractions of a second to millions of years. Because of this range in forms, processes, and scales, the study of surface dynamics has involved many disciplines and approaches. A major goal of NCED is to foster the development of a unified, quantitative science of Earth-surface dynamics that combines efforts in geomorphology, civil engineering, biology, sedimentary geology, oceanography, and geophysics. Our research program has four major themes: (1) landscape evolution, (2) basin evolution, (3) biological sediment dynamics, and (4) integration of morphodynamic processes across environments and scales. Each theme area provides opportunities for exchange of information and ideas with a wide range of stakeholders, including teachers and learners at all levels; researchers, managers, and policy makers in both the commercial and public sectors; and the general public.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Efi Foufoula-GeorgiouChristopher PaolaGary Parker
This report describes a summative evaluation of Secrets of Circles, a 2,600 square foot exhibition created by Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose and funded by the National Science Foundation. The exhibition and related programs were designed to highlight the uses of circles and wheels in everyday life. Circles have properties that make them extremely effective as an engineering tool, and they are ubiquitous in cultures around the world. The appendix of this report inclues interview and observation protocols and questionnaires used in this study.
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Sue AllenChildren's Discovery Museum of San Jose
Too Small to See is a 5,000 square-foot interactive traveling museum exhibition designed to provide hands-on nanotechnology science education to youth age 8 to 13 and adults. It debuted at Disney's Epcot and will reach over three million people during a five-year US tour. This evaluation examines the exhibition’s outcomes and impact on increasing visitors’ awareness of, interest in, engagement with, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. An overarching goal is to document the project’s contribution to the portfolio of federally funded Science Technology
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Douglas SpencerTina PhillipsTori AngelottiShane MurphyFred ConnerCornell University
This bilingual study for the Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine exhibition was conducted by the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). The Against All Odds exhibition was a partnership between NMNH, the Chilean Embassy in Washington, DC, and the U.S. State Department, and tells the story of the 69-day saga that ended when 33 miners were lifted to the surface as heroes. Against All Odds was one of the first bilingual exhibitions at NMNH, and the interpretive team chose to use bilingual graphics for three
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is a National Science Foundation funded project which developed a national traveling exhibition on science and technology themes depicted in the Star Wars movies. The Museum of Science, Boston (MOS) developed the exhibition in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd. and Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (SMEC). The exhibition will travel to members of the SMEC in Los Angeles, Portland, Fort Worth, St. Paul, Columbus, Philadelphia, and Boston. Other venues will display the exhibition after the Collaborative tour. Tisdal Consulting was contracted to
The purpose of this summative report is to document the project outcomes in relation to the proposed goals. The Nanooze exhibit installation project achieved all four goals and continues to inform the public about nanotechnology in its installation at Epcot. Surveys of visitors show acquisition of content related to the exhibits, as detailed in this summative report.
Bio Med Tech: Engineering for Your Health was a 2,750 square foot exhibition at the Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) that dealt with issues related to biomedical technology. Partially funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Awards program (NIH/SEPA), the project was developed through a partnership between GLSC and Case Western Reserve University. The SEPA grant also funded a variety of programming activities, including informal Exploration Cart activities in the exhibition, presentations in the exhibition's theater space, and teacher training
The Review of NISE Network Evaluation Findings: Years 1-5 seeks to investigate the work of the NISE Network since its inception in 2005 and provide an overarching summary of NISE Net Public Impacts evaluation efforts to the NISE Network and the broader ISE field. This Review is divided into six chapters, representing the following themes: Connecting ISE Professionals with Nano Informal Science Education; Connecting University-Affiliated Individuals with Nano Informal Science Education;Engaging the Public in Learning about Nano through NISE Network Educational Products;Engaging the Public with
Nanoscience is an emerging scientific field, and therefore an increasing amount of funding is flowing into nanoscience and nanotechnology research, including money from the federal government. Several studies of public understanding and public attitudes toward nanoscience have shown that most of the public is generally uninterested in and unmotivated to learn about nanoscale science and technology3. Because this emerging interdisciplinary field of science offers so much promise, and because it will have an increasing presence in everyday life, the NSF is committed to increasing public
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark St. JohnJenifer V. HelmsNanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) NetworkPam CastoriJudy HirabayashiLaurie LopezMichelle Phillips
During 2005-2008, the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network researched, designed, implemented, and evaluated public deliverables covering various aspects of nanoscience, nanotechnology, and nanoengineering. Working with four NISE Net museums, Multimedia Research used a web-based post-survey design to assess nanotechnology awareness in a sample of museum visitors exposed to nano-topic programs, exhibits, forums and activities (treatment group) compared with a sample of museum members who were not exposed to the deliverables (control group). Exposure to nano-topic deliverables appears to
Creativity Workshop (working title) is planned to be an approximately 4,000 square foot permanent exhibit that is part of the Museum of Science's Technology Initiative. The exhibit aims to have visitors participate in interactive activities, allowing them to experience for themselves the engineering design process and creative problem solving techniques. The exhibit will be organized into three main areas: Inventors' Tools, which will introduce visitors to creative thinking tools that can be used to design new technologies and solve technological problems; Engineering Design which features
The NSF-funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) Network produced exhibits and programs designed to develop awareness, engagement, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology in the museum-going public. As part of the overall summative evaluation of the first five years of this grant, the Exhibits and Programs Study examines the measurable impacts of these public products on museum visitors. These exhibits and programs were developed during the first four years of the project as the NISE Network itself was growing and developing; the products show the strength