Serial Passage: AIDS, Race, and Culture is a multi-part documentary series. The Long-term goals are: 1) to produce a documentary series exploring the specific and devastating impact of H.I.V./AIDS upon Africans and African-Americans; and 2) to create a heightened understanding of the need for H.I.V. prevention among the high-risk group of young, inner-city African-Americans who've so far proved unresponsive to available public health information. Specific Aims: 1) To deconstruct the racial stigma of AIDS, and scientifically confront the conspiracy theories which are firmly linked to the disease in black America, and in Africa; and 2) to work with an inner-city high school science class, actively involving them in the making of the series. Research Design and Methods: 1) To document on film the process of scientific inquiry which led two prominent researchers to their theory on the origin of AIDS; 2) To document on film the social impact of H.I.V/AIDS upon specific African countries, including Uganda and South Africa, and upon African-American communities in the United States; 3) To periodically screen footage of the documentary for the high school class and conduct videotaped discussions between the students and the scientists throughout one academic year; and 4) To give the students a videotaped questionnaire at the beginning and end of the year designed to measure how much they learn about AIDS and its impact upon their particular community.
The Tech Museum of Innovation and Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Genetics have established longterm partnership to enable the public to draw connections between modern genetics research and choices they face about their health. Together we will develop, produce, evaluate, and disseminate Life's New Frontier, a dynamic exhibition which will inform the public about the goals and methods of modern genetics. Interactive permanent exhibits and guided learning centers, staffed jointly by museum educators and by working scientists (predominantly Stanford graduate students and postdoctoral fellows), will take the public into the minds and laboratories of scientists who are revolutionizing biomedical science. The exhibition and associated public and school programs will emphasize the emerging discipline of bioinformatics, which is fundamental to the Human Genome Project, gene-based diagnosis, rational drug design, and treatment of disease. Life's New Frontier will open in the summer of 2003 to reach an estimated 1.5 million diverse people annually through museum and online visitation. It will set a new standard for the treatment of cutting-edge science in exhibitions by establishing an infrastructure that permits rapid changes to exhibit content, and creating opportunities for visitors to receive personalized science and health updates after their visit. The exhibition also will serve as a platform to foster continuing personal interaction among middle and high school students, Stanford faculty and students, and the general public. The Tech/Stanford partnership will be maintained through staff liaison positions at each partner institution and will be evaluated to assess its effectiveness. We hope to extend this model to other departments at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and to disseminate it as a model for other science center/university partnerships in biomedical sciences. We anticipate significant outcomes of this partnership: the pblic will be better able to apply the ideas of modern genetics to decisions about their health; and a broad range of students from diverse backgrounds will be inspired to pursue biomedical education and research.
Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), in collaboration with the Hall of Health, a hands-on health museum, proposes a three-year Phase I SEPA project entitled "Health and Biomedical Science for a Diverse Community." The project entails development of a novel, interactive biomedical science curriculum for 4th and 5th grade students in low socioeconomic environments. Complementary to the curriculum, a hands-on exhibit on social and genetic factors in health will be developed to enhance learning by students and families. The curriculum and exhibit will be pilot tested with students from two elementary schools in Oakland, California. The curriculum--which will specifically address minority health issues such as asthma, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease--will include four five-lesson instructional units for 4th grade, and four five-lesson instructional units for 5th grade. In addition to classroom activities, the project will include workshops for teachers, family health and biomedical science nights, field trips to the Hall of Health, and an annual health and biomedical science festival for families. The project will involve clinical as well as basic science investigators, patients and families, and high school and college students. It will draw on the talents of teachers and health educators from the Oakland Unified School District, directors of SEPA projects at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, faculty at San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley, and employees of LeapFrog, Inc., a company located in Emeryville, California, that makes interactive educational products. The ultimate goals of the project are to make science interesting and relevant to children who come from ethnically diverse, low socio-economic environments, to help them and their parents understand the relationship between science and health, and to foster their interest in science so that they may consider future opportunities in careers related to biomedical science. All project activities will undergo front-end, formative, and summative evaluation.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM)--in collaboration with scientists at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and Academic Health Center; the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Antibiotic Resistance Collaborative--requests a Phase 1/11five-year SEPA grant of $1,250,000 to develop a traveling museum exhibition and web site that highlight the fascinating science behind the outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that are changing and shaping our way of life in the 21st century. Topics to be covered will include the emergence of new illnesses like SARS and Avian Influenza and the re-emergence of drug-resistant infections that were once curable but now can be fatal. An Infectious Disease Advisory Panel and Content Experts representing the collaborating institutions listed above and others will guide museum staff in the development of these exhibits and programs. EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES will be a 1,500 square-foot special exhibition to be installed in SMM's Human Body Gallery in spring 2007. After an 18-month presentation, it will begin a tour to five medium size science centers over two years. In addition to the exhibition and its complementary web site, special programming will be targeted to reach specific audiences, including: K-12 school groups visiting the museum (a user guide with on-line pre- and post-visit activities aligned with state and National Science Education Standards); K-12 classroom teachers (Curriculum Enhancement Institutes); and outreach programs serving after-school programs for children in under-served inner-city neighborhoods. A focus on areas of ongoing research will be used to highlight how far we have come in understanding the complex world of infectious diseases and how far we must go in treatment or elimination of present day health threats.