The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will carry out a museum-wide initiative to distribute exhibits and programs about new science and research among its core exhibits. The project goal is to redefine science for visitors as a dynamic human endeavor that is rich in discovery and relevant to their lives, as well as to position SMM as a resource for complex science and science issues. The project includes Current Science Central (500 sq ft) plus three Current Science Zones (250-300 sq ft) distributed among existing galleries (Mississippi River, Human Body, Experiment). Standardized formats (e.g., newscast scripts, quiz questions, multimedia kiosks, bulletin/graffiti boards) will provide frameworks that simplify the constant need for updating content and increase the ability to respond quickly. Target audiences are families, school groups, teachers, teens and lifelong learners from among the 850,000 annual visitors; involvement of the Youth Science Center will engage underserved audiences. Project collaborators are researchers (University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, Gentra Systems, 3M and JPL), as well as media (Physics Today, television and radio). The science museum field will benefit from the experience gained through this project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Liza PryorCari DwyerMark DahlagerPaul Martin
In this project, the Education Development Center and Campbell-Kibbler Research Associates Inc., are researching the impact of a set of after-school biology materials on under-represented middle school youth at the Boston Nature Center and two University of New Hampshire 4H Clubs. In response to a general need in the field to examine the relationship between learning in informal science programs and learning in school, this project studies the potential of informal contexts to enhance student engagement in the phases of inquiry, giving special attention to the role of visual representations in the early stages of inquiry. The research identifies how visual representations are directly involved in the ability of young people to discern patterns and externalize their own thinking and how these two abilities impact their science confidence and basic knowledge of the biology content in the units. To identify the potential impact of this strategy on in school learning, the in school learning of participating youth is compared to a similar group of children who do not participate in the program. Secondarily the project identifies how the results of this research influence the work of after-school program developers' use of visual tools. The program goal is to provide a rich foundation of out of school experiences for young people upon which they can more readily grasp concepts that are also introduced in the school context. Deliverables include a peer reviewed research paper, two extended biology units using digital and hand made visual representations, and a manual for developing similar programs. The summative evaluation measures the impact of the deliverables on the professional field. The curriculum will be used at hundreds of after school programs and the manual and research paper will impact program developers field-wide by influencing future programs they develop.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bernard ZubrowskiBryan WunarPatricia CampbellKerry Ouellet
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Self-Reliance Foundation will develop a conference that has the overarching goal of laying the groundwork for the development of strategic partnerships for involving Latino audiences in informal science learning, led by informal science institutions nationwide. Numbering over 42 million, Latinos are now the largest ethnic/racial minority group in America; in recent years, 1 of every 2 new Americans has been Latino. Educational opportunities, formal and informal, are not keeping pace. Latino students score lower on math and science achievement tests than national averages, enroll at disproportionately lower levels, and are underrepresented in undergraduate and graduate science and engineering programs. Latino families are under-represented among those who visit science centers and other like institutions. Latino students are under-enrolled in after-school programs. There is no Spanish-language NPR or PBS; there is little science available on Spanish-language media, including radio, television, and newspapers. The conference will bring together informal science institutions and science research organizations together with Hispanic organizations, media, and educational projects to review current ISE resources, identify needs and gaps, learn about best practices in designing culturally effective programs and resources, and develop new strategies and resources to enrich the informal science learning environment for Latinos.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop "Water Planet," a 5,000 square foot traveling exhibit, web site, and associated programs focusing on the new and evolving field of Earth system science. It will apply the dynamic technologies of "Science-on-a-Sphere," " Digital River Basin," and "GEO-Wall II" to engage museum visitors in the processes by which water mediates many interactions among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryoshpere, biosphere and geosphere. Through these techniques, it will explore the potential of using large satellite and ground-based datasets, computermodeling, simulations and visualizations to increase public understanding of Earth system research. Scientific collaborators include the National Center for Earth System Dynamics (Universiy of Minnesota, Twin Cities); Center for Advanced Materials for Purifiction of Water with Systems (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana); and Sustainability of Semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (University of Arizona, Tucson). BROADER IMPACTS: "Water Planet" will reach some three million people, with a focus on local water conservation and pollution issues and the way the entire planet functions. In addition, through collaboration with the University of Connecticut Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officers (NEMO) program, the exhibition will help educate local government officials at exhibition venues. SMM also will partner with the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Headwaters Science Center for educational outreach programs. These applications of scientific visualization technology and lessons from this project will be shared with the science museum at large through a web site created for this purpose and other forms of professional dissemination.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Patrick HamiltonRoberta CooksDouglas JohnstonGary WoodardPaul Morin
WGBH is producing twelve quarterly television magazine-format programs devoted to the public understanding of current scientific research. The programs will consider the significant areas of on-going research, present the scientists who are conducting the research, portray research as an on-going endeavor and discuss the social impact and ethical implications of major areas of research. Each program will include segments such as the following: Research news update - (5 to 7 mins.) Feature stories about on-going research - 3 (8 to 12 min. each) In-studio discussions following many of the feature stories - ethical, policy and social implications Point/Counterpoint - 2 commentators presenting social, ethical, political and economic aspects of research "Then and Now" segments showing changing nature of scientific research In-studio demonstrations Interstitial moments -- Showcases of interesting and surprising aspects of research Close -- update stories from previous programs, read viewers' input or answer viewers' questions, preview upcoming story. In addition, WGBH will produce three one-hour "Year in Review" programs that report what major research has occurred over the past year and puts it in a context that will help viewers understand the role of current research in all aspects of life. Other major components of the project include on-going collaborations with other Public Understanding of Research Projects, an interactive web site, communication training for scientists to help them explain their work to the public, "Science Cafes" with on-going public programs about cutting-edge research in informal settings, a resource guide for teachers, "Leading Edge" articles in magazines targeted to teens, a "Leading Edge" science contest for students conducted through PBS stations and a station resource kit with information about how to establish local collaborations with researchers, science museums, schools and others.
Twin Cities Public Television, in association with Red Hill Studios, is producing and disseminating an Exploring Time television special and associated outreach material. The project will augment and leverage the Exploring Time traveling exhibit now being developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota (NSF grant #99-01919). The goal of both the exhibit and the television special is to increase the public's understanding of our world by revealing the unseen world of natural change -- the multitude of changes that are occurring in the present but at rates too slow or too fast to be seen. The television special will provide visual explorations of changes that take place over a vast range of timescales -- from billionths of seconds to billions of years. The television series and exhibit will be supplemented by a range of materials. Both low- and high-bandwidth, web-based material will be available and a teacher's guide will be developed for middle school classrooms. A "Time Explorers Toolkit" will be available to both formal and informal learners. This CD-ROM includes detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to create time-lapse movies. The project also will coordinate outreach with the Community Technology Centers Network, the organization that supports technology centers that serve individuals from underrepresented and low-income groups.
The University of Oregon, Eugene, is producing "Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold," a three-hour television documentary series about the field of low-temperature physics, the field in which one-third of all physicists are working today. The series explores key concepts, significant individuals and events in the field's turbulent history, and the enormous impact that the mastery of cold has had on society through technologies such as air-conditioning, refrigeration and liquefied gases. The film, based in large part on Tom Shachtman's book of the same name, will document how four centuries of research into lower temperatures has produced stunning scientific insights and applications that have revolutionized the world we live in. Planned outreach includes public programs, museum activities, and an interactive web site. The PI's for the project are Russell Donnelly of the University of Oregon, Richard Hudson of Twin Cites Public Television, and Meredith Burch of Meridian/Windfall Productions, Inc. Other key staff members include Thomas Shachtman, author of the book upon which the series is based; David Dugan, Co-Producer/Director of Windfall Films; David Heil of David Heil and Associates; Barbara Flagg of Multimedia Research; and Irene Goodman, of Goodman Research Group.
The Board on Science Education at the National Research Council of the National Academies will develop practitioner-focused resources based on a synthesis study on Learning Science in Informal Environments (LSIE), a comprehensive review of educational research funded through a previous NSF award. Project deliverables will consist of a publication, video and digitized web resources designed to guide the application of the research findings presented in the LSIE report. The goals of this project are to support efforts to advance science education for diverse learners, to bridge research and practice, and to provide the broader informal science education communities access to research-generated knowledge. The project will greatly extend the impact of the synthesis study by making evidence-based approaches more widely available and utilized by informal science educators and insitutions.
The James Agee Film Project is requesting funds to produce a four-part series of one-hour films on the environmental and social history of Appalachia. "APPALACHIA: A History of Mountains and People" will be the first series of films on the history of Appalachia and the first environmental history film ever made about a region in the United States. The project will demonstrate the dynamic interaction and inseparability of natural history and human history. By interweaving the discoveries and insights from scientific disciplines, including geology, ecology, biology and environmental science, with those of the humanities, the series will explore how the mountains have shaped human cultures and how people have shaped the mountains. "APPALACHIA: A History of Mountains and People" is made for national broadcast on PBS and is being co-sponsored by six Appalachian state PBS networks. The series is being produced in conjunction with the upcoming "Encyclopedia of Appalachia." Outreach programs include partnerships with many regional grassroots organizations, PBS stations and educational institutions to extend the film into a wide range of rural communities and schools. The Project Director/Writer of the series will be the Academy Award nominated filmmaker Ross Spears. Jamie Ross is co-producer/writer; Dr. George Constantz, the Science Writer/Content Director. Dr. Constantz is also currently the principal science and ecology editor of The Encyclopedia of Appalachia, which will be published in 2005. A distinguished group of scholars and scientists will contribute to the project. Dr. Gary Henry, Director of the Applied Research Center in Atlanta, will oversee the project evaluation.
SoundVision Productions proposes to develop five one-hour radio documentaries, five five-minute features, and a website to inform a diverse public about the important advances in genomics and related sciences. Each of the new topics represents a rapidly developing field within genomics rarely covered in depth by the media. Those topics include systems biology, neurogenetics, RNA and Immunology, and Individualizing the Genome. The DNA Files will provide public radio listeners and web site users informal education in the genomic revolution and follow-on research and technology, its scientific underpinnings, and related social, philosophical and legal issues. The project will offer audiences an awareness of the societal benefits of research and the intellectual tools to join in legal and social policy debates. A collaboration with the Exploratorium will extend the reach of the project through the development of a "DNA Workshop Kit", a series of four or five hands-on workshops for the general public that can be produced at the Exploratorium and other science museums around the country. A comprehensive outreach strategy will be implemented by 20 local public radio stations around the country in partnership with community organizations.
This comprehensive ITEST project would provide sixty middle and high school teachers with an introduction to Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies. The project, which brings together a leadership team of educators, science researchers and experts in resource management, is based at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian Laboratory, a research facility that studies stream and forest ecosystems. The program will focus on environmental applications in which teachers use probes to investigate the properties of local forest and stream ecosystems. Teachers will apply their technology experiences to creating standards based lessons aligned with local curricula. The teacher participants will be recruited from rural, underserved Appalachian communities in western Maryland and northern West Virginia. Local students will be recruited to participate in a four-day summer session that includes field-testing the proposed lessons and learning about career opportunities in information technology.
This project will research distributed, online fantasy basketball games, which are quite popular with many kinds of players, including informal science education under-represented groups, and which entail some degree of informal statistical reasoning and decision-making strategies. The game is not playing basketball per se, but taking on the role of a team owner or coach who needs to decide how best to compose a team given necessarily limited resources. The research team will provide a method for framing and researching statistical understanding and decision making of expert and novice players, then, based on the research, will develop scaffolded techniques for helping players become more reflective on and adept with the statistical knowledge and decision making strategies they use.