Citizen science projects engage members of the general public in professionally directed research and participatory action research projects that investigate local environmental issues. The Cornell University - Laboratory of Ornithology is requesting funding to support a national conference and the development of a web-based Citizen Science Toolkit to inform these programs. The Toolkit will provide a framework for scientists and educators to develop, implement and evaluate independent citizen science projects. Deliverables include an invitational conference where best practices will be identified, in addition to the electronic toolkit that will include a Citizen Science Manual and instruments for assessing the effectiveness of projects. A virtual community of educators that develop and implement citizen science projects in a variety of STEM areas will be created. It is anticipated this work will improve the quality of citizen science projects across the country.
This project proposes using three complementary strategies to engage, inform and inspire large audiences. (1) A national tour called "Stories from a Changing Planet" that will include in-person presentations and hands-on activities by Polar scientists at science centers, museums, libraries and schools across the country. (2) the "HiDef video Science Story Capture Corp" team of professional videographers HD footage will be made available as public domain materials accessible to government research agencies, universities,science centers and others. (3) Video and Audio podcasts distributed throught iTunes, google, Yahoo and IPY websites. The project will have front end, formative and summative evaluations.
WGBH Educational Foundation is requesting funds to produce the third and fourth seasons of "NOVA scienceNOW," a multimedia project addressing a wide array of science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects via multiple platforms including national PBS broadcast, the PBS Web site and innovative outreach initiatives. Project goals are to help the general public understand the value and importance of scientific ressearch and to encourage an interest in STEM careers among younger viewers. INNOVATION/STRAGEGIC IMPACT: The series provides a significant opportunity to develop a new format for science journalism building on brand recognition but potentially reaching a broader and more diverse national audience. The new host will be Dr. Neil deCgrasse Tyson, an accomplished astrophysicist and charismatic science communicator whose partipation will help the series reach out to a broader demographic. NOVA is planning a new scheduling configuration for these future seasons to maximize audience for the six new programs per year, i.e. the programs iwll run consecutively in the NOVA slot during June and July. COLLABORATION: NOVA has developed a new consortium of PBS stations to advise on the series and to contribute editorially to the programs. This will give the program greater geographic coverage and will provide local contacts with researchers at major universities and institutions connected to these stations. The project will also partner with the American Library Association and Sigma Xi and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in the outreach effort. Multimedia Research, Inc. and Goodman Research Group will conduct formative and summative evaluations, respectively.
The Museum of Science (Boston) Discovery Center, MIT Early Childhood Cognition Lab, Boston Children's Museum, Indianapolis Children's Museum, Children's Museum of Richmond, and Maryland Science Center will help develop and evaluate a variety of methods to engage adults in activities that help the adults understand and apply current cognitive science research on children's exploratory play and causal reasoning development. The primary audience is adults with young children; secondary audiences are informal science education professionals who operate early childhood exhibit areas and cognitive science researchers.
FETCH is a new PBS television series with accompanying Web and outreach activities targeted to 6- to 10-year olds. The program brings science learning to young children by uniquely blending live-action with animation, game show convention with reality programming, and humor with academics. The intended impacts are to: 1) reach the target audience about what it means to be a scientist and encourage them to pursue a science career; 2) provide outreach partners with curriculum that supports content-rich ISE activities and career explorations in varied settings; and 3) demonstrate how media can be used to teach substantive science and share the results of project evaluation with others in the field. The requested funds will allow the project to expand the science curriculum with 20 new half-hour episodes and expand the Web site, focusing on three new science themes that highlight a range of careers: habitats, structures, and chemistry. In addition, funds will support new educational resources for libraries and other youth-serving organizations. FETCH is produced by WGBH; content and outreach partners include the Association for Library Service to Children, the National Wildlife Federation, and the American Chemical Society in addition to outreach partners in 3,200 youth-serving organizations. American Institute for Research will conduct formative evaluation for the project; Goodman Research Group will conduct summative evaluation of both the television show and the FETCH Future Scientist Guide.
The "Environmental Science Information Technology Activities (ESITA)" based at the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) at UC-Berkeley is a three-year, youth-based proposal that seeks to engage 144 inner-city ninth and tenth graders in learning experiences involving environmental science and information technology. The goal of the project is to develop, field-test, and disseminate an effective student-centered, project-based model for increasing understanding and interest in information technology. Program components included an afterschool program, summer enrichment and an internship program. An extensive partnership involving community based agencies, environmental science organizations, a local high school and industry support the project by serving as host sites for the afterschool program and internship component. Student participation in project-based, IT-dependent research activities related to environmental science will occur year round. Students will research air and water quality in their local communities and study attitudes toward -- and use of -- information technology among their peers. The focus of the research activities is based on the results of a students-needs assessment. Students participate in the program over a two-year period and are expected to receive at least 240 total contact hours. The afterschool program serves as the project's principal mechanism for content delivery. The five-month afterschool program consists of inquiry-based mini-courses on the following topics: Information Technology tools and concepts, earth and physical science, data compilation and modeling, and publication of research results. The summer enrichment component encompasses a series of workshops at LHS; excursions to IT-related exhibits, environmental facilities, and IT-based companies; and an annual student robotics fair. During the second year of program participation students will complete 12-month internships to support the application of concepts and skills learned the first year. The LHS Student Geoscience Research Opportunities program will serve as a model host site for the program. Stipends are provided throughout the program to encourage student participation and retention.
After-School Math PLUS (ASM+) uses the rapidly growing field of informal education as a venue to develop positive attitudes, build conceptual knowledge, and sharpen skills in mathematics for underserved youth in grades 3-8. "ASM+" brings families and children together in the pursuit of mathematics education and future career interests and directly addresses the NSF-ISE's four areas of special interests: (1) builds capacity with and among informal science education institutions; (2) encourages collaborations within communities; (3) increases the participation of underrepresented groups; and (4) models an effective after-school program. " ASM+" is being developed in collaboration with the New York Hall of Science and the St. Louis Science Center with support from after-school centers in their communities. "ASM+" incorporates the best practices of existing programs, while adding its own innovative elements that have proven successful in the NSF-funded "After-School Science Plus" (HRD #9632241). "ASM+" is aimed at underserved youth and their families, as well as after-school group leaders and teenage museum explainers who will benefit from training and participation in the project. It has facilitated the creation of alliances between museums, after-school centers, schools and the community.
Coastal Communities for Science: A Bering Sea Partnership is a 3-year program of collaboration among the WWF-US, four Alaska native rural communities and regional scientists investigating the ecology of the Bering Strait. Its primary purpose is to advance youth interaction with science and it proposes to achieve this by engaging young people from high school and beyond to conduct research with scientists. The project which involves training community youth on science and research methods, capacity building of informal educators in these rural communities to lead and encourage field-based programs, inclusion of community elders in the overall learning and communication of science concepts and the creation of a model of collaboration. The science content, an amalgam of community interest and researcher interest, is grounded in local environmental and economic issues. With WWF's support and electronic technology, this has the potential of being a model project that is broadly disseminated at local, regional and national levels.
Community Science Workshops: Beginning a National Movement is an extension of a successful, NSF-funded project that created a network of community science centers in California. The San Francisco State University will now take this successful venture to a national level by working with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) to establish a new Community Science Workshop (CSW) 8-10 in underserved communities over the next four years. Once sites are selected, CSW directors participate in an intensive two-week training program. This is followed by visits by site mentors, and ongoing support through the WWW and other media, which contributes to the establishment and eventual sustainability of the centers. Each site partners with larger, established museums and science centers locally to gain much needed assistance with exhibits and education programs. Community Science Workshops contain permanent exhibit space, a workshop area for student projects and classroom/storage space. They serve a variety of audiences through after school, family, school and summer science programs. Potential locations include Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia.
Project Butterfly WINGS is a three-year project targeting 4th-8th grade participants in 13 Florida counties. This project includes the use of the 4-H network as a partner to recruit participants. It builds on the development of student-scientist partnerships to create an environment where information, data and ideas can be exchanged. This project will focus on collecting data on butterflies and the environments/habitats the butterflies choose to visit. This project brings together several important elements to present an interactive, authentic, research-based SSP activity supported through an established network of ISE providers, educators and community-based organizations. Based on solid research and knowledge about ISE approaches, the project has strong content connections and a well-designed structure. An interactive web-site will provide opportunities for participants to interact with each other and with participating scientists, and to experience firsthand some of the most interesting aspects of engaging in scientific inquiry. WINGS has the potential to create a network of young people who will be more aware of issues related to biodiversity and the environment. Through its model approach and participant outcomes, "Project Butterfly WINGS" is positioned to make a difference in the ISE field and in the lives of its participants.
Mixing in Math is a multi-dimensional, three-year project that seeks to build the capacity of after-school programs to provide meaningful and engaging math activities for youth. Program collaborators including project leaders from TERC and after-school program leaders will reach approximately 40,000 children through at least 350 sites and approximately 9,000 staff and volunteers. Drawing on the unique features of the after-school environment, the project design includes the following elements: development of materials appropriate to the setting; staff development and support; institutionalization and dissemination of materials throughout an established network and evaluation research to further knowledge about informal math and after-school programming. Project goals are to: provide free math materials to all participating after-school staff; produce a significant increase in informal math training for the after-school workforce; strengthen the role of informal math in after-school settings; and conduct and disseminate research on the project in terms of its impact on after-school programming, informal math education and the math "achievement gap." "Mixing in Math" national partners will facilitate further reach of the project. The National Institute of Out of School Time (NIOST) in addition to posting materials on their website, will incorporate project activities into their staff development programs. Ceridian, a work-life benefits provider, will distribute project materials to workplace school-ages childcare programs.
This study (1) creates a genre of exhibit-based, group scientific inquiry programs for general and low-income museum visitors, (2) determines key program characteristics that lead to learning, (3) conducts a controlled experiment to assess the levels and nature of actual transfer of such skills to other exhibits and to visitors' lives beyond the museum visit. A team of researchers and educators creates, revises, and studies Exhibit Investigations for general and underserved visitors at the Exploratorium. During Investigations, educators coach visitors in inquiry skills that are heuristics for engaging with exhibits or physical phenomena beyond the museum. Pre- and post-assessments of learner interactions with a novel exhibit are recorded and analyzed for evidence of transfer of the inquiry skills introduced during the Investigations. Exit and follow-up interviews determine long-term impact. Two versions of the Investigations-with and without mnemonic cards summarizing inquiry skills-are compared with two control conditions in a randomized block design with four conditions and 50 groups per condition. Intellectual Merit The project broadens the focus of current research on the learning of scientific inquiry skills beyond the school setting. A science museum with engaging and interactive exhibits constitutes an ideal and understudied setting for research on inquiry learning by groups. This project . describes the nature of inquiry learning in an informal learning environment . generates principles for using audience diversity to enhance learning identifies specific inquiry skills that are relevant and effective in this environment . assesses levels of transfer of such skills by visitors . compares such transfer to control groups receiving no mediation or content-based mediation The exhibit-based, group inquiries adapt best practices from formal education for use in the multigenerational, free-choice learning environment of a museum. The research yields a series of effective programs and a set of theoretical principles that account for their efficacy. Broader Impacts Project results and learning principles will be disseminated to academic, museum, and lay audiences. In total, the project serves approximately 1,000 Exploratorium visitors. The project will is presented at national and local conferences such as AERA, ASTC, VSA, and AAM, reaching museum researchers, practitioners, and a broad educational research community. Articles are submitted to peer-review journals in the fields of museum studies and science education. Project updates and the final report are posted on the Exploratorium Web site (visited by 15 million annually). Outcomes are disseminated to the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS), an initiative of the Exploratorium, Kings College London, and UC Santa Cruz. A non-technical publication, distributed through the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), informs science centers around the world.