The WCS/Bronx Zoo, in partnership with the United States Coalition for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (USCDESD), will host a two-day summit targeting professional educators working for institutions that maintain living collections (such as zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens). The goal of the summit is to provide an opportunity for sharing of best practices and development of strategies and recommendations that these institutions can utilize in supporting the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). A key focus will be the fundamental role science has played and will continue to play in finding solutions to the challenges of sustainable development. The summit will involve staff from approximately 50 institutions across the nation and will result in a Recommendations Document and set of Action Plans that will guide the work of the participants, and the field, in the creation of science education programming focusing on sustainable development and the Decade.
This proof-of-concept project is a collaboration of the Museum of Science in Boston, WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and Ideum. The project will demonstrate that the project team can design and develop digital interactive museum exhibit devices that work for visitors who have a wide range of disabilities. The outcome will be one "exemplar" exhibit based on an exhibit scenario where museum visitors learn STEM concepts by manipulating and analyzing real data. The project will also develop and test the efficacy of a prototype Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Toolkit that will help other museum professionals implement the digital interactive strategies. In addition, the project will produce a white paper on the specific exemplar and a research paper with guidelines for digital interactive exhibits in museum. The project uses an innovative workshop approach that brings together individuals from a diverse range of fields to develop the digital interactive strategies. After developing the "exemplar" exhibit, the team will develop the DIY Toolkit and test the efficacy of the Toolkit in museums that do not have the same level of exhibit development resources as larger institutions. The the project's evaluation will not only determine if the exemplar works well with a wide range of people with disabilities, but also determine the cost-effectiveness and efficacy of the workshop strategy and the ability of other museums to use the DIY toolkit. If successful, this project will attend to an area of high need in the informal science education (ISE) museum exhibit community and provide a resource that will serve a wide range of ISE institutions. If the project evaluation outcomes are positive, the project will lead to a larger effort to develop more exemplar exhibits based on different scenarios and an expansion of the DIY Toolkit.
Miami University - Ohio/Project Dragonfly is developing "Wild Research," a multi-faceted collaborative project with the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and with a consortium of ten zoos and aquariums around the country, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Society for Conservation Biology, and Conservation International. Project deliverables include a centrally-located 4,500 square-foot Wild Research Discovery Forest exhibit and six Wild Research Stations around the Cincinnati Zoo, a Wild Research Consortium and Wild Research Leadership Workshops for zoo professionals, conservation scientists and educators, a Wild Research Web site with visitor password access to exhibit data they collected, and 90-second radio pieces for the 90-Second Naturalist program. Institute for Learning Innovation is conducting the formative and summative evaluations. The Ohio Assessment and Evaluation Center is conducting a separate evaluation focused on this extensive institutional collaboration process. The primary public impact is to explore new ways zoos and aquariums can incorporate inquiry-based activities on site and to help visitors understand the work of conservation scientists. The project also aims to improve the practice of zoo and aquarium professionals nationwide in inquiry-based experiences and communicating about conservation science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christopher MyersSamuel Jenike
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Exploratorium will host an invitational three-day conference on best practices in science exhibition development. At the conference practitioners will identify best practices in conceiving, designing, managing and developing science exhibitions. The conference will highlight current issues such as responding to diversity, providing access to current science and balancing the considerations of market and mission. The ideas and issues raised at this conference will culminate in a publication for dissemination to the field that includes conference proceedings as well as interviews with and essays by practicing exhibition professionals
Peep and the Big, Wide World is an NSF-funded television series for children ages 3 to 5. The Children's Museum proposes to build on this show and extend its impact through exhibits, education and professional development programs. Specifically, planning grant funds will be used to 1) gather best practices in preschool & brand-based exhibition development, 2) conduct a front-end survey of potential host museums to determine training needs of museum staff, parents, caregivers and teachers of preschool children, and 3) clarify design of the education and professional development programs associated with the exhibit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Timothy PorterAnn Marie Stephan
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Indianapolis Zoo, in collaboration with the Metro Toronto Zoo, the Milwaukee Public Zoo, the Phoenix Zoo, the Oregon Zoo and the Fort Worth Zoo will engage in a planning effort to enable the group of zoos to form the Zoo Exhibit Collaborative. The Collaborative will develop a series of traveling exhibitions and collateral materials at member zoos and for the broader zoo and acquarium industry.
The American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AAGBA) requests a 24-month conference grant for a professional development workshop, "Starting Right: Team Building and Project Planning," to be presented at all six of the AAGBA regional meetings. The emphasis of this worshop is on the critical early planning stages of an informal learning project. In order to increase the professional capacity of those working in botanical gardens and arboreta, the primary goals for this workshop are to enhance the ability of institutionally-based teams to work together and to define clear goals and objectives for a project on which they are working.
The American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA) is requesting support for the upcoming World Congress to be held in Ashville, NC, June 25-30, 2000. They intend to develop a theme, "Reaching Out: Informal Learning in Botanical Gardens," in order to enhance informal learning in botanical gardens across the nation. The theme will be addressed through plenary addresses, conference sessions, workshops and tours. A conference publication and a web site will extend the impact of this theme beyond the conference.
To address a lack of informal science education opportunities and to increase community capacity to support STEM education for their children, Washington State University's Yakima Valley/Tri Cities MESA program, the Pacific Science Center, and KDNA Educational Radio have developed a set of informal science initiatives that offer complementary learning opportunities for rural Latino families. The goal of this four-year program is to create a sustainable informal science infrastructure in southeastern Washington State to serve families, increase parental awareness, support and involvement in science education and ultimately increase the numbers of rural Latino youth pursuing STEM-related under graduate studies. This program is presented in English and Spanish languages in all of its interconnected deliverables: Two mobile exhibits, beginning with one focused on agricultural and environmental science developed by The Pacific Science (PCS) Center; Curriculum and training in agriculture, life sciences and facilitating learning; Curriculum and training for community members to provide support to parents in encouraging the academic aspirations of their children developed by PSC and MESA; 420 Youth and parents from the MESA program trained to interpret exhibits and run workshops, community festivals, family science workshops and Saturday programs throughout the community; Four annual community festivals, quarterly Family Saturday events, and Family Science Workshops reaching 20,000 people over the four-year project; Take home activities, science assemblies, a website and CDs with music and science programming for community events; A large media initiative including monthly one hour call-in radio programs featuring science experts, teachers, professionals, students and parents, 60-second messages promoting science concepts and resources and a publicity campaign in print, radio and TV to promote community festivals. These venues reach 12,500-25,000 people each; A program manual that includes training, curriculum and collaborative strategies used by the project team. Overall Accesso la Ciencia connects parents and children through fun community activities to Pasco School District's current LASER science education reform effort. This project complements the school districts effort by providing a strong community support initiative in informal science education. Each activity done in the community combines topics of interest to rural Latinos (agriculture for instance) to concepts being taught in the schools, while also providing tools and support to parents that increases their awareness of opportunities for their children in STEM education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James PrattD. Janae' LandisDonald LynchMichael Trevisan
The 2010 Delivery and Reach study documented the delivery of nano education activities at NISE Network partner institutions and estimated the public reach of those activities. Surveys used in this study are included in the appendix of this report.
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.
The Interactive Video Science Consortium is a non-profit group of fifteen science centers and museums that proposes to develop interactive video exhibits about Earth and Planetary sciences with two purposes in mind. One, the video exhibits on the two subject areas will serve as educational vehicles for four million visitors, representing the combined audiences of the fifteen participating museums. Two, through extensive testing and visitor research during the development process the consortium members will enlarge understanding of the appropriate and effective uses of the interactive video medium in science museums. Consortium members will fund the costs of conducting research on the subject matter and producing the first two discs. The request to the National Science Foundation is for the systematic analysis of the effectiveness of this type of program and of the educational impact of the medium in science museums.