Living Liquid will identify strategies for creating visualization tools that can actively engage the public with emerging research about the ocean's microbes and their impact on our planet. It addresses a critical issue for the ISE field: creating ways for visitors to ask and answer their own questions about emerging areas of science with visualizations. This Pathway project will provide important lessons learned for a future full-scale development project at the Exploratorium's new location over San Francisco Bay, and for informal science educators and other professionals working to create interactive visualization tools using the vast data sets now available. Living Liquid is a collaboration between developers, educators and learning researchers at the Exploratorium, computer scientists at the Visualization Interface and Design Innovation Group at UC Davis, and marine scientists at the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education. The project's research and development process includes a front-end study of visitors' interests and prior knowledge related to ocean microbes, interviews with scientists to identify potential datasets and activities, a survey of candidate visualizations, and a series of prototypes to identify promising strategies to engage visitors with and allow visitors to explore large scientific datasets through visualization tools.
Presentation on NSF grant DRL-0337354 (""TexNET: Texas Network for Exhibit-based Learning and Teaching"") presented at the CAISE Convening on Organizational Networks, November 17th, 2011."") presented at the CAISE Convening on Organizational Networks, November 17th, 2011.
Presentation on NSF funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (DRL-0940143), presented at the CAISE Convening on Organizational Networks, November 17th, 2011.
Presentation on NSF grant DRL-1010844 (""STAR Library Education Network: A Hands-on Learning Program for Libraries and Their Communities"") presented at the CAISE Convening on Organizational Networks, November 17th, 2011.
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
Boston's Museum of Science (MOS), with Harvard as its university research partner, is extending, disseminating, and further evaluating their NSF-funded (DRL-0714706) Living Laboratory model of informal cognitive science education. In this model, early-childhood researchers have both conducted research in the MOS Discovery Center for young children and interacted with visitors during the museum's operating hours about what their research is finding about child development and cognition. Several methods of interacting with adult visitors were designed and evaluated, including the use of "research toys" as exhibits and interpretation materials. Summative evaluation of the original work indicated positive outcomes on all targeted audiences - adults with young children, museum educators, and researchers. The project is now broadening the implementation of the model by establishing three additional museum Hub Sites, each with university partners - Maryland Science Center (with Johns Hopkins), Madison Children's Museum (with University of Wisconsin, Madison), and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (with Lewis & Clark College). The audiences continue to include researchers (including graduate and undergraduate students); museum educators; and adults with children visiting the museums. Deliverables consist of: (1) establishment of the Living Lab model at the Hub sites and continued improvement of the MOS site, (2) a virtual Hub portal for the four sites and others around the country, (3) tool-kit resources for both museums and scientists, and (4) professional symposia at all sites. Intended outcomes are: (1) improve museum educators' and museum visiting adults' understanding of cognitive/developmental psychology and research and its application to raising their children, (2) improve researchers' ability to communicate with the public and to conduct their research at the museums, and (3) increase interest in, knowledge about, and application of this model throughout the museum community and grow a network of such collaborations.
Many museums currently produce bilingual exhibits, but very little research exists to inform practice. The Bilingual Exhibits Research Initiative (BERI), funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation, addressed this critical knowledge gap. This exploratory research project investigated 1) current professional approaches to producing bilingual exhibits and 2) how bilingual exhibits provide opportunities for Spanish-speaking Latinos to engage in informal science learning. BERI's research with museum and science center staff documents current professional knowledge, concerns, opportunities, and constraints involved in the creation of bilingual exhibits. BERI's research with visitors explores how content and design affords and constrains visitors' engagement in museums and science centers. This work will inform professionals about the relevant factors and potential consequences of their decisions related to bilingual exhibits.
The Museum of Science, Boston (MOS) and its primary collaborators, the Science Museum of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN) and the Exploratorium (San Francisco, CA), are continuing and expanding the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net), which has been in operation since 2005. NISE Net has established a national infrastructure of over one-hundred hands-on science centers and universities within seven regional hubs with the goal of fostering public awareness, engagement and understanding of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE). As part of this undertaking, NISE Net partners have: - created a nation-wide set of annual events called NanoDays; - developed dozens of interactive exhibits, media-based products, programs, and public forums based on NSE; - generated new knowledge about the design for learning about NSE, its applications, and societal implications; - produced a network that involves informal educators and researchers; and - developed a Web site for professionals, www.nisenet.org, that includes several resources for educators and researchers, including a catalog of educational products. During the next five years (2010 - 2014), NISE Net will continue to develop new educational products, deepen the involvement of current partnerships in nanoscale informal science education, and expand the number of partners overall to 300 organizations. The advisory committee, content steering committee, regional hubs, and other work groups will continue to develop collaborative relationships between museums and university-based NSE research centers, including Materials Research Science and Engineering Research Centers (MRSECs) and Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSECs). A Diversity, Equity, and Access group will actively support, foster, and encourage the NISE Net\'s efforts to reach diverse audiences with regard to geography, dis/ability, gender, race/ethnicity, language, and income. Four research studies will be conducted: Partnership and Network, Institutional Change, Learning Progressions, and Evidence-Based Decision Making.
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 four New England museums of the Environmental Exhibit Lab (EEC) set out in the Fall of 2011 to create a replicable model of collaborative professional development for small museums. At small institutions, impending deadlines, budget and staffing limitations, and professional isolation all too often get in the way of true innovation. The goal of Exhibit Lab was to help staff who, though conversant with current museum theory, sometimes struggle to apply that theory to their daily work, or to disseminate these ideas through an institution. Exhibit Lab relied on a carefully crafted mix of meetings, workshops and staff exchanges, a combination of outside experts and peer-to-peer mentoring, to foster a community of practitioners, engaged in collaborative learning-by-doing. In short, the participants created a "virtual department" in which we came to rely as quickly on our peers in a partner museum as quickly as we would to a co-worker down the hall had we worked in a larger museum. The Exhibit Lab project focused on the work of the Exhibit and Program/Education staffs, but we feel that the project model holds lessons for other museum departments, and for museums outside the Children's and Science museum sphere.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Worcester Natural History Society dba EcoTariumBetsy LoringAlexander GoldowskySuzanne OlsonChris SullivanPhelan FretzJulie SilvermanNeil GordonDenise LeBlancJoseph P. Cox