This article explores the ways imagination and how museum professionals can foster new ways of thinking in their work and products as well as encourage visitors to be more aware of their museums experiences. In the Introduction, D. Lynn McRainey, Elizabeth F. Cheney Director of Education at the Chicago History Museum, discusses two projects that changed her practices as a museum educator and her understanding of learning in museums. Next, Leslie Bedford, Director of Leadership in Museum Education Program at Bank Street College, examines the meaning of imagination and how narrative and
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D. Lynn McRaineyLeslie BedfordDaniel SpockAndrew Anway
WGBH will develop, produce, and distribute a comprehensive project that will review science of the twentieth century. The major components of the project will be a series of five, two-hour, prime time documentary programs for PBS, an outreach campaign to involve the public through informal and formal science education institutions and organizations, material for use in formal classrooms, and a science museum component. The focus of the series will be to review the science of the twentieth century by telling the dramatic story of the struggle to understand ourselves and our world over the past 100 years -- a time when science advanced further than in previous eras combined and when scientific discipline underwent a revolution. However, because at the close of the century there is an ever-widening gap between what scientists know and what most of the public comprehends, the series will explore the century's most enduring scientific endeavors with each two-hour program probing several related fields of investigation and application: views of the universe and of matter; origins of the Earth and of life; health, medicine, and the human body; human nature and behavior; and technology and engineering. It will offer viewers an opportunity to view 100 years of scientific pursuits as a whole, to recast their perceptions of science and scientists, and to be intrigued and inspired by a view of science as a never-ending and deeply human quest for answers and solutions. The outreach component of the project include: Video-based Components - videocassettes of the series, video modules selected for classroom use, level one videodiscs, and a prototype for a CD-ROM for home learning. A Discovery Challenge Activity - a national campaign targeted primarily for girls and boys 11-14 years of age. The two-phase activities will be offered through middle school science and social studies classes; through youth groups such as Girls Inc., Family Science Programs, 4-H, and Girls and Boys Clubs; at museums and science centers; and through other informal education outlets. Activities will be designed so they can be undertaken by youth with a wide range of interests, learning styles, and skills. Print Components - teacher's guide, video module activity guide, videodisc guide, poster, and a companion trade book. On-line Component - an electronic bulletin board and e-mail center related to the project. Public access sites will be established in libraries, community centers, and schools throughout the country and members of the public with home computers will be able to connect to WGBH at no cost. Service and activities offered on-line will include the ability of viewers to critique programs, ask questions of the production team, download educational materials, and ordering project material. The bulletin board will provide an electronic forum for educators to exchange strategies and ideas as they use the project's resources and enable participants in the Discovery Challenge to tap into the on-line resources and share information. The on-line component will be managed and controlled at WGBH. Museum Component - consisting of a museum tool kit and activities to be incorporated Science-by-Mail. Paula Apsell, executive producer for NOVA and director of the WGBH Science Unit, will serve as executive-in-charge of production. Jon Palfreman will be executive producer and will head up a project team consisting of the executive editor, Thomas Friedman, a senior producer, and two producers. Outreach activities will be the responsibility of Beth Kirsch, Director of Educational Print and Outreach, and Simone Bloom, Outreach Manager.
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Paula ApsellThomas FriedmanJon Palfreman
The North Alabama Science Center (NASC) will develop an interactive virtual learning experience in atmospheric science that combines a 3-D large-screen format presentation with interactive program activities. The project will be designed to run on the statewide network of Immersive Theaters located at three science centers across Alabama: NASC in Huntsville; Gulf Coast Exploreum in Mobile; and the Alabama Wildlife Federation Field Center in Montgomery. The project concept integrates scientific methods of inquiry into a virtual hands-on learning program, providing a mechanism for social-based informal learning about atmospheric science. To sustain engagement beyond the science center venue, ancillary materials will be developed, including a unique, interactive website. A project advisory committee consisting of members of the informal learning community, industry, academia, pedagogical practitioners and researchers, informed by front-end, formative and summative evaluation, will guide project development. The evaluation will provide findings to inform the future development of immersive theater programs, and other exhibit formats that may combine data visualization with data explorations. The project will expand its audience in Alabama through development of a Spanish-language version and its website developed in concert with the immersive theater program. The North Alabama Science Center's project will allow programs created for its immersive theater system to be used in other content visualization systems at other science centers. As a long-term impact this will enable new venues nationwide utilizing other content visualization systems to use the proposed project at their respective sites.
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Angela MoultonLaurie ProvinMike BottsHeather Roden
SciGirls is a national outreach program of DragonflyTV supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Program for Gender Equity. SciGirls empowers PBS outreach professionals and science museum educators, often partnering with local youth organizations, educators and parents, to deliver hands-on science encouragement and career guidance to girls in their communities. SciGirls is based on existing standards-based DragonflyTV outreach resources, which teach scientific inquiry.
In April 2001, the Museum of Science in Boston launched the Current Science & Technology Center, an effort to engage public and school audiences in leading edge research and to provide depth and context for science and technology stories in the news within a museum context and through various outreach methods. Health science programming in the CS&T Center is researched, produced and delivered to primarily public audiences in partnership with selected New England area medical and public health schools, teaching hospitals, and biomedical research institutes. This Health Science Education
The California Academy of Sciences will produce "Water is Life," a 30,383 square-foot permanent exhibit with educational programming. The exhibit is designed to engage the public with the living world of water, to foster environmental stewardship and increase science literacy. Three habitat components -- Philippine Coral Reef, California Coast and Global Rainforests -- are conceptually and experientially linked through "Water Planet," which explores water's physical properties and how they impact living organisms and lead to aquatic diversity. Each component also reinforces the importance of conserving aquatic resources. Educational programming takes "Water is Life" to local schools and community events and onto the World Wide Web, as well as provides venues for formative evaluation of exhibit design elements. The development of lending kits, plus supporting manuals and workshops, will extend the reach of "Water is Life" regionally and nationally. Similarly, instruction manuals and workshops for creating desktop, living reefs will have national impact. The compelling draw of live organisms, hands-on activities, and exhibit enrichment through educational programming provide accessibility to a large, diverse audience. The exhibit will reach over one million annual visitors, and a larger audience will experience distributed educational programs.
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Margaret BurkeLinda KulikChristopher AndrewsTerrence GoslinerRobert Jenkins
Chabot Space and Science Center is developing an exhibit of Chinese astronomical artifacts and organizing a United States tour of the exhibit. "Dragon Skies: Astronomy of Imperial China" consists of 31 exhibit pieces, including seven large astronomical instruments, chronographs, stone carvings and star maps. Many of these artifacts have never before left China. In order to increase the awareness and understanding of students, teachers and the public about Imperial China's rich astronomical achievements, Chabot will develop a variety of interpretive materials and programs that address interests and learning styles, present scientifically and historically accurate information, and serve both informal and formal educational audiences. These materials will include a planetarium show, an audio tour, special signage, multimedia animations/interactive kiosks, a web site, student activities, community events, a science drama program, activities for the general public and a variety of printed materials. Many components will be developed in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
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Alexandra BarnettCynthia AshleyMichael Reynolds
Sea Studios Foundation is developing a five-hour television-based project that will examine "Earth System Science," which will be produced in association with the National Geographic Society (NGS). Geologists, biologists, oceanographers, climatologists, social scientists and others are joining forces to understand the planet's rapidly changing environment. The series will follow the on-going research of these scientists as they investigate the links between Earth's geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. These programs are planned as the first season of an annual series on the topic. Educational outreach will include a hands-on traveling exhibit to be developed and tested by the Maryland Science Center; an Educator's Guide for print and electronic distribution to informal science centers and community organizations; a "resource toolkit" to augment the Educator's Guide and an Internet site hosted by NGS that provides links to existing and new environmental resources. The series content also will be integrated into several NGS venues including: National Geographic Today, the daily news program on the National Geographic Channel; National Geographic Magazine, which will create a "global report card" as an annual feature; and National Geographic for Kids magazine, which is distributed to children in grades three through six. The project advisory board includes: Richard Barber, Professor of Biological Oceanography, Duke University Robert Costanza, Professor of Zoology, University of Maryland Gretchen Daily, Interdisciplinary Research Scientist, Stanford University Robert Dunbar, Specialist in Global Environmental Change, Stanford University Habiba Gitay, Senior Lecturer, National Centre for Development Studies, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management, Canberra, Australia Michael Glantz, Senior Scientist, the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, National Center for Atmospheric Research John Katzenberger, Executive Director of Aspen Global change Institute Jane Lubchenco, Professor of Marine Biology, Oregon State University J. R. McNeill, Professor of History, Georgetown University Harold Mooney, Professor of Environmental Biology, Stanford University Steven Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change, Stanford University Brian Walker, Coordinator of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's Biodiversity Sector, Adelaide, South Australia
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Mark ShelleyTierney ThysDavid Ellisco
Building on an institution-wide strategic initiative to interpret the process of science for informal learners of all ages, the Museum of Science will work over four years to develop, evaluate and implement a project to communicate the processes of science through weather forecasting. The project is based on the idea that processes involved in short-term weather forecasting are basic to the process of science. MOS proposes to create a 1,800 square foot exhibit, programs for students and teachers, an interactive website, and one-minute television spots aimed at helping people understand weather forecasting. The project is grounded in MOS strategic commitment to engaging people in the activity of science and the use of new technologies. The major component of the project is an exhibition of weather in which visitors will learn how to forecast the weather over the next few hours using different levels of technology, including naked eye observations, data from weather maps, and real-time images from space satellites and ground radar stations. Ancillary programs include educational materials for over 100 WeatherNet schools in New England, an interactive website that will reach several hundred thousand users, and television spots on the process of weather forecasting to be aired on WBZ-TV Channel 4. Over the course of its life the project will engage several million children and adults in the process of science.
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Cary SneiderMishelle MichaelsDaniel Barstow
The Independence Seaport Museum will create "Boat Building: Art and Science," a 3,000-square foot permanent exhibit that is designed to educate visitors about the science of boat building and design. Concepts such as buoyancy, water displacement, turbulence and drag will be explored through interactives, maritime artifacts, models and oral histories of tradesmen. By using the principles identified by the Family Science Learning Research Project of the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC), the exhibit will be user-friendly for families with young children. Visitor workstation topics may include boat building, floating, buoyancy, sails, wind and boat shape. Visitors will use science processes while learning through open-ended play and exploration. Creative programs for families and school groups, as well as curriculum materials will support the exhibit. A website and technical training manual will also be produced. Four phases of evaluation are planned, and include front-end analysis which will incorporate focus groups with children ages 7-12, and formative evaluation using prototypes of interactives. Remedial evaluation will be carried out once the exhibit opens, and summative evaluation will use tracking and exit interviews to assess learning and understanding. The estimated annual audience of over 130,000 visitors will be expanded by replicating and traveling various components to other maritime museums in partnership with the Association of Science and Technology Centers. Evaluation of traveling components will also be undertaken to determine if they present an appropriate model for maritime-based exhibits.
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences project from the University of South Carolina (USC) is based on the ongoing multidisciplinary investigations of Eugene Karabanov and Douglas Williams (OPP-0229737) in the Russian Arctic. The scientific objective of the 2003 expedition was to reconstruct the variability of freshwater discharge and terrestrial carbon flux to the Artic Ocean from the Lena River during the last 500 to 1,000 years, improving understanding of the impact of climate change. As part of that undertaking, the team collected broadcast quality digital video. This project will interpret the research findings and documentation through collaboration with EdVenture Children's Museum (ECM) in Columbia, South Carolina. Deliverables will include: Meet-the-Arctic Scientist programs; Artic Discovery Weekends; Arctic Discovery Boxes (three hands-on units); and Arctic CyberLoft Experiences. Content will include the role of the Arctic in global climate change; watersheds, fresh water systems and ocean circulation; human adaptations and culture. The CRPA project will share the results of the research expedition with children and families attending EdVenture through this university-museum partnership. In addition to visitors from the six-county Midlands area of South Carolina, the project will reach an extended audience through an Arctic Science website at USC with links to the EdVenture site.
400 Years of the Telescope was an interactive, multimedia project enabling the public to participate in real and virtual telescope experiences, understand the far reaching advances that the telescope has made possible, and discover how technology, science, and society are interconnected. Partners included PBS (Southern Oregon Public Television - SOPTV), Interstellar Studios, Leading astronomers and science writers, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), Carnegie Science Center (Buhl Planetarium) and 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i. A two-hour, high-definition documentary, aired twice on PBS in 2009, kicking off the International Year of Astronomy.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kris KoenigJames ManningRose TsengMark StanislawskiShawn Laatsch