Discover NASA is the Discovery Museum’s endeavor to engage students in grades K through 12 as well as members of the general public in innovative space science and STEM-focused learning through the implementation of two modules: upgrades to the Challenger Learning Center, and the creation of K through 12 amateur rocketry and spacecraft design programming. The programming will be piloted at the Discovery Museum and Planetarium, and at the Inter-district Discovery Magnet School and the Fairchild-Wheeler Multi-Magnet High School, with an additional strategic partnership with the University of Bridgeport, which will provide faculty mentors to high school seniors participating in the rocketry program. Through these two modules, the Discovery Museum and Planetarium aims to foster an early interest in STEM, increase public awareness about NASA, promote workforce development, and stimulate an interest in the future of human space exploration. Both modules emphasize design methodologies and integration of more advanced space science into the STEM curriculum currently offered by Discovery Museum to visitors and public schools. The Challenger Learning Center upgrades will enable the Museum to deliver simulated human exploration experiences related to exploration of the space environment in Low Earth Orbit and simulated human exploration of Moon, Mars, and beyond, which will increase public and student awareness about NASA and the future of human space exploration. The development of an amateur rocketry and spacecraft development incubator for education, the general public, and commercial space will stimulate the development of key STEM concepts.
Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) Howard B. Owens Science Center (HBOSC) will infuse NASA Earth, Heliophysics, and Planetary mission science data into onsite formal and informal curriculum programs to expand scientific understanding of the Earth, Sun, and the universe. The goal of the project is to develop a pipeline of programs for grades 3-8 to enhance teacher and student understanding of NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Earth, Planetary, and Heliophysics science and promote STEM careers and understanding of NASA career pathways using the HBOSC Planetarium, Challenger Center and classrooms. During the school year, PGCPS students in Grades 3 through 8 will experience field trip opportunities that will feature NASA Sun-Earth connection, comparative planetology, Kepler Exoplanet data, and NASA Space Weather Action Center data. PGCPS Grade 3 through 8 teachers will receive summer, day, and evening professional development in comparable earth and space science content both engaging the HBOSC Planetarium and Challenger facility and its resources. The students and teachers in four PGCPS academies (Grades 3 through 8) will serve as a pilot group for broader expansion of the program district-wide. ESPSI will provide opportunities for county-wide participation through community outreach programs that will promote NASA Earth, Heliophysics, and Planetary mission data. Community outreach will be offered through piloting the Maryland Science Center outreach program to four of PGCPS southern located schools and monthly evening planetarium shows along with quarterly family science nights that will include guest speakers and hands-on exhibits from the local science community and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
Our Place in Space (OPIS), an inquiry-based curriculum in space science, observation, and exploration for middle school teachers, will be developed by the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) Chicago, through a committed partnership with the Advanced Concepts Office in NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and with endorsement from the Chicago Public Schools. The goals are to:
Design, test, and deliver OPIS curricula for a year-long course at MSI for science teachers (grades 4-8) that focuses on space observations and explorations using NASA assets and inquiry processes that combine informal learning traditions with the rigor of national and state education standards for middle school science;
Facilitate teachers' use of NASA's digital media and visualization technologies;
Modify and disseminate OPIS curriculum to 248 out-of-school program leaders and 10,440 youth at community sites affiliated with MSI’s Science Minors Clubs located throughout northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana.
The MSFC Advanced Concepts Office will coordinate the participation of MSFC scientists who will ensure accuracy of content, keep the curriculum up to date with emerging technologies and discoveries, and mentor OPIS teachers and Science Minors Clubs’ leaders through NASA's Digital Learning Network. The OPIS curriculum is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards, and will enable teachers to integrate instruction in the fundamental principles of space science with cross-cutting concepts while also presenting engineering and design challenges that exercise students' inventiveness, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Design challenges in OPIS encourage teachers and their students to wrestle with the same engineering problems that intrigue NASA scientists themselves.
The Tomorrow People is a research report written by Museums Association deputy director Maurice Davies while he held a visiting fellowship at the University of East Anglia. It draws on the experience of over 100 museum managers, job-seekers, university lecturers, policy makers and junior staff. It identifies several problems with the way museums recruit and develop entry-level staff. The overall conclusion is that museums, and sector bodies, need to take far more responsibility for training and development of staff at entry-level and in their first few years in post. In addition, university
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will enhance its staff capacity and train current educational staff in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education delivery, both of which will increase its ability to deliver interpretive tours and programming around the newly opened permanent exhibition, “Inspiring Minds: African Americans in Science and Technology.” The project will include hiring a full-time STEM educator to work with education and archival staff to create and implement a family learning approach to the sciences in the rich context of African American history and culture. A training facilitator will develop a cohort of STEM interns and train current staff educators to present STEM learning experiences. At the conclusion of the project, the museum will have increased staff capacity and widespread expansion and integration of STEM opportunities for the youth, families, and schools of Detroit.
The Wild Center will develop, implement, and disseminate a model program, VTS in Science, for the science museum field adapted from the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method. In partnership with several museums, educators, and a consulting firm, the Wild Center will use current research to develop informal and formal learning programming; implement a model professional development program for science museum professionals and elementary teachers; provide educators resources and knowledge to develop VTS in Science programming relevant to daily teaching—including a VTS in science toolkit; facilitate a long-term collaborative process and model school-museum partnership among a diverse group of education providers; and evaluate the effectiveness of the VTS in Science program in order to promote replication by science museums nationally.
The New Children's Museum will launch the LAByrinth project to engage the community in the creation of a permanent art installation. The museum will convene a cross-disciplinary team to design and build the LAByrinth, a climbing structure that will serve 140,000 people annually. The museum will develop relationships with underserved families and current and future museum users, and also create an ongoing community-based exhibition development process to create sustainable mechanisms for continued community involvement. The project will introduce a new socially-engaged process for creating exhibitions, which will serve as a sustainable creative catalyst for San Diego families.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts will hire an evaluator to asses and facilitate the growth of its three signature programs–Bronx Stories, Back in the Bronx and Bronx Lab–to ensure that they continue to celebrate, affirm, and advance the vibrancy of the borough and its multigenerational voices. The museum will assess training, seek community input, and apply new knowledge gained through program redesign and implementation. It will enhance outreach and communication, and analyze and share outcomes. Using an advisory group of community stakeholders, the museum will amplify its services by drawing increased audiences, expanding its role as a cultural gateway, and highlighting the Bronx as a dynamic community.
The Nurture Nature Center will conduct a community needs assessment in four Easton neighborhoods to broaden its engagement with populations at risk for natural environmental hazards. The needs assessment will discern topics of greatest concern to residents in the four neighborhoods, identify factors triggering alarm and awareness, gain a sense of general knowledge and misconceptions, learn what people want to know, and understand better how to develop comfortable ways for people to talk about problems in places where they live. The assessment process will be incorporated into the nature center's Risk to Resiliency model of community engagement and science learning about environmental hazards. This model will be applied regionally and nationally to communities that face a wide range of hazards such as flooding, wildfires, climate change, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes.
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico will develop and implement "Art and Technology," which will provide learning opportunities to at-risk youth in the San Juan metropolitan area by integrating the museum's exhibits and collections as a platform for learning activities and dynamic thinking. Through lessons on digital media, photography, and art aligning with academic standards, students will acquire technology and problem-solving skills, language proficiency and communication skills, the ability to better interact with peers, and enhanced information skills. At-risk youth will be able to use the museum as an innovative learning facility with free art and technological resources to develop their skills to learn, create, and share with their peers their work in a safe environment.
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History will develop traveling natural history science curricula kits for K-12 students. This project will expand the museum's outreach program, featuring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) content with a focus on Oklahoma geology, life, and cultural science. The museum will share the educational kits, featuring materials aligning with state educational standards, with teachers across Oklahoma. The museum's digitization of the kits will increase the capacity and number of teachers who have access to the material and enable students to experience high-quality STEM educational opportunities offsite and online.
The Palo Alto Art Center is partnering with the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo to develop a series of four artist residencies, each involving an artist who explores the natural world in his or her artwork, and exhibitions of artwork created during the residencies. The museums will address the challenge of successfully integrating art and science to enhance learning in museum contexts. During each exhibition, public programming will focus on the artwork and its scientific and environmental context, engaging a broad audience in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) based activities. The project will also serve as a model demonstrating the success of education through effective collaboration between an art museum and a science museum.