Dinosaur Island is a 3D computer simulation with herds of sauropods and ceratopsians, flocks of pteranodons, hunting packs of carnivores and authentic plants and trees from over 65 million years ago all controlled by the user. You can think of Dinosaur Island as a digital terrarium in which a balance between the species and their diets must be maintained or the ecosystem will collapse. It is up to the user to determine how many and what kinds of dinosaurs and plants populate the island. Start off simple with just a few sauropods and some plants; but you better make sure that those big plant-eaters have the right food to eat. Did you know that many of the plants from the Jurassic were poisonous? You also need to make sure that there are some carnivores around to keep those sauropod herds in check; otherwise they will quickly outstrip their food supplies. Dinosaur Island is an Adventure: Yes, it is a bit like those famous movies because you can take 'photographs' of your dinosaurs, save them, post them and share them with your friends (you can even 'name' your dinosaurs, 'tag' them and track them throughout their lives). You will be able to walk' with the dinosaurs without being trampled under their giant feet. You will be able to follow along when a female T-Rex goes out to hunt without fear of becoming dinner for her family. You will be able to 'garden' by 'planting' vegetation where you like and watch the plants grow over time. Dinosaur Island is Educational: Our reputation – both in our 'serious games' and our contracted simulations – is for historical accuracy. All of our computer games, serious games and simulations are meticulously researched. Dinosaur Island will also include an extensive hyperlinked interactive 'booklet' about the dinosaurs that live on Dinosaur Island, their habitat and the plants and vegetation that grow there. Designasaurus, the game that we created in 1987, was named Educational Game of the Year. We will exploit the computer environment that is now available (more memory and faster machines allow for 3D rendering) to make Dinosaur Island even more of an immersive educational experience. Dinosaur Island is Fun: Playing with herds of dinosaurs is just good fun. You can 'pick them up' and move them around, plant crops for them to eat or you can even 'get inside' a dinosaur and control its actions. Regardless of your age, Dinosaur Island is guaranteed to be hours of fun.
Educators from K-12 and higher education are collaborating on a new school of the future projects involving humanoid robots and other forms of robots and student and teacher productivity tools. We are working in the areas of STEAM Plus. (science, technology, engineering, visual and performing arts, mathematics, computer languages and foreign languages) All team members will share their action research results through a traveling exhibition to all twelve public libraries in the city of Long Beach, California. Kids Talk Radio through its Backpack Science, Journalism, and Backpack Robotics programs will create video and audio podcasts of the action research and share findings over the Internet with schools, libraries and museums around the world.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Super School SoftwareBob BarbozaWalter Martinez
An evaluation of the Natural History Museum of Utah'(NHMU) "Trailhead to Utah" digital guide carried out by Frankly Green & Webb in March of 2014. The "Trailhead" is a digital ecosystem at the Natural History Museum of Utah consisting of touchscreen kiosks, a mobile guide, and a web portal for post-visit exploration. Since launching, the Trailhead to Utah system has suffered from low usage. NHMU wanted to understand why the service (in particular its mobile/smartphone element) was underused, and how it could be changed to offer a better visitor experience. In scoping the project, one key
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Natural History Museum of UtahBecky MenloveLindsey GreenPaul Tourle
This cooperative agreement will support a program of targeted outreach, professional development and national visibility for libraries and museums as important, community-based venues for student/youth game development and STEM learning. IMLS will provide financial support amounting to $100,000 for work over the Project period of January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. as part of this key learning and development phase, we will conduct activities including targeted outreach, professional development, youth workshops, national promotion and documentation/evaluation.
On behalf of the Sun'aq Tribe of Kodiak, the SEALibrary (Sun'aq Ecological Archives and Library) will undertake a project to enhance access to information on Kodiak ecology and Alutiiq heritage while serving as a bridge between tribal members, researchers, and regulators. It will collect, preserve, and disseminate valuable local and traditional ecological knowledge with the goal of protecting the ecological resources of the region. It will create a local storehouse of knowledge accessible both in-house and online, including not only local knowledge but also legal notices and impact assessments from naval military exercises, hazardous waste cleanup, changes to fishing regulations, and threats to local food security. This comprehensive project will include document management training, policy and electronic database systems implementation, preservation planning, archives assessment, and cross-cultural outreach services.
The Calcasieu Parish Public Library (CPPL) will create the Innovation Studio, an innovative physical space and model for patron-driven programming in response to a rapidly growing and changing community. The project includes designing and outfitting a designated space with furnishings and equipment and creating a programming model and digital application for members of the community to propose ideas for use, vote on submitted ideas, and reserve the use of the studio. Offering a program or class will be based on appeal to participants, using the basic idea behind crowd sourcing. The project team will reach out to and meet the social, cultural, and educational needs of new residents; help new residents learn about and understand the Southwest Louisiana region; and facilitate cooperation and collaboration between traditional and new populations.
This report summarizes evaluative findings from a project titled “What Curiosity Sounds Like: Discovering, Challenging, and Sharing Scientific Ideas” (a.k.a.: “Discovery Dialogues”). The project, a Full-Scale development project funded by the National Science Foundation as part of its Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL) program, explored new ways to actively engage both lay and professional audiences, and foster meaningful communication between scientists and the general public. Appendix includes survey and interview questions.
The Leonard Lief Library and Department of Art at Lehman College will create an Animated Information Literacy Advocate to explore the feasibility of using animation to foster information literacy in college-age students. Information literacy skills, including assessing information, locating sources, thinking critically, and acting ethically, are especially vital for young people entering the workforce. Four videos featuring an animated advocate developed using Kabuki RealTime Animation software will introduce learners to critical thinking in dramatic scenarios. Focus groups will be conducted to measure student satisfaction and measure outcomes of learning. The advocate will be the first animated character to deliver information literacy instruction, providing the broader library field with a new area of research in online instruction as well as the ability to test three pedagogical strategies.
Purdue University will develop CrowdAsk - A Crowdsource Library Help System, a web-based help system for academic libraries. CrowdAsk will allow librarians, students, and faculty to ask and answer questions about library resources and tools. CrowdAsk will also support ranking of questions and answers by users as well as the use of scores and badges for user motivation. The project addresses issues of existing fragmented library and academic help channels, content reuse and preservation, and lack of user (particularly expert) participation. CrowdAsk will be open source and shared with the public. It will impact the way users interact with libraries, as well as promote better understanding and use of library resources. The project will give users power to support others in getting research help.
This presentation was part of the "Broader Impacts at Centers and Large Facilities" dyad at the 2015 CAISE Convening on Broader Impacts + Informal Science Education held in Arlington, VA on April 7-8. The presentation outlines how centers and large facilities have used informal learning experiences for broader impacts, identifying key opportunity areas for Broader Impacts and Informal Education as programming, partnerships, communication, and evaluation.
The Howard County Library System (HCLS), in partnership with the University of Maryland Baltimore County, will use this grant to enhance the teen digital media lab at the Savage Branch Library by adding science, technology, engineering, and math projects and implementing that same STEM-focused model in three other libraries. The "Hi Tech Academy: The Road to a STEM Career" project will address the increasing demand for workers with STEM-related skills as the number of college graduates in these fields decreases. This program will create a model to be replicated at other libraries, bring awareness of how to best teach these skills, increase interest in STEM for youth, and address the demand for these skills in the community.
Stanford University Library, in partnership with the University of Santa Cruz, will develop a publishable metadata scheme for digital games, including ontology and terminology, as well as a system and tools for citation of in-game events and game states. While the work of collection and preservation is underway, digital games present unique and complex stewardship problems, including methods for description, discovery and citation. As acquisition of this type of collection increases, challenges with cataloguing, storage, and access are compounded. This framework will provide a complete solution to the closely linked problems of finding, accessing, and citing digital games, a growing and important part of modern culture.