This proposal, the "Dan River Information Technology Academy (DRITA)," is a request for a three-year program for high school students from underserved populations who are interested in pursuing IT or STEM careers. The overall goal of DRITA is to provide opportunities for promising African American or Hispanic youth to (1) develop solid Information Technology skills and (2) acquire the background and encouragement needed to enable them to pursue higher education in STEM fields, including IT itself and other fields in which advanced IT knowledge is needed. A total of 96 students will be recruited over the course of the three years. Each DRITA participant will receive 500 hours of project-based content. The project includes both school-year modules and a major summer component. Delivery components will include a basic IT skills orientation; content courses in areas such as animation, virtual environment modeling, advanced networking, programming, GIS, robotics, and gaming design; externships; a professional conference/trade show "simulation," and college/career counseling. Parent involvement is an integral part of the program and includes opportunities for parents to learn from participants, joint college visits, and information sessions and individual assistance in the college admission process.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Julie BrownElizabeth NilsenMaurice Ferrell
The importance of reporting current science to the general public is more important now than ever before. The best way to ensure enthusiastic support for science is to engage the general public as directly as possible. Unlike schooling, learning in a museum is self-motivated, self-directed, and can be lifelong. The partnership between Columbia University's MRSEC (Materials Research Science and Engineering Center) and the New York Hall of Science will do this in an exciting manner by development of innovative 'rolling exhibits' (Discovery Carts) that are visually attractive, intellectually stimulating and demonstrate current research. This project will unite a dynamic University research faculty, dedicated graduate students, and high school teachers from one of the largest and best known teacher research experience programs in the country. NY Hall of Science, specialists in public science education, have developed exhibitions, over the past 20 years, for school and family group visitors in biology, chemistry and physics. Most recently, the Hall opened an 800-foot biochemistry discovery lab featuring ten experiments that teach visitors about the role of molecules in everyday life. The lab is facilitated by an explainer, and hundreds of families use the lab throughout the year. All exhibits and programs have rigorous science presented in an engaging manner in an educationally non-threatening environment. Columbia University is one of the premier research institutions in the country. Columbia's MRSEC is engaged in multi-faceted educational outreach activities in the New York metropolitan area, including a close working relationship with Columbia's 16 year old RET program. Together these institutions are well situated to involve the research community in public education activities that will inform the public about the current advances in science. Teachers and graduate students who have worked in MRSEC labs will assist in bringing new skills and ideas to the development of museum programming and exhibits. The teachers have experienced both the research projects first-hand and have had the experience in translating the research into meaningful classroom activities for their students. The graduate students have worked alongside the teachers, assisting them in making the research meaningful to high school students. Broader Impact: Highly skilled educators who can improve a young person's chances for success are like gold for the nation's schools, which are under pressure for tough accountability standards. Teachers will influence over a thousand students during the course of their careers. The Hall's Explainers are of high school and college age. These two groups will have positive impacts on our society for years to come. They will benefit from participation, and the tens of thousands of visitors to the museum will learn about cutting edge research.
SciGirls is a national dissemination project, which puts resources from the PBS science series DragonflyTV into the hands of outreach professionals at PBS stations and educators in after school programs for girls. The current project leverages PBS' nationwide network of member stations to connect the educational research community with practitioners in the field. Thus far SciGirls has trained over 100 educators and community leaders and reached 2,300 girls in grades 3 through 8. SCIGIRLS MUSEUM ADVENTURES has four objectives: 1) to provide museum educators with DragonflyTV videos that model authentic inquiry in museum settings; 2) to expand SciGirls activity guides with new museum-based activities and research-based strategies specifically for museum educators; 3) to create a set of online, streaming videos that demonstrate best practices in gender-inclusive teaching; and 4) to facilitate feedback between our participants and the research community and deepen our understanding of the most effective ways to engage girls in STEM activities. Intellectual Merit--The strength of SciGirls lies in its comprehensive multimedia approach and its foundation in the inquiry-based strategies defined in the National Science Education Standards. The videos provided in SciGirls emphasize the process of science, rather than a collection of science facts. They provide real-world models of inquiry that all girls can do. Taken together, the SciGirls resources stimulate discussion, build confidence and pave the way for girls to investigate science questions on their own. The educational strategies provided by SciGirls are based in research into gender- inclusive STEM teaching and learning, translated into strategies that can be easily used by after school educators to create successful STEM experiences for girls. Broader Impact--SCIGIRLS MUSEUM ADVENTURES will provide museum educators at ten sites with materials that can be used in their programs for years to come. The entire set of resources--streaming videos and Activity Guides--will be available on DragonflyTV's Web site at www.pbs.org. The outcomes of the project will be shared with the informal science education research community. Findings will be reported at the annual PBS National Center for Outreach Conference
Exploring the Euteleost Tree of Life represents the education and outreach of the Euteleost Tree of Life assembling the tree of life research grant (NSF DEB Grant No. 0732819; PI: Ed Wiley) it includes a curriculum activity and a interactive fish tree. Investigating a Deep Sea Mystery, a curriculum module for high school and undergraduate students follows the research of project collaborator Dave Johnson (Smithsonian Institution) to explore deep sea fish phylogeny. The module includes an investigation of What is a fish?, fish anatomy and morphology, and how different lines of evidence (morphological and molecular) can be used to study evolutionary relationships. A fisheye view of the tree of life is a web module featuring an interactive fish tree of life highlight with a series of mini-stories Web material is still in the early stages of development, and will include a splash page with a simplified clickable fish tree through which the different.
Considerable time and effort have been invested in understanding the motivations of museum visitors. Many investigators have sought to describe why people visit museums, resulting in a range of descriptive categorizations. Recently, investigators have begun to document the connections between visitors' entering motivations and their exiting learning. Doering and Pekarik have proposed starting with the idea that visitors are likely to enter a museum with an “entry narrative” (1996; see also Pekarik, Doering and Karns 1999). Doering and Pekarik argue that these entry narratives are likely to be
The authors present an exploratory study of Black middle school boys who play digital games. The study was conducted through observations and interviews with Black American middle school boys about digital games as an informal learning experience. The first goal of the study is to understand the cultural context that Black students from economically disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods bring to playing digital games. The second goal of the study is to examine how this cultural context affects the learning opportunities with games. Third, the authors examine how differences in game play are
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Betsy James DiSalvoKevin CrowleyRoy Norwood
Based upon the findings of hundreds of long-term interviews with museum visitors, Falk observes that museum visits generate complex, personally rich meanings for people. He hypothesizes that visitors have a working model of what an art museum affords and self-select to use the museum based on a limited set of identity-related self-aspects--traits, roles, attitudes, and group memberships associated with self-identification. He further hypothesizes that visitors utilize these self-aspects both prospectively in justifying their visit, revealed through self-defined visit motivations, and again
Although the criteria for determining success as a cultural institution at the beginning of the twenty-first century are still evolving, there are a few universals that are emerging. Successful cultural organizations serve the specific needs of audiences while maximizing the flexibility and ingenuity of their relationships, both inside and outside the organization, all within the context of the economic, social and political realities in which they exist. Success should not be limited to a single set of outcomes, but requires excellence in three basic areas: (1) Support of the Public Good
This article explores the development of observation in scientific and everyday contexts. Fundamental to all scientific activity, expert observation is a complex practice that requires the coordination of disciplinary knowledge, theory, and habits of attention. On the surface, observation appears to be a simple skill. Consequently, children may be directed to observe, compare, and describe phenomena without adequate disciplinary context or support, and so fail to gain deeper scientific understanding. Drawing upon a review of science education, developmental psychology, and the science studies
John Falk and Lynn Dierking tackle the challenge of helping museums become better at the learning process for visitors. As they put it, "[d]igital media, well designed and wisely used, are important tools that can enhance visitor interaction and learning in museums, ensuring that these environments inspire and provoke curiosity and further understanding among visitors with varying backgrounds, interests, and knowledge levels."
The California Academy of Sciences will develop, evaluate and disseminate exhibits and programs designed to communicate to public audiences the results of research including a biotic inventory of the amphibians and reptiles of Myanmar. Using innovative trading cards for kids, updates to current research exhibits, a poster highlighting research, a pocket guide to venomous snakes of Myanmar and a posting of research -related materials on the CAS website, the project will inform the public about biotic inventory research and conservation in Myanmar. Designed specifically for target audiences of children and adults, the exhibits and programs will serve several hundred thousand CAS visitors annually.
Dinosaurs Alive is a global adventure of science and discovery featuring the earliest dinosaurs of the Triassic Period and those of the Cretaceous "reincarnated" life-sized for the giant IMAX screen. Audiences will journey with some of the world's preeminent paleontologists as they uncover evidence that the descendants of dinosaurs still walk (or fly) among us. From the exotic, trackless expanses and sand dunes of Mongolia's Gobi Desert to the dramatic sandstone buttes of New Mexico, the film follows American Museum of Natural History paleontologists as they explore some of the greatest
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alice Apley, Ph.D.Kim StreitburgerJenny ScalaMaryland Science Center