FETCH with Ruff Ruffman is a daily half-hour PBS television series with accompanying Web and outreach activities targeted to 6- to 10-year olds. The program brings science learning to young children by uniquely blending live-action with animation, game show convention with reality programming, and humor with academics. The intended impacts are to 1) help the target audience develop interest, knowledge and skills necessary to do science; 2) train afterschool leaders to better facilitate science activities with kids; and 3) demonstrate how media can be used to teach substantive science and share the results of project evaluation with others in the field. The requested funds will allow the project to expand the science curriculum with 20 new half-hour episodes and expand the Web site, focusing on three new science themes that highlight topics of interest to this age group. The Web site will include four new science-based Web games that will allow kids to create and post content of their own design and contribute to nationwide data collection. A new FETCH Online Training resource will be created to help afterschool leaders to effectively engage in FETCH's hands-on science activities. American Institutes for Research (AIR) will conduct summative evaluation of the Online Training program.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kate Taylor
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Museum of Science (MOS) seeks to establish a Network, a national infrastructure designed to foster public awareness, engagement and understanding of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE). As part of this undertaking, MOS will create a set of interactive, media-based and discourse-based educational productes based on NSE; generate new knowledge about design for learning and produce a sustainable network that involves inromal educators and researchers. Core partners are the Exploratorium and the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). This project will establish for the first-time an open national network that links science centers across the nation, focusing for this award on the development and delivery of exhibits and programs addressing the interdisciplinary content areas of NSE. In addition, the Network will establish ties and collaborative relationships with university-based NSE research centers, including MRSEC's and NSEC's. An educational research and development component will address the challenges of public understanding of a difficult-to-grasp emerging field. Project deliverables will be created primarily at three sites. The Center for NISE Research at the Exploratorium will collect, develop and disseminate knowledge about how to communicate to target audiences. The NISE Center for Public Engagement at MOS will develop a network media framework for dissemination to other science centers, network radio (with WBUR), and produce forums for dialogue and deliberation with adult audiences. The NISE Center for Exhibit and Program Production and Dissemination at SMM will develop interactive exhibits, exhibition packages for distribution, and immersive media environments programs. Development of deliverables will involve the following science-technology center partners: Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), OR; New York Hall of Science, NY; Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, TX; Museum of Life and Science, NC; Sciencenter, NY; and Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). NSE research partners include Main Street Science, Cornell University; Materials Research Society; University of Wisconsin Madison, MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group; and Purdue University, Envision Center for Data Perceptualization. The resulting Network and the knowledge gained as a result of this project are intended to produce a dramatic improvement in the capacity of the science center field to engage and educate the public about NSE, both in quality and quantity. By Year Five, there are expected to be NSE exhibits and activities at some 100 sites across the nation. In addition, the NSE research community should gain a deeper appreciation of the role that science centers can play as intermediaries in conveying scientific research to the public.
The Adirondack All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory is a biological information-gathering process dependent upon and supported by the citizens of the Adirondacks. It acknowledges the interdependence between stakeholders and the biological community within which they live, work, and recreate. Citizens and scientists from the Adirondacks and elsewhere are working together to learn about the biodiversity found in the largest wilderness in the continental USA. The Adirondack ATBI encompasses the entire six-million-acre Adirondack Park, about half of which is composed of public Forest Preserve land that is protected as “forever wild” by the New York State Constitution. The remaining three million acres within the Park are composed of private forests, farms, and about 100 human communities, where some 130,000 people live, either seasonally or year-round.
DEC conducts the Summer Wild Turkey Sighting Survey annually during the month of August to estimate the average number of wild turkey poults (young of the year) per hen statewide and among major geographic regions of the State. This index allows us to gauge reproductive success in a given year and allows us to predict fall harvest potential. Weather, predation, and habitat conditions during the breeding and brood-rearing seasons can all significantly impact nest success, hen survival, and poult survival. During the month of August, Department staff and volunteers record the sex and age composition of all flocks of wild turkeys observed during normal travel. If you would like to participate in this survey, please visit the DEC web page.
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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Each class K-8 has chosen a species of local animal to study and collect NatureMapping data. K-spiders, 1st-butterflies and moths, 2nd- birds, 3rd-insects, 4th-reptiles, 5th-wildflowers and weeds, 6th-fossorial mammals. We have produce a native plant garden, a field guide that we add to each year, a school mural. We study on the schoolgrounds, at a local creek area, in a local canyon and on a local mountain so the students can compare common animals and plants from 4 different areas.
Each year over 120,000 Tasmanians go fishing at least once. Imagine...120,000 potential scientists collecting valuable data about the marine environment! We did. Welcome to Redmap! We invite the community to spot, log and map marine species that are uncommon in Tasmania, or along particular parts of our coast, addressing key knowledge gaps in partnership with industry and community. Redmap has proven to be a useful engagement tool to raise awareness about climate change.
This project is designed to monitor and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species through heightened awareness and education. This is an ongoing project throughout Chippewa, Eau Claire, Barron, Dunn, and Rusk counties that started the summer of 2007 and will end the fall of 2009. Each summer 40 different lakes are visited three times each. Volunteers commit to spending at least one day helping the Citizen Science Center Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator sample different AIS on lakes in the area, with training taking place on the same day.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Beaver Creek ReserveWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesUniversity of Wisconsin ExtensionAna BradySarah Braun
On May 15th & 16th, 2009, citizens, area landowners and experts team together to conduct a 24-hour biological inventory of the taxa in an the Biodiversity Management Area near the towns of Roy and McKenna just east of Fort Lewis in Pierce County, WA. Teams will include botany, invertebrates, mammals, prairie species, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles. Teams will use CyberTracker software and handheld devices to input data into the UW's NatureMapping program. Overnight camping, t-shirts, and meals will be available to volunteers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tahoma Audubon SocietyPierce County Biodiversity AllianceWashington Department of Fish and WildlifeNorthwest Trek Wildlife ParkTacoma Nature CenterKrystal KyerJohn Garner
The Global Garlic Mustard Field Survey is a collaboration of scientists, students, conservationists, resource managers and 'amateur' scientists. Our goal is to collect high-quality data on the abundance and distribution of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in its native (Europe) and introduced (North America) ranges. This sampling protocol is designed to be simple and achieved with just a few hours of work, once populations have been located. It well help to fill an large gap in data on native and introduced plant populations.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Global Invasions NetworkRobert Colautti
The Cricket and Katydid Crawl of New York City and Surrounds is a citizen science pilot project in which participants will venture out between dusk and midnight to locations of their choosing throughout the NYC metro area to listen for the calls of crickets and katydids and document their observations. Counts will be immediately text, emailed, or cell phoned in. An extended network of databasers will enter the data online, and maps and anlayses will be generated in near real time. By dawn we hope to have a series of reports generated by observers, artists, mathematicians, and citizens. Following the survey on September 11, 2009 we will document the event and provide advice for those who would like to replicate this event elsewhere. We will be doing this purposely without copyrights and without institutional funding...a wiki approach to a survey.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
USGSAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryAppalachian Mountain ClubProteus GowanusSam Droege
A BioBlitz is a rapid biological survey of a property in which as many species from as many taxonomic groups as possible are counted during a 24-hour period. It is used to provide a snapshot of wildlife in any area, and identify any rare or endangered species there. As a volunteer you would participate in training to learn how to collect data during the BioBlitz, and on the day of the event you work with experts to identify species. By participating in the BioBlitz, you get the opportunity to meet and spend time with people who are interested in the environment, and learn about critters in Wisconsin!
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Beaver Creek Reserve Citizen Science CenterSarah Braun