WGBH is producing four, two-hour programs on the lives of scientists. These programs will be the initial programs in a continuing series of television portraits of distinguished scientists to be broadcast as regular features in the prime-time science series NOVA. The scientists to be covered in the first four programs are Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, and Percy Julian. By illuminating the lives and scientific careers of these important figures, the programs will enhance public understanding of such basic scientific concepts as evolution, the solar system, the chemical bond and the structure of the atom. Ultimately, the programs will give viewers a new perspective on the process of scientific discovery. Ancillary educational support for the programs will include enhanced content on the web site at NOVA Online and classroom support material in the NOVA Teacher's Guide that is mailed to 60,000 teachers nationwide. WGBH also has formed an outreach partnership with the American Library Association to create informal educational resources for use by families, youths, and adults. The core of this special outreach plan is a set of Library Resource Kits that will be available to all 16,000 public libraries. Paula Apsell, Executive Producer for NOVA, will serve as PI for the project. Members of the advisory committee include: Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, MIT; Kenneth R. Manning, Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and of the History of Science, MIT; Noami Oreskes, Associate Professor of History, University of California, San Diego; Daniel I. Rubenstein, Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University; and Neil D. Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium.
Over three years, Science Central is producing 624 television segments that will present current, ongoing research through local newscasts on ABC and NBC stations nationwide. In addition to the regular research segments, ScienCentral will produce six "sweeps" series per year focusing on important new fields of research including: nanotechnology, genetics/genomics, ocean science, global climate change and brain sciences. An advisory board of scientists, teachers, science journalists and public information officers help inform the producers about individual stories and evolving fields of research, and they provide access to scientists and field research. They also provide scientific input and check the stories for accuracy. To facilitate production and to assure that research is covered on an international basis, ScienCentral will establish a footage consortium to exchange science news video with major Canadian and European newscasters. They also will provide the news stories to science centers for use in their interactive exhibits and web sites.
This project will communicate to public audiences the results of NSF grant DEB-9817777, "Earth System History in the Urban Landscape -- Implementing Geosystem Resource Management in Regions of Rapid Urban Growth." Building on prior experience producing NSF-funded video productions, the PI will produce a 10-15 minute video presenting the concept of "geoantiquity," defined as a natural record of earth history that documents environmental change. The video will highlight the steps taken by earth scientists to achieve geoantiquity designation for geologic landforms created by Pleistocene Lake Bonneville in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. The target audience is the general public, but also those actively engaged in land use issues, such as government land management and planning officials, politicians, developers and landowners.
National Geographic Television, in Collaboration with Graphic Films, is producing a 40-minute, large-format, documentary film about the scientific quest to understand some of the most dramatic geological and meteorological events we experience -- volcanoes, earthquakes and violent storms. The goals of the film are to inform audiences about geological and meteorological forces which greatly impact our planet, present the scientific research being performed in an effort to understand and predict these forces, portray scientific role models and to stimulate a greater appreciation and interest in the Earth sciences. Informal education outreach will include: A "Forces of Nature" website that will include educational resources targeted to the general audience as well as to students and teachers. Museum and Family Activity Guides The National Geographic Society will support public programs at science-technology centers by providing access to scientists who work in the areas of science covered in the film. National Geographic's cable program Explorer (carried on MSNBC) will produce a themed show around "Forces of Nature" to coincide with the launch of the film. A companion book In addition, outreach materials for formal education will include: A "Forces of Nature" Teacher's Guide A teacher training seminar to be conducted at the first 20 theaters in the U.S. that lease the film Workshops at the national conferences of the National Science Teachers Association, the National Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for Geographic Education. Instructional information in National Geographic for Kids, the classroom magazine for elementary school students in grades 3-6. The Executive Producer for the film will be Lisa Truitt. George Casey will be the Producer/Director. The Lead Science Advisors are Stephen Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change, Stanford University; James Shymansky, Professor of Science Education, University of Missouri-St. Louis; and James Walker, Professor Emeritus, Space Physics Research Lab, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science, University of Michigan.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lisa TruittGeorge CaseyPaul NovrosBarbara Flagg
Kinetic City After School is a two-year project that will produce a web-based after-school program for children ages 9-11. The on-line adventure will enable users to enter a virtual universe where a computer virus (Deep Delete) systematically attacks a new area of science each month (analogous to one of the 12 Project 2061 Benchmarks for Science Literacy). As students battle the virus, they learn Benchmarks learning goals. Each unit invites children to think about the problem, take action and reflect on their experience. The activities accommodate different learning styles and are supplemented by live audio chats with scientists and a self-assessment enables students to earn Kinetic City Power Points. Power Points can be donated to after school programs without computers and Internet access. These sites may in turn, exchange their accumulated Power Points to obtain computers, Internet service and a site license for "Kinetic City After School." Although the program is web-based, most of the activity extensions are done off-line. "Kinetic City After School" will be introduced to after-school sites with a two-day training workshop, with follow-up via phone meetings and site visits. Supporting materials will include a Leader Guide, Journal and Kinetic City Home Crew activity pages for use in the home.
National Video Resources, in collaboration with the American Library Association and the History of Science Society, is developing and implementing six-week discussion programs at 100 libraries across the country. The "Research Revolution and the Shaping of Modern Life" discussions will illuminate the organization and goals of scientific-technical work, the critical outcomes of research and development, the material and social byproducts of such work, and the ethical issues that sometimes result. During the program participants will screen and discuss documentary films on topics such as: an introduction to the rise of organized laboratory research and its results; new developments in quantum technologies and nanotechnology; recent developments in materials science and how artificially created materials have defined a modern way of life; the impact of genetic engineering and the Human Genome Project; medical imaging from x-rays to MRIs and CT-scans; and the science of meteorology and the problems of global climate change. Discussions will be lead by local scholars from Universities and research laboratories located near a participating library.
A permanent exhibition entitled "Search for Extraterrestrial Life" will engage visitors at the New York Hall of Science in applying the fundamental biology of life on Earth to understanding the search for life elsewhere. The 4,000 sq. ft. exhibition and accompanying programs will engage visitors in learning more about the wide range of conditions that support life on Earth, and how these life requirements shape the search on Mars and other planetary objects for any existing life forms. In addition, the technologies and strategies that scientists are developing to detect any life elsewhere will be highlighted. It is expected that 500,000 visitors each year will participate with the exhibit and its associated programs. Another dissemination plan for the project will be posting fabrication drawings and scripts in readily accessible formats on the Internet. Copies of all computer interactives on electronic media will be available to science-technology centers, museums and other informal learning institutions.
The Children's Museum of Houston, in cooperation with Scholastic Entertainment, the National Weather Service and the American Meteorological Society (AMS), will develop, produce and nationally circulate two (2) copies of a 2,500-sq.ft. interactive exhibit. Using the popular icon of the Magic School Bus, the exhibit will take young children on a journey of discovery to explore the science involved in the Earth's weather. The exhibit, "The Magic School Bus Gets Weather Wise," and accompanying educational materials and programs will be bilingual in Spanish and English and will support national and Texas standards for science and mathematics learning for children aged 5-10. It is estimated that the exhibit and programs will serve 2,000,000 children and adults in 36 national venues over six (6) years. Weather Exploration Stations will precede the exhibit to encourage community engagement prior to the exhibit's arrival at the host venue. AMS scientists, local meteorologists and media weathercasters will assist visitor experiences and help museums with strategies for publicity campaigns and development of local programming. The visiting audiences of children and their families will learn meteorology is a study of weather, there are different types of weather, a variety of tools are used in predicting weather and the water cycle plays a role in weather events. Visitors will read data from maps, graphs, thermometers, anemometers, experiment with variables and model weather conditions using interactive exhibit components.
The Louisville Science Center (LSC) proposes to develop "The World Around Us (WAU)," an 8,000 sq ft exhibition, plus programs and materials designed to increase environmental awareness of citizens, inspiring greater understanding and respect for earth's natural resources. Exhibition components are CenterStage; AtmoSphere: Air that Surrounds Us; TerraSphere: Environments that Support Us; and AquaSphere: Water that Sustains Us. The exhibition integrates hands-on activities and media-based visitor experiences with approximately 1,000 specimens from the LSC collections. The project takes an interdisciplinary thematic approach founded in educational goals and STEM content that is closely linked to national science standards. Target audiences are children in grades 3-8, parents, caregivers and teachers. LSC expects to reach some five million visitors over ten years after opening the exhibition. The project focuses on reaching rural and underserved audiences in Kentucky and Indiana. Its impact will be extended through strong ties to the schools and with ancillary materials. The distance learning capability of the Collections Discovery Gallery will extend the reach of the exhibition beyond the museum walls. In addition, the application of PDAs and handheld GIS technology will add to experience of the field in these areas. Dissemination of "green" fabrication techniques will help other science centers follow similar approaches.
Experience Learning Community plans to open a museum dedicated to science fiction in the summer of 2004. The Science Fiction Experience (SFX) will be an interactive, media-rich museum combining artifacts and information that immerse visitors in science fiction's alternative worlds. They are implementing a planning phase to assure that the museum's exhibits and programming content will illustrate the relationship between science and science fiction. Specific tasks during the planning phase include: 1. Conduct front-end research of the public's perceptions of science fiction vs. science fact. 2. Conduct formative testing of proof-of-concept materials for one of the museum's premiere exhibits, "Mars, Then and Now." 3. Convene leading science and museum educators, scientists, science communications researchers and science fiction practitioners to inform and shape the museum's exhibit concepts and approaches relevant to the public's understanding of science through science fiction. 4. Create and disseminate a document that will inform of the development of exhibits and programs. Advisors to the project include: Greg Bear, best-selling author of more than 30 science fiction books; Gregory Benford, Professor of Plasma Physics and Astrophysics at the University of California at Irvine; David Ellis, President Emeritus of the Museum of Science, Boston; Lawrence Krauss, Chair of the Department of Physics at Case Western Reserve University; and Donna Shirley, for manager of the Mars Exploration Program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and currently Professor at the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma.
From the fall of 2000 through the fall of 2004, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) received funding from the National Science Foundation to create a math-based exhibit for school-aged children and their families. The end result was Moneyville, a colorful and inviting traveling exhibition offered in two configurations - the original full-size 6000-square-foot version and a reduced version designed to accommodate smaller venues, such as children's museums and discovery centers. Both exhibitions were designed to teach visitors about "making economic choices with the power of
The Chedd-Angier Production Company is requesting support for the long-standing, highly acclaimed PBS series, "Scientific American Frontiers," now in its 13th season. Alan Alda hosts the program. NSF funds will leverage existing PBS support and expand the series from five to six programs and increase the scope and depth of the science covered in each program. Topics in the new season cover a broad range of disciplines including cutting edge scientific efforts in cosmology, anthropology, global warming, brain research, obesity and weight loss, and hydrogen fuel cell research. The funds will also be used to expand the "Frontiers" web site and raise the visibility of the program by enhancing the promotional campaign. These efforts will aim to improve the value of the series to science teachers as well as to the general audience. Formative evaluation will be undertaken by Multimedia Research; summative evaluation, by Knight-Williams Research Communications.