ITR: A Networked, Media-Rich Programming Environment to Enhance Informal Learning and Technological Fluency at Community Technology Centers The MIT Media Laboratory and UCLA propose to develop and study a new networked, media-rich programming environment, designed specifically to enhance the development of technological fluency at after-school centers in economically disadvantaged communities. This new programming environment (to be called Scratch) will be grounded in the practices and social dynamics of Computer Clubhouses, a network of after-school centers where youth (ages 10-18) from low-income communities learn to express themselves with new technologies. We will study how Clubhouse youth (ages 10-18) learn to use Scratch to design and program new types of digital-arts projects, such as sensor-controlled music compositions, special-effects videos created with programmable image-processing filters, robotic puppets with embedded controllers, and animated characters that youth trade wirelessly via handheld devices. Scratch's networking infrastructure, coupled with its multilingual capabilities, will enable youth to share their digital-arts creations with other youth across geographic, language, and cultural boundaries. This research will advance understanding of the effective and innovative design of new technologies to enhance learning in after-school centers and other informal-education settings, and it will broaden opportunities for youth from under-represented groups to become designers and inventors with new technologies. We will iteratively develop our technologies based on ongoing interaction with youth and staff at Computer Clubhouses. The use of Scratch at Computer Clubhouses will serve as a model for other after-school centers in economically-disadvantaged communities, demonstrating how informal-learning settings can support the development of technological fluency, enabling young people to design and program projects that are meaningful to themselves and their communities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mitchel ResnickJohn MaedaYasmin Kafai
Mystic Seaport received an implementation grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund a suite of online, onsite, offsite, and onboard public programs and exhibits that will provide new national insight into universal and important humanities themes, through an interdisciplinary exploration of historic and contemporary American whaling. The Museum and its partners will explore through this project how, when, and why dominant American perceptions of whales and whaling took their dramatic turns. The project will raise public awareness in New England and nationwide about the role the whaling industry played in the development of our nation’s multi-ethnic make-up, our domestic economy, our global impact and encounters, and our long-standing fascination with whales. And it will promote thought about the nation’s whaling heritage, and how it continues to shape our communities and culture.
THE POWER TO HEAL (working title) is a 90-minute documentary on the dramatic yet largely untold story of how American hospitals were desegregated in the mid-1960s. With the active help of the civil rights movement and using Medicare as the lever, the U.S. government successfully desegregated thousands of hospitals in just a few months. Through eyewitness narratives, historians, scholars, photos, films and other period materials, we follow inspectors into the field, black and white doctors and nurses providing care and filing discrimination complaints, and senior federal officials charged with carrying out LBJ’s explicit policies. The film honors the 50th anniversaries of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 legislation creating Medicare, and draws on significant humanities perspectives in American, civil rights, and health care history with particular focus on the legacy of Lyndon Johnson and the work still being done to achieve equality in health care.
In the summer of 1938, newlyweds Geneviève and Bernard de Colmont and their friend, Antoine de Seynes, set off from France on an adventure to kayak and document the great American West. They launched from Green River, Wyoming, and emerged 900 miles later in Lee’s Ferry, Arizona, with their travels vividly documented in 16mm color film. The French Trio’s journey offers a unique, previously unseen, window into a historic and cultural turning point for America—a first-hand pioneer experience in the pre-war West, and the beginning of a new era of recreational river runners. In collaboration with humanities scholars, and University of Utah archivists, the project team members seek support for an America’s Media Makers Development Grant to fund preparation for a one-hour documentary film, to search out additional archival materials, to conduct further historical research, and collaborate with scholars to refine the humanities content.
In collaboration with the libraries of Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Mount Holyoke College, the American Library Association proposes a traveling exhibit and public programs for 40 libraries examining the history and legacy of the Dust Bowl. The project spotlights Ken Burns' film "The Dust Bowl," and brings to public view two little known Dust Bowl archives: online oral history interviews of Dust Bowl survivors at OSU, and letters and essays of Caroline Henderson, a Mount Holyoke alumna who farmed in Oklahoma throughout the Dust Bowl. Libraries will display the exhibit for 6 weeks and present at least 3 public humanities programs from a list provided. The project humanities themes include the interaction between humans and nature; the different ways human beings respond to adversity; and how people living in the Dust Bowl tried to understand their social, economic, and ecological environment.
We examined the durability of students’ understanding of lunar phenomena one year after a combination of planetarium and classroom lessons. Children (N=16) were interviewed before and after instruction during Year 1 and then again one year later. Analysis of the interview results and instruction reveals that many students retained an understanding of some of the key constructs targeted in the program. Results also suggest that students were more likely to learn and remember challenging constructs that they actively engaged with in both the planetarium and the classroom.
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Pennsylvania State UniversityJulia PlummerArcadia University
Through a generous three-year grant from the Abundance Foundation, the Agency by Design (AbD) initiative at Project Zero, a research organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, began to investigate the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning. Over the last two years we have simultaneously pursued three strands of work: 1) a review of pertinent literature; 2) interviews and site visits with leading maker educators; and 3) action research and concept development. We’re now commencing our third year of work. Our active data collection stage is over. We are
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Harvard Project ZeroHarvard Project Zero
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) contracted RK&A to explore visitors’ interest in and understanding of the design and interpretation presented in four conservatory rooms—Rare and Endangered Species, Plant Adaptations, Medicinal Plants, and Garden Primeval. Two rooms were quite small and the other two rooms were larger. Each room was designed to support a theme and included a variety of signage to support the theme (e.g., plant ID signs, ephemeral signs, thematic signs). Findings from this study will be used in part to inform a new interpretive strategy for the Garden. How did we
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) contracted RK&A to explore visitors’ interest in and understanding of proposed “Context Clues.” A Context Clue is an interpretive strategy that uses images, product samples or other objects, and interpretive text to assist visitors in connecting to the big idea: plants are important to people. How did we approach this study? The overall purpose of the evaluation was to determine how to best use Context Clues to communicate the relationship between plants and people. Therefore, RK&A interviewed 40 walk-in visitors who experienced three Context Clues in
The Robert R. McCormick Foundation contracted RK&A to conduct a formative evaluation of the Freedom Express mobile museum program to assess the degree to which the program supports students toward the achievement of stated civic engagement-related outcomes. How did we approach this study? The evaluation was designed to explore the extent to which students demonstrate desired outcomes after experiencing the Freedom Express program and to identify the extent to which teachers value and recognize the benefits of the program. To capture diverse perspectives and produce reliable data, RK&A utilized
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Randi Korn
Living Liquid is an exhibit cluster focused on the charismatic microfauna and flora of the San Francisco Bay and the larger oceans, and is the first in an series of experiments to create a new marine life area in the East Gallery at the Piers. This formative evaluation examines what visitors found interesting and how they perceived the environment of the exhibit collection. Appendix includes interview protocol.
The Pratt Museum will design and fabricate exhibits in its new museum facility in Homer, Alaska. This region is home to culturally diverse coastal communities which make their living predominantly from the sea. The exhibits will awaken a sense of connectedness between people and place and provide a variety of avenues for visitors to experience the stories of the Kachemak Bay region of South Central Alaska. The overall objectives of the exhibition are to present a personal perspective, a sense of place, and a responsibility to self and community. A balance of presentation will accomplish these goals. This grant will help fund: 1) workshops for the staff planning team, evaluator, and the design team, 2) design of the exhibition, 3) fabrication and installation in the Museum’s Main Gallery and adjacent spaces, and 4) gallery guides for selected themes.