The Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) at the University of California-Berkeley is designing an interactive web portal and public forum, Ars Synthetica, to communicate SynBERC's research on synthetic biology, an emerging field that builds on advances in molecular, cell, and systems biology. Synthetic biologists will soon design and fabricate biological entities to accomplish particular tasks. Biological materials properties (gene sequences, protein properties, natural genetic circuit design) must be formulated into a set of design rules that can be used to engineer new biological entities. These design issues raise ethical concerns among the public and will form the core focus of Ars Synthetica. The forum will use Omeka, an open source software platform that will afford research scientists and the public with the ability to engage in community-wide discussions and debates, and will be customized to utilize a variety of media, such as articles, photo essays, and video vignettes addressing key questions surrounding synthetic biology. The forum will provide numerous links to research articles, data, and relevant websites, including SynBERC's synthetic biology website and the Anthropology of the Contemporary websites. Video webcasts will include guest lecturers with diverse perspectives on synthetic biology aimed at both scientists and the public, which will be disseminated on social networks, such as YouTube, Flickr, and WordPress blogs. The forum has the potential to make a significant impact on public discourse on science, as well as provide an important new exemplar for public engagement in research that can be replicated in other fields of science and informal science education.
The intent of this project is to use social network methods to study networks of afterschool and informal science stakeholders. It would attempt to create knowledge that improves afterschool programs access to informal science learning materials. This is an applied research study that applies research methods to improving access to and enactment of informal science education programs across a range of settings. The investigators plan to collect data from 600 community- and afterschool programs in California, conduct case studies of 10 of these programs, and conduct surveys of supporting intermediary organizations. The analysis of the data will provide descriptions of the duration, intensity, and nature of the networks among afterschool programs and intermediary agencies, and the diffusion patterns of science learning materials in afterschool programs. The project will yield actionable knowledge that will be disseminated among afterschool programs, intermediary organizations, funding agencies, and policymakers to improve the dissemination and support of afterschool science learning opportunities. The project is focused on free-choice settings where every day the largest numbers of children attend afterschool programs at schools and in other community settings. It seeks information about what conditions are necessary for informal science programs to significantly impact the largest possible number of children in these settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara MeansAnn HouseRaymond McGheeCarlin Llorente
Community Science Workshops: Beginning a National Movement is an extension of a successful, NSF-funded project that created a network of community science centers in California. Green Mountain College has now taken this successful venture to a national level by working with partner organizations throughout the country to establish new Community Science Workshops (CSWs) in underserved communities. Once sites are selected, CSW directors participate in an intensive two-week training program. This is followed by visits by site mentors, annual meetings, and ongoing support through the Internet and other media, which contributes to the establishment and eventual sustainability of the centers. Each site partners with local, established museums, science centers and community-based nonprofit organizations to gain much needed assistance with exhibits and education programs. Community Science Workshops contain permanent exhibit space, a workshop area for student projects and classroom/storage space. They serve a variety of audiences through after school, family, school and summer science programs. National CSW locations include Miami, Houston, New Orleans, Boston, and Washington, D.C. A CSW program is also in development in Biloxi, MS.
The project will conduct a mapping study to describe the contexts, characteristics and practices of a national sample of science-focused Out-of-School Time (OST) programs and identify exemplar programs for further study. A Field Study will seek more detailed knowledge about these programs by interviewing participants, alumni, and other stakeholders, and observing program activities. The results of these studies will be presented at a working conference at the end of the project to discuss how to develop a survey instrument to measure important youth outcomes from OST programs and collect baseline data for an anticipated longitudinal study. This project will provide new descriptive materials about the operation and practice of the out of school learning of science. It will produce a literature review, a list of organizations that provide out of school science training and a plan for future data collection. A qualitative study will be conducted to answer questions such as to what extent OST science experiences spark interest or rather nurture or sustain it and how these outcomes fit within the broader context of lifelong learning and development. The study is intended to create a new typology of youth OST science programs that sufficiently describe crucial features that differentiate such programs.
National Geographic Television is creating multi-platform media to communicate the scientific and engineering stories unfolding in the Gulf region due to the major oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is one of the worst environmental disasters to occur in the U.S., and though traditional news outlets continue to report on the spill, there is little discussion about the scientific factors at play. They include the technology and engineering skills needed to stop the leak and contain the oil; the scientific and engineering efforts to mitigate its effects; and the potential impacts on the Earth system. Communicating these scientific and engineering concepts to the public is both critical and urgent. National Geographic is uniquely positioned to take the lead in reporting on the science and engineering behind the spill and its implications. Deliverables will include: a 60-minute "Explorer" documentary television program to air on the National Geographic Channels in September 2010; 16 weekly online "Science Journal" segments featuring interviews with scientists, engineers, and other experts, promoted through National Geographic's social media channels; ongoing online news coverage and blog reports from the Gulf region; and online content for children. Funding from the National Science Foundation will specifically support coverage of the yet-to-be-filmed science and engineering segments for the television program and digital content. The television program and digital content will reach a broad public audience with critical science and engineering concepts. The entire project is designed to communicate scientific messages from the Gulf in real time and over the longer term, and in so doing, to enhance public understanding of science and engineering as it relates to the oil spill crisis.
This project will be conducted by a team of investigators from North Carolina State University. The principal investigator proposes to examine the characteristics, motivations, in and out-of-school experiences, informal science activities, and career trajectories of 1000 science hobbyists and "master hobbyists." Master hobbyists are individuals who have developed science expertise and spend considerable free time engaging in science as a leisure activity. Master science hobbyists are found across most areas of science (e.g. birdwatchers, amateur astronomers). This research will determine who these individuals are, their career pathways, how they engage in science activities and what motivates, sustains, and defines their science interests. One of the particular goals of this research is to develop new understandings of how science hobby interests develop for women and underserved minorities. In the proposed research investigators will use the results of interviews and surveys to identify contextual factors that influence the motivational processes that, in turn, influenced choices of careers and contribute to ongoing choices in hobby and citizen science activities. Of interest in this study is how citizen scientists who are also serious hobbyists differ from master science hobbyists. Research on citizen scientists has shown that this group is highly motivated by collective motives (such as a desire to help others and further science), whereas this may not be the case with the master science hobbyist. Two groups will be sampled: a) birdwatchers and b) amateur astronomers. This sampling model will allow investigators to contrast their findings by: 1) those who have selected a science career versus those that did not select a science career, 2) those who participate in citizen science activities and those that do not, and 3) those who are birdwatchers (greater mathematical components) and those who are amateur astronomers (lesser mathematical components). Additional coding and analyses will examine any differences in the evolution of bird watching and astronomy hobbies. The results of this research will be examined in light of existing motivational and sociocultural models of career selection. This research will document differences in the perceived motivational elements that influenced master science hobbyists/citizen scientists to choose a science career or not. The results can inform federal, state, and local policies for supporting youth and adults engaged in free choice learning. Results of this research will inform the design of intervention/recruitment programs and ISE outreach initiatives. Potential audiences include ISE institutions (e.g. museums and science centers), organizations with links to STEM (e.g. scouts, boys/girls clubs) and pre- and college initiatives that seek to influence career choices and life-long science interests. The proposed cross-disciplinary approach will promote new understandings of complex issues related to motivation, retention, career selection, leisure activities, engagement with formal and informal educational environments, gender and ethnicity, communities of practice and changes in interests over time. Members of the advisory board have expertise in assessment and measurement and will work closely with the project team to conduct a detailed examination of methodologies and analyses at all phases of the project.
The middle-school and high-school years are a period of change and crystalization in terms of life goals, disciplinary and course preferences, and social and political attitudes. The literature provides a number of cross-sectional descriptions and models concerning cognitive and attitudinal development during adolescence and young adulthood, but there are no longitudinal data available to study these processes. The proposed longitudinal study will examine the (1) development of interest in science and mathematics, (2) the growth of scientific literacy, (3) the development of attentiveness to science and technology issues, and (4) the attraction to careers in science and engineering among two national cohorts of adolescents and young adults. One cohort will begin with a national sample of 3,000 seventh graders and follow them through the 10th grade. The second cohort will begin with a national sample of 3,000 10th graders and follow them for the next four years through the first full year after high school. Data will be collected from students, teachers, counselors, principals, and parents. A purposive sample of two or three school districts with exemplary elementary school science and mathematics education programs will be selected and comparable data will be collected in these districts. The analysis will consist of a series of expanding multivariate developmental models that will seek to understand cognitive and attitudinal growth and change in the context of family, school, and peer influences. Each wave of data collection will provide an opportunity to examine cognitive and attitudinal change measures in an increasingly rich context of previous measures. Periodic reports will be issued with each cycle of data collection and the data will be made available to other scholars on a timely basis. The first phase of the project, being funded at this time, provides approximately 15 months for instrument development and pilot testing, for sample selection, for monitor selection and training, and for working with the research advisory committee.
The Association of Science-Technology Centers, representing some 170 science museums, receives regular requests for information on the status of science museums, their education programs, exhibits and other activities. To respond to this need, the organization will collect and analyze data on the status and activities of both member and non-member science museums. The material will be published as three reports and made available on computer disks for further study. The information is particularly useful to communities considering new museums, and to trustees and contributors to current museums and others who have an interest in the priorities and policies of education and exhibits programs. The project will be assisted by an advisory committee and Dr. Sue Smock, Director of the Center for Urban Studies, Wayne State University.
Plantations, the botanical garden and arboretum of Cornell University, is developing a model program of informal education for elementary (K-5) school children. Project LEAP, Learning About Plants, will integrate the academic resources of Cornell University and the informal setting of its botanic gardens with the teaching of mathematics and science in local elementary schools. The project contains five components: 1) a conceptually-based curriculum of biology, ecology and agriculture which will include some components of SCIS (Science Curriculum Improvement Study) and OBIS (Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies); 2) a teacher training workshop to stimulate curriculum integration and modification; 3) multiple two-year visits between Plantations and local schools providing children with direct experience with plants and animals; 4) a quantitative program of curriculum development and evaluation based on learning theory; and 5) a plan for dissemination of the structure and instructional contents of this program. Because children will experience LEAP over a period of years, the complex and meaningful learning of concepts in science will be achieved in the earliest years of a child's education. Because LEAP is being designed to become a model program applicable to many institutions of informal education, two publications will be produced: a notebook which describes the overall structure of the program, and a handbook for teachers which presents the individual lessons of the curriculum and the theoretical background supporting the choice of curriculum material. The notebook will distinguish those elements of the program peculiar to Cornell and Plantations, and mechanisms through which the program can be adapted to other institutions. The project is being split-funded by the Instructional Materials Development and Informal Science Education Programs.
The American Psychological Association, in cooperation with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), will develop a series of exhibits on psychology using a discovery room/science laboratory approach. The exhibition will, for the first time, offer museum visitors a first hand opportunity to explore the tools, methods, and concepts of psychology in such areas as thinking and feeling, dreaming and sleeping, perceiving and communicating. The exhibition will travel to eight museums over 30 months through the ASTC traveling exhibition service and will reach over a million visitors. A wide selection of additional materials and resources such as films, seminars, lectures and workshops will be offered to the participating museums to extend the impact of the exhibition. Plans of the exhibits will be made available to other museums. NSF support represents less than 50% of the total cost of the project.
The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (MMNS) will develop a program over the next two years aimed at teachers and students in grades 3-7. The project will develop teacher kits and "hands-on" exhibits tied to the new state curriculum and to the science television series "3-2-1 Contact". The MMNS is a division of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation and is designated as the official natural science museum by the State Legislature. The Museum has been in operation for 50 years and, since its inception, has served as a resource for classroom teachers. Mississippi has approximately 500,000 public school students attending about 1,000 schools. One third of these children are considered to live below the poverty level and 50 percent are from minority groups--a priority for the NSF. The MMNS has had success with a small pilot project which coordinates science concepts taught in the television series "3-2-1 Contact" with exhibit programs at the Museum. Over the next two years MMNS will expand their "hands-on" exhibits and develop science kits for use in the classroom in coordination with the new state curriculum and the television series. The kits will include museum objects, suggested activities and a teacher's guide. During the first year a series of "Contact Days" will be held with teachers and students across the state to develop and test the effectiveness of the project along with a lecture program by minority and women scientists. During the second year the exhibits will travel to schools across the state.
READING RAINBOW is a 25 part PBS children's television series produced by the Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, a part of the Nebraska Educational Television Network. It addresses the national problem of more and more youngsters reading less and less. This award-winning television series has been successful in using television to stimulate children ages five through nine to read good books. The series attracts an audience of 7.8 million children with ratings equal to those of THE ELECTRIC COMPANY and MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD. Program evaluation shows equally enthusiastic responses from parents, teachers, librarians and, most importantly, children. Support will be provided for a series of five READING RAINBOW programs which focus on scientific themes. These episodes will be integrated into the on-going series and build on young children's curiosity and interest in the world as well as demonstrating to children how science relates to all aspects of their lives. In an increasingly technological society, children need stimulation to seek out books related to science, reinforcing early curiosity and strengthening life-long interest in science. Women and minorities are well represented on READING RAINBOW staff and in the productions themselves. Great care is taken to ensure a broad representation of people including racial and cultural groups, female and male, senior citizens and people with varying physical disabilities. Community outreach organizations involved include: the National PTA, American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, National Educational Association and the International Reading Association. In connection with the science series, Reading Rainbow staff will involve the National Science Teachers Association and a special public relations effort will be organized to promote READING RAINBOW to science museums and other organizations that conduct science education program activities for children.