The Exploratorium is testing new methods of using Internet-based programming to increase the public understanding of current scientific research. Exploratorium staff, working with a group of advisors, will assess the current status of projects that focus on conveying information about research. They then will develop and test a prototype website. The exploratory research will examine such questions as: What information about research is important and critical to convey to the public? How do you build a Web presence that can rapidly accommodate new findings? What is an appropriate oversight process to assure inclusion of appropriate research? What are sufficient update intervals? How does such a Web site build an audience? How can the Web effort be coordinated with other PUR projects? How can the Web site provide opportunities for public input and discussion? How do you develop buy-in and participation from researchers? Is the additional interpretation/annotation sufficient to give the public a deeper level of understanding? These planning and prototyping efforts will be coordinated with other simultaneous Public Understanding of Research planning projects.
Thinking SMART is a comprehensive five-year program that will encourage young women to pursue careers in science, mathematics and technology. The project focuses on girls ages 12-18, and will especially target those who are underserved and underrepresented in the sciences, including girls from diverse backgrounds and persons with disabilities. Key elements include four science/engineering module options, a two-tiered mentoring component, training, resource materials, online activities and an awards program. The modules (Material Girls, Eco Girls, Galactic Girls, Net Girls), focus on engineering, ecology, physics and computer science respectively, and will be aligned with national standards. The modules are implemented during the school year and include weekly programming, a summer camp and a spring "Women in Science and Engineering" conference organized by girls. Weekly meetings are augmented by online activities, in which girls interact with other participants and mentors, publish reports and obtain career information. Additionally, participants who complete all four modules are eligible to become paid mentors for younger participants. Five publications will be produced to support the program, including manuals for mentors (both adults and youth), module activities, a parent guide and a guide for implementation sites on community partnerships. Thinking SMART materials will be developed and piloted tested at eight sites in conjunction with Girls, Inc. affiliates in Nashua, NH, Worcester, MA, Oakridge, TN and Shelbyville, IN, with input from the Society of Women Engineers. Extensive training will also be provided for pilot programs and future dissemination. Finally the E3 Awards Program will motivate implementation sites to create high quality local programs. It is anticipated that more than 1,500 Girls, Inc. affiliates will adopt "Thinking SMART."
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Brenda StegallJanet StantonHeather Johnston NicholsonShalonda MurrayJoe Martinez
SoundPrint Media Center is producing a testing a pilot of a radio project that would examine mathematical models used to simulate phenomena, make predictions and generate scenarios. During the "What If: Models, Predications and Scenarios" pilot phase, SoundPrint will produce and test two half-hour documentaries, follow-up radio updates, and a plan for a web-based model simulation and educational resources. Educational Support Services will conduct evaluation of the pilot materials to determine: the programs' ability to translate complicated mathematical and scientific ideas through a storytelling approach, the types of models that best lend themselves to illustrate those concepts, and the degree to which the documentaries as stand alone stories have an impact on listeners. The formative evaluation also will test a website.
The Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh has designed a research project to examine the process of and outcomes of informal (out of school) web-based learning. "Conceptualizing and Assessing Web-based Informal Science Education" will be a three-year research study to document and analyze how the informal learner, both as an individual and in a social group, uses and learns from web-based activities. The PIs will also develop a framework and tools for evaluating informal web-based learning environments and guidelines for effective web-based learning activities. This research will use web sites developed by museums and that are complementary to exhibits in those museums. These sites are being selected because according to the PIs, "museums and other nonprofit developers are already going beyond traditional content to create true virtual informal learning environments." The outcomes of this research will include a better understanding of the cognitive and social processes that occur as learners engage in web-based activities; a framework and tools for evaluating informal web-based learning activities; and a web-based annotated bibliography relevant to this research.
The Garden Mosaics program will develop and test a model in which youth conduct research on community and home gardens in urban settings. Youth ages 11-18 will be recruited to participate in gardening activities in conjunction with elders from their communities. Students learn the science content associated with organismal biology, community ecology, ecosystems and the physical environment, as well as culturally-related food growing practices. Participants then take part in guided research; using methods such as transect walks, mapping, ecosystem models and soil tests, to document food-growing practices of immigrant minority and traditional gardeners. Expanded research investigations will be open to students who want to continue their explorations using the Internet and other resources. Students contribute to new and existing databases of ethnic and heritage gardening practices in the United States. Materials to be developed include an Educator's Manual, a Youth Handbook and a Garden Mosaics website. During the pilot phase a national leadership team will be established to test the program and materials at 10 sites in different cities across the U.S. including San Antonio, Baltimore, Boston, Sacramento, New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. It is anticipated that the dissemination of this model will reach more than 750 educators and 13,000 youth.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marianne KrasnyAlan BerkowitzGretchen Ferenz
The goal of this project is to make a fundamental contribution towards a nationally shared understanding of the role and impact of a science center in facilitating enhanced public understanding, attitudes and behaviors toward science by means of informal learning activities. To accomplish this, this research project will investigate the following questions: 1) What are the specific long-term changes in science understanding, attitudes and behaviors that result from visiting a science center exhibition? 2) What are the factors that contribute to these long-term changes? 3) What is the relationship between science center visits and subsequent reinforcing educational experiences? This study will build on previous work conducted by ILI at the California Science Center aimed at understanding how a science center impacts its community. These studies are known collectively as the Los Angeles Science Education Research Project (LASER). A sample of participants in one of the LASER studies has expressed their willingness to participate in subsequent interviews. These interviews will be designed to capture both small and large changes in science understanding, attitudes, behaviors and other informal learning experiences subsequent to the visit to the science center.
The Bell Museum of Natural History is seeking a planning grant to begin the exhibit development process for a national traveling exhibit on nature in urban settings. "Nature in the City" will be designed to encourage the exploration of diversity of life in the city in the same way ecologist study ecosystems. The overall goal of the exhibit is to improve the public's understanding of ecology and biodiversity, and the relevance of these concepts to their lives in creating healthier and ecologically sustainable communities. The project will include front-end evaluation, identification of key themes and take-home messages, and a survey of potential host sites. The target audience assessment will examine interest, knowledge and attitudes about nature and the environment among urban audiences. Methodology will include interviews with community members, focus groups and surveys, all conducted in collaboration with museum staff and community groups. The results will be applied to the design of the 3000 sq. ft. "Nature in the City" traveling exhibit, mini-kiosks and supporting programs.
The Wildlands Project is producing a four-hour television series for PBS and the CBC. The television series, "The Sacred Balance," will feature geneticist and environmental scientist David Suzuki as he examines a new vision of the human place in nature. The series aims to enrich and expand the scientific world view by looking at traditional knowledge, myth, literature and art, and by incorporating aspects of human spirituality into the insights presented by science. The aim of the project is to show that the world-view human beings have celebrated since ancient times is reemerging, transformed, from the laboratories of modern science. Moving away from reductionist techniques, researchers from many different disciplines are studying diversity, whole organisms, systems and relationships that begin in the individual cell and extend to the entire planet. The television series is designed to change the way the public acts in the world by demonstrating that what we do to the Earth we do to ourselves. Dr. Suzuki will work closely with an advisory committee in shaping the series. The members of this committee include: Lane Lubchenco: Professor of Marine Biology and Zoology, Oregon State University David Schindler: Environmental Ecologist, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta E. O. Wilson: Biologist, Harvard University Sylvia Earl: Marine Ecologist and "Explorer in Residence" at the National Geographic Society, Washington, DC James Parks Morton: Former Dean, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, currently at the Interfaith Center of New York The television series will be supplemented by a new, interactive Sacred Balance website and a teachers guide. Ancillary material also will include Dr. Suzuki's trade book, "The Sacred Balance."
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David SuzukiRobert LangAmanda McConnell
With a Small Grant for Exploratory Research, The Institute for Learning Innovation will to conduct a study, "A Multi-Factor Investigation of Variables Affecting Informal Science Learning." Prior research has revealed seven variables, or the suite of variables encompassed by these seven variables, that affect visitor learning in science centers. This research will study to what extent each of the variables contributes to learning outcomes, or which of these variables explains the most variance. It is anticipated that the results of this study will have an important and direct impact on future investigations into science center learning and efforts to facilitate science center effectiveness.
The San Diego Natural History Museum is committed to the research and interpretation of the Southern California and Baja California area. New permanent exhibits to convey the excitement and relevance of natural history study is the focus of this planning grant. The planning project has three goals. First, it will devise a master plan that establishes a philosophical foundation and the organizing framework for exhibit development. Second, a schematic design that articulates content, space allocation and exhibit techniques will be made. Finally, a plan for related materials and programs that will fund, enhance and expand the exhibit effort will be constructed. The twelve-month planning proceess will be evaluated and the results disseminated and added to the field of museum learning research.
Serrell and Associates requests an 18-month grant to conduct research that seeks a valid and reliable way for museum professionals to judge the excellence of science exhibitions in museums from a visitor-experience point of view. This is a novel and untested idea for practitioners of exhibition development in science museums. The need for this research arises from a lack of agreed-upon standards of excellence (or even competence) for science museum exhibitions. Museums that receive funding from the National Science Foundation are called upon to document the effectiveness and merit of their exhibit projects, yet they have few shared, standardized methods to help them do so. This grant would allow Serrell and Associates to conduct a series of meetings with local (Chicago) museum professionals and a national advisory panel to facilitate the development and testing of an audience-based, peer-reviewed criteria for recognizing excellence through empirical definition and exemplars. The research question for this project is: If different museum officials used the same set of standards to visit, review and judge the same group of exhibitions, would their ratings agree on the degree of excellence for each of the exhibitions? The proposed research methods will be informed by the science education research of John R. Frederiksen (University of California at Berkeley and the Educational Testing Service, California) who has developed techniques and criteria for performance evaluation of science teaching. His scoring methods incorporate direct and positive ways in which assessment can be used to improve science teaching. There are very clear parallels between Frederiksen's assessment techniques for science educators and the goals of this project for science museum exhibit developers. These include, but are not limited to: practitioner-developed and practitioner-trained criteria; criteria based upon a combination of ground-up and top-down theories; content-free, intention-free criteria; and criteria that benefit the process, the product and measurement of the impacts. The long-term goal of this research is to improve the quality of visitors' experiences in science museum exhibitions.
The Exploratorium will develop a series of Internet resources on three popular topics -- cooking, gardening, and making music -- to encourage users in science education activities in relation to daily activities. The three-year project will include the development and testing of resources that explore the science behind these topics, using the notion that we all, consciously or not, are "accidental scientists" who engage in the scientific process in the course of everyday life. Target audiences include general public adults and youth. Components of the site will feature aspects of cooking, gardening, and making music that are intended to appeal to diverse communities. The resources will also serve formal education through the Exploratorium's national and local network of educators.