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Project Descriptions

Planning grant for the Science Fiction Experience [w.t.]

September 1, 2003 - January 31, 2005 | Exhibitions
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.

Funders

NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 0342150
Funding Amount: 50000

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Richard Hutton
    Principal Investigator
    Vulcan Inc.
  • Donna Shirley
    Co-Principal Investigator
    NASA
  • Discipline: Space science
    Audience: General Public | Museum/ISE Professionals | Evaluators
    Environment Type: Exhibitions | Museum and Science Center Exhibits

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