This CRPA award addresses the exciting contemporary chemical science that occurs in interstellar space. The new interferometers coming online this year will enhance this new area of science and further intrigue those who engage. The plan in this award is to build an exhibit that will interest the audience with the space-based aspects, but will also engage them in understanding the chemistry that occurs in space. This is a collaborative effort between the University of Virginia and the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The exhibit is relatively small facilitating its mobility. Thus, the authors will travel the exhibit to smaller venues in rural areas and embrace citizens who are typically under-served by educational opportunities of ISE venues. The target audience is 12-15 year old youths. Clearly, this project is meant to engage the public in both Space science and Chemistry with the ultimate hope that some individuals will even think about careers in the joint science field that is emerging from these types of behaviors.
Our Instrumented Earth: Understanding Global Systems and Local Impacts through the El Nino Story centers on a new production displayed on Science on a Sphere® (SOS), and informal educational program elements to engage learners in the power and purpose of NASA data-gathering tools. Audiences include over two million visitors to partner institutions, serving both urban and rural constituencies that rank among the most diverse in the nation. The Aquarium has partnered with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and NASA Goddard Space Center to implement elements of the program, as well as NASA scientists and experts to develop content. There are two main project goals for Our Instrumented Earth: to create a NASA-informed public by creating an SOS production which highlights space technologies and other instruments monitoring Earth; and to enhance the STEM capacity of underserved teachers, parents, and students through teacher professional development and outreach events. Major project deliverables for Our Instrumented Earth include: a brand new SOS film production, an adapted program for the Magic Planet spherical display platform to serve rural communities, professional development workshop for formal teachers, and NASA Night outreach events at the Aquarium.
Mission to Mars engages 6th-8th grade students in the science, engineering and careers related to Mars exploration. The program is led by the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, and includes as partners Challenger Learning Centers in Woodstock, IL, Normal IL and three NASA Centers (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Johnson Space Center). The project aims to:
Link, via videoconference, urban and rural middle school students from low income communities in an exploration of space science
Develop and launch programs that showcase NASA Center research
Enrich middle school curricula and promote learning about NASA’s space missions with experiences that inspire youth to pursue in NASA-related STEM careers.
Programs and products produced include:
3 videoconference program scenarios that highlight research being conducted at NASA Centers
Pre- and post-event curriculum materials designed for middle school classrooms
Teacher professional development workshops
Communication support for NASA professionals
iPad apps utilized during the program
Since the program launched five years ago, Mission to Mars has served 7,676 students. MSI seeks to provide opportunities for all learners, and works to remove barriers to participation in high-quality science learning experiences. Mission to Mars allows MSI to engage more Chicago Public Schools (where 86% of students are economically disadvantaged) in real and relevant science experiences that may lead to STEM careers.
As MSI’s CP4SMP grant comes to an end, the Museum has committed to continued delivery of the program through 2 Mission to Mars Learning Labs, offered to 6-8th grade school groups visiting on field trips. Live videoconferencing with JPL and Johnson will occur during roughly half of the sessions. Our Challenger Learning Center partners will integrate Mission to Mars activities, materials and iPad apps into their own Mars-themed programs. Together these efforts extend the transformative hands-on science experiences developed under the Mission to Mars grant to a whole new audience of middle school students and teachers.
Journey into Space (JIS) is designed to improve student, educator, and general public understanding of earth/space science and its relationship to NASA goals and objectives through the use of a traveling GeoDome (inflatable planetarium) and engaging supporting programming at The Journey Museum. The Museum collaborates with area colleges, school districts, K-12 educators, youth serving organizations, astronomical affiliations, and others. The overall goal of JIS is to improve student, educator, and general public understanding of STEM and its relationship to NASA goals and objectives. JIS objectives are: 1) To increase student and public interest and awareness in STEM areas; 2) To increase student interest in pursuing STEM careers; 3) To improve teacher knowledge of NASA related science; 4) To increase teacher comfort level and confidence in teaching NASA related science in their classrooms; 5) To increase collaboration between informal and formal science educators; 6) To increase student and public understanding of Plains Indians ethno astronomy; and 7) To increase museum visitors’ interest and understanding of NASA related science. The Museum produced 2 films (“Cradle of Life”, “Looney Moons”) that are offered daily, 4 recurring monthly programs (Final Frontier Friday, Amazing Science, SciGirls that became Science Explorer’s Club, and Black Hills Astronomical Society meetings), summer robotics classes and teachers’ workshops, annual Earth Science Day, in addition to the GeoDome programming that has toured the region including presentations in the three poorest counties in the United States. The ethno-astronomy is underway in partnership with Oglala Lakota College and South Dakota Space Grant Consortium.
Informal Education at NASA Centers: Extending the Reach is a highly leveraged, modular, project-based approach to improving education opportunities for students, formal and informal educators, and life-long learners in NASA Ames Research Center’s local community and beyond. In partnership with the Aerospace Education, Research and Operations (AERO) Institute, NASA Ames has been developing two projects: Exploration Center Field Trips and Field Trip in a Box. California Teaching Fellows Foundation, as a sub awardee, has been expanding their After School University (ASU) program. The division has the goal of supporting NASA’s Education Outcome 2 with improved educational opportunities for all in the NASA Ames Visitor Center and opportunities to bring NASA content into the classroom to improve students understanding of STEM as well as improve teachers understanding and ability to teach NASA-related STEM topics. The division also has the goal of supporting NASA’s Education Outcome 3 by expanding ASU to include NASA-based STEM learning opportunities to 360 additional students in six rural schools as well as train 12 additional Teaching Fellows (Fresno State University future teachers). Through these objectives, NASA Ames has produced 10 Field Trip in a Box kits as well as new and expanded learning opportunities for all, especially 3rd – 8th grade classes, in the NASA Ames Visitor Center. ASU has reached 500 students in 10 schools and hosted 12-14 year old learners in a five-week computer-based flight simulation class, called Flying for Future Pilots.
The MyDome project will bring 3D virtual worlds for group interaction into planetaria and portable domes. Advances in computing have evolved the planetarium dome experience from a star field and pointer presentation to a high-resolution movie covering the entire hemispherical screen. The project will further transform the dome theater experience into an interactive immersive adventure. MyDome will develop scenarios in which the audience can explore along three lines of inquiry: (1) the past with archeological reconstructions, (2) the present in a living forest, and (3) the future in a space station or colony on Mars. These scenarios will push the limits of technology in rendering believable environments of differing complexity and will also provide research data on human-centered computing as it applies to inquiry and group interactions while exploring virtual environments. The project proposes to engage a large portion of the population, with a special emphasis on the underserved and under-engaged but very tech-savvy teenage learner. Research questions addressed are: 1. What are the most engaging and educational environments to explore in full-dome? 2. What on-screen tools and presentation techniques will facilitate interactions? 3. What are the limitations for this experience using a single computer, single projector mirror projection system as found in the portable Discovery Dome? 4. Which audiences are best served by exploration of virtual hemispherical environments? 5. How large can the audience be and still be effective for the individual learner? What techniques can be used to provide more people with a level of control of the experience and does the group interaction enhance or diminish the engagement of different individuals? 6. What kind of engagement can be developed in producing scientific and climate awareness? Does experiencing past civilizations lead to more interest in other cultures? Does supported learning in the virtual forest lead to greater connection to and understanding of the real forest? Does the virtual model space experience excite students and citizens about space exploration or increase the understanding of the Earth's biosphere? The broader impacts of the project are (1) benefits to society from increasing public awareness and understanding of human relationships with the environment in past civilizations, today?s forests and climate change, and potential future civilizations in space and on Mars; (2) increasing the appeal of informal science museums to the tech-savvy teenage audience, and (3) significant gains in awareness of young people in school courses and careers in science and engineering. The partners represent a geographically diverse audience and underserved populations that include rural (University of New Hampshire), minority students (Houston Museum of Natural Science) and economically-distressed neighborhoods (Carnegie Museum of Natural History). Robust evaluation will inform each program as it is produced and refined, and will provide the needed data on the potential for learning in the interactive dome environment and on the optimal audience size for each different type of inquiry.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Annette SchlossKerry HandronCarolyn Sumners
In August 2009, the Program Evaluation and Research Group (PERG) at Lesley University contracted with the project's PI at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) to evaluate My Dome: Defining the Computational and Cognitive Potential of Real Time Interactive Simulations in an Immersive Dome Environment, an NSF funded grant. The project focuses on creating interactive experiences in immersive virtual environments, and builds off previous work the PI and co PIs have done in developing films and immersive experiences in domes and traveling domes. The project includes staff from the Carnegie Museum