The Maryland Science Center (MSC), in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), and Morgan State University (MSU), has sought the support of the National Institutes of Health SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) Program to develop "Cellular Universe: The Promise of Stem Cells," a unique exhibition and update center with related programs that highlight the most current science in cell biology and stem cell research. Visitor surveys have shown that science museum visitors are very interested in learning about stem cell research, but know little about the science of stem cells or cell biology, which form the basis of stem cell research. The goal of this project is to help visitors learn about advances in cell biology and stem cells so that they will make informed health-related decisions, explore new career options, and better understand the role of basic and clinical research in health advances that affect people's lives. Topics to be covered include the basic biology of cells, the role of stem cells in human development, current stem cell research and the clinical research process. This exhibition will also address the controversies in stem cell research. Our varied advisory panel, including cell biologists, physiologists, adult and embryonic stem cell researchers and bioethicists, will ensure the objectivity of all content. "Cellular Universe: The Promise of Stem Cells" will be a 3,500 square-foot exhibition to be planned, designed and prototyped in Fall 2006-Winter 2009, and installed in MSC's second-floor human body exhibition hall in Spring 2009. This exhibition will build on the successful model of "BodyLink," our innovative health science update center funded by a 2000 SEPA grant (R25RR015602) and supported by partnerships with JHU and UMB.
This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the establishment of an interdisciplinary graduate training program in Cognitive, Computational, and Systems Neuroscience at Washington University in Saint Louis. Understanding how the brain works under normal circumstances and how it fails are among the most important problems in science. The purpose of this program is to train a new generation of systems-level neuroscientists who will combine experimental and computational approaches from the fields of psychology, neurobiology, and engineering to study brain function in unique ways. Students will participate in a five-course core curriculum that provides a broad base of knowledge in each of the core disciplines, and culminates in a pair of highly integrative and interactive courses that emphasize critical thinking and analysis skills, as well as practical skills for developing interdisciplinary research projects. This program also includes workshops aimed at developing the personal and professional skills that students need to become successful independent investigators and educators, as well as outreach programs aimed at communicating the goals and promise of integrative neuroscience to the general public. This training program will be tightly coupled to a new research focus involving neuro-imaging in nonhuman primates. By building upon existing strengths at Washington University, this research and training initiative will provide critical new insights into how the non-invasive measurements of brain function that are available in humans (e.g. from functional MRI) are related to the underlying activity patterns in neuronal circuits of the brain. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kurt ThoroughmanGregory DeAngelisRandy BucknerSteven PetersenDora Angelaki
There is broad consensus in the international scientific community that the world is facing a biodiversity crisis — the accelerated loss of life on Earth brought about by human activity. Threats to biodiversity have been variously classified by different authors (Diamond 1989, Laverty and Sterling 2004, Brook et al. 2008), but typically include ecosystem loss and fragmentation, unsustainable use, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. Across the globe, traditional and indigenous cultures are affected by many of the same threats affecting biological diversity, including the
The recent events related to the spread of the influenza virus A (H1N1) have drawn again the attention of science communication experts to old issues, including a couple of issues we deem particularly important: risk communication and the role of scientific journalists in the society of knowledge.
In order to assess the impact of the exhibition Cells: The Universe Inside Us at the Maryland Science Center an exit questionnaire was administered to museum visitors who had not seen the exhibition as well as those who had seen it. One hundred forty-nine visitors were interviewed between August 7, 2009 and August 19, 2009. Fifty-one visitors were interviewed before they had seen the Cells exhibit (pre-test); ninety-eight people were interviewed after viewing the exhibit (post-test). The following analysis compares what people know about cells before and after seeing the Cells exhibit.
Evidence for the present study derives from a sample of 574 middle-grades students that participated in the River City Project (RCP) in academic year 2006-07. Central to the RCP is an open-ended video-game-like learning innovation for teaching inquiry-based science and twenty-first century skills. Results of investigation into the students' neomillennial learning styles revealed that, on average, students who (1) prefer creating and sharing artifacts through the Internet are well-suited for learning about disease transmission and scientific problem solving skills in the RCP; and (2) students
This article examines how effectively a curriculum designed for a sixth grade classroom in a low income urban middle school was adapted utilize the funds of knowledge that existed among the students. The author discusses how all students draw on information that they obtain from their environment in the classroom and that this is often difficult for students in science classrooms in urban areas. The curriculum that is examined was for a unit that explored food and nutrition. The authors examine what funds of knowledge the students did bring into the classroom and how they were able to utilize
The article discusses how undergraduate science students became docents for "The Genomic Revolution" exhibit at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. According to the article, a docent is one who serves as a connection between the museum and the attendees and acts as an interpreter of the collection for the visitors. Undergraduate students were recruited from schools in the Atlanta, Georgia area including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, and Spellman College. The docent training program that would cover the genetic principles of the exhibit, the Peer
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert PyattTracie RosserKelly Powell
Passport to Health is a new program from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, supported by the Colorado Health Foundation. It engages students, their families, and their teachers in discovering how incredibly unique their bodies are. Passport to Health expands upon the Museum’s newest permanent exhibition, Expedition Health. This interactive health exhibit has an expedition theme of climbing a mountain, which creates an environment for visitors to learn the science behind their amazing bodies. Passport to Health is a comprehensive hands-on program that deepens and extends the exhibit experience for 5th graders at about 30 participating Passport to Health schools, which are all low-income schools in the Denver metro area. Expedition Health and Passport to Health share the idea that health depends on genetics, lifestyle, and environment. The objective of Passport to Health is to increase students’ understanding of health science, raise their health literacy, and inspire them toward healthy lifestyles.
SETAC is funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union and emerges out of the need to undertake specific action for the improvement of science education. It regards science education as among the fundamental tools for developing active citizens in the knowledge society. SETAC draws on the cooperation between formal and informal learning institutions, aiming to enhance school science education and active citizenship looking further into the role of science education as a lifelong tool in the knowledge society. On the day of the project’s conclusion, 31 October 2010, after two years of work SETAC contributes the following products and results to the field: 1. “Quality Science Education: Where do we stand? Guidelines for practice from a European experience” This is the concluding manifesto that presents the results of the SETAC work in the form of recommendations for practitioners working in formal and informal science learning institutions; 2. “Teaching and Learning Scientific Literacy and Citizenship in Partnership with Schools and Science Museums” This paper constitutes the theoretical framework of the project and innovative ways of using museums for science education and develop new modes of linking formal and informal learning environments; 3. Tools for teaching and learning in science: misconceptions, authentic questions, motivation. Three specific studies, leading to three specific reports, have been conducted in the context of the project, looking in particular into notions with an important role in science teaching and learning. These are on: Children’s misconceptions; Authentic questions as tool when working in science education; Students’ attitudes and motivation as factors influencing their achievement and participation in science and science-related issues; 4. Activities with schools: SETAC developed a series of prototype education activities which were tested with schools in each country. Among the activities developed between the partners, two have been chosen and are available on-line for practitioners to use and to adapt in their own context. These are: The Energy role game, a role game on Energy invites students to act in different roles, those of the stakeholders of an imaginary community, called to debate and decide upon a certain common problem; MyTest www.museoscienza.org/myTest, which aims to encourage students to engage in researching, reflecting and communicating science-oriented topics; 5. European in-service training course for primary and secondary school teachers across Europe. The training course is designed in such a way as to engage participants in debate and exploration of issues related to science education and active citizenship. The course is open to school teachers, headteachers and teacher trainers from all EU-member and associate countries. Professionals interested can apply for a EU Comenius grant. All the products of the project as well as information about the training course are available at the project website, some of them in more than one languages: www.museoscienza.org/setac
This report is the fourth annual report summarizing data collected about the overall impact of the Saint Louis Science Center's educational programs on participants. Data was collected between September 2009 to August 2010. Three programs are spotlighted: Family Med School, Science Communication for Brain Scientists, and SciJourn.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jennifer HeimElisa IsraelSemilla BlandSaint Louis Science Center
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) contracted with Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to evaluate Disease Detectives, a traveling exhibition made possible by a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health. RK&A conducted a summative evaluation to investigate how visitors experienced the exhibition and how effectively the exhibition conveyed information about infectious diseases. Data were collected through standardized questionnaires and in-depth interviews.
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Science Museum of Minnesota