The Whaling Museum & Education Center will expand its educational programming to benefit underserved and high-risk students in grades 2 to 5, as well as their teachers and families. The museum will develop, implement, market, and evaluate core components of its programming to reach nearly 3,000 students and 50 teachers. Museum educators will present hands-on activities in nearby schools, using real and replica artifacts and other learning materials. They will also deliver workshops for teachers at the museum to help them incorporate primary resources from the museum's collection into their curricula. A family day event will showcase what students learned from the in-class visit through displays of art projects and science posters. Other project activities will include free afterschool library programs exploring STEAM and history topics and an increase in the number of scholarships to the museum's summer camp program.
With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Wild Center (TWC) engaged Insight Evaluation Services (IES) to assess the impact of specific outreach activities of the Northern New York Maple Project between September 2013 and September 2015. Data for this two-year evaluation study were collected via in-depth telephone interviews conducted with a total of 25 participants, including 16 Tupper Tappers (Tupper Lake area residents who engaged in backyard tapping to provide sap for syrup production at the museum through the Community Maple Project), four local school teachers
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will enhance its staff capacity and train current educational staff in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education delivery, both of which will increase its ability to deliver interpretive tours and programming around the newly opened permanent exhibition, “Inspiring Minds: African Americans in Science and Technology.” The project will include hiring a full-time STEM educator to work with education and archival staff to create and implement a family learning approach to the sciences in the rich context of African American history and culture. A training facilitator will develop a cohort of STEM interns and train current staff educators to present STEM learning experiences. At the conclusion of the project, the museum will have increased staff capacity and widespread expansion and integration of STEM opportunities for the youth, families, and schools of Detroit.
This presentation outlines the front-end and formative evaluation of the redesigned Ancient Worlds Gallery at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), set to open in the spring of 2015. The gallery will contain artifacts, props, and interactives pertaining to ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures. The previous MPM exhibition featuring these civilizations was presented chronologically; for this new gallery, six themes have been selected to guide the visitor experience: construction, communion, community, communication, commerce, and conflict. When affiliated with the Institute for
The story from the museum may not be read by visitors, who come with their own knowledge and understanding and read a different story in the animals. The visitors read a story which makes sense to them and builds on what they already know and interests them. Increasingly, robotics models are being used in natural history museums, science centers, and zoos to attract visitors and tell some kind of story. What do the visitors actually talk about when looking at such robotic animals? The visitors reported on in this paper were primary school groups and families. Do they talk about similar things
This two-year project is communicating the results of scientific discoveries produced by an on-going LTER (Long-term Ecological Research) project devoted to understanding the Everglades ecosystem. Specifically, Dr. Heithaus is capitalizing on the discoveries funded through 0620409 (Coastal Oligotrophic Ecosystems Research) about the role of large-bodied, top predators in the Everglades, including bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) and American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). The STEM content of this project is biology, in particular ecology, the environment, and conservation. These results are being communicated via: (1) multimedia exhibit presentations at multiple museums and nature centers in southern Florida, primarily the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS), located in Ft. Lauderdale near the Everglades and (2) online dissemination of mini-documentaries and other educational components at social media websites and the LTER web site. The target audience for the museum exhibit components includes learners from diverse cultural backgrounds, such as urban family groups reflecting the demographics of southern Florida. This project will also develop a documentary about Everglades ecology that is planned for dissemination on a cable TV channel devoted to natural history. In order to link with formal education, related educational deliverables are being produced for use in science classroom settings (grades 4 through 12) that are aligned with the state science standards and benchmarks. Formative assessment conducted by museum staff and university students will evaluate learning outcomes as they relate to STEM content learning goals. After the two-year funding period, the science learning opportunities produced from the current Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) project will be sustained as the exhibit travels to other venues and as web deliverables are accessed on-line.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop an interdisciplinary national traveling exhibition about raptors (birds of prey). Created in collaboration with The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota (TRC) and the Museum Magnet School of the St. Paul School District, this exhibit and its related programs will explore themes of biodiversity, ecology, and human relationships with the natural world. It will help visitors understand raptors as diverse, charismatic, biologically-complex animals whose continued survival is linked to fundamental questions of public policy, economics, and environmental ethics. combining the perspectives of the sciences with those of the humanities, the exhibit will present science in a real-world context of human values and actions. Opening at SMM in the summer of 1944, the 5,000-square-foot exhibit will travel for five years or more to other large museums, nature centers, and zoos throughout the U.S. Using specimens, models, artifacts, dioramas, audiovisual programs, and interactive components and supported by theater, demonstrations, and a variety of other on-site programs, it will provide a compelling mix of informal learning experiences for families, school groups, and other general audiences. Beyond the museum walls, the themes of the project will reach schools and other important outreach audiences through videotapes, teacher training programs, educational materials, and other programs. SMM will also produce a scaled-down version of the exhibit that will tour to smaller museums, nature centers, and zoos.
Unicorn Projects, Inc. is producing a project about historic mills in American and the science and technology of their operation. The project will combine a nationally broadcast one-hour PBS special with print and interactive educational materials for the home and school markets along with family-oriented personal appearance by host-author David Macaulay at selected museum and mill sites across the country. The goal of the project is to acquaint viewers and participants with the technological innovations and the scientific, social and historical significance of water-powered mills in the early part of the industrial revolution. In addition to the television program the project will produce Mill Times newspapers applicable in formal as well as informal settings, curriculum-based school videos and teachers guides, activity kits including "toys" designed to introduce concepts in applied mechanics, and family-activity programs at selected sites. The PI and Producer/Director will be Larry Klein who has produced and directed the previous Macaulay programs among many other PBS specials. David Macaulay, author of many best-selling books on architecture and technology, will be the host and will work closely with Mark Olshaker, the writer, in developing the script for the program. The Education Director will be Toby Levine. The principal technology and history advisor will be Patrick Malone, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and American Civilization at Brown University and past president of the Society for Industrial Archaeology. The science advisor will be Theodore Ansbacher, principal of Science Services, an informal science education consulting company. Other advisors include Robert Dalzell, Gary Kulik, Judith McGaw, and Merrit Roe Smith.
MacGillivray Freeman Films is producing and distributing "Greek Odyssey," a large-format film presenting archaeology as a sophisticated, precise science that utilizes highly advanced technologies to reconstruct the past. The film will examine research in Athens, the Greek islands and beneath the Aegean Sea where archaeologists, geophysicists and conservationists collaborate to solve and record the mysteries of ancient civilizations. Audiences will discover the process and importance of scientific research to our understanding of Greece's past and its extraordinary influence on our world today. Outreach will include a Museum Resource Guide, Family Fun Sheet, Teacher's Guide, Website and a Scientist Speaker Series. Greg MacGillivray will serve as Co-Producer/Director/Director of Photography, Alec Lorimore will be Co-Producer, and Stephen Judson will be the film editor. The Lead Science Advisor is Mark Rose, a member of the Archaeological Institute of America and Managing Editor of Archaeology magazine. Science advisors include: George Bass, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A & M University; Sandy MacGillivray, Co-Director of Palaikastro excavations on Crete; and Floyd McCoy, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Hawaii.
WGBH is producing four, two-hour programs on the lives of scientists. These programs will be the initial programs in a continuing series of television portraits of distinguished scientists to be broadcast as regular features in the prime-time science series NOVA. The scientists to be covered in the first four programs are Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, and Percy Julian. By illuminating the lives and scientific careers of these important figures, the programs will enhance public understanding of such basic scientific concepts as evolution, the solar system, the chemical bond and the structure of the atom. Ultimately, the programs will give viewers a new perspective on the process of scientific discovery. Ancillary educational support for the programs will include enhanced content on the web site at NOVA Online and classroom support material in the NOVA Teacher's Guide that is mailed to 60,000 teachers nationwide. WGBH also has formed an outreach partnership with the American Library Association to create informal educational resources for use by families, youths, and adults. The core of this special outreach plan is a set of Library Resource Kits that will be available to all 16,000 public libraries. Paula Apsell, Executive Producer for NOVA, will serve as PI for the project. Members of the advisory committee include: Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, MIT; Kenneth R. Manning, Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and of the History of Science, MIT; Noami Oreskes, Associate Professor of History, University of California, San Diego; Daniel I. Rubenstein, Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University; and Neil D. Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium.
The Independence Seaport Museum will create "Boat Building: Art and Science," a 3,000-square foot permanent exhibit that is designed to educate visitors about the science of boat building and design. Concepts such as buoyancy, water displacement, turbulence and drag will be explored through interactives, maritime artifacts, models and oral histories of tradesmen. By using the principles identified by the Family Science Learning Research Project of the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC), the exhibit will be user-friendly for families with young children. Visitor workstation topics may include boat building, floating, buoyancy, sails, wind and boat shape. Visitors will use science processes while learning through open-ended play and exploration. Creative programs for families and school groups, as well as curriculum materials will support the exhibit. A website and technical training manual will also be produced. Four phases of evaluation are planned, and include front-end analysis which will incorporate focus groups with children ages 7-12, and formative evaluation using prototypes of interactives. Remedial evaluation will be carried out once the exhibit opens, and summative evaluation will use tracking and exit interviews to assess learning and understanding. The estimated annual audience of over 130,000 visitors will be expanded by replicating and traveling various components to other maritime museums in partnership with the Association of Science and Technology Centers. Evaluation of traveling components will also be undertaken to determine if they present an appropriate model for maritime-based exhibits.