The Mount Washington Observatory is expanding the daily, nationally broadcast radio program, "The Weather Notebook." The two-minute programs inform an estimated 2.5 million weekly listeners about the science underlying weather. During this three-year phase of the project, the project will broaden the range of science content by deepening the connections of weather and climate with other scientific disciplines, especially earth systems science. The project also hopes to double the size of the listening audience by increasing the number of stations carrying the series. In addition, they will produce Spanish-language versions of the programs and distribute them through the Hispanic Radio Network. In response to listeners' requests for longer programs, the project will produce 20 to 30 approximately five-minute modules that will be broadcast in existing radio series such as "Marketplace" and "The Cultivated Gardener." Ancillary educational materials will be provided for students, teachers, families and others interested in further learning about topics included in the broadcast programs.
Geoff Haines-Stiles Productions is producing and distributing a project that will follow the upcoming NASA 2003 Mars Exploration Rover project. To Mars with MER consists of three prime-time PBS programs scheduled to be broadcast to coincide with key events in the MER project: the day before the launch, the day before landing and after the 90 day surface mission. These programs will examine such mission milestones as key engineering tests and selecting where to land based on the scientific questions we have about Mars. The prime time specials will be edited and, along with additional live and taped video, distributed to science centers, planetariums, educational cable networks and schools with satellite or high-bandwidth Internet connections. Passport to Knowledge, a partner in the project, will adapt NASA's public domain materials and its own Live from Mars resources (teacher's guide, websites, etc.) to provide customized resources for teachers and students and for the parents and families who will be watching coverage of the mission on broadcast and cable. All materials will be made available online.
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.
National Geographic Television, in Collaboration with Graphic Films, is producing a 40-minute, large-format, documentary film about the scientific quest to understand some of the most dramatic geological and meteorological events we experience -- volcanoes, earthquakes and violent storms. The goals of the film are to inform audiences about geological and meteorological forces which greatly impact our planet, present the scientific research being performed in an effort to understand and predict these forces, portray scientific role models and to stimulate a greater appreciation and interest in the Earth sciences. Informal education outreach will include: A "Forces of Nature" website that will include educational resources targeted to the general audience as well as to students and teachers. Museum and Family Activity Guides The National Geographic Society will support public programs at science-technology centers by providing access to scientists who work in the areas of science covered in the film. National Geographic's cable program Explorer (carried on MSNBC) will produce a themed show around "Forces of Nature" to coincide with the launch of the film. A companion book In addition, outreach materials for formal education will include: A "Forces of Nature" Teacher's Guide A teacher training seminar to be conducted at the first 20 theaters in the U.S. that lease the film Workshops at the national conferences of the National Science Teachers Association, the National Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for Geographic Education. Instructional information in National Geographic for Kids, the classroom magazine for elementary school students in grades 3-6. The Executive Producer for the film will be Lisa Truitt. George Casey will be the Producer/Director. The Lead Science Advisors are Stephen Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change, Stanford University; James Shymansky, Professor of Science Education, University of Missouri-St. Louis; and James Walker, Professor Emeritus, Space Physics Research Lab, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science, University of Michigan.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lisa TruittGeorge CaseyPaul NovrosBarbara Flagg
Kinetic City After School is a two-year project that will produce a web-based after-school program for children ages 9-11. The on-line adventure will enable users to enter a virtual universe where a computer virus (Deep Delete) systematically attacks a new area of science each month (analogous to one of the 12 Project 2061 Benchmarks for Science Literacy). As students battle the virus, they learn Benchmarks learning goals. Each unit invites children to think about the problem, take action and reflect on their experience. The activities accommodate different learning styles and are supplemented by live audio chats with scientists and a self-assessment enables students to earn Kinetic City Power Points. Power Points can be donated to after school programs without computers and Internet access. These sites may in turn, exchange their accumulated Power Points to obtain computers, Internet service and a site license for "Kinetic City After School." Although the program is web-based, most of the activity extensions are done off-line. "Kinetic City After School" will be introduced to after-school sites with a two-day training workshop, with follow-up via phone meetings and site visits. Supporting materials will include a Leader Guide, Journal and Kinetic City Home Crew activity pages for use in the home.
Sesame Workshop, in collaboration with the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum and the Beijing Planetarium, is planning a planetarium show and complementary materials for preschool-age children and their families, teachers and other caregivers. The planetarium show will be designed for use in the United States and China and will have the following goals: -- promoting positive attitudes among young children towards science; -- providing age-appropriate information about astronomy in an engaging, entertaining format; and -- fostering am understanding of one another among children in the two countries. During the planning phase, there will be three face-to-face meetings among the principals: at the Beijing Planetarium, at Sesame Workshop in New York, and at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. The purpose of these meetings will be to determine: -- What is the appropriate educational content for the show and complementary materials and what does research with children say about it? -- How does this type of project best reach preschool audiences? -- Is there a need or opportunity for producing alternative language or dialect versions of either the English or Mandarin versions of the show and complementary materials? -- What issues or problems affect the design of the show and complementary materials? -- What are the implementation issues? Particular attention will be given to exploring how the project might include cross-cultural information in the show and complementary materials, and how the cross-over characters (Da Naio appearing in the English version; Big Bird in the Mandarin version) might be included in the design.
The Chedd-Angier Production Company is requesting support for the long-standing, highly acclaimed PBS series, "Scientific American Frontiers," now in its 13th season. Alan Alda hosts the program. NSF funds will leverage existing PBS support and expand the series from five to six programs and increase the scope and depth of the science covered in each program. Topics in the new season cover a broad range of disciplines including cutting edge scientific efforts in cosmology, anthropology, global warming, brain research, obesity and weight loss, and hydrogen fuel cell research. The funds will also be used to expand the "Frontiers" web site and raise the visibility of the program by enhancing the promotional campaign. These efforts will aim to improve the value of the series to science teachers as well as to the general audience. Formative evaluation will be undertaken by Multimedia Research; summative evaluation, by Knight-Williams Research Communications.
The California Academy of Sciences will produce "Water is Life," a 30,383 square-foot permanent exhibit with educational programming. The exhibit is designed to engage the public with the living world of water, to foster environmental stewardship and increase science literacy. Three habitat components -- Philippine Coral Reef, California Coast and Global Rainforests -- are conceptually and experientially linked through "Water Planet," which explores water's physical properties and how they impact living organisms and lead to aquatic diversity. Each component also reinforces the importance of conserving aquatic resources. Educational programming takes "Water is Life" to local schools and community events and onto the World Wide Web, as well as provides venues for formative evaluation of exhibit design elements. The development of lending kits, plus supporting manuals and workshops, will extend the reach of "Water is Life" regionally and nationally. Similarly, instruction manuals and workshops for creating desktop, living reefs will have national impact. The compelling draw of live organisms, hands-on activities, and exhibit enrichment through educational programming provide accessibility to a large, diverse audience. The exhibit will reach over one million annual visitors, and a larger audience will experience distributed educational programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Margaret BurkeLinda KulikChristopher AndrewsTerrence GoslinerRobert Jenkins
CoCoRaHS or the Community Collaborative Rain and Hail Study builds on previously funded NSF research on precipitation patterns in the western portion of the US. This award will expand the current citizen science efforts to include those living in the Great Plains including Eastern Colorado, Western Nebraska, Northwest Kansas and Southeast Wyoming. Participants gain experience in data collection and analysis while working with scientists and contributing to a national research study. CoCoRaHS volunteers will learn about the impact of regional weather patterns on agriculture, water resources and environmental quality while collecting rain, hail and snow data. Participants are also invited to take part in other activities to build on the research experience including a series of seminars, field trips and workshops. The project will result in the development of the following materials: graphic depictions of data using ARC-GIS software, a teacher curriculum, an upgraded website and a quarterly newsletter.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert CifelliNolan DoeskenSteven Rutledge
The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida, will develop a permanent exhibition and associated educational programs on natural hazards, phenomena that become "natural disasters" when they interact with the human community and its built environment. The exhibition, 9000 square feet in size, will address the science of these phenomena, the science and technology of forecasting and mitigation strategies and techniques. The exhibition features floods, hurricanes, wildfires, lightning, hail, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes. The exhibition begins with an overview and a focus on the dynamic earth. It then presents a streetscape of buildings devastated by the phenomena and eight interactive areas dealing with each of the hazards. The concluding sections include a demonstration stage and a series of elements that focus on communications, community preparedness and response and forecasting. Ancillary materials include: a family exhibition guide, teacher preparation materials, classroom materials on forecasting, a distance learning program and a brochure for the public (to be developed by IBHS). Central to the project is MOSI's partnership and campus neighbor, Institute for Business and Home Safety, a nonprofit arm of the insurance industry with a mandate to educating Americans about natural disasters and ways to mitigate loss and suffering. Other partners include FEMA, USGS, Red Cross, NFPA, local schools and community based organizations. The Institute for Learning Innovation will conduct the evaluation, supplemented by action research investigations by the University of South Florida. A local high school emphasizing design and art will participate in the exhibition development process.
Seeing in the Dark will be a prime-time PBS special about stargazing -- described in the proposal as "the interaction between starlight and human beings who have a look for the love of it, whether just learning the constellations or doing amateur astronomy so advanced that it sometimes rivals professional research." The project teaches "hands-on" astronomy drawing heavily on new technology (large, inexpensive "Dobsonian" telescopes; charged-coupled light-sensing devices [CCDs}; and the Internet) that make astronomical observing practical for millions to whom it has previously been at best a remote possibility. The video will be supported by an extensive outreach effort that includes informal, family projects and formal, in-class exercises. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific will be a major outreach partner. There also is a companion book, "Seeing in the Dark," published by Simon & Schuster.
The Ocean Institute will design, develop, evaluate and install "Sea Floor Science," a 5,200 sq. ft. site-wide exhibition designed in partnership with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. "Sea Floor Science" will provide opportunities for families, students and the general public to use authentic oceanographic equipment, tools and technology to recreate a world of ocean research and discovery. Visitors will experience how oceanographers are exploring the largely unknown sea floor to permit better understanding of the origin of sediments and rocks, paleoclimate reconstruction as evidenced by marine microfossils, and the dynamics of oceanic lithospheres and margins. The project is a new approach to museum exhibits. It will test innovative convertibility solutions that enable public areas to serve as both teaching stations and effective exhibits. It will also implement cost-effective update strategies to keep visitors at the forefront of scientific research. "Sea Floor Science" will reach 4,000,000 people in 22 states including on-site and on-line visitors, multi-state teacher networks, videoconferencing participants, science professionals, and replication sites at science centers and aquaria nationally.