The National Museum of Natural History is producing 3-D and 2-D versions of a large format film on natural history. With a working title of Wonders of Life, the film will explore the diversity of life on Earth and how this diversity came to be. It will examine the biological, geological, and cultural entities that interact in myriad ways to generate, shape, and sustain the enormous biological and cultural diversity of our planet. The film will be supported by outreach material designed to support further exploration of the topic of diversity in both informal and formal settings. An inexpensive family activity guide to be available at venues that show the film will feature engaging and challenging activities for families with children ages ten through 15. A teacher resource guide, distributed free to teachers attending the film with groups of students, will be developed for use in grades 5 through 8. A classroom activity poster will be developed to serve grades 2 through 5. A Wonders of Life home page will support in-depth study of the film's topics. Larry O'Reilly, Director of The Discovery Center Project at the NMNH, will be PI and Executive Producer for the film. The Senior Scientific Advisory Board will be chaired by Dr. Robert S. Hoffman, Senior Scientist and former Assistant Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution. The board also includes Sir David Attenborough, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Margaret Geller, Ivan Hattingh, and Dr. Thomas Lovejoy. Dr. Kay Behrensmeyer, Curator of Paleobiology and former Associate Director for Science at the NMNH, will lead a core team of scientists who will be directly involved in production. The film will be produced by Christopher Parsons and David Douglas will be Director of Photography.
The University of Texas at Austin requests $399,341 to expand the current Universo translations of StarDate into Spanish to more culturally relevant programs for a growing Hispanic audience. Plans include creation of longer programs with a different format for Hispanic Heritage Month for 1998-2000 and creation of complimentary collateral materials for distribution to 200 Spanish- language radio stations. Programs will also be distributed to 1,650 classrooms. A teacher's guide for using Universo in the classroom will be developed in English with activities available in both English and Spanish. A parent's guide to Universo/StarDate will also be produced to encourage parents to get involved in skywatching activities.
The Space Science Institute is developing a 5,000 s.f. hands-on traveling exhibitions called MarsQuest that will be the centerpiece of a wide-ranging planetary science education program. The exhibition will feature engaging, aesthetically designed, hands-on displays that offer experiences with science concepts relevant to Mars exploration, and will address the common misconceptions about Mars and its relationship to Earth. The most exciting aspect of the exhibition is its up-to-date connection to the progress and discoveries of 8-10 spacecraft that will be launched by NASA from 1996-2005. The exhibition will be supported by educational programs, including comprehensive teacher workshops, public programs on Mars themes, a 30-minute planetarium show emphasizing exploration and discovery, visits to schools and the dissemination of comprehensive field- tested educational materials developed by Arizona State University, the Planetary Society, NASA, the Pacific Science Center, and others. All educational materials will be aligned with the National Science Education Standards and will be available on the World Wide Web.
The Chabot Observatory and Science Center (COSC) in Oakland California will develop and present Bringing the Universe Down to Earth: Demystifying the Process that shapes the Solar System. This exhibition will utilize thirteen interactive works by Ned Kahn, a nationally recognized artist. The exhibition will consist of twenty-six exhibits: two per theme, one for Chabot, and one for the traveling component. The exhibition will be incorporated into the structure and network of COSC. It will invite visitors to draw on their general knowledge of this world by focusing on familiar earthly phenomena, such as volcanoes, whirlwinds, wind storms, avalanches, and to consider them in a broader context. Also, the project will take advantage of Chabot's well developed, online connection with schools and community groups in the area to create new opportunities for individualized inquiry. A direct product of this work will be a series of curricular outlines designed to help teachers make full use of the exhibition. This effort can be used to foster a strong collaboration between the informal and formal science education programs. An important feature of this exhibition is that it will travel to nine sites around the country under the auspices of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). It is projected that over one million people at the nine sites will see this traveling exhibition. Educational and marketing materials, as well as workshops materials prepared for the COSC exhibition will accompany the traveling exhibit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michael ReynoldsMargaret HaubenNed Kahn
The Earth & Sky radio series reaches over 2.8 million individuals in the United States each week. This grant, which will diminish each year over a four-year period, will enable the project to accomplish the following goals: * Continue production and distribution of the Earth & Sky radio series * Distribute a bi-annual booklet for teachers, Earth In the Classroom * Establish a partnership between the Earth & Sky Young Producers Contest and National Science and Technology Week. * Increase the visual content of Earth & Sky Online * Launch an * Earth & Sky Classroom Project to provide teachers and students with a guided "Internet Experience" simulated on a CD and, therefore, not requiring an Internet connection. * Produce and test a 156 segment "trial run" of a Kids' Earth & Sky radio series designed for the emerging Radio Disney network. Earth & Sky is produced and hosted by Deborah Byrd and Joel Block. They work with a team of producer/writers and interact on a regular basis with members of a team of over 90 science advisors.
During the 3 years of this project, 72 high school and middle school teachers and 36 students will work as members of atmospheric research teams studying each of ten airshed around the Portland, OR metropolitan area. Each summer's activities include a 4-week atmospheric interaction research course and a one-week air quality measurement campaign during a pollution episode. Transfer to the classroom is anticipated through action research projects during the academic year. An interactive webpage will enable all partners to access data, real time models of the atmosphere, and descriptions of the action research projects. A lead high school will serve as the Horizons-Air site for an airshed zone and will work collaboratively with four other middle/high schools, the Horizons-Met sites.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Linda GeorgeDaniel JohnsonWilliam Becker
The Museum of the Rockies will plan an exhibit "The Rockies Rise Again." When completed, this exhibit will illustrate evolving Cenozoic landscapes and life forms as understood through research conducted by the museum's staff in the Northern Rocky Mountain region. This exhibit will provide the natural historical context for visitors as they explore the cultural history exhibits that will follow this section. Together, the Museum's exhibits will illustrate the theme "One Place Through All of Time." With this award they will engage in a series of planning activities will include a front-end evaluation study of the public's knowledge and interest in this subject, consultation with expert advisors, review of related Cenozoic exhibits in selected natural history museums, and a two-day symposium which will include a dialogue about the exhibit concepts between the scientists and the public to help complete the plan. They will also hire an educator to develop an educational plan that will link the exhibit with the needs of teachers and will address national and state science standards. Special attention will be given to developing materials and dissemination strategies that will serve educators in this largely rural setting. At the end of the twelve month planing period they will have a completed exhibit and education plan and will be able to move forward with the exhibit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bonnie Sachatello-SawyerChristopher Hill
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific requests $1,317,701 over three years to implement its California pilot project to six sites around the country. Each site will establish local, self- sustaining coalitions linking science centers, astronomical institutions, school districts, and community groups. These coalitions will, with training and support from the national Project ASTRO staff, identify, link, and support the astronomer/teacher partners in their area to use the excitement of astronomy to improve the teaching and learning of science in elementary and middle school. A second strand of the project will use the Project ASTRO materials and techniques to train astronomers and teachers at national meetings outside the six sites to set up individual ASTRO partnerships on their own. Materials to be produced include a: Project ASTRO Coalition Manual; Training Manual; update to the Resource Notebook for the Teaching of Astronomy. Target audiences are students in grades 4-9.
The Internet, specifically the World Wide Web (WWW), has the potential to deliver science education materials directly to classrooms, media centers, libraries and homes. The current application seeks to use this new technology through a collaborative effort of an active scientist and a group of middle school science teachers to develop, disseminate and evaluate educational materials related to neuroscience for use in middle school science classes. This project attempts to introduce new technologies into the science classroom, extend science education to include the information superhighway and increase parental involvement in their children's education. Materials will be integrated with the existing middle school science curriculum and will include l) on-line and off-line experiments and activities covering a range of topics in neuroscience, 2) a "virtal neuroscience laboratory", 3) an Internet neuroscience resource list and 4) a "Neuroscientist Network" consisting of active neuroscientists around the world who will serve as experts answering student questions. All activities will be designed will attention to being self-paced, hands-on, entertaining and to involve Cooperative learning. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to evaluate the usage of the Intemet Neuroscience Resource. It is hoped that this project will serve as a model to other scientists and teachers and to encourage them to develop Internet resources in their own areas of expertise for use in the classroom.
BioRAP is a health science newsletter developed for 6th to 8th grade youngsters. It was developed by the Education Committee of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE) Inc. The newsletter arose in response to increasing requests from school teachers to CURE-s speaker bureau for presentations on certain health related topics. The newsletter was envisioned as a way to efficiently deliver up-to-date health science information in an interesting fashion. BioRAP is meant to be a user friendly, intellectually honest vehicle to provide emerging information on health, science, the scientific method and health science careers to middle school youngsters. Issues are presented in a standard format on heavy duty recycled paper. The eight pages of each issue include standard columns (i.e., Today-s Research Laboratory, Career Rap), a full page cartoon presentation of information, word games (i.e., crossword puzzles, word hunts), activities for students to do and a column of questions from other readers.