The Center for Integrated Quantum Materials pursues research and education in quantum science and technology. With our research and industry partners, the Museum of Science, Boston collaborates to produce public engagement resources, museum programs, special events and media. We also provide professional development in professional science communication for the Center's students, post-docs, and interns; and coaching in public engagement. The Museum also sponsors The Quantum Matters(TM) Science Communication Competition (www.mos.org/quantum-matters-competition) and NanoDays with a Quantum Leap. In association with CIQM and IBM Q, the Museum hosted the first U.S. museum exhibit on quantum computing.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert WesterveltCarol Lynn AlpertRay AshooriTina Brower-Thomas
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), in collaboration with New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy and the University of Southern Maine Center for Evaluation and Policy, will develop and evaluate a new teacher education program model to prepare science teachers through a partnership between a world class science museum and high need schools in metropolitan New York City (NYC). This innovative pilot residency model was approved by the New York State (NYS) Board of Regents as part of the state’s Race To The Top award. The program will prepare a total of 50 candidates in two cohorts (2012 and 2013) to earn a Board of Regents-awarded Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree with a specialization in Earth Science for grades 7-12. The program focuses on Earth Science both because it is one of the greatest areas of science teacher shortages in urban areas and because AMNH has the ability to leverage the required scientific and educational resources in Earth Science and allied disciplines, including paleontology and astrophysics.
The proposed 15-month, 36-credit residency program is followed by two additional years of mentoring for new teachers. In addition to a full academic year of residency in high-needs public schools, teacher candidates will undertake two AMNH-based clinical summer residencies; a Museum Teaching Residency prior to entering their host schools, and a Museum Science Residency prior to entering the teaching profession. All courses will be taught by teams of doctoral-level educators and scientists.
The project’s research and evaluation components will examine the factors and outcomes of a program offered through a science museum working with the formal teacher preparation system in high need schools. Formative and summative evaluations will document all aspects of the program. In light of the NYS requirement that the pilot program be implemented in high-need, low-performing schools, this project has the potential to engage, motivate and improve the Earth Science achievement and interest in STEM careers of thousands of students from traditionally underrepresented populations including English language learners, special education students, and racial minority groups. In addition, this project will gather meaningful data on the role science museums can play in preparing well-qualified Earth Science teachers. The research component will examine the impact of this new teacher preparation model on student achievement in metropolitan NYC schools. More specifically, this project asks, "How do Earth Science students taught by first year AMNH MAT Earth Science teachers perform academically in comparison with students taught by first year Earth Science teachers not prepared in the AMNH program?.”
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maritza MacdonaldMeryle WeinsteinRosamond KinzlerMordecai-Mark Mac LowEdmond MathezDavid Silvernail
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
QuarkNet is a national program that partners high school science teachers and students with particle physicists working in experiments at the scientific frontier. These experiments are searching for answers to fundamental questions about the origin of mass, the dimensionality of spacetime and the nature of symmetries that govern physical processes. Among the experimental projects at the energy frontier with which QuarkNet is affiliated is the Large Hadron Collider, which is poised at the horizon of discovery. The LHC will come on line during the 5-years of this program. QuarkNet is led by a group of teachers, educators and physicists with many years of experience in professional development workshops and institutes, materials development and teacher research programs. The project consists of 52 centers at universities and research labs in 25 states and Puerto Rico. It is proposed that Quarknet be funded as a partnership among the ESIE program of EHR; the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities and the Elementary Particle Physics Program (Division of Physics), both within MPS; as well as the Division of High Energy Physics at DOE.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mitchell WayneRandal RuchtiDaniel Karmgard
Discover NASA is the Discovery Museum’s endeavor to engage students in grades K through 12 as well as members of the general public in innovative space science and STEM-focused learning through the implementation of two modules: upgrades to the Challenger Learning Center, and the creation of K through 12 amateur rocketry and spacecraft design programming. The programming will be piloted at the Discovery Museum and Planetarium, and at the Inter-district Discovery Magnet School and the Fairchild-Wheeler Multi-Magnet High School, with an additional strategic partnership with the University of Bridgeport, which will provide faculty mentors to high school seniors participating in the rocketry program. Through these two modules, the Discovery Museum and Planetarium aims to foster an early interest in STEM, increase public awareness about NASA, promote workforce development, and stimulate an interest in the future of human space exploration. Both modules emphasize design methodologies and integration of more advanced space science into the STEM curriculum currently offered by Discovery Museum to visitors and public schools. The Challenger Learning Center upgrades will enable the Museum to deliver simulated human exploration experiences related to exploration of the space environment in Low Earth Orbit and simulated human exploration of Moon, Mars, and beyond, which will increase public and student awareness about NASA and the future of human space exploration. The development of an amateur rocketry and spacecraft development incubator for education, the general public, and commercial space will stimulate the development of key STEM concepts.
This Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) project from the University of New Hampshire focuses on a "living bridge", which exemplifies the future of smart, sustainable, user-centered transportation infrastructure. Bridges deliver such a fundamental service to society that they are often taken for granted. Typically, bridges only stir the public's interest when they must unexpectedly be replaced at great cost, or, worse, fail. The Living Bridge project will create a self-diagnosing, self-reporting "smart bridge" powered by a local renewable energy source, tidal energy, by transforming the landmark Memorial Bridge--a vertical lift bridge over the tidal Piscataqua River, with pedestrian access connecting Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Kittery, Maine--into a living laboratory for researchers, engineers, scientists, and the community at large. The Living Bridge will engage innovators in sensor and renewable energy technology by creating an incubator platform on a working bridge, from which researchers can field test and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of emerging technologies. The Living Bridge will also serve as a community platform to educate citizens about innovations occurring at the site and in the region, and about how incorporating renewable energy into bridge design can lead to a sustainable transportation infrastructure with impact far beyond the region. Sustainable, smart bridges are key elements in developing a successful infrastructure system. To advance the state of smart service systems and clean energy conversion, this project team will design and deploy a structural and environmental monitoring system that provides information for bridge condition assessment, traffic management, and environmental stewardship; advances renewable energy technology application; and excites the general public about bridge innovations. This PFI:BIC project is enabled through partnerships between academic researchers with expertise in structural, mechanical and ocean engineering, sensing technology and social science; small businesses with expertise in instrumentation, data acquisition, tidal energy conversion; and state agencies with bridge design expertise. The Living Bridge technical areas are structural health monitoring, tidal energy conversion with fluid-structure interaction measurements, estuarine environmental monitoring, and outreach communication. Sensors will be used to calibrate a three-dimensional analytical structural finite element model of the bridge. The predicted structural response from this model will assess the measured structural response of the bridge as acceptable or not. Instruments installed on the turbine deployment platform will measure the spatio-temporal structure of the turbulent inflow and modified wake flow downstream of the turbine. Resulting data will include turbine performance and loads for use in fluid-structure interaction models. Deployed environmental sensors will measure estuarine water quality; wildlife deterrent sensors will deter fish from the turbine. Hydrophones and video cameras will be used before and during turbine deployment to monitor environmental changes due to turbine presence. Outreach efforts will make bridge data, history, and information about new systems accessible and understandable to the public and K-12 educators, facilitated by an information kiosk installed at the bridge. Public awareness will be assessed with survey methods used in the N.H. Granite State Poll. The lead institution is the University of New Hampshire (UNH) with its departments of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Sociology, and the Center for Ocean Engineering. Primary industrial partners are a large business, MacArtney Underwater Technology Group, Inc. (Houston, TX) and two small businesses Lite Enterprises, Inc. (Nashua, NH) and Eccosolutions, LLC (New Paltz, NY.) Broader context partners are New Hampshire Department of Transportation, NH Fish & Game Department, NH Port Authority, NH Coastal Program, City of Portsmouth (NH), Sustainable Portsmouth (nonprofit), Maine Department of Transportation; U.S. Coast Guard, Archer/Western (Canton, MA, large business), Parsons-Brinkerhoff (Manchester, NH, large business), UNH Tech Camp, UNH Infrastructure and Climate Network, UNH Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Changing Places (a joint Architecture and Media Laboratory Consortium, in Cambridge, MA).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Erin BellTat FuMartin WosnikKenneth BaldwinLawrence Hamilton
The Expanding Children’s Interest through Experiential Learning (EXCITE) Project will target K-8th students in expanded learning programs to increase ongoing NASA STEM informal education opportunities for organizations that serve primarily underrepresented and underserved student populations. The AERO Institute will leverage existing collaborations to build capacity of participating organizations in NASA inspired STEM activities. Major partners include Navajo Nation in Arizona, the Beyond the Bell branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Region 8 of the California After School Program housed in the Ventura County of Education. In addition, the EXCITE Learning Project plans to work with libraries to broaden the scope and impact of NASA’s Education materials and opportunities within underrepresented and underserved local communities. AERO Education specialists will train educators and librarians using the Train-the-Trainer approach. The training sessions will be filmed and made available online via the AERO website and its network on YouTube so that educators and librarians can refresh their understanding as needed.
The Global Soundscapes! Big Data, Big Screens, Open Ears Project uses the new science of soundscape ecology to design a variety of informal science learning experiences that engage participants through acoustic discovery Soundscape ecology is an interdisciplinary science that studies how humans relate to place through sound and how humans influence the environment through the alteration of natural sound composition. The project includes: (1) an interface to the NSF-funded Global Sustainable Soundscapes Network, which includes 12 universities around the world; (2) sound-based learning experiences targeting middle-school students (grades 5-8), visually impaired and urban students, and the general public; and (3) professional development for informal science educators. Project educational components include: the first interactive, sound-based digital theater experience; hands-on Your Ecosystem Listening Labs (YELLS), a 1-2 day program for school classes and out-of school groups; a soundscape database that will assist researchers in developing a soundscape Big Database; and iListen, a virtual online portal for learning and discovery about soundscape. The project team includes Purdue-based researchers involved in soundscape and other ecological research; Foxfire Interactive, an award-winning educational media company; science museum partners with digital theaters; the National Audubon Society and its national network of field stations; the Perkins School for the Blind; and Multimedia Research (as the external evaluator).
This award continues funding of a Center to conduct research and education on the interactions of nanomaterials with living systems and with the abiotic environment. The goals of this Center are to develop a predictive understanding of biological and ecological toxicology for nanomaterials, and of their transport and transformation in the environment. This Center engages a highly interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team in an integrated research program to determine how the physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials determine their environmental impacts from the cellular scale to that of entire ecosystems. The research approach promises to be transformative to the science of ecotoxicology by combining high throughput screening assays with computational and physiological modeling to predict impacts at higher levels of biological organization. The Center will unite the fields of engineering, chemistry, physics, materials science, cell biology, ecology, toxicology, computer modeling, and risk assessment to establish the foundations of a new scientific discipline: environmental nanotoxicology. Research on nanomaterials and development of nanotechnology is expanding rapidly and producing discoveries that promise to benefit the nation?s economy, and improve our ability to live sustainably on earth. There is now a critical need to reduce uncertainty about the possible negative consequences of nanomaterials in the environment, while at the same time providing guidelines for their safe design to prevent environmental and toxicological hazards. This Center addresses this societal need by developing a scientific framework of risk prediction that is paradigm-shifting in its potential to keep pace with the commercial expansion of nanotechnology. Another impact of the Center will be development of human resources for the academic community, industry and government by training the next generation of nano-scale scientists, engineers, and regulators to anticipate and mitigate potential future environmental hazards of nanotechnology. Partnerships with other centers will act as powerful portals for the dissemination and integration of research findings to the scientific, educational, and industrial communities, both nationally and internationally. This Center will contribute to a network of nanotechnology centers that serve the national needs and expand representation and access to this research and knowledge network through programs directed at California colleges serving underrepresented groups. Outreach activities, including a journalist-scientist communication program, will serve to inform both experts and the public at large about the safety issues surrounding nanotechnology and how to safely produce, use, and dispose of nanomaterials.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Andre NelYoram CohenHilary GodwinArturo KellerPatricia Holden
This research and development project would inform and engage audiences (especially middle school age girls) about the fundamental research under investigation at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. A research plan and summative evaluation will fill a gap in what is known about the public's perception and understanding of the LHC/particle physics and include studies on girl's interest and engagement. Deliverables include a 40 minute giant screen film (3D/2D), full dome planetarium film, an interactive theater lobby exhibit, website, mobile app, materials and professional development workshops for educators. The giant screen film will use scientific visualizations and artistic interpretation to reveal compelling scientific stories recreating conditions following the Big Bang and the discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson. CERN is providing unprecedented access to the collider and particle detectors including filming inside the 17 mile long underground tunnel while it is closed for upgrades in 2013-2014. There are 8 partner science museums (7 with planetariums) that will show the film/exhibit and serve as sites for research, evaluation, and outreach to underserved audiences ( Adventure Science Center, Carnegie Science Center, The Franklin Institute, Liberty Science Center, OMSI, Orlando Science Center, the Smithsonian, and the St. Louis Science Center). Additional distribution/marketing channels include giant screen theaters, planetariums, DVD, and social social media. Launch is targeted for 2016. Learning outcomes will focus on increasing awareness and interest in the LHC and increasing young people's engagement and excitement about the nature of scientific discovery. The research on girl's engagement and interest in physics will fill a gap in field. The project deliverables are projected to reach large audiences through national distribution of the giant screen film, the planetarium show, the exhibit, 3D/2D Blu Ray and DVDs, and access on computers, tablets, and other mobile devices.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) identify an ambitious progression for learning energy, beginning in elementary school. To help the nation's teachers address this challenge, this project will develop and investigate the opportunities and limitations of Focus on Energy, a professional development (PD) system for elementary teachers (grades 3-5). The PD will contain: resources that will help teachers to interpret, evaluate and cultivate students' ideas about energy; classroom activities to help them to identify, track and represent energy forms and flows; and supports to help them in engaging students in these activities. Teachers will receive the science and pedagogical content knowledge they need to teach about energy in a crosscutting way across all their science curricula; students will be intellectually engaged in the practice of developing, testing, and revising a model of energy they can use to describe phenomena both in school and in their everyday lives; and formative assessment will guide the moment-by-moment advancement of students' ideas about energy. This project will develop and test a scalable model of PD that will enhance the ability of in-service early elementary teachers to help students learn energy concepts by coordinating formative assessment, face-to-face and web-based PD activities. Researchers will develop and iteratively refine tools to assess both teacher and student energy reasoning strategies. The goals of the project include (1) teachers' increased facility with, and disciplined application of, representations and energy reasoning to make sense of everyday phenomena in terms of energy; (2) teachers' increased ability to interpret student representations and ideas about energy to make instructional decisions; and (3) students' improved use of representations and energy reasoning to develop and refine models that describe energy forms and flows associated with everyday phenomena. The web-based product will contain: a set of formative assessments to help teachers to interpret student ideas about energy based on the Facets model; a series of classroom tested activities to introduce the Energy Tracking Lens (method to explore energy concept using multiple representations); and videos of classroom exemplars as well as scientists thinking out loud while using the Energy Tracking Lens. The project will refine the existing PD and build a system that supports online implementation by constructing a facilitator's guide so that the online community can run with one facilitator.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sara LacyRoger TobinNathaniel BrownStamatis VokosRachel ScherrKara GrayLane SeeleyAmy Robertson
The World Biotech Tour (WBT) is a multi-year initiative that will bring biotechnology to life at select science centers and museums worldwide. The program, supported by the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and Biogen Foundation, is scheduled to run from 2015-2017, with the 2015 cohort in Belgium, Japan, and Portugal. The WBT will increase the impact and visibility of biotechnology among youth and the general public through hands-on and discussion-led learning opportunities. Applications are now open for the 2016 cohort! Learn more and submit an application at http://www.worldbiotechtour.org/become-a-stop
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Association of Science-Technology CentersCarlin Hsueh
LIGO's Science Education Center is in charge of Education and Public Outreach Component for the LIGO Livingston Observatory. The three prime efforts are: (1) Professional development for teachers utilizing lab facilities and cross-institute collaborations. (2) Outreach to students K-16 (targeting 5- 9th grade), with on-site field trips to the LIGO Lab and Science Education Center, as well as off-site visits & presentations. (3) Outreach to the general public and community groups with on-site tours and Science Education Center Experience, as well as off=site visits and presentations. LIGO's Science Education Center is located at the LIGO Observatory, and has an auditorium, a classroom and a 5000 square foot exhibit hall with interactive exhibits at its disposal to complete its mission. In addition LIGO-SEC staff serve to help press and documentary film makers complete their missions in telling the "LIGO story" and encouraging budding scientists.