Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Amazon Adventure is an Innovations in Development project directed by Pacific Science Center in partnership with: SK Films; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Embodied Games; and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Tangled Bank Studios. The project deliverables produced during the grant period include a giant screen film, live stage presentation for use at informal science education (ISE) institutions, and educational resources.
The centerpiece of the project, the Amazon Adventure film, is a 45-minute giant screen film shown in
Supported in major part by the National Science Foundation, The Human Spark (THS) project includes a three-part national PBS television series hosted by Alan Alda and a multifaceted outreach initiative to engage public television stations and their partner science museums nationwide in order to extend the utilization and impact of the project. As an independent evaluator, Multimedia Research was contracted by Thirteen to capture how the collaboration between television station and science museum outreach grantees and their respective outreach activities meet the stated goals of the outreach
We expect people to look different. And why not? Like a fingerprint, each person is unique. Every person represents a one-of-a-kind, combination of their parents', grandparents' and family's ancestry. And every person experiences life somewhat differently than others. Differences - they're a cause for joy and sorrow. We celebrate differences in personal identity, family background, country and language. At the same time, differences among people have been the basis for discrimination and oppression. Yet, are we so different? Current science tells us we share a common ancestry and the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi KornAmerican Anthropological Association
Summative evaluation of the NSF- and NEH-funded Hunters of the Sky exhibition, including remedial, timing and tracking, and summative. The 5,000 square foot exhibition takes a science and humanities perspective on birds of prey. A particular focus of the evaluation was the exhibition's impact on "getting visitors to explore their own values and beliefs about the human relationship to the natural world" as well as "getting visitors to critically examine questions of economics, public policy, and environmental ethics related to the survival of raptors and their habitats." Sample data collection
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Deborah PerryKarla NiehusScience Museum of Minnesota
Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World, a 2,500-square-foot permanent exhibition, contains more than 100 rare, important, and beautiful books and manuscripts from the Huntington's collections, along with artifacts and interactive experiences. The content focuses on the changing role of science through the centuries, with particular emphasis on some of the astonishing leaps in imagination made by scientists and the importance of written works in communicating those ideas. There were 52 exhibit elements in subject areas of Astronomy, Natural History, Medicine, and Light. Feedback on the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Beverly SerrellThe Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
The Monarch Butterfly Larval Monitoring project is a collaborative Citizen Science Project in which informal science education (ISE) institutions participate in research to measure the distribution and abundance of monarch butterfly larvae throughout the US, addressing the lack of knowledge about the breeding phase of the annual cycle. This project seeks to create links among ISE institutions (nature centers, museums, state and national parks, and environmental learning centers) from across the US, and also between these institutions and university scientists, citizens, and K-12 educators. The
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Carol FreemanUniversity of Minnesota
The Brooklyn Historical Society is planning a new exhibit that will focus on the development of penicillin in Brooklyn. In order to get information about potential visitors' knowledge of and interest in the topic, a survey of 40 people was conducted. The exhibit team's desire was to find out how much people know about penicillin; what they want to know about it, and what their misconceptions might be.
The Indiana State Museum is planning a new, comprehensive exhibition about the history and uses of corn, from 8000 years ago to the present. The environmental, economic, and cultural impacts of the development of corn breeding will be explored. A front-end evaluation was conducted to see what visitors know about the biology and uses of this plant.