The SOUNDPRINT Media Center is producing a series of radio documentaries entitled 'Science and Technology on SOUNDPRINT,' a set of related educational and outreach materials, and multimedia non-broadcast applications. The project will include 16 original science documentaries and 21 programs repackaged as special broadcasts distributed to over 200 public radio stations in the United States, reaching over 750,000 listeners, and ten countries around the world. The programs also will be distributed on Internet Talk Radio. The 16 new Programs will be grouped around three themes: 'The Butterfly Effect' which will bring large scientific concepts describing global change to a more human level, 'Technology and Culture' which will consider the implications of technology, and 'The Consequences of Science' which will look at the broad implications of scientific research. The Executive Producer for the project is Moira Rankin. Neenah Ellis will serve as Senior Producer and will work directly with independent producers in story and script development. The Science Editors will be Ann Finkbeiner, a freelance science writer, and Barbara Culliton, Deputy Editor of 'Nature.'
SOUNDPRINT is requesting $901,273 over 16 months to produce a series of radio documentaries entitled Making Connections: SOUNDPRINT Explores Science and Technology, related educational outreach materials, multimedia non-broadcast applications, and an aggressive distribution plan. Sixteen half-hour original science documentaries, distributed through national Public radio will address three broad areas of science and technology. These include: the limitations and possibilities of scientific achievement; the requirements of sustainability (surviving); and the explanation science offers for human behavior. An additional 21 programs will be repackaged as special broadcasts to be distributed to over 200 public radio stations. Target audiences include middle school and secondary school students, and adults.
The American Museum of Natural History is developing a 10,000 sq. ft. Hall of Life's Diversity that will interpret biodiversity, what it is, why it matters to humans, why it is under threat, and what can be done to mitigate the current pattern of extinctions. The hall will have the following sections: a) the Crisis Center that will serve as the orientation place for the exhibit and where the core principles of the exhibit will be interpreted, b) four interactive habitat models that depict major ecosystems, c) the Spectrum of Life, in which specimens, models, photographs, and interactive multimedia will be juxtaposed and will serve as a field guide to the array of animal and plant life on the planet, d) a Resource Center that is devoted to educational activities, and e) a theater/classroom space. The intended audience for the exhibit is people of all ages and learning styles. The exhibit will illuminate the crucial role that science plays in our everyday lives and will promote science literacy among adults and children. In addition to the main exhibit, there will be a broad menu of complementary programming including traveling versions of the exhibit, a teacher resource guide, and a teacher-training institute. The exhibit and complementary activities are to be coordinated with New York State's State Systemic Initiative program.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Niles EldredgeSamuel TaylorJoel Cracraft
Blackside, Inc. is producing a television series and an outreach component about minority scientists. The goals of the six-hour prime-time series, "Breakthrough: People of Color in Science," are to raise the consciousness of the general public that is largely unaware of the significant contribution of scientists of color and to provide role models that will encourage young people to consider science and engineering careers. The programs will feature the work of contemporary African-American, Latino and Native American scientists and engineers who are active in cell biology, astrophysics, applied mathematics and other fields of science. The stories of their scientific achievements will present both women and men, old and young, at different stages of their careers, and will explore the professional, educational and social worlds they live and work in. Viewers will have immediate access to a comprehensive follow-up effort that will connect them with local, regional and national opportunities in informal science education. Blackside will collect information from existing resources and institutions as well using source material from several extensively researched databases geared toward minority students. Using all of this information, Blackside will create a metadatabase that will connect teachers, parents, mentors, and students to a rich variety of educational programs: extracurricular classes, mentoring programs, national science contests, teacher training workshops, and a myriad of on-line services. To ensure immediate access and, where possible, to customize the information to viewers needs, Blackside will disseminate it through a variety of means: an 800-number with a direct fax-back capability, an on-line service, a CD-ROM, and a printed packet delivered by mail. A principal target audience is gatekeepers in students' lives: parents, teachers, and scientists interested in becoming mentors. The target audience also includes students from fourth th rough twelfth grades. Joseph Blatt will serve a PI for this project and co-executive producer for the television series. His previous experience include serving as executive producer of "Scientific American FRONTIERS" and as a producer/director for several NOVA programs. He also has been executive producer for three television series/college credit courses in mathematics. Henry Hampton will be the other co-executive producer. He was the creator and executive producer of the 14-hour, award winning series, "Eyes on the Prize," about America's civil rights movement. The principal educational consultant will be Ceasar McDowell, assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Michael Ambrosino, the original executive producer of NOVA, will be the principal science television consultant.
LightPower is one of twelve permanent exhibits being developed for the new Orlando Science Center (OSC) in Orlando, Florida. A 4,000 square foot exhibit, LightPower places lasers in their broad scientific context by focusing on light, the electromagnetic spectrum, and on lasers and their applications. Because of the large number of laser-optics research facilities and corporations in the Central Florida region, the exhibit also includes The Optics Workbench, a career-themed activity center which emphasizes careers in optics and in scientific and technical fields that utilize lasers. LightPower is being developed by a partnership that includes the Orlando Science Center, the Orange County Public Schools, and the Center for Research and Education in Electro-Optics and Lasers at the University of Central Florida. The partnership will develop, prototype, and evaluate interactive exhibit components and associated text and labels in English and Spanish; and will develop, evaluate, and distribute hands-on career-related activities in English and Spanish for students and teachers. The goal of the LightPower exhibit is to contribute to the educational infrastructure of the Central Florida region by: - Developing an interactive exhibit that facilitates learning by a diverse public, including African Americans and Latinos, and successfully communicating with both English and Spanish-speaking audiences. - Supporting middle school, junior high, and high school science curricula, and producing and distributing printed materials that detail the relationship between exhibit components and specific curriculum performance standards. - Developing successful hands-on career-related activities for students and teachers in both English and Spanish.
The California Academy of Science will develop "Chinook: A National Traveling Exhibit on Salmon." The main components will be a 3500 sq. ft. and a 5000 sq. ft. version of an exhibit about salmon ecology and biology, genetic diversity, and the science of species preservation. Futher, components of the exhibit will be reproduced for a 500 sq. ft. exhibit for the new public visitors center at the Bodega Marine Laboratory. The exhibit will focus on the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon. Several themes from the California Science Frameworks and Benchmarks for Science Literacy serve as the foundation for the interpretation. Benchmarks theme of evolution and the Framework theme of patterns of change are woven throughout the exhibit and are illustrated by salmon life cycles, genetic diversity, and physical adaptations. Benchmarks theme of systems and interactions as well as the Frameworks theme of scale and structure are also incorporated in the interpretive material. The exhibit will be developed by the ichthyologists, educators, and exhibit designers of the California Academy of Science and genetic researcher from the Bodega Marine Laboratory of the University of California at Davis. Thirteen individuals have been selected as project advisors. They bring a diversity of perspectives including expert knowledge of the science concerns (salmon and habitats issues, anthropology) to the educational interests (both formal and informal). The various evaluation studies will be carried by CAS staff member Lisa Mackinney. The complementary materials linking the exhibit with formal education that will be developed are a Teachers Resource Kit and a Chinook Curriculum Guide. The Teachers Resource Kit, available to each host site, will include a slide show, a video tracing the story of salmon fisheries, a special issue of the CAS educator newsletter, sample of fish scales and otoliths, a compilation of resources from government agencies and env ironmental organizations, and a bibliography produced by the CAS Biodiversity Resource Center. The Curriculum Guide will include sixteen hands-on activities using readily available materials to reinforce the educational objectives. A Chinook Family Activity Guide targeted at families with children between the ages of five and ten, will provide parents with specific steps to facilitate discussion what at the exhibit and to suggest follow-up activities to do at home.
The Exploratorium will develop a hands-on, interactive, traveling exhibit "Garden of Complexity: Self-Organization in Nature." "Using the metaphor of a garden (a universally appreciated symbol of beauty and contemplation)" and arguing "that the essence of science is to extract organized observations from the complexity of nature," this exhibit will allow visitors to observe some of the self-organizing systems in a quiet, contemplative environment. The exhibit will be about pattern and how the natural world emerges into states that are perceived as pattered or organized. Four sub-sets of this theme will be explored; organization into patterns; surface effects - rubbing and flow; rotation, circulation, vortices, and the granular state - a different state of matter. Both existing and new artworks/activities will be used in this exhibit. The new additions will be created by individuals in the Exploratorium's Artists-in-Residence program. Their creations are both aesthetically and educationally interesting. In addition, the exhibit developers will experiment with new techniques in exhibit interpretation and they will develop activities that provide linkages with formal education. The exhibit will be circulated by the Association of Science and Technology Centers to nine sites over a three year period. It is estimated that it will reach 2.5 million people.
Wisconsin Public Broadcast will incorporate a science strand in "Get Real!," their television series for children 8-12 year olds in Wisconsin. The series presents positive images of children involved in, and succeeding at, a variety of areas. The Wisconsin-based stories are field-produced; and kids are involved on-screen and off as hosts, reporters, subjects of stories, as interns during production, and as sources of story ideas. The series is broadcast on both public and commercial stations in Wisconsin and receives multiple repeats. The science and technology strand: . connects science concepts to children's known experiences and activities and tells stories about kids involved in science-related activities; . models and reinforces positive attitudes towards, and involvement in science and technology and affirms the value of children's ideas, and the importance of asking why?; and . reinforces viewers' active connection to the science content by making suggestions for projects to get involved with, and by encouraging children to discuss and question their knowledge of science and the world around them. The series is an important element integrated into both informal and formal education throughout Wisconsin. It is supported by teacher materials and science video segments that are sent to every elementary school in Wisconsin. In season two, material also will be created for parents and children to use at home. A "Get Real!" kids club helps kids feel ownership of the series. Members receive a newsletter that includes suggested at-home science activities, book lists related to the series, features about the show, places for families to visit, and behind-the-scenes articles about kids in the series. Every elementary school library and public library in the state also received "Get Real!" materials including a poster and display items. James Steinback, the creator, original producer, and executive producer of "Newton's Apple," will be the co-PI with overall responsibility for the project. Kathy Bissen will be executive producer of "Get Real!" and David Wallach will be series producer. The series is produced in the three Wisconsin Public Television studios -- in Madison, Green Bay, and Menomonie -- and, therefore, can find and produce statewide stories.
The Calvert Marine Museum will develop an exhibit and complementary programming interpreting the Miocene Age marine life. Treasure from the Cliffs: Exploring Marine Fossils will use the world famous fossils of Calvert Cliffs as the basis for the exhibit. It is their intention to convey a strong sense of the personal process of discovery and the creative component of scientific inquiry to the exhibit visitors. In their words, "The overriding purpose of Treasure from the Cliffs is to model a new paradigm for natural history exhibits: to take a humanistic and holistic approach that recognizes the centrality of imagination to the scientific enterprise, and that engages curiosity and creativity -- as well as intellect -- in the process of science learning." Upon entering the exhibit, a visitor's interest will be peeked by seeing the large, dramatically lit, fossil Great White Shark Tooth. Visitors will get involved in the wonder and process of science at the beginning of the exhibit in the Paleontology Office/Lab and Fossil Identification area. They will then move on to see a replicated section of the Calvert Cliffs and cases illustrating how fossil deposits form. Two recreated Miocene dioramas one of which will include a full-size skeletal reconstruction of the giant fossil Great White Shark come next. Visitors will then be able to investigate on their own in a reading station and a video and demonstration theater. Visitors will exit the exhibit after a section that shows how the modern Chesapeake Bay was formed. This leads them seamlessly into the museum's next exhibit hall Estuary Patuxent: A River and its Life. The museum will develop a series of complementary programs in association with this exhibit to reach a wider audience that will include formal educators among others. They will organize a speakers service, develop a fossil field guide, and produce a video about the Great White Shark.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michael GottfriedS. Curtis BowmanM. Lynne Warren
This is planning grant that will enable the AAAS to bring together a group of scientists, science educators, and television writers/producers to develop the concept and initial scripts for a television series about science that would be broadcast in prime time by one of the major networks. Tentatively entitled "The Dean," the series would be the story of a Dean of Arts and Sciences at a university which is modeled after a small M.I.T. The University has made it reputation by being at the forefrmnt of scientific research. The Dean is in the center of an exciting and fascinating vortex. Each week the Dean deals with issues that range from social implications of new types of new types of genetic engineering research to the intrigue of procuring top secret military contracts. The issues are presented as stories about people -- the scientists, the students, CEOs and politicians who try to influence the Dean as he/she grapples with the scientific issues. Specific activities during the planning phase include: o Bringing together an advisory group to develop storylines that maximize the amount of science without damaging the prime-time, entertainment constraints. o Writing of an initial script and an outline of the major elements of a series. o Presentation of the concept and script to top executives at major networks to assess their interest in and possible commitment to the series. The key personnel in the planning phase would be Gerald Wheeler, Director of the AAAS division for Public Understanding of Science and Technology; Leon Lederman, physicist and initial creator of the general concept; and Adrian Malone, television producer of such major series as "The Ascent of Man" and "Cosmos."
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert HirshonLeon LedermanGerald Wheeler
Georgia Public Television is producing and evaluating one pilot program and accompanying ancillary material for a series of 30-minute television quiz shows for 8 to 10 year olds. The series would be designed to entertain a home audience while educating them about issues and facts relating to nature and the environment. The primary goals of the project are to increase knowledge about the world around us, to develop a concern for the conservation of wildlife and wild places, and to encourage critical and creative thinking skills in relation to the environment. The television programs and the formal and informal ancillary materials and activities will engage viewers in use and development of science process skills: observation, classification, measurement, prediction, inference, identification and manipulation of variables, interpretation of data, formulation of models, experimentation, construction of hypotheses, and drawing conclusions. The project is being developed in collaboration with the Zoo Atlanta, whose staff will have responsibility for content development, and with educational advisors who will help assure that age- and developmentally-appropriate skills are exercised and the topics have the maximum relevance to elementary and middle school science. The senior producers would be Carol Fisk, a producer with Georgia Public Television and previously a news producer and correspondent in Great Britain and with the BBC in Washington, and Nancy Lebens, a Georgia Public Television staff producer. Cindy Horton, a zoo education program coordinator with Zoo Atlanta, will be the host.
The Wildlife Conservation Society will use this one year award to move forward their planning for the "Rain Forest Trail and the Living Treasures of the Congo Gallery." This is the first phase of an ambitious $29M, 6 acre outdoor exhibit area focusing on the Congo Rain Forest and an indoor Environmental Education Complex. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) conducts extensive field research in a number of central African sites and has an important living collection of tropical African wildlife in the New York facility. The Congo Rain Forest/Environmental Education Center will include three major interpretive areas and an educational resource area. NSF is being asked to support two components of the Congo Rain Forest complex which are the Rain Forest Trail and Living Treasures of the Congo Gallery. The Rain Forest Trail, with both indoor and outdoor elements, will be a total immersion exhibit where visitors will be surrounded by a replication of an African rain forest and will have the opportunity to encounter a variety of its living inhabitants, and experience how its ecosystem functions. They will have the experience of making scientific observations thus gaining insight into how scientists work. The goal of this design technique "is to move beyond the limited scope of traditional zoo exhibits (which simply portray the 'animal as object')", toward a presentation of animal and plant communities as they interact within an ecosystem. The Living Treasures Gallery will be a 4000 sq. ft. space which is dedicated to the introduction of the diversity of rain forest inhabitants, their environmental adaptations, and complex interrelationships. The gallery will be divided into four areas: Adaptations for Survival, The Forest of the Megavertebrates, The Interconnected Forest, and Seeing the Unseen. Numerous interactive devices will be developed to engage the visitor in hands-on activities and materials will be developed that link the themes of the exhibit with the agenda of formal education for both teacher and students.