The Science Center of Iowa will update its 10-year-old gallery, "What on Earth," to tell the story of how Iowa's habitats and animals are connected to each other and to humans. New exhibition components will include touch specimens, interactive elements, and an integrated storyline that connects the living specimens to the broader context of a delicate and changing ecosystem. The project will support the final phase of exhibition update, including the further development of specific content and experiences through an evaluative process, and the fabrication and installation of exhibitions, labels, and graphics. The museum will partner with the Science Museum of Minnesota to conduct a summative evaluation of the new content and experiences geared to a core audience of students in grades 3-5 and their caregivers.
Something Very Fishy Musical Theatre STEAM Exhibit is a collaborative project pairing a ocean-themed musical theatre production with a hands-on marine science exhibit in an informal community setting. The program is designed to increase the awareness of ocean conservation issues in children grades K-5. The storyline of the musical follows the lives of Sandy Carson (marine biologist), Mr. Stu Pidder (fishermen) and a cast of marine animal puppets (Sunny, Boss and Octavia) as they navigate one disaster after another in the ocean that comes to impact their lives and livelihoods. The story is told as a bedtime story between two narrators, mother and child, home sick with a fever. As the story unfolds the rising ocean temperatures and rising fever in the child tell the story of our how the health of the ocean is inextricably linked to our own health. The theatrical production ends when the characters hatch a community-based solution to work together to save the ocean by starting an eco-tourism venture. Then the audience members then begin a imaginary eco-tour of the Florida Keys around the performing arts center where they meet artists, fishermen, park rangers, scientists, engineers, and veterinarians working to save our oceans and the marine life within. To assess the impact of our program, the children complete a pre-post survey in the form of a personal meaning map drawing of what it looks like under the ocean along with a STEM, arts, non-STEM career survey including professions they met in the show and on the virtual eco-tour. Children who participate in the program demonstrate a significant increase in understanding how humans both impact and help solve the issues facing the oceans and their connection to our changing climate and show an increased interest in STEM careers related to ocean conservation.
Reflecting on the practice of storytelling, this practice insight explores how collaborations between scholars and practitioners can improve storytelling for science communication outcomes with publics. The case studies presented demonstrate the benefits of collaborative storytelling for inspiring publics, promoting understanding of science, and engaging publics more deliberatively in science. The projects show how collaboration between scholars and practitioners [in storytelling] can happen across a continuum of scholarship from evaluation and action research to more critical thinking
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Michelle RiedlingerJenni MetcalfeAyelet Baram-TsabariMarta EntradasMarina JoubertLuisa Massarani
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
How can we begin to chart a course toward a future for science museums in which we maintain our status as sources of trusted information, while also fulfilling our potential as sites of genuine participation and social interaction? In 2019, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the New York Hall of Science hosted a three day conference to discuss new and equitable approaches to exhibit design. With leading exhibit designers, educators, researchers, and community engagement specialists, we began to rethink the exhibit design process, toward a goal of helping our museums become more
The Science Museum of Minnesota will create a 450-square-foot version of its award-winning "RACE: Are We So Different?" exhibition for distribution to rural areas and communities in Minnesota, and adjacent regions in Iowa, eastern North and South Dakota, and northern Wisconsin. The museum will produce four replicas of the exhibition for museums and partner organizations, and collaborate with community groups to develop supporting programming specific to identified community needs. Programs will include facilitated reflective dialogues for groups of adults and students; a leadership institute with representatives from each host community; an educator guide for secondary school teachers; and a variety of workshops and arts presentations to extend conversations about race and racism. Like the original RACE exhibition, these condensed exhibitions will encourage visitors to explore the science, history, and everyday effects of race and racism through a combination of artifacts, historic and contemporary photography, multimedia components, and interactive activities.
The Expanding the Reach: Creating Capacity for Understanding RACE project developed site-specific programming to complement the installation of three small footprint exhibitions of RACE: Are We So Different? in three communities in Minnesota. The goal of the project was to prompt community conversations around topics of race, racism, equity, and the nation’s history, as well as local histories concerning race. Our evaluation questions were: 1) What impact did having the RACE exhibit and associated program have on prompting conversation about race and racism, (a) within institutions and (b)
Production of a mobile-optimized website, a walking tour, and a museum exhibition exploring the history of underground and submerged sites in downtown San Francisco and the Bay.
The Exploratorium seeks support for the production and distribution of San Francisco's Buried History, a project that uses digital technology to engage the public in a physical and virtual exploration of the urban history of Downtown San Francisco. Specifically, Buried History uses a mobile-optimized web site, a walking tour, and accompanying museum exhibit to explore seventeen underground sites that provide fascinating clues as to how the landscape was used and altered over time, as well as to how past inhabitants of the area lived, worked and died. The project will prompt the public to become curious about the rich historical and cultural information right beneath their feet, and the story that information tells of how and why human activity transformed the landscape of San Francisco. In doing so, Buried History will engage users in adopting a more nuanced sense of place—encouraging its audience to learn from historical insights while developing perspectives on contemporary issues.
Implementation of a permanent exhibition, on-line content, educational materials, and public programs exploring the history and cultural impact of video games.
Through the design, fabrication, and implementation of a 24,000-sq. ft. permanent, long-term gallery—tentatively entitled Digital Worlds—The Strong National Museum of Play will explore and share the history, influence, and experience of video games as they relate to culture, storytelling, human development, and the broader evolution of play. This gallery, the centerpiece of a transformational museum expansion, will include complementary and cohesive interactive exhibit spaces that showcase the history of video games through: (1) display of rare and unique historical artifacts; (2) use of multiple media formats that allow guests to discover the history of video games and their impact on society and culture; and (3) inclusion of one-of-a-kind interactive experiences that bring the history, art, and narrative structures of video games to life.
Implementation of a traveling exhibition, website, curriculum, and public programs exploring the history of the scrap industry in America.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM) is developing Scrap Yard: Innovators of Recycling, a temporary, traveling exhibit that will allow visitors to explore the evolution of the American scrap industry over 250 years through the stories of people who created it – immigrants, their descendants and their successors. In addition to the 2,000-sq ft, experiential exhibit exploring scrap recycling through the lenses of history, sociology and technology, JMM intends to publish a companion book and free interpretive brochure, create a website, plan public programs, collect and curate select oral histories, and develop educational curricula. The exhibit will feature historical objects, oral histories, texts, images, multimedia, and interactives. Resources will be drawn from JMM’s collections, the archives of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), and a variety of other sources. Scrap Yard opens at JMM in 2019 and begins a national tour in 2020.
BHS is requesting NEH funds to support its newest exhibition, Sick: Seven Diseases That Changed Brooklyn, which, along with complementary education programs, public programs, and a project website, aims to reveal to diverse audiences that conceptions of illness and health are a manifestation of not just biology, but beliefs, institutions, and identity. Sick will use Brooklyn’s rich history to show how concepts of illness and wellness have transformed over 400 years with a focus on seven different diseases. Topics range from smallpox and Native Americans in the seventeenth century; to devastating nineteenth-century outbreaks of cholera in the growing city of Brooklyn; to pharmaceutical innovations that would grow into global corporations; to local doctors and nurses, activists, and communities who fought disease and redefined caregiving; to the experiences of a diverse group of borough residents and their families during the earliest days of HIV/AIDS; and more.
Planning for the reinterpretation of the museum’s Egyptian collection that would explore the intersection of human and natural histories in ancient Egypt.
Building on Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s (CMNH) current NEH Digital Projects for the Public Discovery Grant, this exhibition grant will allow CMNH to begin planning for its multi-phase exhibition, Egypt on the Nile. As part of the project, CMNH will: convene a team of expert scholars and scientists to refine current research themes and generate new humanities and scientific knowledge through which the public can connect their contemporary experiences with the human and natural history of ancient Egypt; form and consult a community focus group for audience input; identify anthropological and natural sciences collections for the exhibition; and evaluate CMNH exhibitions, conservation, and storage considerations and costs. To carry out these goals, the Project Director will lead committees in a series of meetings and two workshops held in Pittsburgh to produce exhibition designs and a draft script along with plans for outreach, marketing, and evaluation of the final exhibition.
Implementation of a permanent exhibit and supporting programs exploring themes of labor, immigration, and the changing nature of work and community in New Bedford’s commercial fishing industry.
To produce "More Than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Commercial Fishing Industry," a permanent exhibit, digital exhibits, K-12 curriculum materials, and significant public programming exploring themes of labor and immigration, and the changing nature of work and community in New Bedford's commercial fishing industry.