The project includes a simulation based Family Learning Program to be administered through the International Challenger Learning Center (CLC) network. The goal is to develop families' skills in learning as a team through science, math and technology (SMT) in an environment where parents and children are co-travelers in a world of ideas. PACCT is disseminated through ten of the Challenger Learning Centers reaching 22,000 families nationwide. Many of these activities are completed in the home at no cost to the anticipated 12,500 participating families. Through this network of centers, all types of communities are served in many states. The activities include Sim-U-Voyages, where family teams work at home; Sim-U-Challenges, where families create a physical model responding to a challenge; Sim-U-Visits, where families hear from scientists and work as scientists in a team solving a problem; and Sim-U-Ventures, which result in flying a mission. Cost sharing is 8%.
The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) is implementing a new, 41-month phase and augmentation of a national public service advertising campaign that was launched in 1995. The Math is Power campaign was developed by NACME in partnership with The Advertising Council toward the goal of creating an increase in the number of students who graduate from high school with prerequisite courses to enroll in any rigorous, math- or science-based undergraduate program. The current project is designed to reach all students but is especially targeted to groups currently underrepresented in math and science and will be anchored by highly directed television, radio, print, and outdoor advertising. The new phase will introduce a Math is Power interactive web site. The website will allow NACME to add direct services to the information packets that are sent to students and parents who respond to the public service advertising. It will include: content relevant, age appropriate math challenges, games, problems, and contests; a national registry of math opportunities where students, parents, and teachers can find mathematics resources; an on-line special events chat room; and a best practices bulletin board. NACME will coordinate their outreach efforts with services such as the Community Technology Center Network (CTCnet) in order to facilitate web access for youth and parents in disadvantaged neighborhoods. They also will work directly with 25 cities with the greatest numbers of citizens who fall in the target population. Math and Science education services in these cities will be able to localize much of the material through such means as placing a local tag on the television ads. In addition, the NACME production and distribution capabilities will be substantially expanded to meet the tremendous demand for Math Is Power materials.
Museum of Science will develop a 4500 sq. ft. exhibit "Finding the Pattern". The primary objective is to develop activities and programs that encourage visitors to practice scientific thinking skills in settings that have interdisciplinary science content. The main component is an activity area that will encourage visitors to observe, compare, and sort objects and phenomena in meaningful ways; help visitors recognize that systems of organizing and classifying objects and phenomena reveal underlying meaning; provide visitors with opportunities to practice answering questions and solving problems based on museums collections; and encourage visitors to search for the "hidden" meaning in things around them. The exhibit will be composed of three overlapping areas: 1) the sorting area, 2) the mystery area, and 3) the open collections area. This project is one of the six science activity centers that have been described in the museum's long-range plan; two activity centers/exhibits have been completed. The impact of "Finding the Pattern" will be extended via the museum's web site. Activities that employ the kinds of scientific thinking skills targeted in the exhibit will be developed to engage informal learners at home. Complementary programming linking the exhibit with formal education will include the development of teacher workshops and programs for school groups. Teacher workshops will be developed in consultation with groups of Project PALMS teachers. The activities will be accessible to individuals with disabilities. They plan to open the exhibit in the fall of 2000.
Carnegie Mellon University is developing an interactive, multimedia planetarium presentation about the human brain. The interdisciplinary project team will build upon and refine the experience gained from its recently completed planetarium show, Journey Into the Living Cell. The context for this work is the need for increased public understanding of the human brain - an organ central to the very concept of humanity. The understanding of the human brain is located at the lively crossroads of research in many disciplines, including psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, computer science and biology. The proposed medium to address this important issue is a 45-minute planetarium show. A broad audience ranging from pre-adolescent to adult will be targeted. Sophisticated and entertaining imaging technologies, including animation and virtual reality, will be used throughout the work. Narration and sound will be tightly integrated into the work. The hemispherical display surface of the planetarium will be fully utilized both visually and sonically. Recent advances in the brain sciences as well as long held understandings about the brain will be presented. Basic brain biology and principles of brain function including cooperativity in brain region activity and brain region specialization will be introduced.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James McClellandPaul OlesBryan Rogers
KCTS, Seattle's PBS affiliate, is producing a series of three one-hour prime-time science education television specials starring Bill Nye. The specials will be aimed at a family audience and will be designed to promote informal science learning through an entertaining presentation of science in everyday life. Topics currently being considered for the specials are The Science of Sports, The Science of Learning, and The Science of the Future, thought other topics, such as Pseudo Science, also are being considered. Each program will maintain the entertainment values of enthusiasm for science so prominent in the Bill Nye the Science Guy series but will have a strong narrative element and air of suspense as Bill embarks on a journey of discovery, greater depth of content and presentation, and longer uninterrupted segments. The programs will be supported by a multi-pronged outreach program to reach parents and children through local PBS stations and science museums, community organizations serving disadvantaged populations and, possibly, a tie-in with a national chain of quick family restaurants. Many of the same team that created Bill Nye the Science Guy will work on this project including Bill Nye; Elizabeth Brock, Executive Producer; and Erren Gottlieb and James McKenna, producers. The production team will work with fourteen scientists and science educators who will advise the project on presentation and outreach. This group also will review and comment on all scripts and drafts of outreach material.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William NyeJames McKennaErren GottliebBurnill ClarkRandy Brinson
The Institute for Learning Innovation, Inc., requests $264,904 to pilot a project for establishing a national program to provide parents and significant other adults with support, training and materials. Also, the project goals will enable parents and other adults to become actively engaged in local science education reform and science literacy for their children. The duration of this project is eighteen months. The cost sharing for this NSF award is 24.6% of the total projected cost of the project. The Institute for Learning Innovation, Inc. will collaborate with the YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Boys and Girls Club of Annapolis and the Arundel County Public Schools' Family Involvement Center. Project "ASK with Science" will develop a model program for implementing and disseminating science education materials to young children in underserved communities, thereby creating a grassroots, family-oriented program that can become established in the local communities served by these organizations.
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science proposed to develop an outreach science and mathematics program with a parent involvement and teacher enhancement professional development component. The goals of the project are as follows: (1) to involve parents in their children's education; (2) to promote a positive attitude on behalf of parents and students toward science and mathematics; (3) to increase teachers' level of comfort in teaching science; and (4) to enhance teacher's confidence in the hands-on approach as an effective method for teaching science. The objectives for the parent component of this project are: acquaint parents with the national and state science education goals and standards; introduce parents to activities that can be done at home with children; and provide families with materials and activity sheets that can be used at home. The objectives for the teacher component of this project are: (1) to provide teachers with opportunities for increased communication with parents about science literacy for children; (2) provide professional development for teachers on the use of hands-on science activities in the classroom; and (3) to providing bilingual activity guides and kits containing materials to encourage science learning. The methods for implementing this project will be varied according to the needs of the target audiences. Parents and children will be engaged through parent workshops and multi-aged children's activities conducted at the museum by experienced science educators. The professional development for teachers' component of this project will include an extensive summer workshop, on-going training/ planning sessions during the school calendar year and session on the uses of the bilingual teaching manuals. The cost sharing for this NSF award is 46.7% of the total project cost.
The Zoological Society of Philadelphia will develop Primate Reserve. This project will include the development of a two acre indoor/outdoor primate habitat for up to 60 primates and a variety of complementary programming including hands-on interpretative activities for visitors, a Discovery House/Conservation Action Center, live performances, school programs and teacher training activities that link with the formal education curriculum, and a World Wide Web site. The goal of this program is to communicate basic information about primate biology, behavior, social structure, and habitats, and the problems face by primates in the wild. Visitors are to learn that "Conservationists around the world work together to help primates and you can help too." Specifically visitors will learn details about conservation biology/population biology including a) a species' biology affects its vulnerability to extinction, b) small populations are vulnerable to inbreeding depression and loss of genetic diversity, c) small populations in small areas are vulnerable to stochastic events, and d) these concerns apply to both wild and zoo populations. To make the story more personal and to provide career role models, primatologists engaged in their research will be featured in the exhibit. The exhibit will open in June, 1999 and the school program will begin October, 1999.
Treasuring our Natural Heritage: Natural History and Environmental Science Education is a multifaceted project that will be developed by the Idaho Museum of Natural History. Their goal is to heighten an understanding of issues surrounding the concept of biodiversity among the general public. By using the metaphor " the economy of nature," they will present three concepts: biodiversity which will include the idea of keystone species, natural capital, and extinction debt & conservation biology. This approach and the use of this metaphor is based on pre-exhibit research work that demonstrated that rural Idahoans understand this as a system of exchange, where each species holds a different 'occupation' and a variety of occupations is critical to the health of the economy. This project will bring participants in touch with the value of scientific research through presentations by scientists whose recent research results will provide a deeper understanding of the living systems around them. Views of elders from Idaho's Native American tribes will be included to add a critical human dimension. With this award they will develop a series of three small traveling exhibits, three-part educational video series for public broadcasting, and three multimedia science kits for use by children's groups on each of the three concepts noted above. With this multifaceted design it is anticipated that this program will reach 50% of Idaho's 1.2 million people. It is anticipated that the exhibits will become generally available once they have completed their circulation in Idaho.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stefan SommerAllen JacksonAmy LaffertyAndrew GibbonsAlbert Strickland
Blue Mountain Films, in association with the American Museum of Natural History, is producing a multi-component project on biodiversity that will examine closely the risks we face if the web of life on Earth is progressively diminished. The central component of the project will be a large format film that seeks to locate and understand humans' place in, and impact upon, the natural order of life on this planet. The film will be based on what appears to be a critical paradox: while we humans, like all living things, have always been dependent upon natural systems for our survival, our unique cultural development and technological prowess have convinced us that we are somehow "above" nature. As a corollary theme, the Life in the Balance film will examine the urgency of the scientific effort to explore and understand ecosystems and the flora and fauna they contain before their unique genetic information is lost due to human actions. In addition, the film will convey an appreciation of how science actually is done in the field. The film will be augmented by: * The Life in the Balance Bookshelf of material currently being developed by the new National Center at the American Museum of Natural History: * Biodiversity: An Action Guide aimed at encouraging children and their families to explore together topics and issues surrounding biodiversity. * Teacher's Curriculum-Biodiversity Counts designed as a middle school-based activity that encourages students to engage in scientific exploration and discover the diversity of species in their own neighborhoods. * Book of Essays designed as a resource book for high school students and their teachers. * Teacher/Educator's Guide consisting of hands-on science activities that can be used independently of the film and as preparation for viewing and/or following screenings of the film. * Life in the Balance "Interactive" Poster with a four-color acetate overlay of pictures which, wen pulled away, reveals a seco nd sheet with science information. * Fun Facts Brochure with biodiversity facts and questions presented in a simple, fun fashion, such as quizzes and games. * Life in the Balance Website feature family activities, an extinction conference section, and a bio-bulletin. * Life in the Balance National Training Institute, a 10 day workshop brining together teams of science educators from community organizations, schools, and science centers and museums. The PI and producer/director/writer of the film will be Bayley Silleck who served in these same roles for the Cosmic Voyage film. The Co-PI and producer will be Jeffrey Marvin. The principal scientist will be Thomas Eisner, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell University. This production team will work closely with an advisory committee that includes Jane Lubchenco, Peter H. Raven, Edward O. Wilson, Andrew Peter Dobson, Myles Gordon, Mary Elizabeth Murray-Wilson, and Lee Schmitt.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bayley SilleckJeffrey MarvinThomas Eisner
The New York Hall of Science will develop, test, and implement the "Biochemistry Discovery Lab," a 1000-sq.-ft. space designed to complement the content and design of "The Chemistry of Living Things," a 3000-sq.-ft. exhibition that will be opening in 1999. The Biochemistry Discovery Lab will engage visitors in four different types of activities: 1) guided experiments for scheduled groups, 2) self-guided experiments, 3) demonstrations, and 4) the prototyping of ancillary materials. These activities are intended to engage the target audiences -- families, students, and the general public -- in experiences leading to an understanding that chemical reactions are due to the interaction of molecules; that chemical reactions occur in both living and nonliving things; and that there are visible and measurable characteristics of chemical reactions in living and nonliving systems.
The Science Museum of Minnesota will develop "Investigations in Cell Biology," an integrated program that introduces cell, microbiology, and molecular biology to museum audiences through open-access, wet-lab, micro-experiment benches; training and support for school teachers; classes for adults and teens; and a long-term program for local high school youth. The project includes the development, testing, and installation of four micro-experiment benches that introduce visitors to the objectives, tools, and techniques of cell biology experimentation. These benches,"Inside the Cell," "Testing for DNA," "DNA Profile," and "Microbe Control," will be part of "Cell Lab," a 1,500 square-foot open experiment area within the science museum's new core exhibition, "The Human Body," opening December 1999.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Laurie Kleinbaum FinkSusan FlemingJ Newlin