Boston Museum of Science seeks funds from the National Science Foundation for the development of a group of interactive exhibits and educational programs that will comprise the Museum's permanent TESTING THE THEORY activity center. The project is part of a new approach to exhibits that aims to make the experiences available to visitors closer to the actual process of scientific discovery. Visitors will carry out experiments in fields ranging from chemistry and cognitive psychology, to statistics, optics, and materials science. The focus will be on promoting specific experimental skills and scientific habits of mind, and on encouraging the transfer of these skills to everyday activities. The exhibit techniques developed during the prototyping and production of TESTING THE THEORY are expected to be of importance to science museums and others concerned with increasing science literacy.
In the Fall of 1994 The New York Botanical Garden will begin its second 100 years of commitment to science education with the opening of the Children's Adventure Garden and the Children's Adventure Trails. As two components of the Children's Adventure Project , these informal science education facilities will use participatory discovery to engage urban children and their families in learning botanical science, inquiry skills, positive attitudes towards science, and the methods of scientists. In the 1.5 acre Adventure Garden children will interact with living plants and fabricated exhibits to discover fundamental principles of plant biology; and in the one mile of Adventure Trails they will closely observe interdependencies of complex ecosystems using the framework of these fundamental principles. To expand visitor understanding of plant biology and the ways that scientists study it, Investigation Stations, integral components of each facility, will be placed so that visitors will handle, sense, and observe living plants in situ and interact with fabricated exhibits and scientific tools. The Project will be developed by NYBG staff educators and scientists with on-going participation of a broad spectrum of advisors and consultants, including exhibition designers, evaluators, community school teachers, and environmental education specialists.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop an interdisciplinary national traveling exhibition about raptors (birds of prey). Created in collaboration with The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota (TRC) and the Museum Magnet School of the St. Paul School District, this exhibit and its related programs will explore themes of biodiversity, ecology, and human relationships with the natural world. It will help visitors understand raptors as diverse, charismatic, biologically-complex animals whose continued survival is linked to fundamental questions of public policy, economics, and environmental ethics. combining the perspectives of the sciences with those of the humanities, the exhibit will present science in a real-world context of human values and actions. Opening at SMM in the summer of 1944, the 5,000-square-foot exhibit will travel for five years or more to other large museums, nature centers, and zoos throughout the U.S. Using specimens, models, artifacts, dioramas, audiovisual programs, and interactive components and supported by theater, demonstrations, and a variety of other on-site programs, it will provide a compelling mix of informal learning experiences for families, school groups, and other general audiences. Beyond the museum walls, the themes of the project will reach schools and other important outreach audiences through videotapes, teacher training programs, educational materials, and other programs. SMM will also produce a scaled-down version of the exhibit that will tour to smaller museums, nature centers, and zoos.
READING RAINBOW, produced by Nebraskans for Public television/Great Plains National ITV Library, is a fifty part continuing PBS children's television series which entices children ages five through eight to read good books. The present project seeks to integrate quality science books into their nationally successful PBS series, thus encouraging children's interest in science and making science books more visible. Six science programs have been produced with prior NSF support; this award will support the production of nine additional half hour READING RAINBOW programs with scientific themes that will become an integral part of the on-going series. A special promotional effort will also be funded to reach early elementary teachers who have not yet discovered Reading Rainbow programs. Targeted at five to eight years olds, READING RAINBOW receives heavy in- school use as well as at-home viewing. It is carried by virtually all PBS affiliates, reaching 95% of the nation's households and 8 million series viewers. In addition to receiving all major children's television awards, READING RAINBOW has demonstrated both increased summer reading and increased requests by title for the books reviewed. The opportunity for increasing attention to science books for early readers is outstanding. NSF support is 31% of the total budgeted; the remainder will be provided by the Kellog Company, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by PBS station.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Twila LiggettLee RockwellJack McBride
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This project is aimed at perfecting and testing a new instructional method to improve the effectiveness of introductory physics teaching. the methods has two chief characteristics: 1) a systematic challenge to common sense misconceptions about the physical world, and 2) an emphasis on models and modeling as basic to physical understanding. Two versions of the method will be tested. The first version is designed especially for high school physics. It emphasizes student development of explicit models to interpret laboratory activities. After an initial test, this version will be taught to high school physics teachers in a summer Teacher Enhancement Workshop, and its effect on their subsequent teaching will be evaluated. Teachers with weak as well as strong backgrounds will be included. A special effort will be made to include females and minorities. The second version will be tested in a special college physics course designed to prepare students with weak backgrounds for a standard calculus based physics course. It emphasizes modeling techniques in problem solving. This project is jointly supported by the Division of Materials development, Research and Informal Science Education and the Division of Teacher Preparation and Enhancement.
Hands-On Science Outreach, Inc. has for a number of years developed and operated recreational after school and Saturday Science Classes for children, at first in Montgomery County, MD; and subsequently, with NSF support, at more than 22 sites around the country. During the last 10 years, they have reached more than 20,000 students with their unique collection of hands-on science activities. The project is well on the way to becoming self sufficient, and this final award will document both the philosophy of instruction and specific teaching methods that they have used and provide a third party evaluation of the processes of learning that they encourage in informal science education programs. Hands-On Science Outreach, Inc. will publish two 32 page booklets outlining their history, philosophy, and methods, and will conduct a third party evaluation of classes in four demographically diverse sites around the country, carried out under the direction of Dr. Harris Shettel, a nationally recognized informal education researcher. The resulting reports and publications will be widely disseminated, providing valuable information to others planning to offer hands-on science activities for children.
The Exploratorium plans to develop a set of interactive teaching exhibits that will deal with epidemiology, immunology and virology, and through those subjects, with AIDS treatment and prevention. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive description of how the immune system works in the context of AIDS, and so help people to make rational decisions about personal and social responses to the disease. The primary thrust will be to supplement the more general AIDS educational materials by providing an understanding of the scientific basis of the disease, and to involve the public in the scientific and educative process, rather than just informing them about the subject.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Charles CarlsonRichard BrownMargaret LawDebra Raphael
Children's Television Workshop proposes to produce a fourth and fifth season of SQUARE ONE TV, a daily series on mathematics for children ages eight to twelve. Season Four will consist of 40 new half-hours for air on PBS stations beginning September 1991. Consistent with CTW's experimental mission in education, CTW also proposes to undertake a new programming approach to expand the reach of SQUARE ONE TV to a family audience by converting the daily detective serial featured in the series, MATHNET, into four one-hour specials for family viewing. These Season Four MATHNET Specials will be researched to test their effectiveness. Eleven hour-long weekly SQUARE ONE TV programs will be produced for Season Five to be aired in addition to re-broadcasts of the daily series starting January, 1993. Seasons Four and Five production will capitalize on the educational impact and appeal of prior seasons. Mathematical content will be based on research and in conjunction with the Series Advisory Committee and consultants. The additional seasons will be supported by a full range of promotion, community outreach activities, and school services, including teacher's guides.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
David ConnellKeith MielkeEve HallJoel Schneider
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is a progressive science and technology center. Its philosophy toward science education is to make it enticing, enjoyable and motivating. It accomplishes this by means of "hands-on", interactive exhibits and programs designed to provide a non- threatening learning environment, for which we are recognized nationally. OMSI recognizes the important national need to assist the public in understanding and being comfortable with advances in, and methodology of applied science. It proposes to design and build a large exhibit that promotes problem solving using engineering principles. The exhibit will pose problems, offer basic information for the solution and provide a variety of tools and building materials from which the visitor can choose. The visitor then devises one or several possible solutions, and constructs a prototype to be tested in one of three large scale testing laboratories. The engineering fields addressed are aeronautical, mechanical and civil. Our visitors will come away from the exhibit with an increased appreciation for the way engineering is done and how solutions affect their lives. OMSI is requesting $577,324 from the National Science Foundation as well as $427,539 from the Port of Portland to design and build this exhibit. The Port of Portland is interested in demonstrating how its commercial activities relate to engineering. OMSI plans to disseminate information about the exhibit to educators and other museums on a national level.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is developing an innovative exhibit and teaching laboratory called INTERACTIONS. The unique feature of INTERACTIONS is the combination of an exploratory, interactive natural science exhibit with an adjacent live-insect-rearing laboratory. The exhibits will give the visitors some of the exploratory tools and experiences of the scientist and involve them in the process of scientific discovery. The laboratory will provide visitors with direct experience with scientists and involve them in the scientific process. Ecological in scope, INTERACTIONS will communicate environmental issues. The museum's plant and insect halls, designed over thirty years ago, will be renovated totally. In their place, a single, large exhibit and teaching laboratory will be created focusing on the interactions of insects and plants. The exhibits, videos, computer stations, and adjacent insect rearing laboratory will invite visitors to participate, question and examine. This combination of exhibits, hands-on activities, video, and laboratory will increase the retention of information, stimulate interests in natural science, and give vitality to the museum experience. The total cost of renovation, modernizing, exhibit construction and installation is $1,340,000 with $1,000,000 raised by a vigorous capital campaign. This request is for the balance of $340,000 to complete the exhibit construction.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Dennis PowerCatherine WoolseyNorman IkedaJohn Torkington
The goal of Science City: New York as a Science and Technology Exhibit, is to increase public awareness and interest in science and technology in daily life by creating "found exhibits" in public places throughout New York City. This proposal is based on a 1986 pilot project which developed criteria and concepts for successful Science City units and a prototype exhibit operating in a tourist elevator at the World Trade Center. Science City will use the streets and structures of New York to present the science and technology of everyday life. It will reach the science inattentive public who do not go to science museums. Eye-catching exhibits such as diffraction gratings mounted on bus shelters will reveal the different spectra of the incandescent, flourescent, neon, and mercury vapor lamps, already part of the street scene. The New York Hall of Science will place Science City exhibits in public parks, subways, bus kiosks, and building lobbies. Ten to fifteen different exhibits/signs, each replicated an average of 10 times, will be installed and evaluated throughout the boroughs of Queens and Manhattan.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Alan FriedmanPeggy ColeTheodore Ansbacher
NACME proposes to develop a 20 minute videotape, with a teacher's guide and student brochure, that will use career opportunities in engineering as a vehicle to encourage math and science course-taking among minority high school students. By introducing engineering careers as dynamic, exciting professions that offer excellent prospects for minority graduates, NACME hopes to motivate students to take academic track science and math courses beginning at the 8th/9th grade crossroads and continuing through high school graduation. The video, geared specifically to a primary audience of 11 to 14 year-old minority students (5th through 8th graders) and a secondary audience of non-minority students, parents, teachers and guidance counselors, will focus on the lives of successful young engineers, male and female, from diverse ethnic backgrounds.