There is broad consensus in the international scientific community that the world is facing a biodiversity crisis — the accelerated loss of life on Earth brought about by human activity. Threats to biodiversity have been variously classified by different authors (Diamond 1989, Laverty and Sterling 2004, Brook et al. 2008), but typically include ecosystem loss and fragmentation, unsustainable use, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. Across the globe, traditional and indigenous cultures are affected by many of the same threats affecting biological diversity, including the
Science Club is an after school program created in partnership between Northwestern University and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago. Every week throughout the academic year, middle school youth (grades 5-8) work in small groups with their graduate student mentors on challenging, hands-on experiments. The six Science Club curricular modules cover topics ranging from biomedical engineering to food science, all with the goals of helping youth to 1) improve their understanding of the scientific method, 2) develop scientific habits of mind, and 3) increase their interest in STEM fields, particularly health-related careers. Science Club serves 60 youth every quarter with the help of 30 trained scientist mentors. Science Club meets three days a week at the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club in Chicago, IL.
The X-Tech program will bring together the Exploratorium and staff at five Beacon Centers to create an innovative technology program using STEM and IT activities previously tested at the Exploratorium. At each X-Tech Club, two Beacon Center staff and two Exploratorium Youth Facilitators will work with 20 middle school students each year for a total of 300 participants. Youth Facilitators are alumni of the Exploratorium's successful Explainer program and will receive 120 hours of training in preparation for peer mentoring. Each site will use the X-Tech hands-on curriculum that will focus on small technological devices to explore natural phenomenon, in addition to digital imaging, visual perception and the physiology of eyes. Parental involvement will be fostered through opportunities to participate in lectures, field trips and open houses, while staff at Beacon Centers will participate in 20 hours of professional development each year.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Vivian AltmannDarlene LibreroVirginia WittMichael Funk
The Salmon Camp Research Team (SCRT) project was created to address the under-representation of Native Americans in information technology (IT) and IT-intensive professions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is partnering with the Native American Youth and Family Association (NAYA) under the renewed National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to strengthen community involvement and work directly with students year round. An SCRT program website is under development with program information and a social networking page
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Phyllis AultOregon Museum of Science and Industry
This project proposes using three complementary strategies to engage, inform and inspire large audiences. (1) A national tour called "Stories from a Changing Planet" that will include in-person presentations and hands-on activities by Polar scientists at science centers, museums, libraries and schools across the country. (2) the "HiDef video Science Story Capture Corp" team of professional videographers HD footage will be made available as public domain materials accessible to government research agencies, universities,science centers and others. (3) Video and Audio podcasts distributed throught iTunes, google, Yahoo and IPY websites. The project will have front end, formative and summative evaluations.
Project Butterfly WINGS is a three-year project targeting 4th-8th grade participants in 13 Florida counties. This project includes the use of the 4-H network as a partner to recruit participants. It builds on the development of student-scientist partnerships to create an environment where information, data and ideas can be exchanged. This project will focus on collecting data on butterflies and the environments/habitats the butterflies choose to visit. This project brings together several important elements to present an interactive, authentic, research-based SSP activity supported through an established network of ISE providers, educators and community-based organizations. Based on solid research and knowledge about ISE approaches, the project has strong content connections and a well-designed structure. An interactive web-site will provide opportunities for participants to interact with each other and with participating scientists, and to experience firsthand some of the most interesting aspects of engaging in scientific inquiry. WINGS has the potential to create a network of young people who will be more aware of issues related to biodiversity and the environment. Through its model approach and participant outcomes, "Project Butterfly WINGS" is positioned to make a difference in the ISE field and in the lives of its participants.
The Ramapo College of New Jersey requests funding to develop the "Senior Environmental Experiences (SEE)" project. The project will produce a series of interactive science experiences using Internet videoconferencing to connect seniors at community centers and extended care facilities with environmental experts at the Meadowlands Environment Center as the principal context for discussions of environmental concepts and issues. The goal of the program is to increase the interest of seniors by linking science to history and politics. "SEE" will create experiential modules related to the natural history, ecosystem structure and future of the Meadowlands. Discussion from the field using live images and feedback from the seniors would support exploration of details relevant to the specific topic at hand. The videoconferences will be recorded and made available to seniors in other locations throughout New Jersey and the US. Follow up materials will encourage further activities by the seniors. "SEE" will reach approximately 4,500 seniors in 32 centers during the three-year project.
National Geographic Television is producing a large-format, 3D film, "Sea Monsters," about prehistoric marine reptiles. The project will also include formative and summative evaluations, educational materials for home, after-school and classroom use, professional development for educators, an interactive website and innovative outreach to underserved youth. The film will present the current scientific understanding of Mesozoic marine ecosystems and the biology and behavior of prehistoric marine reptiles. The storyline of the films sets paleontological discovery into historical context, and reveals much about the scientific method and process of inquiry. Innovative intercutting between live-action paleontology sequences and photo realistic 3D animation of the reptiles will bring the fossils to life and allow audiences to make connections between the remains that are uncovered and the reptiles' activities, all of which are driven by concrete evidence in the fossil record. Sea Monsters will have a strategic impact on the field of informal science education by using groundbreaking computer-generated imagery technologies, and by demonstrating that a strong, dramatic storyline is a powerful and effective method for communicating scientific concepts. Standards-based lesson plans for the classroom and informal activity guides for families will augment the impact of the film. National Geographic has teamed with leading scientific experts and formal and informal education specialists to inform and advise the project. Multimedia Research and Knight-Williams Research Communication, respectively, will conduct formative and summative research.
Led by Washington University, Making Natural Connections: An Authentic Field Research Collaboration (DRL-0739874), is a series of two field-based informal science education programs in environmental biology targeting St. Louis area teenagers. The project aims for engagement of science research institutions and career scientists in the execution of informal science education programming, bringing real and dynamic context to the science content and allowing for deep and transparent career exploration by teenage participants. Project goals include (1) providing a model for integration of informal science education into the research and restoration projects at biological field stations and nature reserves, (2) communicating current environmental biology research to audiences outside the research community, and (3) influencing the entry of pre-college students into the science career pipeline. The project is a collaborative partnership between Washington University’s Tyson Research Center and the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Shaw Nature Reserve. The Shaw Institute for Field Training (SIFT) program trains St. Louis area high school students in scientific exploration of the natural world at Shaw Nature Reserve. During a one-week training session in June, teens are introduced to a variety of Missouri ecosystems and gain skills necessary to conduct field research, including plant and animal identifications, biotic sampling and census techniques, testing of abiotic factors, and training in the use of maps, compass and GPS. During the rest of the summer and school year, teens are involved in important research and restoration activities at Shaw, Tyson Research Center and other field research sites in the St. Louis area. Fieldwork opportunities may include invasive species management, prairie reconstruction, plant and animal inventories, and prescribed burns. The Tyson Environmental Research Fellowships (TERF) program places high school students as summer interns on ecology and environmental biology research teams at Tyson Research Center. Selected teen participants have successfully completed the SIFT program and apply their field skills to ongoing research projects at Tyson and other partnering research sites. During the summer, the four-week program provides teens with exposure to a variety of field science experiences and skills. TERF teens work alongside university scientists, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students. The TERF program provides a cultural apprenticeship in university-based environmental biology research and training in scientific communication. It is an advanced summer experience modeled on the undergraduate research internships offered at Tyson. During the following school year, participants work on posters and presentations for symposia at Washington University and Tyson and at community fairs, and their posters are displayed at Shaw Nature Reserve. A national dissemination workshop for informal science educators, high school biology teachers, and research scientists provides the necessary materials and background to replicate the project design in other locales. The summative evaluation will address impacts on teenage participants (engagement, cognitive and emotional support, competence, career viability, experiential learning) and professional audiences (implementation of teen program, program components, impacts on mentoring scientists). The strategic impact of this project results from the integration of teenage immersion experiences into research activities at a university-based facility. This model of informal science training activities leading into participation in authentic research may be transferable to other STEM disciplines.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Phyllis BalcerzakPeter RavenSusan FlowersKim Medley
To address a lack of informal science education opportunities and to increase community capacity to support STEM education for their children, Washington State University's Yakima Valley/Tri Cities MESA program, the Pacific Science Center, and KDNA Educational Radio have developed a set of informal science initiatives that offer complementary learning opportunities for rural Latino families. The goal of this four-year program is to create a sustainable informal science infrastructure in southeastern Washington State to serve families, increase parental awareness, support and involvement in science education and ultimately increase the numbers of rural Latino youth pursuing STEM-related under graduate studies. This program is presented in English and Spanish languages in all of its interconnected deliverables: Two mobile exhibits, beginning with one focused on agricultural and environmental science developed by The Pacific Science (PCS) Center; Curriculum and training in agriculture, life sciences and facilitating learning; Curriculum and training for community members to provide support to parents in encouraging the academic aspirations of their children developed by PSC and MESA; 420 Youth and parents from the MESA program trained to interpret exhibits and run workshops, community festivals, family science workshops and Saturday programs throughout the community; Four annual community festivals, quarterly Family Saturday events, and Family Science Workshops reaching 20,000 people over the four-year project; Take home activities, science assemblies, a website and CDs with music and science programming for community events; A large media initiative including monthly one hour call-in radio programs featuring science experts, teachers, professionals, students and parents, 60-second messages promoting science concepts and resources and a publicity campaign in print, radio and TV to promote community festivals. These venues reach 12,500-25,000 people each; A program manual that includes training, curriculum and collaborative strategies used by the project team. Overall Accesso la Ciencia connects parents and children through fun community activities to Pasco School District's current LASER science education reform effort. This project complements the school districts effort by providing a strong community support initiative in informal science education. Each activity done in the community combines topics of interest to rural Latinos (agriculture for instance) to concepts being taught in the schools, while also providing tools and support to parents that increases their awareness of opportunities for their children in STEM education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James PrattD. Janae' LandisDonald LynchMichael Trevisan
"IPY: Engaging Antarctica" is an informal science education project designed to increase public awareness of Antarctic geological research and discovery during the International Polar Year. Submitted through NET Television, the project will produced a PBS one-hour television documentary for air on NOVA in fall 2008 (w.t. "Antarctica's Icy Secrets") complemented by a multi-faceted outreach effort. The intended impacts of "Engaging Antarctica" are to: 1) enhance the general public's awareness and understanding of scientific research conducted in Antarctica; 2) create innovative collaborations for developing and disseminating Antarctic educational materials; and 3) enhance our knowledge of how youth and adults understand Antarctic research. The documentary will illuminate geoscience research as it being accomplished throughout IPY and specifically focus on the ANDRILL project, a major focal point during the global campaign of polar education and analyses. The program will document how scientists search for evidence to resolve conflicting hypotheses regarding ice sheet history and dynamics. NOVA Online will create a companion site for the program. In addition, the outreach materials include the Flexhibit, a digital package of high resolution images and files (visual and audio) accessible via the web, at no cost to the user. These will include scientist's stories in their own words, and inquiry-based activities developed by LuAnn Dahlman, the TERC geoscience curriculum specialist. Dahlman will work with the ARISE educators who have been selected to go to Antarctica to work with the ANDRILL science team. Mini-grants will be given to youth organizations in low income communities to participate in the trial test of the Flexhibit activities and enable participation in the project. Multimedia Research will conduct front-end and formative evaluation. Summative evaluation will be conducted by Multimedia Research and Amy Spiegel, from the University of Nebraska Center for Instructional Innovation.
Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences (COSIA) is an innovative project that creates unique partnerships between informal science education institutions and local colleges conducting research in ocean sciences, with an emphasis on earth, biological and geochemical sciences. The project enables over 100 undergraduate and graduate students that are enrolled in the Communicating Ocean Sciences college course to create engaging learning activities and teaching kits in conjunction with their informal education partners. Institutional teams include: Long Beach Aquarium and California State University-Long Beach; Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University; Virginia Aquarium and Science Center and Hampton University; Liberty Science Center and Rutgers University; and Lawrence Hall of Science and University of California-Berkeley. Students learn valuable outreach skills by providing visiting families and children with classes, guided tours and interactive learning experiences. Deliverables include a three-day partner workshop, a series of COSIA Handbooks (Collaboration Guide, Informal Education Guide and Outreach Guide), an Informal Science Education Activities Manual and Web Bank of hands-on activities. Strategic impact will be realized through the creation of partnerships between universities and informal science education institutions and capacity building that will occur as informal science institutions create networks to support the project. It is also anticipated the evaluation outcomes will inform the field abut the benefits of museum and university partnerships. The project will impact more than 30,000 elementary and middle school children and their families, as well as faculty, staff and students at the partnering institutions.