The Magnet Lab has a strong commitment to education. Through the Center for Integrating Research & Learning, the lab supports educational programming at all academic levels: K-12, technical, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral. Please explore the links listed to the left to find out more about the depth of our educational resources for the community, for teachers and for students as well as our unique research offerings. Our programs are designed to excite and educate students, teachers and the general public about science, technology and the world around them. All of our programs are developed in close collaboration with research scientists and educators. Housed at and partly funded by the MagLab, the Center is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the excellent resources, connections, world-class facilities and cutting-edge science the lab has to offer. We also receive generous support from the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida. The Center maintains a rigorous research agenda designed to investigate how Center programs and materials affect teachers and students. Our Mission Statement is to expand scientific literacy and to encourage interest in and the pursuit of scientific studies among educators and students of all ages through connections between the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the National Science Foundation, the community of Tallahassee, the State of Florida and the nation.
The Education Development Center, Incorporated, requests $2,081,018 to create informal learning opportunities in science, mathematics, engineering and technology utilizing the study of the ancient African civilization of Nubia as context. Educational activities and resources will be developed based on the extensive ongoing archeological research on historical Nubia. The two main components of the project are a traveling exhibit with related educational materials and a website that will provide the target audience an opportunity to access extensive on-line resources and activities. The project will provide community outreach and professional development for educators in museums, community groups, schools and libraries. The project is designed for thirty-six months' duration. In year one, a network of collaborators in the Boston area will focus on research and development; in year two, project materials will be piloted and evaluated in six cities, and on-line professional development programs will be conducted; and in year three, project materials will be disseminated directly to 60 sites and more broadly via the internet.
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.
Unicorn Projects, Inc. is producing a project about historic mills in American and the science and technology of their operation. The project will combine a nationally broadcast one-hour PBS special with print and interactive educational materials for the home and school markets along with family-oriented personal appearance by host-author David Macaulay at selected museum and mill sites across the country. The goal of the project is to acquaint viewers and participants with the technological innovations and the scientific, social and historical significance of water-powered mills in the early part of the industrial revolution. In addition to the television program the project will produce Mill Times newspapers applicable in formal as well as informal settings, curriculum-based school videos and teachers guides, activity kits including "toys" designed to introduce concepts in applied mechanics, and family-activity programs at selected sites. The PI and Producer/Director will be Larry Klein who has produced and directed the previous Macaulay programs among many other PBS specials. David Macaulay, author of many best-selling books on architecture and technology, will be the host and will work closely with Mark Olshaker, the writer, in developing the script for the program. The Education Director will be Toby Levine. The principal technology and history advisor will be Patrick Malone, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and American Civilization at Brown University and past president of the Society for Industrial Archaeology. The science advisor will be Theodore Ansbacher, principal of Science Services, an informal science education consulting company. Other advisors include Robert Dalzell, Gary Kulik, Judith McGaw, and Merrit Roe Smith.
The large format film unit at NOVA/WGBH Boston, in association with the Liberty Science Center, is producing a 40-minute large format film about the science of volcanology. Volcano: Lost City of Pompeii will tell the story of a diverse group of scientists working together, each in his or her specific field, to understand better how Vesuvius can reasonably be expected to behave - today and in the years to come. Following the scientific teams, the film will impart a basic understanding of magma flow and plate tectonics, the geological building blocks out of which volcanoes emerge. The film will blend geology with archaeology to tell an ongoing detective story - a present-day scientific investigation that integrates state of the art techniques and technology with ancient evidence derived from buildings, victims' remains, and vivid eyewitness accounts that go back nearly 2,000 years to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The range of scientific disciplines involved in the film includes: geochemistry, geology, geophysics, remote sensing, plate tectonics, seismology, archaeology, and volcanology. The film will be available with both captioning for the hearing impaired and visual description for visually impaired members of the audience. The film will be supported by an extensive educational outreach plan that includes: Pompeii Earth Science Exploration, a program targeting underserved and disadvantaged youth at 100 Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide; Pompeii Museum Toolkit, a blueprint enabling museums to integrate existing exhibitry with use of the film and including models for outreach initiatives built around the film; Pompeii Activity Guide, an activity guide for us with upper elementary and middle school youth in both informal and form science education settings, and; Pompeii Idea Handbook, a booklet for museums that shares successful outreach programs implemented by museums showing the film during the first year. Paula Apsell, Executive Producer of N OVA and Director of the WGBH Science Unit, will be the PI. The Co-Executive Producer will be Susanne Simpson who previously produced such large format films as Storm Chasers and To the Limit. The Key Scientific Advisor will be Richard Fisher of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Others on the advisory committee include Lucia Civetta, Director of Osservatorio Vesuvio; Diane Favro, Assoc. Prof. in the School of Arts and Architecture at UCLA; Grant Heiken, President of the Earth and Environmental Science Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory and President of the International Society of volcanology; Dan Miller, Chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's Disaster Assistance Program; Haraldur Sigurdsson, Professor in the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island; and Barbara Tewksbury, Professor of Geology at Hamilton College and past president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. Emyln Koster, President and CEO of the Liberty Science Center, will act as key education advisor.