"How Things Fly" is a major new exhibit gallery being produced by the National Air and Space Museum and is scheduled to open in 1995. The goal of this permanent exhibition is to convey, to the broadest possible audience, the essential principles by which aircraft and spacecraft fly. "How Things Fly" represents an important departure from other exhibitions at the Museum in both content and execution. Instead of relying on static displays of historical artifacts, "How Things Fly" will use interactive devices and live demonstrations designedto spark curiosity, invite visitor participation, and provide children and adults with the opportunity to discover for themselves answers to some of their fundamental questions about flight. "How Things Fly" will be the first major exhibiton at the Museum devoted entirely to hands-on learning. It will incorporate some of the best interactive exhibitry ideas from othermuseums, improve upon them where possible, and include a substantial number of original exhibits. While intended to help visitors more fully appreciate the Museum's collection, the cooperative efforts, such as publications, a traveling exhibition, and educational outreach programs, will extend the exhibition's impact across the nation.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara BrennanSteven SoterChristopher StetserDavid RomanowskiJoann Hinkel
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is requesting $370,728 to create a traveling exhibit entitled "How Things Work, which will familiarize students and the general public with the science and engineering behind 15-20 "gadgets" which play vital roles in their everyday lives. A number of the exhibit elements will be based on the work of Dr. Richard Crane. Ancillary materials will be developed for classroom teachers as part of school outreach. An Exhibition Resource Guide will be developed for use by other museum venues, as well as teachers, students and others.
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 Pratt Museum, a natural history museum in Southcentral Alaska, proposes to bring before the public an exhibition on oil pollution. Using the historic disaster of the March 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the museum presents a dramatic, grassroots story of the desperate struggle to protect the environment and preserve traditional lifestyles. The exhibit's purpose is to increase public awareness of national and global issues pertaining to the development, transportation, and use of petroleum. The 1,500 square foot presentation shows what an oil spill is like through photographs, maps, graphics, and three- dimensional participatory elements. The exhibit is scheduled to open at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in early 1991, beginning a three-year tour of 12 museums that will reach between 1.5 and 2 million viewers. The NSF contribution will support the circulation of the exhibit and the development of interactive components to enhance both the permanent and traveling presentations. Computerized graphic displays and an educational chest of learning tools will enhance the basic exhibit through multi- sensory activities designed for hands-on gallery use, increasing accessibility for children and disabled visitors. This cooperative project invloves private foundations, individuals, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Future Scientists and Engineers of America (FSEA) is a structured after-school program to promote math and science through engineering applications among American youth, grades 4 through 12. FSEA has hands-on projects at increasing levels of complexity which provide student members with practical engineering applications of science and mathematics. Students advance through categories similar to the Scouts based on Satisfactory completion of projects. They enter as a technician and advance to levels of scientist and engineer. Chapters are sponsored by businesses, professional societies and community organizations which provided mentors and funding for FSEA projects. Each Project is conducted by a team consisting of a volunteer teacher and a volunteer mentor. A mentor must have a technical background in a scientific or engineering field. Mentors can be volunteers recruited from industry, retired scientists and engineers or engineering students. In less than a year, mentors and teachers have attended start- up workshops and 24 chapters have been successfully organized. Increasing demand for chapter development, with continuing emphasis on minority and female youth, has created the need for further development of projects kits, parent involvement and continuity among feeder schools. The proposal intends to develop the procedures, structure and organization that would enable FSEA to develop an additional 35 chapters in Southern California and become a national after-school program and expand to other states.
The Educational Film Center (EFC) is developing a science, engineering, and technology careers exhibit for distribution to science museums and technology centers. The core of the exhibit kiosk, with related career graphics surrounds, is SET/QUEST, an interactive multimedia program for both Macintosh and PC/Windows using CD-Rom as the full motion video source. Teens and preteens will enter an interactive exploration of thirty careers with first person video profiles of people in science and engineering; animated/reality video simulations of a work experience in these fields, decision screens, and a database of over 200 more science and math-based professions. The documentary profiles, database, and a personal interest career match component will also be developed in alternative media formats (video, audio, print) for broad distribution to community and youth education networks, schools, and libraries. Specific emphasis in this project is being placed on reaching and attracting female, minority, and disabled youth. A parent outreach component has been developed and will be implemented by the Directorate of Education & Human Resources Programs of AAAS. The concept of the parent effort is to work directly with and through the national offices of four major national organizations with different institutional community roots -- Science Museums, Public Libraries, Schools, and Community Based Organizations -- to involve parents and families with SET Project materials and to provide them with information with which they can foster their children's pursuit of science and math education and careers in these fields. Initial efforts will be conducted in 18 cities. The project is a collaborative endeavor among three organizations: The Educationa l Film Center which will be responsible for management and development/production of the software and documentary video profiles; The New York Hall of Science which will be responsible for the exhibit kiosk and graphics, will design and develop the student workbook and user installation print, will serve as the principal test site for the exhibit, and will advise on software, interactive multimedia design, and installation options; and COMAP which will be responsible for direct involvement of the Advisory Board, for selecting and hiring content consultants, for assuring the accuracy of the science and math content, for formative and summative evaluation, and for developing and preparing community leader and school users guides for publication. Stephen Rabin, President of EFC, will serve as PI for the project.
The goal of the project is to produce a one hour television documentary and a series of video teaching modules which explore a wide range of scientific disciplines in an exciting manner by presenting the story of how these disciplines are used in the preparation and racing of an Indianapolis race car. This program will be distributed to a wide audience through its broadcast by PBS and cable sports networks; through dissemination to classrooms and museums nationwide; and through distribution via agencies that focus on bringing educational programs to youth and minorities across the country. We expect to attract a new audience to science, the millions of Americans who are infatuated by automobiles. This is an audience that cuts across age, ethnic and racial distinctions in America today. This exciting story of applied science should also appeal to American youth in a way that more traditional science stories do not. The major scientific disciplines involved in the project are: basic engineering, mathematics and physics, aerodynamics, materials science, mechanics, telemetry and computer aided design. This project is submitted to the Informal Science Education Program. The specific content of this project will be aimed at an audience with little background in science. High-school students and adults should be able to understand all the principles presented. Younger audiences will gain insight into how a knowledge of science is fundamental to a sport that many of them find fascinating.
ONE, TWO, THREE...INFINITY: The World of Mathematics is a series of eight one-hour films about math in the real world. It will be produced by WQED/Pittsburgh for prime-time broadcast on the 340 PBS stations and in many foreign countries. The goal of the series is not to "teach" math but to show, in an entertaining fashion, the importance of math in many walks of life--music, art, engineering and communications, to name a few. Math affects our lives everyday in ways many of us have never imagined. Yet few of us ever stop to think about it, perhaps because of "Math anxiety." This series will be the first to reveal math's importance not only as a tool for discovery, but also as a major cultural force. Drawing on WQED's proven skill in creating special visual effects, and making liberal use of magic and mystery, puzzles, and paradoxes, the series will break down the public's fears and misconceptions about math. We hope viewers--children as well as adults--will come away with a new appreciation of mathematics and, most important, a more open attitude toward learning about it--the first step toward a higher level of math literacy. WQED's Producers and cinematographers bring many years of experience on such award- -winning programs as PLANET EARTH, THE INFINITE VOYAGE and the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIALS. A diverse and distinguished advisory committee will help shape the series and ensure its accuracy. And a companion book, together with a program of educational materials and activities, will extend its reach beyond the television audience, making the series a potent catalyst for learning.
"Roman City," fourth in a series of PBS specials based on the acclaimed books of David Macaulay, is an hour-long film that traces the planning, engineering, building and habitation of an ancient Roman city at the height of empire. The program continues the unique Macaulay presentation format of a cinemaquality animated dramatic story juxtaposed with live- action documentary segments, hosted by Mr. Macaulay and filmed at actual sites portrayed in the story. Each film roots its dominant structures and technology firmly within the thought and culture of its historical period. The dual presentation style has enabled the previous Macaulay specials to capture a wide range of viewers from young children all the way up to older adults. "Roman City," as well as the previous award-winning Macaulay specials--"Castle," "Cathedral" and "Pyramid"--is specifically aimed at enhancing the scientific, technical and humanistic understanding of both young people and adults outside of the formal educational environment. All indication from the previous programs suggests that this goal has been widely achieved. There is a natural curiosity about other cultures, about things technical and how they interrelate with human needs and aspirations, and we believe our unique format satisfies that curiosity in an entertaining, informative and educational manner. The ancient Romans achieved breakthroughs in planning and the delivery of those elements deemed necessary for the functioning of an increasingly world. Aqueducts, sewers, roads, bridges, amphitheaters and public buildings, even public lavatories, all speak to the technical mastery of the ancient Romans. And if their social aims were not always as "advanced" as their scientific and technological sophistication, then that, too, provides a modern object lesson on the critical and mutually dependent interrelationship of science and civilization.
This proposal requests matching support to create a dynamic science, engineering, and technology careers museum exhibit--SET Careers, for distribution to science museums and technology centers. The exhibit kiosks with related career graphics surrounds, incorporate multimedia platforms, using MacIntosh authoring software to dreate information landscapes' computer motion programs like Quicktime, and Cd-1 or DVI videodisc technology. Yound museum visitors (teens and Preteens) will be invited to enter into an exciting interactive exploration of thirty self-narrated video profiles of people in science and engineering, try our animated/reality video simulations of a work experience in these fields, and obtain additional information from a database of over 200 more science and math-based professions. The videodisc profiles, database, and a personal interests component will also be developed in alternative media formats (video, audio, print, computer disc) for broad distribution to community and youth education networks, schools, and libraries. Specific emphasis in this project is being placed on reaching and attracting female, minority, and disabled youths.
WGBH will develop, produce, and distribute a comprehensive project that will review science of the twentieth century. The major components of the project will be a series of five, two-hour, prime time documentary programs for PBS, an outreach campaign to involve the public through informal and formal science education institutions and organizations, material for use in formal classrooms, and a science museum component. The focus of the series will be to review the science of the twentieth century by telling the dramatic story of the struggle to understand ourselves and our world over the past 100 years -- a time when science advanced further than in previous eras combined and when scientific discipline underwent a revolution. However, because at the close of the century there is an ever-widening gap between what scientists know and what most of the public comprehends, the series will explore the century's most enduring scientific endeavors with each two-hour program probing several related fields of investigation and application: views of the universe and of matter; origins of the Earth and of life; health, medicine, and the human body; human nature and behavior; and technology and engineering. It will offer viewers an opportunity to view 100 years of scientific pursuits as a whole, to recast their perceptions of science and scientists, and to be intrigued and inspired by a view of science as a never-ending and deeply human quest for answers and solutions. The outreach component of the project include: Video-based Components - videocassettes of the series, video modules selected for classroom use, level one videodiscs, and a prototype for a CD-ROM for home learning. A Discovery Challenge Activity - a national campaign targeted primarily for girls and boys 11-14 years of age. The two-phase activities will be offered through middle school science and social studies classes; through youth groups such as Girls Inc., Family Science Programs, 4-H, and Girls and Boys Clubs; at museums and science centers; and through other informal education outlets. Activities will be designed so they can be undertaken by youth with a wide range of interests, learning styles, and skills. Print Components - teacher's guide, video module activity guide, videodisc guide, poster, and a companion trade book. On-line Component - an electronic bulletin board and e-mail center related to the project. Public access sites will be established in libraries, community centers, and schools throughout the country and members of the public with home computers will be able to connect to WGBH at no cost. Service and activities offered on-line will include the ability of viewers to critique programs, ask questions of the production team, download educational materials, and ordering project material. The bulletin board will provide an electronic forum for educators to exchange strategies and ideas as they use the project's resources and enable participants in the Discovery Challenge to tap into the on-line resources and share information. The on-line component will be managed and controlled at WGBH. Museum Component - consisting of a museum tool kit and activities to be incorporated Science-by-Mail. Paula Apsell, executive producer for NOVA and director of the WGBH Science Unit, will serve as executive-in-charge of production. Jon Palfreman will be executive producer and will head up a project team consisting of the executive editor, Thomas Friedman, a senior producer, and two producers. Outreach activities will be the responsibility of Beth Kirsch, Director of Educational Print and Outreach, and Simone Bloom, Outreach Manager.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Paula ApsellThomas FriedmanJon Palfreman
This is a request from Claypoint Productions for 124,700 of a total budget of $526,178 to produce a one-hour prime-time documentary program on the Wright Brothers, the processes of science and engineering used in their work, and the science and technology behind their development of the airplane. The PBS program will cover the subjects of aerodynamics, aeronautics, geometry, algebra, applied mathematics, mechanical engineering, the process of invention, and the history of technology. A teacher's guide will be developed to supplement the film.