Genetics was developed by The Tech staff in collaboration with Stanford University and was funded by the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program. The evaluation documents the impact and effectiveness of the exhibition using timing and tracking observations and exit interviews. It also examines the partnership between The Tech and Stanford University through interviews with graduate students, who conduct programs in the exhibition, and their supervisor (results are not included in this summary).
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Randi KornThe Tech Museum of Innovation
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), in collaboration with the Small Museum Research Collaborative (SMRC), proposes to create four small bilingual exhibitions in English and Spanish for a national tour to small museums. The exhibitions will focus on current clinical research in nutrition and physical activity and its applications to personal and family wellness. We propose to build four, 700-square-foot traveling exhibitions: two identical exhibitions with a focus on nutrition, and two identical exhibitions with a focus on physical activity. OMSI's SMRC partners bring the experiences and resources of five geographically and thematically diverse small museums to this project. As the lead institution, OMSI brings over 19 years of experience in creating and touring national exhibitions and in collaborative projects with other museums. Front-end, formative, remedial, and summative evaluation will be conducted with family audiences at OMSI and SMRC sites. To extend the visitor experience, OMSI and SMRC will produce related educational materials and programs including a Web site, teachers' guides, small museum staff training, distance-learning programs, and interactive presentations. An SMRC distance-learning network will be created for program dissemination. The project will be developed with the support of local research scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University's (OHSU) General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and other experts in nutrition and fitness research, health care, and education. The project's audience is family and K-5 school group visitors to small science and children's museums in rural and small urban communities nationwide. Latino families are also a priority audience for the project. Each of the four traveling exhibitions will tour to three venues a year for a minimum of eight years. We conservatively estimate that over two million people will visit the exhibitions during their national tours. This project presents a powerful opportunity to reach museum visitors in rural and underserved communities, to invite families to pursue healthy nutrition and physical activity together, and to present and interpret clinical research findings for diverse audiences.
Serial Passage: AIDS, Race, and Culture is a multi-part documentary series. The Long-term goals are: 1) to produce a documentary series exploring the specific and devastating impact of H.I.V./AIDS upon Africans and African-Americans; and 2) to create a heightened understanding of the need for H.I.V. prevention among the high-risk group of young, inner-city African-Americans who've so far proved unresponsive to available public health information. Specific Aims: 1) To deconstruct the racial stigma of AIDS, and scientifically confront the conspiracy theories which are firmly linked to the disease in black America, and in Africa; and 2) to work with an inner-city high school science class, actively involving them in the making of the series. Research Design and Methods: 1) To document on film the process of scientific inquiry which led two prominent researchers to their theory on the origin of AIDS; 2) To document on film the social impact of H.I.V/AIDS upon specific African countries, including Uganda and South Africa, and upon African-American communities in the United States; 3) To periodically screen footage of the documentary for the high school class and conduct videotaped discussions between the students and the scientists throughout one academic year; and 4) To give the students a videotaped questionnaire at the beginning and end of the year designed to measure how much they learn about AIDS and its impact upon their particular community.
The Self-Reliance Foundation (SRF) Conociendo Tu Cuerpo (Know Your Body) Hispanic Community Health Sciences Education project is an initiative designed to introduce Hispanic students and families to biomedical science and health education resources, and increase their participation levels in these fields. The educational goals of the project are to: (1) Encourage Hispanic undergraduate students to pursue careers in biomedicine and science through a mentoring program at the university level; (2) Inspire an interest in biomedical science among Hispanic elementary-age students and parents through community outreach activities; (3) Inform Hispanic parents about biomedical science education standards and academic requirements for pursuing biomedical and science related careers; and (4) Inform and inspire Hispanic students and their families about the biomedical sciences and related careers through a series of daily nationally broadcast Spanish-language radio capsules, and a nationally syndicated Spanish newspaper column. Conociendo Tu Cuerpo (Know Your Body) includes several key components: A model, Washington, D.C., area coalition of informal science, health, community, education, and media organizations that will publicize and provide hands-on health science activities at community festivals and other community settings; Hispanic undergraduate student health-science fellows to be trained and provided experience in facilitating health science activities; and nationally broadcast Spanish-language radio capsules that will cover topics in areas of biomedicine, research, education, and health-science careers. Parents and students will be able to access additional information about biomedical science opportunities and Hispanic role models in the biomedical sciences through the project's Conociendo Tu Cuerpo website and the bilingual 800 telephone help line promoted by 147 participating radio stations and 102 newspapers nationwide. The project will be supported at the national level through collaboration with the Hispanic Radio Network and the Pacific Science Center. The Washington, D.C., collaborative will include the Capital Children's Museum, local Spanish language radio stations, area universities, and health and community organizations. Development Associates, the largest American education and evaluation consulting corporation, will evaluate the project.