The Milwaukee Public Museum will develop Adventures in Science: An Interactive Exhibit Gallery. This will be a 7250 sq. ft. interactive exhibit with associated public programs and materials that link the exhibit with formal education. The goal of Adventures in Science is to promote understanding of biological diversity, the forces that have change it over time, and how scientists study and affect change. The exhibit will consist of three areas. "Our Ever-Changing World" will feature "dual scene" habitat dioramas that will convey at-a-glance how environments change over time. "The Natural History Museum" will be a reconstruction of a museum laboratory and collections area to protray behind-the-scenes scientific and curatorial activities that further the study of biological diversity, ecology and systematics. An "Exploration Center: will bridge these two areas and will be designed to accommodate live presentations, group activities and additional multimedia stations for Internet and intranet access. Using interactive devices, visitors will be encouraged to make hypothesis, examine evidence, compare specimens, construction histories of biological and geological changes, and develop conclusions about the science behind biodiversity and extinction issues. Visitors should also come away with an increased understanding of the role of systematic collections in understanding biological diversity. Information on MPM research programs will be highlighted in "The Natural History Museum" section and will be updated frequently. Annual Teacher Training Institutes for pre-service and in-service teachers will present strategies for using the gallery's multimedia stations, lab areas, and Web site links. Special attention will be given to reaching new audiences including those in the inner city and people with disabilities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Allen YoungJames KellyPeter SheehanSusan-Sullivan BorkinRolf JohnsonMary Korenic
A NSF EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) was awarded to Principal Investigator John Fraser, PhD, AIA, in collaboration with co-Principal Investigators, Mary Miss and William Solecki, PhD, for City as Living Laboratory for Sustainability in Urban Design (CaLL). The CaLL project explored how public art installations can promote public discussion about sustainability. The project examined the emerging role of artists and visual thinkers as people with the skills to encourage conversation between scientists and the public. The grant supported an experimental installation
Liberty Science Center (LSC) received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to develop, install and evaluate a 12,800-square foot, two-story permanent exhibition about skyscrapers. Skyscraper! is meant to showcase the architectural design and engineering, physics, and urban-related environmental science of skyscrapers. The Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), a Maryland-based research and evaluation organization that focuses on lifelong learning in informal or free-choice settings, was contracted to conduct the summative exhibition evaluation. The purpose of the summative evaluation
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kerry BronnenkantLiberty Science CenterClaudia Figueiredo
This two-year project is communicating the results of scientific discoveries produced by an on-going LTER (Long-term Ecological Research) project devoted to understanding the Everglades ecosystem. Specifically, Dr. Heithaus is capitalizing on the discoveries funded through 0620409 (Coastal Oligotrophic Ecosystems Research) about the role of large-bodied, top predators in the Everglades, including bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) and American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). The STEM content of this project is biology, in particular ecology, the environment, and conservation. These results are being communicated via: (1) multimedia exhibit presentations at multiple museums and nature centers in southern Florida, primarily the Museum of Discovery and Science (MODS), located in Ft. Lauderdale near the Everglades and (2) online dissemination of mini-documentaries and other educational components at social media websites and the LTER web site. The target audience for the museum exhibit components includes learners from diverse cultural backgrounds, such as urban family groups reflecting the demographics of southern Florida. This project will also develop a documentary about Everglades ecology that is planned for dissemination on a cable TV channel devoted to natural history. In order to link with formal education, related educational deliverables are being produced for use in science classroom settings (grades 4 through 12) that are aligned with the state science standards and benchmarks. Formative assessment conducted by museum staff and university students will evaluate learning outcomes as they relate to STEM content learning goals. After the two-year funding period, the science learning opportunities produced from the current Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) project will be sustained as the exhibit travels to other venues and as web deliverables are accessed on-line.
9355629 Chiss This is a project of the Chicago Children's Museum to develop, evaluate and install a 2,200 square foot permanent exhibit called "Inventing: The Process of Discovery." This exhibit engages young visitors (primarily from 6-10 yrs.) in inventive creativity, testing, and development, and teaches them a meaningful sequence of activities for problem-solving. Museum educators and adolescent interns act as multi-cultural role models in exhibit areas and facilitate hands-on learning. Every year the exhibit will serve over 500,000 children, parents and teachers in Chicago's inner city and metropolitan neighborhoods. A large percentage of this audience is under-served minority children drawn from CCM's alliances with diverse ethnic community agencies. This exhibit provides a safe haven where young multi-cultural, often disadvantaged children may find support for science learning and be encouraged to grow and participate in the many science fairs, science clubs, and invention conventions available to adolescents in the Chicago area. ***
"Under the Rock: An Experiment in Neighborhood Exhibit-Making" is a project that will engage children in the development of exhibits as well as present information about backyard ecology. The Children's Museum staff will work with Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses (a group of inner city neighborhood centers in Boston) to develop a model activity that uses the theory and practice of exhibit making as a tool to engage children in science learning in their neighborhoods. They will work with children and their parents in the exploration of insect life in their urban settings and presentation of their findings in exhibits the children will make. Exhibit making includes the entire process of: studying live insects, doing research, writing text, designing and building interactive activities for an exhibit about insects, and marketing the exhibit. Exhibit making has been chosen as the pedagogical technique because it parallels creative work done in the real world; it involves people working together in teams, and utilizes different skills and intelligences of the participants. In addition to the exhibits, other results of this project will include: an educator's guidebook documenting the process of exhibit-making in community centers; a proposal for an activity book for kids with writing samples and illustrations that will be submitted to a publisher; video and electronic resources; and contributions and recommendations for the Museum's "Under the Rock" exhibit, a new exhibit to be developed subsequent to the completion of the first two phases of this project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Signe HansonTimothy PorterDorothy Merrill
The Children's Museum of Houston seeks to develop a 1,500 sq ft bilingual traveling exhibition based on their bilingual "Magnificent Math Moments" activities. This project simultaneously addresses two very important needs: the relative lack of mathematics exhibits for young children and for Spanish-speaking audiences. The exhibition is based on Patron (Pattern) Point where the visitor meets math superheroes, Subtracta, Capt. Mas in the settings of Subtracta's Puzzle Parlor; Capt. Mas's Marina; and Formas (Shapes) Family Shipping Yard. It will provide an inviting setting for introducing the target audiences to mathematics through the use of characters, environments and puzzles. BROADER IMPACT: Fabrication of a second version of the traveling exhibition will extend the number of institutions reached through two national tours. These exhibitions, which target children ages 5-10 and adults, are projected to reach some 1.4 million visitors in 24 museums over five years; sites will be selected to reach Hispanic audiences in smaller, low-income urban and rural areas. For further impact CMH is forming another network of museums that will benefit from this project, even though the institutions will not be able to host the traveling exhibition. CMH also is developing ancillary materials and services to accompany the exhibition that include activity kits and cart, character costumes, training guides, parent materials and other resources.
The Field Museum will develop a 10,000 sq. ft. exhibit "Life Underground: Foundations of the Biosphere." This exhibit will introduce visitors to underground ecosystems and the importance of soil upon which we all depend. Visitors will be invited to explore the diversity of underground organisms and the vital processes in which they participate. It will consists of three main parts: 1) Underground Expedition, where things will be enlarged 100 times life-size; 2) Changes Over Time, which will highlight the dynamic nature of soil communities and forces of change, and 3) a World Tour, which will compare soil communities from a variety of ecosystems including forests, grasslands, deserts, tundra, among others. The exhibit utilizes ideas and research from all four of the museum's academic disciplines -- botany, zoology, geology and anthropology and will incorporate hundreds of specimens from the museum's botany, mycology, and zoology collections to illustrate the diversity of organisms in and around the soil. Complementary educational programming will be developed and the project is especially targeting rural and inner city residents. School and community programs will extend the exhibit into classrooms, vacant lots, and community centers. The materials developed for use in a formal education setting will be integrated with current objectives of the existing curricula. In addition, on-line access to the content of the exhibit and complementary educational materials will be provided. The scheduled opening date for the exhibit is May, 1998 and during the ten year projected life span of the exhibit and complementary programming, it is expected that more than eight million people will be introduced to "Life Underground."
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TEAM MEMBERS:
M. Frances Muraski-StotzGregory MuellerDebra Moskovits
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM)--in collaboration with scientists at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and Academic Health Center; the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Antibiotic Resistance Collaborative--requests a Phase 1/11five-year SEPA grant of $1,250,000 to develop a traveling museum exhibition and web site that highlight the fascinating science behind the outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that are changing and shaping our way of life in the 21st century. Topics to be covered will include the emergence of new illnesses like SARS and Avian Influenza and the re-emergence of drug-resistant infections that were once curable but now can be fatal. An Infectious Disease Advisory Panel and Content Experts representing the collaborating institutions listed above and others will guide museum staff in the development of these exhibits and programs. EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES will be a 1,500 square-foot special exhibition to be installed in SMM's Human Body Gallery in spring 2007. After an 18-month presentation, it will begin a tour to five medium size science centers over two years. In addition to the exhibition and its complementary web site, special programming will be targeted to reach specific audiences, including: K-12 school groups visiting the museum (a user guide with on-line pre- and post-visit activities aligned with state and National Science Education Standards); K-12 classroom teachers (Curriculum Enhancement Institutes); and outreach programs serving after-school programs for children in under-served inner-city neighborhoods. A focus on areas of ongoing research will be used to highlight how far we have come in understanding the complex world of infectious diseases and how far we must go in treatment or elimination of present day health threats.
Today, there exists a greater need to connect people to nature. Stemming from exploratory work into useful nature exhibit practices, the Wildlife Conservation Society aims to develop a new family exhibit–Safari Adventure–along with related programs and institutional practices, to better connect the families in our urban community to nature. This Logic Model outlines the impacts, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts for future development of this project, based on our exploratory investigation that included benchmarking trips, advisor and local educator workshops, community focus groups
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Wildlife Conservation SocietyLee Patrick