In this chapter we present the ways in which institutional cultural differences impact the development and implementation of learning activities in informal settings. Five university-based centers for the study of chemistry worked with informal learning professionals to re-envision educational and public outreach activities about science. The projects were part of a broader effort to catalyze new thinking and innovation in informal education and chemistry centers. The set of projects illustrates the broad possibilities for informal learning settings, with projects targeting diverse audiences
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting. It describes the radio and stage storytelling programs undertaken by the Center for Chemical Evolution, a CCI jointly funded by NSF and NASA.
Making Stuff Season Two is designed to build on the success of the first season of Making Stuff by expanding the series content to include a broader range of STEM topics, creating a larger outreach coalition model and a “community of practice,” and developing new outreach activities and digital resources. Specifically, this project created a national television 4-part miniseries, an educational outreach campaign, expanded digital content, promotion activities, station relations, and project evaluation. These project components help to achieve the following goals: 1. To increase public understanding that basic research leads to technological innovation; 2. To increase and sustain public awareness and excitement about innovation and its impact on society; and 3. To establish a community of practice that enhances the frequency and quality of collaboration among STEM researchers and informal educators. These goals were selected in order to address a wider societal issue, and an important element of the overall mission of NOVA: to inspire new generations of scientists, learners, and innovators. By creating novel and engaging STEM content, reaching out to new partners, and developing new outreach tools, the second season of Making Stuff is designed to reach new target audiences including underserved teens and college students crucial to building a more robust and diversified STEM workforce pipeline. Series Description: In this four-part special, technology columnist and best-selling author David Pogue takes a wild ride through the cutting-edge science that is powering a next wave of technological innovation. Pogue meets the scientists and engineers who are plunging to the bottom of the temperature scale, finding design inspiration in nature, and breaking every speed limit to make tomorrow's "stuff" "Colder," "Faster," "Safer," and "Wilder." Making Stuff Faster Ever since humans stood on two feet we have had the basic urge to go faster. But are there physical limits to how fast we can go? David Pogue wants to find out, and in "Making Stuff Faster," he’ll investigate everything from electric muscle cars and the America’s cup sailboat to bicycles that smash speed records. Along the way, he finds that speed is more than just getting us from point A to B, it's also about getting things done in less time. From boarding a 737 to pushing the speed light travels, Pogue's quest for ultimate speed limits takes him to unexpected places where he’ll come face-to-face with the final frontiers of speed. Making Stuff Wilder What happens when scientists open up nature's toolbox? In "Making Stuff Wilder," David Pogue explores bold new innovations inspired by the Earth's greatest inventor, life itself. From robotic "mules" and "cheetahs" for the military, to fabrics born out of fish slime, host David Pogue travels the globe to find the world’s wildest new inventions and technologies. It is a journey that sees today's microbes turned into tomorrow’s metallurgists, viruses building batteries, and ideas that change not just the stuff we make, but the way we make our stuff. As we develop our own new technologies, what can we learn from billions of years of nature’s research? Making Stuff Colder Cold is the new hot in this brave new world. For centuries we've fought it, shunned it, and huddled against it. Cold has always been the enemy of life, but now it may hold the key to a new generation of science and technology that will improve our lives. In "Making Stuff Colder," David Pogue explores the frontiers of cold science from saving the lives of severe trauma patients to ultracold physics, where bizarre new properties of matter are the norm and the basis of new technologies like levitating trains and quantum computers. Making Stuff Safer The world has always been a dangerous place, so how do we increase our odds of survival? In "Making Stuff Safer," David Pogue explores the cutting-edge research of scientists and engineers who want to keep us out of harm’s way. Some are countering the threat of natural disasters with new firefighting materials and safer buildings. Others are at work on technologies to thwart terrorist attacks. A next-generation vaccine will save millions from deadly disease. And innovations like smarter cars and better sports gear will reduce the risk of everyday activities. We’ll never eliminate danger—but science and technology are making stuff safer.
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WGBH Educational FoundationPaula Apsell
Small Matters is a scientific storytelling project in response to a supplemental funding opportunity designed to pair an NSF Center for Chemical Innovation with an Informal Science Education organization. Meisa Salaita, Director for Education & Outreach for the Center for Chemical Evolution, and Ari Daniel, independent radio and multimedia producer and science journalist, collaborated on this project designed to increase chemical literacy in the general public and promote partnerships between scientists and informal science educators. In the tradition of folklore, educators have used storytelling to stimulate students’ critical thinking skills across and within disciplines, demonstrating an improvement in comprehension and logical thinking, enhancing memory, and creating a motivation and enthusiasm for learning. Within science, storytelling allows learners to experience the how of scientific inquiry, including the intellectual and human struggles of the scientists who are making discoveries. Accordingly, our project uses multimedia and live performance to engage the public in learning about chemistry through storytelling. We have developed a series audio pieces entitled Small Matters aimed at enriching public science literacy, namely within the chemical sciences. The format of these pieces includes standard public radio narrative style, short scientist-narrated nuggets, and imaginative sonic explorations of key chemistry concepts. The stories have been disseminated through a variety of broadcast media connections, including "Living on Earth" and local Atlanta public radio station WABE. In addition to the audio-based science journalism pieces that we have been producing, we have taken the stories we uncovered and brought them to live audiences, integrating chemistry, journalism, and the arts to create a human connection between our scientists and the public. The radio pieces were woven in with performances of poetry, comedy and satire in collaboration with literary performing arts group The Encyclopedia Show to create a live variety show (May 2013). In addition, scientists identified through our production of Small Matters were trained in storytelling techniques and brought together for an evening of live storytelling in Atlanta with The Story Collider (March 2014).
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NSF/NASA Center for Chemical EvolutionMeisa Salaita
This multimedia project tells the human story of the long, continuing quest to identify, understand, and organize the basic building blocks of matter leading to the Periodic Table of Elements. Project deliverables include a two hour PBS documentary; a website on the Periodic Table and discovery of the elements; a Teacher\'s Guide; and an Outreach Plan led by the St. Louis Science Center and nine other science centers. The target audiences are adults with an interest in science, inner-city youth, and high school chemistry teachers and their students. Partners include Moreno/Lyons Productions, the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Chemical Heritage Foundation; the St. Louis Science Center; and Oregon Public Broadcasting. The national broadcast and outreach activities are intended to complement the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) 2011, furthering the opportunity to enhance the public understanding of chemistry. The goal of the project is to reveal science as an intensely human process of discovery through stories of some of the greatest scientists. The two-hour PBS special will tell a "detective story" of chemistry, stretching from the ancient alchemists to today's efforts to find stable new forms of matter. Among key characters will be Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier, Humphry Davy, Dmitrii Mendeleev, Marie Curie, Harry Moseley, and Glenn Seaborg. The program will show both their discoveries and the creative process, using reenactments shot with working replicas of their original lab equipment. Interwoven with history will be segments on modern chemical research and the real-world consequences of the discoveries. A two-part Outreach Plan is aimed at engaging inner-city youths through a network of ten science centers led by the St. Louis Science Center and at reaching a broader audience through events, activities, and publications offered by ACS during National Chemistry Week and IYC 2011. The television program is projected to reach three million viewers during its multiple broadcasts over premiere week, increasing to five million or more with subsequent repeat broadcasts and DVD distribution. It is estimated that 6,500 underrepresented urban teens will participate in the hands-on activities in the ten science centers during IYC 2011. The website is intended to become a resource extending the reach and impact of the project for a decade or more. The summative evaluation will assess the extent to which the project accomplishes the goals of enhancing public understanding of chemistry, affecting public attitudes toward chemistry and chemists, and improving the understanding of the nature of science. Three studies will be conducted. The first will be an in-depth evaluation of the program and Web site with a sample of 150 adult PBS viewers using a two-group post-test randomized study design. The second study will evaluate the outreach effort with diverse audiences at the local level prior to and during National Chemistry Week using on site observations, surveys, and interviews to capture participant feedback at local events. The third study will evaluate high school educators' use of the Teacher's Edition & Guide.
Radio Lab will produce 20 hour-long interdisciplinary science programs and 30 shorter features to be aired on NPR news magazine programs on a wide range of core STEM topics exploring how research is done as well as what the scientific results mean to the listener. The programs are co-hosted by Robert Krulwich, science reporter for NPR, and Jared Abumrad, WNYC radio producer and music composer. The programs are using a new, unorthodox format with music, live sounds and conversations between the hosts designed to appeal to young adult listeners who previously thought they did not like science. Each episode is crafted around a scientific finding and aims to connect the scientific inquiry to philosophical and universal implications. Program topics will include biology and neuroscience as well as physics, genetics, chemistry, math and engineering. The program carriage goal is to have the hour-long programs airing on 100 stations reaching three to four million listeners by the end of the project. The shorter segments will be distributed by NPR in its regular news magazine programs. Programs will also be podcast on NPR and WNYC's web sites, as well as through iTunes. The project will also train NPR science reporters on this new approach to science news content.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ellen HorneJad AbumradRobert KrulwichBarbara Flagg
Kikim Media requests $743,316 to produce four half-hour television documentaries and associated outreach programs based on Michael Pollan's best-selling book, The Botany of Desire. The project explores the reciprocal nature of people's relationship with plants. The programs focus on the connections between apples and the human desire for sweetness; tulips and the desire for beauty; marijuana and the desire for intoxication; and corn and our desire for control over nature. The project will increase public understanding of diverse subjects including genetics, evolution, cognition and biochemistry as well as biodiversity, genetic diversity and the consequences of their loss. The project will have a broad impact through a national primetime PBS broadcast, an outreach program targeting adult audiences, and an educational module delivering appropriate content (excluding intoxication) to middle and high school audiences. Knight-Williams Research Communications will conduct the evaluation for The Botany of Desire television broadcast and outreach efforts.
This planning activity will produce a prototype film on Spanish horses and conduct 10 focus group discussions to determine: audience interest, background knowledge, what viewers would like to see in this documentary, language barriers, cultural barriers, and how the film could be structured to help the public and teachers interact with children. The focus groups will target the follow groups: (1) middle school teachers, (2) elementary school teachers, (3) families with young children, (4) Hispanic families, (5) American Indian families, (6) youth ages 13-19, (7) horse lovers and those involved in horse activities, (8) senior citizens and individuals with disabilities, (9) documentary, museum exhibit and website production professionals, and (10) media and museum marketing professionals. The effort is intended to guide development of a PBS documentary, an interactive website, a companion book, and a museum exhibit on the origins, evolution, migration and impact of Spanish horses. STEM content in mathematics, genetics, paleontology, chemistry, evolution, and animal behavior, integrated with history, will be incorporated into the scripts for this diverse array of media platforms. The project also presents an opportunity to present in a very interesting and real sense the scientific process used for discovery. In addition to producing the prototype film and conducting focus group discussions, this planning grant will help to: clarify the responsibilities of all of the participants, especially the international participants; clarify the contributions from each discipline and scientist; plan in detail ways to achieve the greatest understanding with the anticipated diverse audiences; select the best geographic region, graphics, media, and animation; and establish realistic budgets and elements for production and post-production. Collaborators include: New Mexican Horse Project, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Habitat Media, University of New Mexico and Institute for Social Research, Cambridge University, Texas A &M University, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Selinda Research Associates, and PBS.
The periodic table of chemical elements is an array that is confusing to the uninformed and profoundly simplifying and full of crucial information to the informed. It represents some of the most basic information for the construction of what people see, feel and breathe. Due to the table's complex appearance and the way it is described; many individuals shun its informative base. This proposal is a planning grant application that intends to develop a multi-media presentation, which includes TV, web site, a teachers DVD, and an outreach plan, to bridge this knowledge gap in a user freindly manner. It will make educating minority children one of its priorities. The basic premise for their bridge is that people will better grasp the aspects of the chemical elements if they humanize the elements by discussing them as products of scientists and that scientists are people. The success of this effort is critical. While chemistry affects every aspect of human life, it is one of the least understood sciences. If successful, this project may well pave the way for additional programming.
The Educational Film Center, in collaboration with Dr. Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and John A. Newman, Professor of Physical Science at Cornell University, will produce THE MOLECULAR WORLD, a series of three one-hour specials for Public Television. The specials will outline this "century of synthesis," the historical contribution of chemistry to our everyday lives. They will further highlight the future impact of chemistry on new materials for transportation and communication, and ont he rational design of effective medicines. The programs respond to the need for public awareness about the molecular and chemical make-up of the natural world around us and within us. The public also needs to appreciate better the continuing role of chemistry in producing the new molecules which change our world. THE MOLECULAR WORLD is designed for a national television audience complementing the recently completed college telecourse "The World of Chemistry" and its High School adaptations. The National Science Foundation award constitutes 15% of the total cost of the project.
WGBH is producing four, two-hour programs on the lives of scientists. These programs will be the initial programs in a continuing series of television portraits of distinguished scientists to be broadcast as regular features in the prime-time science series NOVA. The scientists to be covered in the first four programs are Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, and Percy Julian. By illuminating the lives and scientific careers of these important figures, the programs will enhance public understanding of such basic scientific concepts as evolution, the solar system, the chemical bond and the structure of the atom. Ultimately, the programs will give viewers a new perspective on the process of scientific discovery. Ancillary educational support for the programs will include enhanced content on the web site at NOVA Online and classroom support material in the NOVA Teacher's Guide that is mailed to 60,000 teachers nationwide. WGBH also has formed an outreach partnership with the American Library Association to create informal educational resources for use by families, youths, and adults. The core of this special outreach plan is a set of Library Resource Kits that will be available to all 16,000 public libraries. Paula Apsell, Executive Producer for NOVA, will serve as PI for the project. Members of the advisory committee include: Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, MIT; Kenneth R. Manning, Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and of the History of Science, MIT; Noami Oreskes, Associate Professor of History, University of California, San Diego; Daniel I. Rubenstein, Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University; and Neil D. Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium.