National Public Radio is seeking to expand its coverage of scientific issues in two ways: through the creation of a new Environmental Reporting Unit, and through the introduction of SCIENCE FRIDAY, a two hour call-in talk show dedicated to scientific issues. Each of these projects will be supported by an extensive outreach effort targeted at local schools, community groups, science museums, and nature centers. Through the Environmental Reporting Unit, NPR plans to produce eight to ten half hour documentary reports per year on critical environmental issues. Each of these reports will be available to listeners on cassette and will be accompanied by supporting documentation. The SCIENCE FRIDAY team will engage NPR's audience in a lively debate on questions ranging from nuclear physics to archaeology. In addition, SCIENCE FRIDAY will travel to high schools and museums across the country and engage in question and answer sessions with students, teachers, parents and school administrators. These "on the road" segments will be supplemented by live broadcasts from annual meetings of the National Association for Science (NAS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Through these efforts, NPR will be able to draw listener attention to the need for improved science and mathematics education, while helping listeners make informed evaluations of current public policy in these areas.
The Science Museum of Connecticut (SMC) proposes a three- year exhibit project called The State of the Environment. This cost-effective project will serve over 500,000 citizens a year by producing two permanent exhibits - 2400 sf for SMC and 400 sf for SMD's Roaring Brook Nature Center -- and eight traveling exhibits for use primarily in connecticut's Priority schools. These innovative exhibits use highly accurate sculptural relief maps which are animated by laser graphics and responsive to visitor inquiries through a research-calibre database containing vast information on Connecticut's environment. Thorough evaluation will help SMC design visitor experiences that make map-database interaction attractive, easy to use and understand, and educationally satisfying. State accredited teacher workshops will give educators a firm grasp of database capabilities prior to its use in the traveling exhibits for schools. Traveling exhibits will support goals in Connecticut's NSF-funded Statewide Initiative. Teacher's Guides will facilitate in-dept investigations for high school science lessons. These exhibits will provide hands- on experiences with professional tools for environmental research, show how environmental maps are made, teach basic principles of environmental science, and provide-in-depth information about the ecology of an entire state.
Science-By-Mail is a mentorship program between scientists and youth whereby youth have a subscription for three scientific challenge packets each year, create solutions, and receive responses from a personal scientist. Science-By-Mail brings the excitement of science discovery into classrooms and homes of children around the country and provides them with positive, approachable role models of professional scientists. A grant of $622,088 over three years will allow us to strengthen and expand this program nationally, focusing especially on increasing participation by minority youth and scientists. Specifically, support is requested for the design and development of 12 new challenge packets; to increase participation to 47,900 youth, 4,500 scientists, and 26 regional chapters; promote increased corporate and other private-sector involvement in the program; and to conduct an annual evaluation. The AAAS will aid in the recruitment of volunteer scientists. In addition, we will work together with the National 4-H Council to pilot the program within that organization (with a membership of 5.4 million), focusing particularly on minority youth. Anticipated income form the expansion of Science-By-Mail will make the program self-sufficient at the end of the grant period.//
The Science Center of Connecticut will develop, evaluate, and install 57 mathematical exhibit activities in its new 160,000 sq. ft. exhibit facility. These activities will engage visitors in learning how math is an integral part of daily life and a necessary skill in many careers. Eight math topics will be treated: probability and statistics; relative scale; geometry; symmetry; math puzzles; chaos and fractals; numbers, measurements, and calculations; and estimations. The hands-on activities will range from involvement with low-tech to high- tech, computerized activities. The target audience is people nine and up and it will be available to the museums 500,000 annual visitors. The mathematics activities will be distributed throughout the museum and math will serve as a integrating theme for all the museum's exhibits. The topics are aligned with Connecticut s SSI program which focuses on applied mathematics in context of the science disciplines. Within the state, plans are taking shape to link with Connecticut Public Television to broadcast electronic field trips to the museum through Knowledge Network. Nationally, museum staff members will make presentations at both museum and mathematics education meetings to other museum professionals. The concept of thematic integration throughout the museum will be disseminated through the state and the nation.
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.
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.
The American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) will produce and test a pilot series of twelve 90-second features on science. Aimed at the 12- to 18-year old market, the features are designed to be broadcast daily on commercial stations with formats aimed at this age level. Each feature will take one of three forms: News Features based on current research, answers to Audience Questions about science, or Skits and Songs that convey basic science concepts. The AAAS also will begin securing carriage for the pilot programs and a potential longer series of programs. The PI will be Robert Hirshon who is currently the Project Director and Executive Producer for Kinetic City Super Crew. Justin Warner, who has been producer/writer for the AAAS radio features Science Update and Why Is It?, will be the Producer/Head Writer. The content director will be David Lindley, formerly Senior Editor for Science.
The Exploratorium is developing the pilot for a Saturday morning science-oriented, live-action, film and animation, national network television series for teens aged 13 to 17. The half-hour show will present everyday science and the process of problem solving in a fast-paced, hip, and challenge-oriented format. Two teams, each of three teenagers, will compete in a series of challenges which require the application of common sense knowledge, observation, experimentation, and problem-solving strategies useful in science. The object is to demonstrate that real-world problem solving makes use of many skills and may have more than one solution. The Exploratorium will administer the project and will be responsible for the science content. Production will be done by Colossal Pictures, a San Francisco production studio experienced in animation and youth-oriented programming.
This project launches the creation of a new class of playground apparatus based on an emerging understanding of how students learn mathematics and science concepts. The equipment will be highly interactive and instrumented, providing opportunities for thoughtful, planned actions that children can evaluate with the aid of instrumentation. The design principles used are applicable to many mathematics and science topics, but this initial demonstration is restricted to creating units which embody some important concepts from classical mechanics. We will create, test, evaluate, and begin the dissemination of units incorporating timing, motion, and force sensor electronics designed to give children real- time, symbolic feedback to reflect their experiences. The first nine months will be devoted to the apparatus design, building, testing, safety evaluation, and formative research. We will install apparatus in three highly varied sites to evaluate the design. In a second phase, improved units will be built for one site and detailed research on student learning undertaken. If we observe the hypothesized learning, the approach we use in mechanics will have broad generalizability. This work could lead to interesting and highly educational apparatus addressing other science fields and useful in a broad range of informal learning environments.
In every drop of water, down at the scale of atoms and molecules, there is a world that can fascinate anyone - ranging from a non-verbal young science student to an ardent science-phobe. The objective of Learning Science Through Guided Discovery: Liquid Water & Molecular Networks is to use advanced technology to provide a window into this submicroscopic world, and thereby allow students to discover by themselves a new world. We are developing a coordinated two-fold approach in which a cycle of hands-on activities, games, and experimentation is followed by a cycle of computer simulations employing the full power of computer animation to "ZOOM" into the depths of his or her newly- discovered world, an interactive experience surpassing that of an OMNIMAX theater. Pairing laboratory experiments with corresponding simulations challenges students to understand multiple representations of concepts. Answers to student questions, resolution of student misconceptions, and eventual personalized student discoveries are all guided by a clear set of "cues" which we build into the computer display. Moreover, the ability to visualize "real-time" dynamic motions allows for student-controlled animated graphic simulations on the molecular scale and interactive guided lessons superior to those afforded by even the most artful of existing texts. While our general approach could be applied to a variety of topics, we have chosen to focus first on water; later we will test the generality of the approach by exploring macromolecules such as proteins and DNA. The simulation sofware we have been developing embodies a simple molecular interaction model but requires leading edge computing in order to (1) apply the model to large enough systems to yield simple and realistic behavior, and (2) animate the result in real time with advanced graphics. Our ultimate goal in this project is not only to help students learn science, but also to help them learn to think like research scientists. By looking at scientific knowledge as a set of useful models - models that are essentially temporary and will inevitably lead to better ones - they can see that science is not a set of facts, but a method for discovering patterns and predictability in an otherwise disordered and unpredictable world. Through mastery of the simulation software, students will gain the self-confidence to embark on their own missions of discovery.
The AAAS is developing and testing a pilot phase of an on-line website science club for youth. Kinetic City Cyberclub will engage youth in episodic adventures to promote both group and independent exploration. Users will receive carefully crafted, paced challenges as they wind their way through a mystery or other related activity. The adventures will be presented over time in a series of episodes that require users to use science toward solving an on-going mystery or problem. Components of the on-line club will include: Story Pods which set up the problem and inform users of what has been learned to date; Clue Pods which include information and activities that users can add to their individual electronic notebooks; Experiment Pods where users will be able to try out different theories to solve immediate problems; Discussion Pods where questions will be posed to which users are encourage to respond; and a Voting Pods where users get to vote on the next direction the science exploration should take or on possible solutions to problems. Components of the web page will be updated on a regular basis with most of the content being changed weekly and, in some instances, daily. The PI will be Robert Hirshon of the AAAS who has been the key developer of The Kinetic City Super Crew, the radio series on which the Kinetic City Cyberclub is based. The Senior Producer responsible for developing and maintaining the website will be Kimberly Amaral. Ms. Amaral previously been a writer/web developer for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Coastal Research Center and Sea Grant and she has worked as a researcher/writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy. Dissemination and outreach will be a joint effort of the AAAS and the National Science Teachers Association. Evaluation will be conducted by Arthur C. Johnson, an independent evaluator and instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. will produce four half-hour television specials which focus on kids testing and evaluating popular products. This "real world" approach can motivate children to learn science and mathematics concepts and to develop problem-solving skills in the process of tackling everyday consumer problems. The approach is particularly effective with youth who are not print-oriented, who watch a lot of television, and who may find "formal" science and mathematics inaccessible. Outreach materials for viewers and for use in formal classes will extent the impact of the project. The PI and Project Director will be Joyce Newman, Director of Consumer Reports TV. Susan Markowitz, who produced the successful pilot program will be Producer and Edward Groth, a biologist who serves as Consumers Union Associate Technical Director for Public Service Projects, will be the Senior Science Advisor. Susan Isenberg will be a major science education advisor. Ms. Isenberg is an IBM Education Fellow and consultant to a number of New York and New Jersey school districts. She has a B.S. in Science Education, an M.S. in Education, and has been a teacher for 25 years. This core group will work closely with in-house scientists and education experts as well as with an advisory committee established for the project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joyce NewmanEdward GrothSusan Markowitz