The Center for Integrated Quantum Materials pursues research and education in quantum science and technology. With our research and industry partners, the Museum of Science, Boston collaborates to produce public engagement resources, museum programs, special events and media. We also provide professional development in professional science communication for the Center's students, post-docs, and interns; and coaching in public engagement. The Museum also sponsors The Quantum Matters(TM) Science Communication Competition (www.mos.org/quantum-matters-competition) and NanoDays with a Quantum Leap. In association with CIQM and IBM Q, the Museum hosted the first U.S. museum exhibit on quantum computing.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert WesterveltCarol Lynn AlpertRay AshooriTina Brower-Thomas
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance (CCEPA) is a consortium made up of the six Phase II Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP-II) program awardees funded in FY 2012. Collectively, the CCEPA is establishing a coordinated network devoted to increasing the adoption of effective, high quality educational programs and resources related to the science of climate change and its potential impacts. The establishment of a CCEPA Coordination Office addresses the need for a coordinating body that leverages and builds upon the CCEPA projects' individual initiatives. The CCEPA Coordination Office facilitates interactions to leverage a successful network of CCEP-II projects and individuals engaged in increasing climate science literacy. The efforts of the Coordination Office advance knowledge and understanding of how to effectively network related, but different, projects into a cohesive enterprise. The goal is to coordinate a functional network, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The CCEPA Coordination Office at the University of Rhode Island is helping to move the CCEPA network forward on a number of key initiatives that strengthen it, reduce duplication, and enhance its overall impact. An important role of the Coordination Office is the facilitation of the transfer of best practices between projects. An effective network forges collaborations and establishes communities of practice through network working groups, building intellectual capital network-wide. The CCEPA Coordination Office has a key role in assisting the CCEPA project PIs and staff to disseminate the results of their work. Partnerships with other relevant societies and organizations assist the Coordination Office in identifying opportunities and synergies for sharing, disseminating, and leveraging network products as well as best practices that emerge as Earth system science education models and tools are evaluated. This endeavor broadens the collective impact of the individual projects across the country.
Our goal is to attempt the identification of Sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) that may be returning to San Diego from year-to-year, using the pattern recognition algorithm provided in ‘Wildbook,’ a web-based application for wildlife data management, designed by Jason Holmberg. 'Wildbook' which has been successfully used to ID Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus ) by their spotting patterns.
Sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus), are currently listed as Data deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List: "This assessment is based on the information published in the 2005 shark status survey (Fowler et al. 2005).
The Cyberlearning Resource Center (CRC) has responsibility for promoting integrative collaboration among cyberlearning grantees (across NSF programs); synthesis and national dissemination of cyberlearning findings, technologies, models, materials, and best practices; creating a national presence for Cyberlearning; helping the disparate Cyberlearning research and development communities coordinate efforts to build capacity; and providing infrastructure (technological and social) for supporting these efforts. Monitored through the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education program, the CRC serves as a resource for all NSF grantees and programs with cyberlearning components, helping to promote synergy and integrate projects across NSF's cyberlearning investments. Among society's central challenges are amplifying, expanding, and transforming opportunities people have for learning and more effectively drawing in, motivating, and engaging young learners. Engaging actively as a citizen and productively in the workforce requires understanding a broad variety of concepts and possessing the ability to collaborate, learn, solve problems, and make decisions. Whether learning is facilitated in school or out of school, and whether learners are youngsters or adults, to develop such knowledge and capabilities, learners must be motivated to learn, actively engage over the long term in learning activities, and put forth sustained cognitive and social effort. Consistent with NSF's mission and strategic plan, a variety of programs at NSF invest in research aimed towards achieving these goals. In support of this important thematic thrust, the Cyberlearning Resource Center works with researchers and NSF program officers to identify and disseminate findings from across programs and projects; develop ways to broker productive partnerships and collaborations; convene meetings for purposes of envisioning the future, integrating findings, and building capacity,; and monitor the cyberlearning portfolio and its influences and impacts.
The mission of the New Mexico Informal Science Education Network (NM ISE Net) is to provide opportunities and resources for informal educators to work together to impact science teaching, science learning, and science awareness throughout the state of New Mexico. The NM Museum of Natural History and Science leads NM ISE Net with support from NM EPSCoR.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
New Mexico Museum of Natural HistorySelena ConnealyCharlie Walter
This research project establishes a new research center, the InforMath Collaborative, that brings together university educational researchers and professionals at art and science museums in San Diego's Balboa Park. The InforMath Collaborative is investigating and building the capacity of informal learning institutions to support content and identity learning in mathematics. Through sustained collaborations that unite research, design, and professional development, members of the InforMath Collaborative are conducting design-based research on exhibits and programs that integrate art and science content from participating museums with the mathematics of topology and projective geometry.
The broader goal of the InforMath Collaborative is to transform cultural perceptions of mathematics in ways that broaden learners' access to the discipline. The project aims to develop informal mathematical learning experiences that make mathematics feel accessible, body-based, creative, and deeply relevant to a wide array of other knowledge domains, including both art and science. The project will build and strengthen regional and national networks of educational professionals who work in informal mathematics learning and expand the capacity of informal institutions to support engaging, innovative, content-rich, and culturally transformative mathematical learning experiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ricardo NemirovskyPaul SiboroskiMolly Kelton
This award continues funding of a Center to conduct research and education on the interactions of nanomaterials with living systems and with the abiotic environment. The goals of this Center are to develop a predictive understanding of biological and ecological toxicology for nanomaterials, and of their transport and transformation in the environment. This Center engages a highly interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team in an integrated research program to determine how the physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials determine their environmental impacts from the cellular scale to that of entire ecosystems. The research approach promises to be transformative to the science of ecotoxicology by combining high throughput screening assays with computational and physiological modeling to predict impacts at higher levels of biological organization. The Center will unite the fields of engineering, chemistry, physics, materials science, cell biology, ecology, toxicology, computer modeling, and risk assessment to establish the foundations of a new scientific discipline: environmental nanotoxicology. Research on nanomaterials and development of nanotechnology is expanding rapidly and producing discoveries that promise to benefit the nation?s economy, and improve our ability to live sustainably on earth. There is now a critical need to reduce uncertainty about the possible negative consequences of nanomaterials in the environment, while at the same time providing guidelines for their safe design to prevent environmental and toxicological hazards. This Center addresses this societal need by developing a scientific framework of risk prediction that is paradigm-shifting in its potential to keep pace with the commercial expansion of nanotechnology. Another impact of the Center will be development of human resources for the academic community, industry and government by training the next generation of nano-scale scientists, engineers, and regulators to anticipate and mitigate potential future environmental hazards of nanotechnology. Partnerships with other centers will act as powerful portals for the dissemination and integration of research findings to the scientific, educational, and industrial communities, both nationally and internationally. This Center will contribute to a network of nanotechnology centers that serve the national needs and expand representation and access to this research and knowledge network through programs directed at California colleges serving underrepresented groups. Outreach activities, including a journalist-scientist communication program, will serve to inform both experts and the public at large about the safety issues surrounding nanotechnology and how to safely produce, use, and dispose of nanomaterials.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Andre NelYoram CohenHilary GodwinArturo KellerPatricia Holden
The Chicago Zoological Society (CZS) in collaboration with Eden Place Nature Center, the Fuller Park Community Corporation, and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will implement the SCIENCES Program, Supporting a Community's Informal Education Needs: Confidence and Empowerment in STEM. The primary goals of this Full Scale Development project are to broaden access to and participation in environmental science, strengthen partnerships between CZS, Eden Place, and UIC, and gain insights into the 'ecosystemic' learning model which promotes scientific literacy and agency in the community. The project targets a low-resource community with a minority audience while the secondary audience is informal science learning organizations and researchers who will advance research in informal learning. The theoretical framework for the project design draws on conservation psychology, informal science learning, civic ecology education, and urban science education to create an ecosystematic, geographically centered approach. The deliverables include research, curriculum, and engaging hands-on programs for youth, families, adults, and teachers, reaching both in-school and out-of-school audiences, in addition to the SCIENCES Implementation Network. Three potential curriculum themes to be explored are water conservation and protection, pollinators for healthy ecosystems, and community resilience to climate change. The SCIENCES project offers a comprehensive suite of engaging programs for community audiences. For example, the year-long Zoo Adventure Passport (ZAP) program for families includes hands-on experiments and field trips, while project-based learning experiences enable teens to create wetlands, design interpretive signage, and develop associated public programming. School-based programs include professional development for teachers on the Great Lakes ecosystem and invasive species. Existing programs that have been previously evaluated and demonstrated to show learning impacts will be adapted and modified to meet the goals of the ecosystemic learning model by providing multiple learning opportunities. New learning resources will also be created to support the content themes and provide continuity. The result will be a comprehensive approach that ensures deep community engagement by individuals, families, and organizations, with cohesiveness provided by the overarching content themes which broaden access to STEM learning resources and leverages partnerships. The project includes both a research and evaluation plan. The primary research question to be addressed is: How does a large informal science learning institution work with a community-based organization to support environmental scientific literacy and agency at all levels of the community? A sociocultural framework will be used for this mixed-methods case study research. Study participants include community leaders, youth, parents, teachers, and staff from Eden Place. The case study sample will include 20 focal individuals drawn from the participant groups and approximately 300 survey participants. Case study data will be triangulated with evaluation data and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. By examining changes from the baseline following the implementation of the community programs, the findings may provide insight on agency and science literacy among community members. The comprehensive, mixed-methods evaluation plan employs a quasi-experimental design and incorporates front-end, formative, and summative evaluation components. The evaluation questions address the quality of the processes and products, access to environmental science learning opportunities, environmental science literacy, sustainability, and barriers to implementation. An extensive dissemination plan is proposed with a dual emphasis on meeting stakeholders' needs at multiple levels. The evaluation and research teams will emphasize publication in peer reviewed journals and presentations at conferences for informal science education professionals. Findings will be shared with the Fuller Park community stakeholders using creative methods such as one-page research briefs written in layperson's language, videos, and recorded interviews with participants. The local project Advisory Board will also be actively involved in the dissemination of findings to community constituents. The SCIENCES National Amplification Network will be created and work collaboratively with the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Metropolitan Green Spaces Alliance to disseminate the model. Collectively, the activities and deliverables outlined in this proposal will advance the discovery of sustainable models of community-based learning while the research will advance the understanding of informal learning support for science literacy and agency.