The Please Touch Museum is requesting $684,602 for the development of educational resource materials in science and mathematics for four-year old children, and training for their parents and teachers in Head Start and other daycare programs. This 44 month project will develop, test, and produce six materials-based science and math activity kits, science training workshops for parents and daycare educators, and related family materials and events. It will culminate in a national dissemination program to promote more effective preschool science and math education through materials- based science inquiry and increased professional relations between educators in youth museums and daycare centers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marzy SykesRenee HenryTracey Prendergast
The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, PA, in collaboration with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, the largest voluntary organization for girls in the world, requests NSF support for the National Science Partnership for Girl Scout Councils and Science Museums. This three-year project establishes partnerships between seven Girl Scout councils and six science-technology museums in six regions across the nation to promote science interest and knowledge in young American women. The project provides hands-on science activity kits and training workshops for Girl Scout leaders that assist them in conducting science activities with their troops. The science activities are directly linked to the existing Girl Scout badge program and help Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts (ages 8-11) fulfill science-related badge requirements. Each council/museum partnership will develop a specific program that involves the local underserved populations in Girl Scout science activities. during the three years of federal support, the National Science Partnership will develop a specific program that involves the local underserved populations in Girl Scout science activities. During the three years of federal support, the National Science Partnership will directly serve 11,500 leaders and 138,000 Girl Scouts. Extensive project dissemination will encourage the involvement of new partnerships and the institutionalization of the National Science Partnership by GSUSA, councils, science museums, and other formal education organizations so that the project has the potential to reach the more than 2.3 million Girl Scouts and 780,000 leaders across the United States.
WGBH Educational Foundation is producing a prime time television series and informal education outreach component entitled 'A Life of Science.' Each of the six one-hour programs in the series will profile a contemporary woman scientist: Lydia Villa-Komaroff, biologist; Melissa Franklin, physicist; Misha Mahowald, computational neuroscientist; Marcia NcNutt, geologist; Lynda Jordan, biochemist; and Patty Jo Watson, archaeologist. The stories will present their scientific quests and careers but also will be about scientific lives. An outreach plan, which centers around a national campaign called 'The Missing Persons Investigation,' will target two primary constituencies: girls and boys 11-14 years of age and their adult teachers and youth service community leaders. The project will serve these audiences in formal school-based settings as well as in the informal settings of community-based organizations and institutions. Beyond these immediate target groups, the outreach project will reach a broad and diverse national public through related activities including demonstrations exhibits, community campaigns at local public television stations, and media partnerships. A comprehensive promotion plan has been devised to inform the public of both the series and the outreach component of the project.
The University Museum at the University of Arkansas is conducting preliminary planning for expansion of their 1994 pilot project entitled "Women in Science." During this planning phase, the staff will meet regularly with experts and teachers to design an exhibit about non-academic female scientists in Arkansas that will travel throughout Arkansas, outline a workshop for teachers that would help them encourage their female students to participate in math and science, and develop a program that enables female scientists to work with groups of students. At the end of the three and a half month planning stage, a final report will present a plan for the exhibition, gender workshop, and scientist program which identifies personnel, gives models/prototypes, and a budget for each facet of the proposed project.
Blackside, Inc. is producing a television series and an outreach component about minority scientists. The goals of the six-hour prime-time series, "Breakthrough: People of Color in Science," are to raise the consciousness of the general public that is largely unaware of the significant contribution of scientists of color and to provide role models that will encourage young people to consider science and engineering careers. The programs will feature the work of contemporary African-American, Latino and Native American scientists and engineers who are active in cell biology, astrophysics, applied mathematics and other fields of science. The stories of their scientific achievements will present both women and men, old and young, at different stages of their careers, and will explore the professional, educational and social worlds they live and work in. Viewers will have immediate access to a comprehensive follow-up effort that will connect them with local, regional and national opportunities in informal science education. Blackside will collect information from existing resources and institutions as well using source material from several extensively researched databases geared toward minority students. Using all of this information, Blackside will create a metadatabase that will connect teachers, parents, mentors, and students to a rich variety of educational programs: extracurricular classes, mentoring programs, national science contests, teacher training workshops, and a myriad of on-line services. To ensure immediate access and, where possible, to customize the information to viewers needs, Blackside will disseminate it through a variety of means: an 800-number with a direct fax-back capability, an on-line service, a CD-ROM, and a printed packet delivered by mail. A principal target audience is gatekeepers in students' lives: parents, teachers, and scientists interested in becoming mentors. The target audience also includes students from fourth th rough twelfth grades. Joseph Blatt will serve a PI for this project and co-executive producer for the television series. His previous experience include serving as executive producer of "Scientific American FRONTIERS" and as a producer/director for several NOVA programs. He also has been executive producer for three television series/college credit courses in mathematics. Henry Hampton will be the other co-executive producer. He was the creator and executive producer of the 14-hour, award winning series, "Eyes on the Prize," about America's civil rights movement. The principal educational consultant will be Ceasar McDowell, assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Michael Ambrosino, the original executive producer of NOVA, will be the principal science television consultant.
The Pacific Science Center is requesting $800,000 over three and one-half years to develop a national model which would enable community agencies to incorporate science education into their programs. Through thirteen-week training programs, and developing Community Center Workshops, individuals from community organizations will acquire the skills necessary to become advocates and providers for science enrichment. A number of community-based organizations which serve primarily minority clients have agreed to collaborate with the Museum.
The Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA) is producing and disseminating "Green Technology," a multimedia project that promotes active learning about environmentally beneficial technologies for the home, the workplace, and the community. The objective of the project are to change or consolidate the public's concepts about the fundamental relationships between the environment and technology at the grassroots pocketbook level, to enhance their understanding of the pertinent science and technology, and to provide them with practical information about how to take action for oneself and in the fulfillment of a wider civic responsibility. The components of the project include: o Three one-hour prime time television programs o Community Outreach through the National Community Education Association and their affiliates in 40 states. o Development of community education material including a 30-minute highlight tape to serve as a discussion springboard with accompanying discussion and resource guides. o A Viewer's Newsletter for each program which will include short articles on the basic science and technology explored in the program and a "What You Can Do" section. o A CD-ROM for use by parents and children at home and by students in school. o On-line information clearing house the SOLSTICE, the digital library of energy and environmental resources operated by the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology. o Teacher enhancement materials and activities for middle schools to be disseminated through the Teacher Educator's Network of the Association of Science-Technology Centers. o The National Academy of Engineering will identify engineers who can serve as "on-line consultants" to students and teachers involved in examining specific environmental issues. Richard Thomas, previously Executive Producer for "Mystery of the Senses" and "The World of Chemistry," will be PI and Executive Producer. Principal Content Advisory will be S. William Gouse, chief scientist and President of Energy Systems and Technology at MITRE. William McDonough, Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, will be the host of the television series.
"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
Through the proposed project, approximately 555,000 youth and adults will improve their knowledge of the basic sciences and mathematics, and learn to integrate and apply these disciplines, by analyzing local environmental problems using remote sensing imagery and maps. Faculty from the Cornell laboratory for Environmental Applications of Remote Sensing (CLEARS) and Cornell Department of Natural Resources will train county teams of teachers, museum and nature center educators, community leaders, and Cooperative Extension agents from throughout New York State to conduct educational programs with youth and adults in their communities. Previously developed CLEARS educator enrichment workshops and training materials will be enhanced and revised based on the interactions among Cornell Faculty, informal and formal science educators, and students during this program. A facultative evaluation focusing on the workshops, training materials, and educator teaching skills, and a summative evaluation focusing on student learning and attitudes, program delivery in the various community education settings, and the effectiveness of the county educator teams will be conducted. The results of the evaluation will be incorporated into a program handbook and used in nationwide dissemination of the program.
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.
Children's Television Workshop is producing the second season of "CRO," an animated television series designed to bring informal science education to Saturday morning commercial television's large, demographically diverse audience of children. Each of eight new programs to be broadcast on ABC has the goals of: 1) entertaining six- to eleven-year-old viewers while increasing their familiarity with and interest in basic science and technology principles, 2) stimulating viewers' interest in science and technology by showing that they are not abstractions, but integral parts of daily life, and 3) convincing youth that discovering the workings of science and technology can be fun. In addition to the television series, CTW will develop and distribute a range of supporting materials. These include a twelve-page activity book; a four-color, four-page user's guide for informal science education leaders; two four- color, sixteen-page comic books that include puzzles, brain teasers, and simple experiments; an eight-panel activity poster; and inclusion of "CRO" material in 3-2-1 Contact magazine. Part of the distribution of these materials will be through CTW's partnerships with youth-serving organizations such as YMCA's , 4-H Youth Development Education, and Boys and Girls Clubs. The series also will be released on home video and CTW is considering development of an interactive product based on the series. Key staffing for season two will include Franklin Getchell who will continue from season one as co-principal investigator and Joel Schneider, who will replace Ed Atkins as the other co-principal investigator. Schneider will be responsible for content development of both the television series and of the ancillary materials. Jeffrey Nelson, formerly Executive Producer o f Square One TV, will join "CRO" as Executive Producer.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joel SchneiderFranklin GetchellMarjorie KalinsJeffrey Nelson
Talcott Mountain Science Center, in cooperation with the Urban Schools Learning Network (encompassing a variety of state, regional and national partners), seeks $698,141 in National Science Foundation funds under the Informal Science Education Program for a three year national model for increased minority interest and participation in Informal Science Education Program for a three year national model for increased minority interest and participation in informal science education. The title of this partnership is Project PROMMISE )Promoting Role Model Minorities in Science Education). Over the next three years, Project PROMMISE will produce and broadcast at least 30 distance learning programs for thousands of secondary level students in urban and disadvantaged communities throughout the U.S. These Project PROMMISE broadcasts will bring distinguished minority and women scientists, explorers, astronauts and other figures in touch with urban young people through interactive video programming. Broadcasts will be preceded and followed by hands- on informal science education activities. The project also will broadcast national career exposure, exploration, and mentoring programs to better inform urban minority students of academic and career enrollment in secondary and post-secondary math, science and technology studies and cultural isolation by urban students, teachers and urban informal science education institutions. Major national partners for reform and pre- college minority enrichment are participating in the project, including the Edna McConnell Clark Middle School Change Network, the Museum Satellite Network, PIMMS at Wesleyan, the CT Pre- Engineering Program (CPEP). Private sector support has been gained from United Technologies, CIGNA and Union Carbide.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Donald LaSalleGlenn CassisDaniel Barstow