RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
Despite new governmental initiatives aiming to engage the general public in policymaking related to nuclear energy, little is known about how expert stakeholders involved in the decision-making process perceive such activity. This study examines how a series of social, cognitive and communication factors influences expert stakeholders’ attitudes toward public participation in policy decisions related to nuclear energy. Specifically, using data from a survey of 557 experts identified through content analyses of public meeting records, we find that among those perceiving public opinion as being
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Nan LiLeona Yi-Fan SuXuan LiangDominique BrossardDietram Scheufele
The Rutgers Film Bureau in collaboration with the scientists of the LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) project at Palmer will produce a multi-platform documentary project, Antarctic Quest: Racing to Understand a Changing Ocean. This Connecting Researchers to Public Audiences proposal will focus on the scientists who are studying ocean physics, chemistry, biology, and ecology in the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), which is the fastest winter warming location on earth. The aim of the project is to promote scientific knowledge about the world's oceans and climate change, inspire interest in scientific careers, as well as train a cadre of next generation film students in the craft of science documentary filmmaking. The project will articulate the research of the Palmer LTER's quest to understand the impact of climate change on the marine ecosystems of the WAP, while involving university students in the filmmaking process. Deliverables include an hour television documentary intended for PBS television broadcast, an online "Antarctic Quest community" created through interactive and interconnected social media, three five-minute educational videos produced for the PBS Learning Media website, and a Digital Media Library to assist Earth science educators. The production team will employ a diverse group of twenty film students from Rutgers University to be involved in the many phases and components of the project. The project is designed to advance the public's environmental literacy. The project will raise awareness of the changes being observed in the world's oceans by illustrating how small changes in the physical conditions in the WAP can have profound impact on marine ecosystems and potentially the entire ocean system. The project will also highlight the significance of innovative new technologies that are revolutionizing research methods as well document the importance of scientific collaboration to understand a complex interdisciplinary problem and the challenges of working in extreme environments. The summative evaluation of the project will assess the effectiveness of the project in meeting its educational goals. By communicating significant scientific research to the public while training a cohort of next generation of science documentary filmmakers, the project will also contribute to capacity-building in the Informal Science Education field.