The Tahoe Environmental Research Center will create an interactive exhibit that merges the results of citizen science with a real-time ecosystem monitoring network to reveal the immediate impacts of watershed processes on Lake Tahoe's nearshore. Citizen scientists will provide real-time "sensor data" from instruments located around the shores of Lake Tahoe and deliver "perceptual data" from mobile devices. Visitors to the research center will then be able to see and experiment with how conditions change over time at different locations around the lake. The exhibit will tie directly to a set of stewardship and action messages that will empower and equip visitors and residents to improve the health of Lake Tahoe's nearshore and become aware of issues in other freshwater ecosystems.
Brown University, a founding member of the 72-member New England Science Center Collaborative (NESCC), is leading Seasons of Change, a traveling exhibit development project involving members of NESCC as well as the 31-member North Carolina Grassroots Science Museums Collaborative. The key concept of the exhibit is how regional iconic "harbingers" are related to climate change - for example, the impacts of a changing climate on the maple syrup industry in New England and shifts in bird migration patterns in North Carolina. Two customizable and modularized versions of an approximately 900 square foot exhibit on local impacts of climate change are being produced for small and medium-sized venues. The project expects to serve approximately 1.5 million visitors in the two regions and is positioned as an innovative model for other regions of the country. A citizen science program will be developed by staff at TERC for those participating centers with outdoor venues. The exhibit is being designed by Jeff Kennedy Associates and MegaFun simulation software designers. NESCC is also developing a project Web site. Goodman Research Associates is conducting both formative and summative evaluation processes on visitor learning and on the project's collaborative process. The Association of Science-Technology Centers will manage the two tours.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting held in Washington, DC. The goal of the project is to establish practices for combining public participation in scientific research (citizen science) with DNA-based species identification (DNA barcoding) to scale-up and improve the accuracy of research projects that monitor animal and plant species in the sea and on land as they respond to climate and environmental changes.
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Mount Desert Island Biological LaboratoryKaren James
This report was completed by the Program Evaluation Research Group at Endicott College in October 2013. It describes the outcomes and impacts of a four-year, NSF-funded project called Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning (grant number 0840186). Go Botany focuses on fostering increased interest in and knowledge of botany among youth and adults in New England. This was being done through the creation of an online flora for the region, along with the development of related tools, including PlantShare, and a user-friendly interface for ‘smartphones’. In January 2012, the PI
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Judah LeblangNew England Wild Flower Society
The Museum is partnering with Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) to share data and learn more about L.A. butterflies and moths. Help us find and photograph them in Los Angeles. Why Butterflies? Unlike some of the other Citizen Science projects here at the Museum, the L.A. Butterfly Survey (LABS) isn't looking for lost butterflies. We already know the species we are likely to find in L.A., all 236 of them. What we need to find out is which butterflies and moths we're likely to find when we plant the new Pollinator Garden in the Museum's upcoming outdoor exhibit, the North Campus. When you submit images of L.A. butterflies and moths, we'll map the species closest to the Museum and determine which one's might show up when we start planting butterfly attracting plants.
The Coalition for Watershed Education, consisting of the Land Access Information Association, Great Lakes Children's Museum, Interlochen Public Radio and Northwestern Michigan College Great Lakes Studies Institute will implement a comprehensive science education project for youth and adults. The major components include: Watershed Discovery field experiences, Soundscapes radio broadcasts, Waterscapes exhibits, a project website, and the expanded Great Lakes Coalition for Watershed Education. Watershed Discovery is a field-based experience for youth ages 11-17. Teams of 6-10 youth will work with mentors who specialize in GPS, GIS, geology and geography to research and collect data on the Great Lakes watershed. These students will also use their new knowledge to produce radio segments as part of the Soundscapes component. Youth teams will be trained to interview sources, gather information and write scripts for use on the local National Public Radio affiliate. The Great Lakes Children's Museum will design a permanent, interactive watershed of 1,500 square feet, as well as a traveling exhibit of 500 square feet for visitors ages 7-12. Other deliverables include "A Community Guide to Watershed-based Science Education" (available in print and CD-ROM), a one-day regional dissemination conference, and an interactive website. Strategic impact will be realized through the development of a novel model for watershed education, its subsequent replication and summative evaluation outcomes. It is estimated that over 40,000 children will be reached by this community-wide initiative.
The New England Wild Flower Society, in collaboration with the Yale Peabody Museum, Montshire Museum of Science, and the Chewonki Foundation, is implementing the Go-Botany project, a multi-faceted, web-based botany user interface. "Go-Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning," improves botanical education by opening plant study to a larger and more diverse segment of the population including novices, citizen scientists, and informal science educators. The project is designed to integrate a variety of web tools and mobile communication devices to facilitate learning about botany and plant conservation with a focus on native and naturalized plants in New England. Project deliverables include an online database of New England plants; online keys to over 4,000 species of New England flora; a customizable user interface; My Plants personal webpages; an outdoor exhibit that incorporates mobile resources; training programs for informal science educators and educational programs for the public. Projected impacts include increased attraction to and engagement in botanical learning for public audiences and improved teaching abilities by informal science education professionals through the application of user friendly, digital resources on mobile communication devices. Go-Botany significantly impacts the field of informal science education by changing the way that informal learners learn about plants by removing barriers through the use of free online materials, mentoring, and user created resources. This project is projected to reach over 46,000 youth, adults, and informal educators in workshops and via the Go-Botany website.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth FarnsworthGregory LowenbergArthur HainesWilliam Brumback