Field Museum of Natural History requests a $1,467,422 grant from the National Science Foundation in partial support of final planning and implementation of our LIFE OVER TIME exhibit and associated interpretive programs. This 21,000 square foot, permanent exhibit will provide our 1.4 million annual visitors with an understanding of basic evolutionary principles and an overview of the history of life from its origins through present. The exhibit will capitalize on Field Museum's extensive paleontological and biological collections. Developed in collaboration with the Museum's scientific staff, the exhibit development team and many outside consultants, the exhibit will attempt to address complex scientific issues in an informal learning environment. With a projected cost of $5,775,000. LIFE OVER TIME will open in 1994.
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.
The videodisc-based exhibit, the Powers of Ten in Time, will allow museum visitors to explore the unseen world of natural change - events that occur too quickly or too slowly to be perceived. Through the use of a touch screen and interactive software, users will be able to, in effect, speed up or slow down timeto witness changes that lie outside of the limits of human time perception. Visitors will see scenes such as a forest recovering after a fire, a wall of earth crumbling from erosion, tides coming in and out, the intricate motions of complex machinery and molecules colliding and reacting to produce fire. The videodiscs will contain more than 100 short video segments depicting a wide range of phenomena. We will use time-lapse footage, slow-motion clips and animations to show changes occurring over time periods form 300,000,000 to femtoseconds. Not only will museum visitors be able to watch these video segments at their own pace and in order they choose, they will also be able to learn more about such phenomena through on- screen textual and graphical explanations. The goal of the project is to engage museum visitors with captivating photographic segments, explain the phenomena shown with supplemental text and graphics, and stimulate them to look at the world in a new way - not just with their eyes, but with their minds and imaginations.
The daily radio series EARTH AND SKY began airing nationally on September 30, 1991. It consists of 2-minute programs about Earth science and astronomy. Produced in association with the American Geophysical Union, it is designed for people of all ages. Its aim is to make science accessible and interesting to millions whose common bond is that they happen to be listening to the radio. On February 1, 1992, the series was airing on 63 commercial and public radio stations, which had paid for it, and the number of stations was growing. Producers and hosts Deborah Byrd and Joel Block were responsible for 5,000 daily programs in the award- winning STAR DATE radio series. Partial support is requested for the production, distribution and promotion of 780 programs in the EARTH AND SKY series. The goal for the grant period is to acquire a large listening audience via heavy promotion. After three years, EARTH AND SKY will be self-supporting on 371 stations, more stations than for any previous series of this king.
The Smithsonian Institution's Office of Environmental Awareness, National Museum of Natural History, and Traveling Exhibition Service are developing a major traveling exhibition, Ocean Planet, that will heighten public awareness of the need for ocean conservation. Ocean Planet will show how our lives are connected to the seas, illustrate the rapidly mounting problems threatening coastlines and open oceans, and feature promising efforts to manage oceans and oceanic resources in a sustainable manner. The exhibition and its accompanying programs will introduce the American public to the science underlying ocean conservation, including the fields of biogeochemistry, economics, fisheries biology, geology, marine anthropology, marine biology, and oceanography. Evaluation studies conducted before, during, and after exhibition development will help make the exhibition and programs more responsive to its audience. Following a six-month showing in the National Museum of Natural History, and modifications based on visitor studies, Ocean Planet will visit eight American cities, introducing millions of museum, aquarium, and science center visitors to environmental issues affecting oceans. The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive program of educational materials and activities outside of the host site. A program of education grants to the venues on the national tour will encourage collaboration with local educational institutions and community groups. We request $951,050 from the National Science Foundation's Informal Science Education Program to Support exhibition research, designs, evaluation, fabrication, and the development of accompanying educational materials. The additional $3,000,000 needed complete the project will be raised from corporate sources, private foundations, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The goal of the three-year Science Education Enrichment Program is to provide 720 Puerto Ricans, six to fourteen years of age, with exploratory learning opportunities to observe, judge, and value scientific experiences. The program will be administered by the Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Puerto Rico. The 4-H curriculum will be strengthened by incorporating interactive learning in six science components: Composting as a Means to Conserve the Environment: The Role of Soil and Water in Protecting Life; Food Discoveries: Starchy (Farinaceous) Vegetables: From Field to Market; Getting to Know about Insects; and Hurricanes and Earthquakes: Events Requiring Disaster Mitigation. Extension Specialists in the subject matter and a research scientist from the Experiment Station will supervise groups of 10-20 children at 63 sites in sessions lasting from six months to a year. Trained volunteers and teen leaders will also participate. A distinguished group of external advisors will serve on an Advisory Committee to provide recommendations on scientific accuracy and future development. Three implementation phases ate planned. In Phase I a draft of a unique Puerto Rican science curriculum model for the Extension Service will be prepared. The skills and knowledge of component directors will be enhanced through collaboration with local and mainland groups to leverage resources for special training on exploratory approaches to learning science. In Phase II the curriculum will be tested and refined. Resources will be mobilized for exploratory science activities. A pilot session will be held for 80 youth. During Phase III all components will be operational. Approximately 640 youth will participate in 58 science session. A dissemination plan will allow for the curriculum materials to be distributed to groups in Puerto Rico and the mainland. The current level of effort will be continued and plans will be made for expansion to other sites. Institutional commitments to the development of this project include an in-kind contribution amounting to approximately 22 percent of the total project amount. In addition to creating an interest in science, the outcomes of the program will seek to build self confidence in science exploration, promote critical thinking, and develop knowledge in youth about career options in the agricultural sciences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oscar Muniz-TorresYamil QuijanoAgenol GonzalezPedro VelezOsvaldo Cotte
This exhibit will integrate graphics, artifacts, highly interactive electro-mechanical demonstration devices together with state of the art interactive educational computer technology to demonstrate how probability shapes nature. It will draw its examples from a variety of scientific fields including physics, chemistry, earth sciences, and biology. It is planned as a permanent addition to the Museum's exhibition program, but will be designed to facilitate easy reproduction for individual copies or for circulation as a travelling exhibit. Millions of visitors--families, teachers, children form diverse communities--will gain a first hand aesthetic appreciation of the pattern finding process of scientific investigation as well as a better understanding of the usefulness of mathematics in explaining how the natural world works.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
H. Eugene StanleyDouglas SmithEdwin Taylor
As the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico attracts thousands of visitors each year, of all ages and from many countries. Pride in the Observatory has caused local Puerto Rican organizations to contribute the funds necessary for the construction of the new Arecibo Observatory Visitor and Educational Facility. Cornell University, in behalf of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, is requesting $774,463 form the NSF-ISE over a two year period to develop and implement the exhibits and educational programs which will give life to the Educational Facility. Within the facility, we propose establishing an educational program centered on the theme "More Than Meets the Eye", which will reflect the general idea that we can study our world with tools which extend our direct sensory experience. The proposed program will explore the unseen sky and, in particular, the objects that fall under the scrutiny of a radio telescope. Specifically, the program will introduce the visitors to the electromagnetic spectrum as a means of exploration, will offer a framework of basic astronomy and atmospheric science, and will provide understanding of the function and operation of the Arecibo radio telescope. Some of Arecibo's most exciting new discoveries in the fields of radio astronomy, solar system radar astronomy and astomospheric science will be presented so that visitors can experience the dynamic nature of science.
The scientific community is challenged by the need to reach out to students who have traditionally not been attracted to engineering and the sciences. This project would provide a link between the University of Michigan and the teachers and students of secondary education in the State of Michigan with an initial emphasis on southeast Michigan, through the creation of a range of computer services which will provide interactive access to current weather and climate change information. Taking advantage of a unique computer network capacity within the State of Michigan named MichNet which provides local phone ports in virtually every major city in the state, and the resources available to the university community via the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) UNIDATA program, this project would provide secondary schools with access to a state-of-the-art interactive weather information system. The real-time data available via the system, supplemented by interactive computer modules designed in collaboration with earth science teachers, will provide animated background information on a range of climate and weather related topics. While the principal objective of this project will be to provide educationally stimulating interactive computer systems and electronic weather and climate modules for application in inner city Detroit and its environs, the unique nature of the available computer networking will allow virtually every school system in the state to have access. Subsequently successful completion of this project could eventually make the same systems available to other cities and states.
"Atmospheric Explorations: Participatory, Computer-Based Simulations of the Weather" is a collaborative project of Augsburg College and the Science Museum of Minnesota. The purpose of the project is to enhance the interest and skills of museum visitors and students in science by providing a highly interactive exhibit environmental that allows the users considerable freedom in exploring topics in meteorology relevant to their everydays lives. The exhibits will be designed to accommodate a gender- and racially-diverse audience of national scope.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William JaspersonDavid VenneJ. Newlin