The Exploratorium plans to develop a set of interactive teaching exhibits that will deal with epidemiology, immunology and virology, and through those subjects, with AIDS treatment and prevention. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive description of how the immune system works in the context of AIDS, and so help people to make rational decisions about personal and social responses to the disease. The primary thrust will be to supplement the more general AIDS educational materials by providing an understanding of the scientific basis of the disease, and to involve the public in the scientific and educative process, rather than just informing them about the subject.
DATE:
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Charles CarlsonRichard BrownMargaret LawDebra Raphael
This research project is a follow-up to previous research on the persistence of high ability minority youth in college programs for mathematics, science, engineering, premedicine and predentistry. The earlier research used data retrieved from the 1985 College Board files for 5,602 students with SAT mathematical scores of 550 or above. All were minority students except for a comparison sample of 404 White students. In 1987, a first follow-up was conducted. 61 percent of the non-Asian American minority students had enrolled in college and were majoring in MSE fields in comparison with 55 percent of the White students and 70 percent for the Asian American students. In the current phase of this research, the original sample will be resurveyed, five years after high school graduation. A subsample will be interviewed in-depth. The major goal of this phase will be to answer three critical questions: which sample members are still studying or employed in MSE fields, what are their unique characteristics, and what are the theoretical and national policy implications of the results. This project is jointly supported by the Studies and Analysis and the Research in Teaching and Learning Programs.
WGBH Boston and its NOVA production group will produce a series of eight one hour television programs titled "Life: Cracking the Code". The series will cover recent advances in molecular biology, the record of personal quest and achievement of many of the biologists who have contributed to these advances, the social costs and benefits that have resulted and the ethical questions that new knowledge and new abilities in biology have generated. Individual programs will include "The Language of Life" on the discovery of DNA's role in molecular biology, "Molecular Machines" on proteins; "Designing the World to Order" on practical consequences of the new biology, "When Cells Rebel" on the processes involved in cancer, and "Between Self and Other" on the immune function. The series will be produced for prime time PBS evening broadcast to an audience of more than twelve million individuals by a co- production by the NOVA science unit at WGBH and the Chedd-Angier Production Company. Scientific advice and consulting will be provided by Harvard's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a project advisory committee composed of seven distinguished scholars chaired by Prof. David Baltimore. The series production budget will be approximately $ 4.2 million. This new science series on DNA, molecular biology and its new technologies will cover one of the great intellectual achievements of our time. It will provide timely information about an area of scientific discovery that is rapidly transforming many aspects of our life. The series will, in addition, document the rich recent history of molecular biology with the participation of many of the original researchers who are still alive and active in their fields.
The Museum of Science will design and produce an exhibition, "Two of Every Sort", whose aim is to present a scientific basis for the public's understanding of genser, reproduction and human diversity. Using interactive techniques and state-of-the-art media technology, the exhibition will debut at the Museum in Boston, tour science centers in seven other cities and reach an audience of nearly 2.5 million. The eight museums are members of the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative, which has approved "Two of Every Sort" as one of a second round of shared-cost exhibitions scheduled to appear at each of the member institutions. "Two of Every Sort" (4,000 square feet) will present introductory scientific overview, ranging among biology, anthropology, botany and biomedical technology, to make discussion of these difficult and sensitive matters more meaningful. The exhibit will offer an unusual opportunity to millions of people -- families, teachers and youngsters, to consider complex questions in a safe, friendly learning environment.
The Educational Film Center, in collaboration with Dr. Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate and John A. Newman, Professor of Physical Science at Cornell University, will produce THE MOLECULAR WORLD, a series of three one-hour specials for Public Television. The specials will outline this "century of synthesis," the historical contribution of chemistry to our everyday lives. They will further highlight the future impact of chemistry on new materials for transportation and communication, and ont he rational design of effective medicines. The programs respond to the need for public awareness about the molecular and chemical make-up of the natural world around us and within us. The public also needs to appreciate better the continuing role of chemistry in producing the new molecules which change our world. THE MOLECULAR WORLD is designed for a national television audience complementing the recently completed college telecourse "The World of Chemistry" and its High School adaptations. The National Science Foundation award constitutes 15% of the total cost of the project.
The St. Louis Science Center plans to design and develop a 2400-square-foot permanent exhibit dealing with the fields of cellular and molecular biology, including biotechnology and genetic engineering. The primary goal of the exhibit is to affect the attitudes of millions of visitors, with the secondary goal being to serve as a model for other science museums and science centers.