This proposal calls for development, over five years, of a national, interactive, telecommunications-supported Network of 85 or more affiliated neighborhood technology learning centers in inner cities and other impoverished areas, for the purpose of attracting, and then nurturing underserved peoples' active involvement with math, science, and technology. Network affiliates will provide informal opportunities for disadvantaged minority young people and their families and friends to get access to, and learn to use, the most powerful tool for personal empowerment yet known, to engage in explorations designed to increase awareness of their ability to do math and science and of the potential for careers in these areas, and, through telecommunications, to involve themselves with distant peer groups in collaborative investigations. Such opportunities present attractive and cost-effective alternatives to the dead ends that street life, drugs, incarceration, and/or welfare offer. Success in achieving these goals depends, however, on the availability of continuing programmatic and staff development assistance, and on the ability of Network members to engage, not as disparate entities, but as a mutually supportive community, in this momentous task. Proposed Network services include (in addition to telecommunications linkages) the identification, development, and dissemination of technology-mediated math and science activities appropriate to community education, consultative planning and technical assistance, staff development workshops, the development of a resource database, and an annual all-affiliates meeting -- all these to be accompanied by systematized self-assessment procedures. Also included is the development of a Network infrastructure to support continued existence of the Network beyond the grant period.
Produce an exhibition that will lead visitors, particularly 140,000 school children each year, to explore and understand modern audio technology. The exhibition capitalizes on the great popularity of recorded music (every student seems to carry a Walkman tape or disc player), to encourage hands-on exploration of audio technologies from microphones to compact disc players. Further visitor inquiry, using a computer-based system developed by the Hall of Science, will encourage an understanding of the underlying principles. The prototype of this "Science Link" system, now in use, has already drawn replication inquiries from 84 science-technology centers, educational institutions, and advertising agencies. Develop additional exhibit techniques that will allow the hands-on investigation of phenomena that cannot be directly observed. Techniques linking computer simulations directly to the physical exhibits will encourage investigation of phenomena that cannot be directly observed. While contemporary electronic technology has become more and more pervasive, its inner workings have become less and less accessible to the layman. In addressing audio technology as typical of this challenge, the project will have applications to many fundamental and applied topics, and will find wide use in science centers and other settings.
The National Science Outreach Network will provide school children, teachers, and the general public with highly accessible interactive exhibits dealing with popular topics in science and technology. The network, initiated as a partnership between regional science centers and public libraries, will be modeled after the highly successful statewide Oregon Library Exhibits Network established in 1987. Through this smaller network, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, a nationally recognized pioneer in science exhibitry and outreach programming, circulates small hands-on exhibits to rural population centers through installations in public libraries, where school groups and families have free and convenient access. This national dissemination project will be initiated in five regional sites across the country (Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee, and Oregon) to further establish the model in rural, inner-urban, economically disadvantaged, and culturally diverse regions. With support from both the NSF and the regional networks, The National Science Outreach Network will design and duplicate six exhibits for circulation to dozens of local communities in each designated region. Over the next seven years, over six million individuals, many of whom do not currently frequent a local science center, will be introduced to popular science in a non-threatening, resource- rich setting. This will encourage further exploration and possible future visits to an accessible science center, and ultimately establish an ever-expanding network of museum and non-museum partners providing science and technology learning opportunities to millions of individuals each year.
The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, PA., acting as administrative coordinator for the Issues Laboratory Collaborative (ILC), requests NSF support for five science museums over a three year period to investigate the effectiveness of museum-based programs about controversial issues in science and technology; to develop, test, refine, and disseminate ten educational programs on science issues; and to establish a permanent Science Issues Network that will disseminate materials and methods to all U.S. science museums engaged in issues programs. This project has been formulated for re-submission to the National Science Foundation with guidance from a distinguished panel of scientists who will assist in program development. Approximately two million people will be directly served by ILC programs and exhibits during the three-year period.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Roree Iris-WilliamsMinda BorunAnn Mintz
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Informal learning in math, science, and technology is an increasingly important vehicle for educating the public. Throughout their lifetime, the average citizen will spend a much greater amount of time in informal learning environments than in school. For these efforts to continue without benefit of understanding, the dynamics of what makes informal learning experiences work, is a waste of valuable funding resources. Research Communications Ltd. (RCL) proposes an effort to investigate what has been learned about informal learning in math, science, and technology and to develop some directions for future research in this important area. The first step in the process would be to review the existing literature in the three primary areas of informal education for math, science, and technology: television/radio, community projects, and science museums and technology centers with a focus on evaluation studies that have shown what strategies have worked and those that have not. The outcome of this effort would be a comprehensive publication of what is currently known about informal learning research in math, science and technology.
The goal of Science City: New York as a Science and Technology Exhibit, is to increase public awareness and interest in science and technology in daily life by creating "found exhibits" in public places throughout New York City. This proposal is based on a 1986 pilot project which developed criteria and concepts for successful Science City units and a prototype exhibit operating in a tourist elevator at the World Trade Center. Science City will use the streets and structures of New York to present the science and technology of everyday life. It will reach the science inattentive public who do not go to science museums. Eye-catching exhibits such as diffraction gratings mounted on bus shelters will reveal the different spectra of the incandescent, flourescent, neon, and mercury vapor lamps, already part of the street scene. The New York Hall of Science will place Science City exhibits in public parks, subways, bus kiosks, and building lobbies. Ten to fifteen different exhibits/signs, each replicated an average of 10 times, will be installed and evaluated throughout the boroughs of Queens and Manhattan.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alan FriedmanPeggy ColeTheodore Ansbacher
THE DR. FAD SHOW is a daily television series for children ages 6 to 12 that encourages creativity, inventiveness and problem solving in a lively half-hour format. Each program is taped before a studio audience and high-lights the inventions of young participants as well as the fads and inventions of the past, present and future. Created and hosted by Ken Hakuta, or Dr. Fad as he is known to millions of young viewers, the series will combine thirty-five brand new shows with thirty previously produced episodes for a total of sixty-five programs. The series will be produced and packaged next spring and summer at WETA-TV in Washington, D.C. and will be ready for national broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as early as fall of 1991. THE DR. FAD SHOW will be accompanied by a significant outreach and promotion effort, as well as an educational component that will include an activity and teacher's guide. The programs have already won the endorsement of the National Education Association and the National Inventive Teaching Association (NITA) among others, as well as the enthusiastic support of parents, teachers and a legion of dedicated young viewers and participants.
The Pratt Museum, a natural history museum in Southcentral Alaska, proposes to bring before the public an exhibition on oil pollution. Using the historic disaster of the March 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the museum presents a dramatic, grassroots story of the desperate struggle to protect the environment and preserve traditional lifestyles. The exhibit's purpose is to increase public awareness of national and global issues pertaining to the development, transportation, and use of petroleum. The 1,500 square foot presentation shows what an oil spill is like through photographs, maps, graphics, and three- dimensional participatory elements. The exhibit is scheduled to open at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in early 1991, beginning a three-year tour of 12 museums that will reach between 1.5 and 2 million viewers. The NSF contribution will support the circulation of the exhibit and the development of interactive components to enhance both the permanent and traveling presentations. Computerized graphic displays and an educational chest of learning tools will enhance the basic exhibit through multi- sensory activities designed for hands-on gallery use, increasing accessibility for children and disabled visitors. This cooperative project invloves private foundations, individuals, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, in collaboration with the University of Chicago, proposes to develop a major new exhibit on "Imaging Science." Imaging science is a new field rapidly emerging from its roots in the physical, biological, and behavioral sciences, and the graphic arts, and is becoming increasingly important in all areas of scientific research. The primary rationale for developing an exhibit about imaging science, and related programming, is to enhance the overall scientific literacy of four million visitors that come to the Museum each year. In view of the scientific, medical, educational, and cultural value of images, the Museum and University of Chicago believe that an exhibit on imaging science will have broad appeal to museum visitors of many different ages and backgrounds. Today, scientific imaging empowers us to look inward, at the infinite complexity of ourselves, and outward to the edge of our universe. The main thrust of the exhibit will be to teach visitors how images communicate knowledge. Technological advances in computer workstations, that are revolutionizing scientific study, will be highlighted. Exhibit sections will also identify imaging science breakthroughs that will impact the lives of students and members of the workforce in the 1990s and beyond.
The Exploratorium proposes to create a multidimensional exhibition on the theme of navigation. The exhibition proper will contain approximately 20 new interactive exhibits dealing with topics of human orientation, wayfinding/exploration, the importance of time in navigation, maps and navigation traditions. Alongside the exhibits we will display real navigational artifacts borrowed from other museums. We have identified approximately 40 existing exhibits which, while not in the main show, will receive textual modification to show their relation to navigational topics. In addition to the exhibition of artifacts and interactive exhibits, we will present a series of lectures, theme weekends, and demonstrations of navigational techniques. During the run of the show we will host a Symposium On The American Encounter wherein we will hold an open forum of lectures and discussion of historical, anthropological and social consequences of cultural encounter on the North American Continent. We will produce both a brochure and a high quality catalog for this show. In addition we will create written "pathways" of organization of this museum-wide show to bring to focus different features and approaches to navigation. Our education departments will play a leading role in creating more formal programs for our visitors. The physical show will be reproduced in a travelling version to tour nine venues in the three years following its opening at the Exploratorium. We will collect the results of our researchers in a dissemination package to be made available to others in the field.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Thomas HumphreyPeter RichardsMichael Pearce
The Museum of Science and Industry seeks to facilitate the establishment of a network of Independent science clubs. Located in Chicago's south side, the Museum operates an in-house science club which has over many years developed a large investory of activities. The members themselves, drawn from a broad socio-economic base, have contributed much of the content and character of this hands-on program. Now, in response to chicago's pressing local need for strong equity programming in science and technology education, the Museum proposes to "package" this club such that local chapters can readily be sent up throughout the city land region, especially in community centers, churches and Park District recreation centers. The club "package" will include: Modules of learning activities for various ages with supporting materials and equipment; Museum-coordinated trips to research and industrial sites; gatherings at the Museum; training of club facilitators; and adaptable organization format with an accounting system; recruitment of volunteers as helpers and role models; substantial help with fund-raising. NSF support is sought for the establishment of the modules and system, and the Museum commits itself to on-going maintenance and coordination of the network. The Science Club Network will draw extensively on existing programs, community networks and support systems. The Museum has already elicited many commitments of financial and other support for local chapters.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Roger MitchellMark WagnerSheridan Turner
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.