The Please Touch Museum is requesting $684,602 for the development of educational resource materials in science and mathematics for four-year old children, and training for their parents and teachers in Head Start and other daycare programs. This 44 month project will develop, test, and produce six materials-based science and math activity kits, science training workshops for parents and daycare educators, and related family materials and events. It will culminate in a national dissemination program to promote more effective preschool science and math education through materials- based science inquiry and increased professional relations between educators in youth museums and daycare centers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marzy SykesRenee HenryTracey Prendergast
This materials development project is the result of a joint effort by Miami University and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). The project will combine the resources of the Univeristy and the publication department of NSTA, to work with schools to produce an innovative science journal for children in grades 3-6, a teacher support manual, a parent support manual, and a supporting computer network that will connect children with scientists and university science students in scientific inquiry. The journal will be the first national journal devoted to research scientists and children with an outlet for publication of scientific investigations conducted by children. Given the strong record of accomplishment of the PI and the publications division of the National Science Teachers Association, the panel feel it is likely that the Dragonfly, Dragonfly Companions. the Dragonfly Net will be a quality product and recommends funding this project at a high priority level. The Program Officer agrees with the panel and recommends funding this proposal.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christopher MyersPhyllis MarcuccioR. Hays CumminsChris WolfeCarolyn Haynes
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is requesting $370,728 to create a traveling exhibit entitled "How Things Work, which will familiarize students and the general public with the science and engineering behind 15-20 "gadgets" which play vital roles in their everyday lives. A number of the exhibit elements will be based on the work of Dr. Richard Crane. Ancillary materials will be developed for classroom teachers as part of school outreach. An Exhibition Resource Guide will be developed for use by other museum venues, as well as teachers, students and others.
Cornell University is producing a documentary television program about the 100-meter radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia. The film, planned as a PBS special, will document the engineering and technology behind the construction of the telescope as well as examining and explaining the science of radio astronomy. Ancillary educational material, including a 20 minute version of the video, will be developed and distributed for use in informal education setting through the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In addition images and information about the Green Bank Telescope and the science of radio astronomy will be made available through an electronic bulletin board service such as GOPHER or MOSAIC. Teaching materials also will be developed for use in the secondary school curriculum and an "Across Space and Time" undergraduate curriculum developed at Cornell University will be made available to faculty at other colleges and universities. In addition, the film and related material will serve as the centerpiece for short courses for college teachers at Green Bank under the National Chautauqua Short Course Program. The PI and major content developer is Martha Haynes, Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University associated with the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. The film is being produced by PhotoSynthesis Production of Ithaca, New York. David Gluck is co-producer, director, and cinematographer and Deborah Hoard is co-producer and writer. A twelve person advisory committee of astronomers, teachers, and informal science educators will guide development of the project.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific requests $1,317,701 over three years to implement its California pilot project to six sites around the country. Each site will establish local, self- sustaining coalitions linking science centers, astronomical institutions, school districts, and community groups. These coalitions will, with training and support from the national Project ASTRO staff, identify, link, and support the astronomer/teacher partners in their area to use the excitement of astronomy to improve the teaching and learning of science in elementary and middle school. A second strand of the project will use the Project ASTRO materials and techniques to train astronomers and teachers at national meetings outside the six sites to set up individual ASTRO partnerships on their own. Materials to be produced include a: Project ASTRO Coalition Manual; Training Manual; update to the Resource Notebook for the Teaching of Astronomy. Target audiences are students in grades 4-9.