Community Television of Southern California (KCET/Los Angeles) proposes to create a national television series supported by outreach activities designed to motivate parents to participate in and support children's learning and enjoyment of mathematics. This proposal requests National Science Foundation funding of $1 million towards a total twenty-two month project costing approximately $1.7 million. The proposed television series Math Smart (working title) will include 5 lively half-hour programs designed specifically to aid parents and other adult family members of children in first through third grade. The series will be offered for broadcast nationally on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Videocassettes of the series and an accompanying Resource Guide will also be made available for home use. National promotional and outreach activities will complement the PBS broadcast, including presentations of national educational conferences and one-day orientation workshops for parents and teachers at selected sites. Over the course of the project, process and outcome evaluation will be conducted to ensure the effectiveness of the MATH SMART materials and activities. The primary goal of the MATH SMART Project is to empower parents to participate in and reinforce the learning of mathematics and a vital par t of everyday life. It is from parents that children develop the foundation for their educational success. Unfortunately, many parents do not possess the mathematical skills or confidence needed to help their children. By providing examples of hands-on learning activities which families can do together at home, MATh SMART offers parents the tools to help excite young children about mathematics. While special emphasis will be given to encouraging minority participation, this project seeks to help all parents and other primary caretakers prepare children for the 21st century.
This proposal requests partial funding for the development of a new paleobiology hall at the University of Nebraska State Museum. This project will give students and the general public a dynamic view of the period of time known as the Age of Reptiles. It emphasizes experience with interactive exhibits that focus on concepts of geologic time, how species adapt and change, relative size, scale and time, the activities of scientists as role models, and it provides reinforcement of these experiences for students in the classroom. This project includes the first use in a museum of SemNet, a software program designed for concept mapping and the representation of knowledge networks, which will be used with a videodisc. Prototypes of all interactive exhibits will undergo formative evaluation to establish maximal audience accessibility, ease of use and educational effectiveness. The exhibit concepts will be disseminated throughout the state of Nebraska through mini- versions, teachers in-service training, and scientist-in- residence programs. This project will also be used as a teaching laboratory for the University of Nebraska's graduate program in Museum Studies.
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.
Three successful marine science curricula and teacher training packages, For Sea, Mare, and Living in Water, developed by the Marine Science Center, the Lawrence Hall of Science, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, will be refined and enhanced in preparation for the production of two, multimedia compact discs (CD ROM). Advances in CD ROM technology coupled with increasing accessibility to the technology, make the compact disc an effective tool for curriculum development, utilization, and distribution. The compact disc will contain all text and graphic images from the three curricular projects; and, a comprehensive indexing system allowing materials to be utilized in a variety of manners, including thematically and topically, to effect curriculum integration. Training will be provided to an existing cadre of teacher trainers to maximize the implementation of the new curriculum and CD ROM disc.