The Milwaukee Public Museum will develop Adventures in Science: An Interactive Exhibit Gallery. This will be a 7250 sq. ft. interactive exhibit with associated public programs and materials that link the exhibit with formal education. The goal of Adventures in Science is to promote understanding of biological diversity, the forces that have change it over time, and how scientists study and affect change. The exhibit will consist of three areas. "Our Ever-Changing World" will feature "dual scene" habitat dioramas that will convey at-a-glance how environments change over time. "The Natural History Museum" will be a reconstruction of a museum laboratory and collections area to protray behind-the-scenes scientific and curatorial activities that further the study of biological diversity, ecology and systematics. An "Exploration Center: will bridge these two areas and will be designed to accommodate live presentations, group activities and additional multimedia stations for Internet and intranet access. Using interactive devices, visitors will be encouraged to make hypothesis, examine evidence, compare specimens, construction histories of biological and geological changes, and develop conclusions about the science behind biodiversity and extinction issues. Visitors should also come away with an increased understanding of the role of systematic collections in understanding biological diversity. Information on MPM research programs will be highlighted in "The Natural History Museum" section and will be updated frequently. Annual Teacher Training Institutes for pre-service and in-service teachers will present strategies for using the gallery's multimedia stations, lab areas, and Web site links. Special attention will be given to reaching new audiences including those in the inner city and people with disabilities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Allen YoungJames KellyPeter SheehanSusan-Sullivan BorkinRolf JohnsonMary Korenic
The Developmental Studies Center is supporting the active involvement of parents in their children's mathematical development, helping parents understand more about how their children learn mathematically and socially, and increasing the likelihood that children will discuss mathematics with an adult who is significant in their lives. The first phase of this project develops, pilot tests, and evaluates a Homeside Math resource book for each grade level, K-2, with activities teachers can send home to foster positive interaction about mathematics between parents and their children. These activities are related to exemplary school curricula, particularly those developed with NSF support. The next phase develops a limited number of additional activities to add to the Homeside Math collection to be published as Community Math. Community Math is a resource book for youth workers with activities that foster mathematical discussions between children ages 5-8 and a significant adult and can be used in a variety of community organization settings and sent home for family use. Workshops are developed for parents, teachers, and youth workers to strengthen their knowledge of child-centered instructional strategies, meaningful activities, and how children develop mathematically and socially. And facilitator workshops are developed for parents, teachers, and youth workers to enable them to lead workshops for parents.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is developing and implementing a five-year science program for 420 parents and 210 teachers of children in grades K-8. Linked directly with school curricula and the new National Science Education Standards, the program will bridge the gap between parents and schools, and position the Zoo as a partner and intermediary to help parents and teachers improve the quality and quantity of science education. The program consists of four interrelated components: 1) A series of workshops that will prepare the 420 parents and 210 teachers to work in teams for better and more widely available science education; 2) A series of education projects that will enable workshop participants to teach thousands of other parents and educators about the importance of science literacy, the need for active parental engagement in children's education, and the crucial role that informal science institutions play in augmenting formal science instruction; 3) A series of four Science Advocacy Fairs at the Zoo that are expected to raise the visitor's consciousness on a large scale about the above issues; and 4) A symposium for educators from schools and informal science centers in the region to disseminate successful methods for involving parents in science education.
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science proposed to develop an outreach science and mathematics program with a parent involvement and teacher enhancement professional development component. The goals of the project are as follows: (1) to involve parents in their children's education; (2) to promote a positive attitude on behalf of parents and students toward science and mathematics; (3) to increase teachers' level of comfort in teaching science; and (4) to enhance teacher's confidence in the hands-on approach as an effective method for teaching science. The objectives for the parent component of this project are: acquaint parents with the national and state science education goals and standards; introduce parents to activities that can be done at home with children; and provide families with materials and activity sheets that can be used at home. The objectives for the teacher component of this project are: (1) to provide teachers with opportunities for increased communication with parents about science literacy for children; (2) provide professional development for teachers on the use of hands-on science activities in the classroom; and (3) to providing bilingual activity guides and kits containing materials to encourage science learning. The methods for implementing this project will be varied according to the needs of the target audiences. Parents and children will be engaged through parent workshops and multi-aged children's activities conducted at the museum by experienced science educators. The professional development for teachers' component of this project will include an extensive summer workshop, on-going training/ planning sessions during the school calendar year and session on the uses of the bilingual teaching manuals. The cost sharing for this NSF award is 46.7% of the total project cost.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Madeleine ZeiglerJayne Aubele
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Under the direction of Kevin Crowley, the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh will investigate gender bias in parental explanations in informal learning settings. This project, Responding to the Gender Gap in Informal Science Education, will build on previous research at children's museums where the conversations of 338 families with children eight years and younger at sixteen different interactive exhibits were recorded and analyzed. They found that parents were almost three times more likely to use explanations when interacting with boys than girls. In this project they will conduct additional research to isolate the causes and outcomes associated with gender bias in these parental explanations and then they will develop, evaluate, and disseminate a range of low-cost methods to modify science exhibits to support parental explanation to both girls and boys. The latter will take the form of an Explanation Toolbox (XBox) which will be a set of resources to help museums construct and evaluate their own modifications to support non-biased parental explanations, with special attention paid to including explanations for the young girls, in addition to the usual conversations about manipulating the exhibits and about the visual, auditory, and tactile information produced by the exhibit. Results of the research and the toolbox will be broadly disseminated via the World Wide Web and published research reports.
The Science Museum of Minnesota will develop "Investigations in Cell Biology," an integrated program that introduces cell, microbiology, and molecular biology to museum audiences through open-access, wet-lab, micro-experiment benches; training and support for school teachers; classes for adults and teens; and a long-term program for local high school youth. The project includes the development, testing, and installation of four micro-experiment benches that introduce visitors to the objectives, tools, and techniques of cell biology experimentation. These benches,"Inside the Cell," "Testing for DNA," "DNA Profile," and "Microbe Control," will be part of "Cell Lab," a 1,500 square-foot open experiment area within the science museum's new core exhibition, "The Human Body," opening December 1999.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Laurie Kleinbaum FinkSusan FlemingJ Newlin
Learning to Work with the Public in the Context of Local Systemic Change is a five-year Teacher Enhancement initiative to build a knowledge base and develop the necessary tools and resources for teachers and administrators to engage with their parents and public in pursuit of quality mathematics, and to prepare teacher leaders and administrators to successfully lead these efforts in their schools. The project has three major components: (1) focused and sustained work with teachers, administrators, school boards, parents and the public in strategically located current and potential NSF-supported Local Systemic Change communities; (2) the development and implementation of mathematics sessions and materials designed for parents/public and informed by the project's research/findings, and the preparation of teacher leaders and administrators to conduct these sessions within their own communities; and (3) dissemination conferences and other outreach activities. More specifically, the project will (a) engage in studies that identify the elements critical for successful intervention with parents and the public, (b) develop materials that can be used by lead teachers and other educational leaders to work with peer teachers and the broader public in their home communities, and (c) provide the professional development necessary to support implementation. The plan of work for the project is designed around the following questions: (1) What does it take to secure a public that is knowledgeable of issues in mathematics education and knowledgeable of what it means to teach important and relevant mathematics for understanding? (2) Will a knowledgeable public support and/or actively advocate for mathematics reform? If so, what is the nature of their advocacy? (3) What impact will a knowledgeable and/or proactive public have on the efforts of current and potential Local Systemic Change (LSC) projects to improve the quality of mathematics instruction in schools? (4) Are there critical times during mathematics restructuring efforts when parent engagement is essential? If so, what are those times and what is the nature of support needed? (5) What are the critical issues and caveats that need to be considered in designing and delivering successful mathematics education sessions for parents and the public? (6) What kinds of public engagement can best be accomplished by teacher leaders working within their own communities? What kinds of support do local leaders need in order to work successfully with parents and the public? (7) What kinds of public engagement can best be accomplished by national mathematics education leaders who come into a community on a limited basis? The work to be performed in the project is a carefully designed effort to develop a more practice-based understanding of the critical elements needed for productive public involvement in support of quality mathematics. Sites participating in the plan of work are Portland (OR), St. Vrain (CO), and San Francisco (CA). Resources and tools (e.g., deliverables) planned include professional development materials that can be used by teacher leaders and administrators as they work with peer teachers, as well as with parents and the public; rough-cut video tapes that are potentially useful in these professional development sessions; and a website. Cost sharing is derived from participating school districts and the Exxon and Intel Foundations.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ruth ParkerJaneane GolliherDominic PeressiniLisa Adajian
The Education Development Center, Incorporated, requests $2,081,018 to create informal learning opportunities in science, mathematics, engineering and technology utilizing the study of the ancient African civilization of Nubia as context. Educational activities and resources will be developed based on the extensive ongoing archeological research on historical Nubia. The two main components of the project are a traveling exhibit with related educational materials and a website that will provide the target audience an opportunity to access extensive on-line resources and activities. The project will provide community outreach and professional development for educators in museums, community groups, schools and libraries. The project is designed for thirty-six months' duration. In year one, a network of collaborators in the Boston area will focus on research and development; in year two, project materials will be piloted and evaluated in six cities, and on-line professional development programs will be conducted; and in year three, project materials will be disseminated directly to 60 sites and more broadly via the internet.
The Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network requests $1,518,318 to develop and pilot, in ten low-income communities, a two-pronged initiative for providing professional development for parents to be stronger advocates for their children in science, mathematics and technology. The objectives for this project are to prepare a cadre of parents (or parent surrogates) at each of ten pilot sites to advocate for a stronger participation in quality science, mathematics, and technology education for their own and other children; to establish an information and support network from which parents can retrieve educational resources via QEM's Website, an 800-telephone number, fax, and e-mail, and regular postal service. The pilot sites are Lowndes County, AL; targeted communities in Cleveland and Florence, SC; seven public housing communities in Atlanta, GA, Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL, New York (Brooklyn and Jamaica), Norfolk, VA, and Tallahassee, FL. The Community Service Centers (CSC's) established on neighboring college campuses serve the seven public housing communities with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with technical assistance provided by the QEM Network. The participating neighboring colleges are Clark-Atlanta University, Morgan State University, Chicago State University, New York City Technical College, York College, Norfolk State University, and Florida A&M University.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) in collaboration with the Illinois State Museum (ISM), the St. Louis Science Center (SLSC), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, will form a museum consortium to develop two virtual reality interactive displays (River Pilot Simulator and Digital River Basin) and other web-based activities that focus on the Mississippi River. This group will be known as the Mississippi River Web Museum Consortium. Each museum will end up with both software modules that will lead visitors to the story of the River. The river's local presence will serve as an entry point for the visitors at each museum. The NCSA will contribute their access to and knowledge of powerful computer simulation, scientific visualization, and collaborations technologies that are usually restricted to research settings and rarely available to a museum audience or the general public. The Consortium will also develop a shared site on the WWW that will invite users to engage in guided inquiry that will deepen their understanding of the large, complex, and integrated river system. The science content underlying the project will include river hydrology and geomorphology, life sciences, environmental studies employing geographic information systems, and the physics of motion. The activities will address a number of the National Science Education Standards. Complementary programming linking these activities with formal education include a RiverWeb(tm) Posting Board and a RiverWeb(tm) Classroom Resource Guide.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) in collaboration with the Illinois State Museum (ISM), the St. Louis Science Center (SLSC), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, will form a museum consortium to develop two virtual reality interactive displays (River Pilot Simulator and Digital River Basin) and other web-based activities that focus on the Mississippi River. This group will be known as the Mississippi River Web Museum Consortium. Each museum will end up with both software modules that will lead visitors to the story of the River. The river's local presence will serve as an entry point for the visitors at each museum. The NCSA will contribute their access to and knowledge of powerful computer simulation, scientific visualization, and collaborations technologies that are usually restricted to research settings and rarely available to a museum audience or the general public. The Consortium will also develop a shared site on the WWW that will invite users to engage in guided inquiry that will deepen their understanding of the large, complex, and integrated river system. The science content underlying the project will include river hydrology and geomorphology, life sciences, environmental studies employing geographic information systems, and the physics of motion. The activities will address a number of the National Science Education Standards. Complementary programming linking these activities with formal education include a RiverWeb(tm) Posting Board and a RiverWeb(tm) Classroom Resource Guide.
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) in collaboration with the Illinois State Museum (ISM), the St. Louis Science Center (SLSC), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, will form a museum consortium to develop two virtual reality interactive displays (River Pilot Simulator and Digital River Basin) and other web-based activities that focus on the Mississippi River. This group will be known as the Mississippi River Web Museum Consortium. Each museum will end up with both software modules that will lead visitors to the story of the River. The river's local presence will serve as an entry point for the visitors at each museum. The NCSA will contribute their access to and knowledge of powerful computer simulation, scientific visualization, and collaborations technologies that are usually restricted to research settings and rarely available to a museum audience or the general public. The Consortium will also develop a shared site on the WWW that will invite users to engage in guided inquiry that will deepen their understanding of the large, complex, and integrated river system. The science content underlying the project will include river hydrology and geomorphology, life sciences, environmental studies employing geographic information systems, and the physics of motion. The activities will address a number of the National Science Education Standards. Complementary programming linking these activities with formal education include a RiverWeb(tm) Posting Board and a RiverWeb(tm) Classroom Resource Guide.