With this planning grant, the staff of the Bucks County Historical Society will work with a group of museum professionals and community representatives to develop plans for interactive exhibits that have science and math content that will be placed in an outdoor park. They want visitors to learn about the science, history, and aesthetics of early American hand tools and technology by experiencing various hands-on activities. The planning activities will include meetings of the planning committees, front-end evaluation, and the testing of some prototype activities. At the end of the twelve month planing period they will have 1) a better understanding of their audience and their knowledge of the science and technology to be presented in the exhibit, 2) a schematic design for the activities to be included in the park, 3) plans for complementary educational activities, and 4) results of prototype testing of selected activities.
The Zoological Society of Philadelphia will develop Primate Reserve. This project will include the development of a two acre indoor/outdoor primate habitat for up to 60 primates and a variety of complementary programming including hands-on interpretative activities for visitors, a Discovery House/Conservation Action Center, live performances, school programs and teacher training activities that link with the formal education curriculum, and a World Wide Web site. The goal of this program is to communicate basic information about primate biology, behavior, social structure, and habitats, and the problems face by primates in the wild. Visitors are to learn that "Conservationists around the world work together to help primates and you can help too." Specifically visitors will learn details about conservation biology/population biology including a) a species' biology affects its vulnerability to extinction, b) small populations are vulnerable to inbreeding depression and loss of genetic diversity, c) small populations in small areas are vulnerable to stochastic events, and d) these concerns apply to both wild and zoo populations. To make the story more personal and to provide career role models, primatologists engaged in their research will be featured in the exhibit. The exhibit will open in June, 1999 and the school program will begin October, 1999.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will develop Engineer It! Dissemination of a Successful Multiple Outcome Exhibition. This will be a 5000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit based on their NSF supported exhibit Engineer It! that opened as a permanent exhibit at OMSI in 1994. The exhibit presents visitors with an environment rich in opportunities to design, engineer, and test structures in three testing areas focusing on water, structures, and wind. Visitors will learn basic engineering principles through experimentation by designing boats, buildings, bridges, cranes, windmills, and paper airplanes among other things. Supporting components include training workshops for host museums on how to most effectively use the experimental environment of the exhibit, a Teacher's Guide, take-home activities, and a web page. The primary audience is the general museum visitor which includes many families, and elementary school students. Careful attention will be given to the development of family friendly exhibit text that will help adults understand how children learn from developmentally appropriate hands-on activities and how they can support that learning through adult-child interaction. The content of the exhibit is in synchrony with national science standards.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Raymond VandiverJan DabrowskiNancy Stueber
The Whitaker Center for Science and Arts will develop two versions of an exhibit Bodies in Motion: The Physics of Human Movement. The Whitaker Center is a new cultural center to be centrally located in Harrisburg, PA and has as its theme "science through the arts." In keeping with that focus, this will be a highly interactive 2000 sq. ft. exhibit which will provide experiences that reveal the physics embodied in dance, ice skating, gymnastics, and other sports. Two versions of the exhibit will be developed, one will be for the Whitaker Center (2000 sq. ft.) and the other (1500 sq. ft.) will travel to small science centers and children's museums. The core physics concepts to be explored are mass, inertia, force, speed and velocity, acceleration, torque, momentum, angular momentum, centrifugal and centripetal force, kinetic and potential energy, gravity, and Newton's Laws of Motion. By means of the exhibits learners will explore such topics as the role of torque and rotational momentum in turns, how dancers manipulate their center of gravity to create the illusion of floating during leaps, and how physics illuminate the differences between dance and ice skating. There will be a series of complementary programs which include lecture/demonstrations by Dr. Kenneth Laws, a physicist who studies the physics of dance; teacher education programs; support materials for classroom use; professional development programs for teachers; and a brochure on physics and dance for distribution to dance schools.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth BrewerAnn MintzThomas Stone
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop Window on Catalhoyuk: An Archaeological Work in Progress. The project will include a 4,500 sq. ft. exhibit, a World Wide Web site, an exhibit cookbook for archaeology interactives developed for the exhibit, and a suite of related classroom activities. Catalhoyuk is currently the most important archaeological site in Turkey and among the most significant cultural heritage monuments in the world. It consists of two mounds located on either side of an ancient river channel. The larger mound has Early Neolithic age occupation levels (9000 and 7500 years ago) and represents one of the largest known Neolithic settlements, holding links to the beginnings of agriculture, animal domestication, and the rise of urban complexity. The smaller mound consists of more recent occupations (7500 to 5000 years ago). Together they may record nearly 10,000 years of human occupation. SMM has been a partner, along with the Turkish team, in the Catalhoyuk Research Project since its inception in 1993 and has the responsibility of developing public programs and for bringing the research findings before a worldwide audience. Unlike a traditional approach where the results of archaeological research appear years after the excavations, this project will focus on the process of archaeology giving visitors the opportunity of learning about the workings of contemporary archaeology and the nature of scientific inquiry, along with the important insight into the beginning of Mediterranean civilization. The exhibit will be updated annually for two years to reflect new results of ongoing fieldwork. The project addresses the National Science Education Standards, particularly those related to science as inquiry and to the history and nature of science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Donald PohlmanNatalie RuskOrrin Shane
Treasuring our Natural Heritage: Natural History and Environmental Science Education is a multifaceted project that will be developed by the Idaho Museum of Natural History. Their goal is to heighten an understanding of issues surrounding the concept of biodiversity among the general public. By using the metaphor " the economy of nature," they will present three concepts: biodiversity which will include the idea of keystone species, natural capital, and extinction debt & conservation biology. This approach and the use of this metaphor is based on pre-exhibit research work that demonstrated that rural Idahoans understand this as a system of exchange, where each species holds a different 'occupation' and a variety of occupations is critical to the health of the economy. This project will bring participants in touch with the value of scientific research through presentations by scientists whose recent research results will provide a deeper understanding of the living systems around them. Views of elders from Idaho's Native American tribes will be included to add a critical human dimension. With this award they will develop a series of three small traveling exhibits, three-part educational video series for public broadcasting, and three multimedia science kits for use by children's groups on each of the three concepts noted above. With this multifaceted design it is anticipated that this program will reach 50% of Idaho's 1.2 million people. It is anticipated that the exhibits will become generally available once they have completed their circulation in Idaho.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stefan SommerAllen JacksonAmy LaffertyAndrew GibbonsAlbert Strickland
The Smithsonian Institution will develop plans for Science on the Mall. The final product of this planning will be an exhibit with a traveling component and additional complementary activities that will heighten the public's understanding of the processes of science. It is the Smithsonian's intention that visitors will experience the processes of science by direct inquiry into the nature of science as a way of thinking and knowing the world. With this award, they will plan the 8000 sq. ft. permanent exhibit, a smaller scale traveling exhibit, various public programs, and an Icon. The large exhibit will consist of five stations: What is Scientific?, How is Science Done?, What Influences Have Tool and Instrumentation Had on Science?, How is Science Used?, and How is Science Communicated?. Managed by the Office of the Provost, the planning activities will include 1) meetings of SI staff and advisors that have diverse perspectives including scientists, educators, exhibit designers, and evaluators, among others; 2) charettes on the exhibit design and visitors perceptions and expectation of science issues, 3) the drafting of concepts and text for the exhibit activities, and 4) final review of all elements by SI management. At the end of the planing period it is their intention to have all the plans in place in order to move forward on the implementation phase.
The Informal Science Education Program of the National Science foundation will provide $320,000 in partial support of "Research in Learning in Museums Project." This will be the NSF contribution to a four federal agency effort to collaboratively support a major research project on learning in museums. As the result of an RFP developed by representatives of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), an award was made to the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. It was agreed by the four agencies that the IMLS would be the coordinating agency of this award since they represent all museum regardless of subject, content, or type of audience.
The University Museum of the University of Colorado at Boulder will plan a 3,000 square foot exhibit, "From Grassland to Glacier: Planning for an Interactive Exhibit on Biodiversity," to replace the antiquated Biology Hall in the Museum which is located on the Boulder campus. The goals of the project are two-fold: 1) to plan an innovative interactive exhibit presenting current research and pressing environmental issues to a diverse audience, and 2) to serve as a model for other university museums in bringing together researchers, exhibit specialists, undergraduate and graduate students, K-12 teachers, and visitors to plan an exhibit. The planning phase will involve researching other exhibit projects on biodiversity that have successfully communicated with underserved audiences; traveling to other science museums to learn about exhibits on biodiversity; bringing a specialist to Boulder to meet with the exhibit team; assessing the baseline knowledge of the core concepts; meeting with prospective visitors, university scientists, and representatives from collaborative organizations; and drafting a conceptual plan for the exhibit.
The Exploratorium will develop an exhibition entitled " Traits of Life: Exploratory Exhibits in the Life Sciences". There will be two versions. The first will be a 4,500 sq.-ft. exhibit that will include about 35 life science interactive modules and will be installed at the Exploratorium. Following an evaluation period, about 20 of the exhibits will be used for a 3,000 sq.-ft. traveling version of the exhibition. The Association of Science and Technology Centers will manage the circulation of the exhibition. Challenging visitors to consider the question "What is Life?" this exhibition will be designed to offer learners new ways to explore characteristics shared by all living things. Three traits have been selected to illustrate the characteristics common to all living things: a shared molecular and cellular structure, self-reproduction, and adaptation to surroundings. These traits will be reflected in three sections of the exhibit: "A Common Design", "Passing It On" and "Staying Alive". Complementary elements include artists-in-residence, scientists-in-residence, teacher institutes, student materials, web-based activities, public programs and publications. Project staff will attempt to develop an understanding of techniques that are most successful in stimulating learning about life science in informal settings.
The New York Hall of Science will develop, test, and implement the "Biochemistry Discovery Lab," a 1000-sq.-ft. space designed to complement the content and design of "The Chemistry of Living Things," a 3000-sq.-ft. exhibition that will be opening in 1999. The Biochemistry Discovery Lab will engage visitors in four different types of activities: 1) guided experiments for scheduled groups, 2) self-guided experiments, 3) demonstrations, and 4) the prototyping of ancillary materials. These activities are intended to engage the target audiences -- families, students, and the general public -- in experiences leading to an understanding that chemical reactions are due to the interaction of molecules; that chemical reactions occur in both living and nonliving things; and that there are visible and measurable characteristics of chemical reactions in living and nonliving systems.
The Museum of Science, Boston will develop an exhibit about Aging. It will be a 6000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit that will open in Boston during April, 2000 coinciding with the United Nations' International Year of Older Persons. The exhibit will provide visitors with an engaging and interactive environment in which to explore scientific, personal, and social aspects of aging. This exhibit will put a spotlight on the remarkable change that has been occurring as a result of in the increased survival rates for people of all ages contributing, among other things, to an increase in the number of older adults. This exhibit will be organized around four themes that will engage visitors in the exploration of the basic scientific research and impact of this change in demographics. The themes are: 1) the biological research that is seeking to understand how and why all living things age, 2) the impact of the physiological and psychological effects of the aging process of humans, 3) the influence of personal, social, and cultural factors on an individual's aging process and 4) the demographic, economic and public policy aspects of aging. There will be a number of complementary programs developed which will be packaged in a tool kit format that will permit museums borrowing the exhibit to develop those components that are allowed by their resources. These programs include a museum theater production that will invite visitors to think about aging in the context of their own society/culture; a world-wide-web resource to assist teachers and other community educators; and a series of multigenerational one-day programs to encourage interactions between different generations within a family or participating group. The exhibit will provide an opportunity for linkage with the needs of the formal education community. Its content addresses important parts of the formal science education curriculum as identified in the National Science Education Standards, Science for All Americans, and Benchmarks for Science Literacy.