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 Minnesota Children's Museum, in collaboration with the American Library Association will develop a project to engage children ages two through seven years old and their parents in exploring mathematics through hands-on, book-based math activities in libraries and children's museums across the country. The main elements of the project are: 1. A 1200 square foot exhibit at the Minnesota Children's Museum; 2. A traveling exhibit to ten children's museums over a six month period; 3. Five smaller versions of the exhibit will travel to 75 libraries sponsored by the American Library Association. Each library that apply for the exhibit must present a plan in which 50 percent of their exhibit audience will be children and families of the under-represented, lower income groups, and racial and/or ethnic groups. 4. Programs and materials will be designed to provide parents with the means to actively participate in their children's math education. The collaboration of the Minnesota Children's Museum and the American Library Association draws together two organizations whose natural constituencies are parents with young children. Project 1,2,3 is designed to be national in scope and creates multiple formats within which families can enjoy exploring math. Its goals and objectives reflect four messages: start early, math is everywhere, parental involvement and get into books. The project Principal Investigator (PI) Ms. Jeanne W. Vergeront received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Science in Child and Family Studies and Environmental Design, respectively from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently, she serves as the Vice President, Educational Projects at the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The World Wildlife Fund will develop Windows on the Wild - Exploring Biodiversity. The components of this project include two editions of a 2000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit, mini-exhibition kits designed to reach small and medium-sized institutions, and complementary educational materials designed to reach the general public and families including traditionally underserved audiences, students, and educators. With this project WWF intends to raise awareness and interest in biodiversity - its importance and its decline; raise awareness of the nature and role of scientific research in investigating and protecting biodiversity; raise awareness of, interest in, and understanding of the impacts of personal choices on biodiversity; and motivate and empower individuals to get involved in biodiversity issues. The exhibits will include a centerpiece theater introduction surrounded by five sections presenting activities and information related to the themes: What is Biodiversity? How Do We Find Out? Why is it Important? Why Is It at Risk? and How Can We Get Involved? Ancillary materials form the general public will include A Family Biodiversity Discovery Notebook, a take-home booklet, a brochure format for host institutions to use highlighting local events, among others. Complementary materials linking the exhibit to formal education activities include Educator's Info, and Windows on the Wild Biodiversity Educational Materials, as well as information about workshop and institutes.
The Exploratorium will develop a 6000 sq. f.t exhibit Seeing: The Interaction of Physiology, Culture, and Technology . As the first exhibit and program development project of their multiyear initiative "Refocusing on the Floor," this permanent exhibit will consist of approximately 60 new and redesigned exhibits organized into six sections: Seeing Central, Light and Images, Process of Seeing, Seeing Things Differently, Extending Our Vision, and Deconstructing What We See. Visitors will develop their skills at seeing, noticing, and visual thinking, will become more conscious of visual information in daily life, be exposed to current research on vision and visual cognition, be given opportunities to investigate the social and cultural influences on seeing, and be lead to the realization that seeing, interpreting, and understanding visual information are basic to the conduct of science. New partnerships will be developed with community-based organizations that will promote new audiences for the Exploratorium as well as enhance the viewpoints of the participating staff members. The activities will address the National Science Standards in terms of the process skills that are identified and will reintroduce visual thinking skills into the activities linking the exhibit with the formal education's curriculum. Additional workshops and professional dissemination activities will be included in the overall project.
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 North Carolina Museum of Life and Science will develop two areas in a new 70 acre outdoor exhibit "BioQuest Woods: Linking Animals and Plans with Interactive Exhibits". This concept is to pair live animals and plants in their natural setting with science center-style interactive exhibits to communicate key ideas in biology and physics. Support will go to sixteen interactive stations in two four-acre theme areas "Catch the Wind" and "Down to Earth". "Catch the Wind" will assist visitors in the exploration air movement and learning about how plants and animals use air in specialized ways. For example, visitors will experiment with air thermals while observing the behavior of birds of prey and will learn how prairie dogs exploit the venturi effect to ventilate their burrows. In the "Down to Earth" thematic area, visitors, simulate the activities of field biologists, will track bears equipped with radio collars, examine living invertebrates, among other activities. Scientific instruments, including microscopes, in kiosks will aid on-the-scene study of live animals and plans. "BioQuest Woods" will help visitors, teachers and students gain the realistic experience of scientific inquiry in a natural setting. Education programming will highlight curriculum linkages and fulfills the goals of North Carolina's new science curriculum. It directly addresses the State's competency-based goals requiring understanding of natural systems and the interrelations of the basic sciences. Pre and post-visit materials will be developed along with teacher guides and enhancement activities. This project is being developed with the cooperation of the Austin Nature Center, the National Zoo, and the Indianapolis Zoo.
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 Space Science Institute is developing a 5,000 s.f. hands-on traveling exhibitions called MarsQuest that will be the centerpiece of a wide-ranging planetary science education program. The exhibition will feature engaging, aesthetically designed, hands-on displays that offer experiences with science concepts relevant to Mars exploration, and will address the common misconceptions about Mars and its relationship to Earth. The most exciting aspect of the exhibition is its up-to-date connection to the progress and discoveries of 8-10 spacecraft that will be launched by NASA from 1996-2005. The exhibition will be supported by educational programs, including comprehensive teacher workshops, public programs on Mars themes, a 30-minute planetarium show emphasizing exploration and discovery, visits to schools and the dissemination of comprehensive field- tested educational materials developed by Arizona State University, the Planetary Society, NASA, the Pacific Science Center, and others. All educational materials will be aligned with the National Science Education Standards and will be available on the World Wide Web.
The Chabot Observatory and Science Center (COSC) in Oakland California will develop and present Bringing the Universe Down to Earth: Demystifying the Process that shapes the Solar System. This exhibition will utilize thirteen interactive works by Ned Kahn, a nationally recognized artist. The exhibition will consist of twenty-six exhibits: two per theme, one for Chabot, and one for the traveling component. The exhibition will be incorporated into the structure and network of COSC. It will invite visitors to draw on their general knowledge of this world by focusing on familiar earthly phenomena, such as volcanoes, whirlwinds, wind storms, avalanches, and to consider them in a broader context. Also, the project will take advantage of Chabot's well developed, online connection with schools and community groups in the area to create new opportunities for individualized inquiry. A direct product of this work will be a series of curricular outlines designed to help teachers make full use of the exhibition. This effort can be used to foster a strong collaboration between the informal and formal science education programs. An important feature of this exhibition is that it will travel to nine sites around the country under the auspices of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). It is projected that over one million people at the nine sites will see this traveling exhibition. Educational and marketing materials, as well as workshops materials prepared for the COSC exhibition will accompany the traveling exhibit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michael ReynoldsMargaret HaubenNed Kahn
The Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences (CASS) at Augsburg College, in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, is developing three exhibit clusters on important weather and climate systems that affect our everyday lives. Each cluster will consist of a micro-computer-based exhibit that runs a mathematical model of the weather system, a supporting three-dimensional display that encapsulates the entire system, a physical interactive exhibit that teaches critical physical concepts, and a graphical environment that reinforces connections to visitors' personal knowledge and interests. The three weather systems that constitute the content of the exhibit will be selected from the following four options: mid-latitude cyclones and the weather they cause, the cycle of ice ages over the past million years, global warming and greenhouse gases, and physical features on the earth that have profound effects on local climates. These exhibit clusters will build on the previous interactive exhibit components developed by Augsburg College: Seasons, Winds, and Clouds. All three exhibit and program clusters will be designed so they can be placed in science and natural history museums nationwide. The computer models will be designed to run on common, inexpensive microcomputers and will be disseminated to museums, libraries, other public sites, and schools. The project content and educational design will be developed by the PI, William Jasperson, a Senior Research Scientist at CASS, working with two of his fellow Senior Research Scientists, David Venne and Anthony Hansen, and with Geanine Gregoire from the Department of Education at Augsburg College. J. Shipley Newlin and James Roe, will be responsible for exhibit design and development at the science museum.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William JaspersonJ NewlinDavid Venne
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.