New and developing science centers make up a significant percentage of ASTC membership. They often have limited funds, facilities, exhibits, education programs and experience developing and operating a science center. These institutions desire ready-to-use exhibits, demonstrations and education materials, as well as management workshops concerning the basic operation of a science center. This project proposes the formation of a Science Carnival Consortia, a partnership of the Pacific Science Center and five to eight new and developing science centers. Building on the success of the Pacific Science Center's Science Carnival, Consortia members: (1) Obtain twenty to forty Science Carnival exhibits (2) Obtain six ready-to-use demonstrations (3) Obtain supplementary education materials (4) Obtain appropriate training regarding the implementation and maintenance of the above items (5) Participate in a week long management workshop at the Pacific Science Center (6) Receive ongoing consultation with Pacific Science Center Staff (7) Participate in three annual meetings of Consortia members The project also produces a Science Carnival "cookbook" which provides instructional for fabricating and maintaining all exhibits in Science Carnival, plus scripts and material lists for each demonstration, and enrichment class. The project also evaluates the success of this model for serving other new and developing science centers.
Mathematics can be exciting. It can be fun. The modern world surrounds us with examples of its beauty. Too often, however, these examples go unnoticed or unexplored. This is one reason so few young Americans think of mathematics as a potential career path: they do not realize how much mathematics is a part of their lives, or how much they use it -- often without knowing it| The Maryland Science Center and the mathematics faculty of the George Washington University have teamed up to create The Language of Patterns, a mathematics exhibit that examines mathematics in modern life. Through engaging interactive exhibit stations, The Language of Patterns invites visitors of all ages to discover the intricacy and wonder of modern mathematics. Eschewing highly technical terminology, the exhibit focuses instead on fun and exploration. Mounted by the Maryland Science Center in its Baltimore facility and in a traveling version that will be available to science and technology museums across the county, this exhibit represents a unique collaboration between academic and museum exhibition design experts. More important, The Language of Patterns is an opportunity for visitors to rethink their relationship with modern mathematics, one of man's most significant -- and misunderstood -- achievements.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
D.D. HilkeRaylene DecaturRodica SimionPeter Yancone
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop an interdisciplinary national traveling exhibition about raptors (birds of prey). Created in collaboration with The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota (TRC) and the Museum Magnet School of the St. Paul School District, this exhibit and its related programs will explore themes of biodiversity, ecology, and human relationships with the natural world. It will help visitors understand raptors as diverse, charismatic, biologically-complex animals whose continued survival is linked to fundamental questions of public policy, economics, and environmental ethics. combining the perspectives of the sciences with those of the humanities, the exhibit will present science in a real-world context of human values and actions. Opening at SMM in the summer of 1944, the 5,000-square-foot exhibit will travel for five years or more to other large museums, nature centers, and zoos throughout the U.S. Using specimens, models, artifacts, dioramas, audiovisual programs, and interactive components and supported by theater, demonstrations, and a variety of other on-site programs, it will provide a compelling mix of informal learning experiences for families, school groups, and other general audiences. Beyond the museum walls, the themes of the project will reach schools and other important outreach audiences through videotapes, teacher training programs, educational materials, and other programs. SMM will also produce a scaled-down version of the exhibit that will tour to smaller museums, nature centers, and zoos.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is a progressive science and technology center. Its philosophy toward science education is to make it enticing, enjoyable and motivating. It accomplishes this by means of "hands-on", interactive exhibits and programs designed to provide a non- threatening learning environment, for which we are recognized nationally. OMSI recognizes the important national need to assist the public in understanding and being comfortable with advances in, and methodology of applied science. It proposes to design and build a large exhibit that promotes problem solving using engineering principles. The exhibit will pose problems, offer basic information for the solution and provide a variety of tools and building materials from which the visitor can choose. The visitor then devises one or several possible solutions, and constructs a prototype to be tested in one of three large scale testing laboratories. The engineering fields addressed are aeronautical, mechanical and civil. Our visitors will come away from the exhibit with an increased appreciation for the way engineering is done and how solutions affect their lives. OMSI is requesting $577,324 from the National Science Foundation as well as $427,539 from the Port of Portland to design and build this exhibit. The Port of Portland is interested in demonstrating how its commercial activities relate to engineering. OMSI plans to disseminate information about the exhibit to educators and other museums on a national level.
The goal of Science City: New York as a Science and Technology Exhibit, is to increase public awareness and interest in science and technology in daily life by creating "found exhibits" in public places throughout New York City. This proposal is based on a 1986 pilot project which developed criteria and concepts for successful Science City units and a prototype exhibit operating in a tourist elevator at the World Trade Center. Science City will use the streets and structures of New York to present the science and technology of everyday life. It will reach the science inattentive public who do not go to science museums. Eye-catching exhibits such as diffraction gratings mounted on bus shelters will reveal the different spectra of the incandescent, flourescent, neon, and mercury vapor lamps, already part of the street scene. The New York Hall of Science will place Science City exhibits in public parks, subways, bus kiosks, and building lobbies. Ten to fifteen different exhibits/signs, each replicated an average of 10 times, will be installed and evaluated throughout the boroughs of Queens and Manhattan.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alan FriedmanPeggy ColeTheodore Ansbacher
The Pratt Museum, a natural history museum in Southcentral Alaska, proposes to bring before the public an exhibition on oil pollution. Using the historic disaster of the March 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the museum presents a dramatic, grassroots story of the desperate struggle to protect the environment and preserve traditional lifestyles. The exhibit's purpose is to increase public awareness of national and global issues pertaining to the development, transportation, and use of petroleum. The 1,500 square foot presentation shows what an oil spill is like through photographs, maps, graphics, and three- dimensional participatory elements. The exhibit is scheduled to open at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in early 1991, beginning a three-year tour of 12 museums that will reach between 1.5 and 2 million viewers. The NSF contribution will support the circulation of the exhibit and the development of interactive components to enhance both the permanent and traveling presentations. Computerized graphic displays and an educational chest of learning tools will enhance the basic exhibit through multi- sensory activities designed for hands-on gallery use, increasing accessibility for children and disabled visitors. This cooperative project invloves private foundations, individuals, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
To provide the general public with an understanding of the basic principles that underlie the transmission, storage, and retrieval of information, the Fleet Center proposes to build SIGNALS, a 4,500 square foot exhibition. SIGNALS will be divided into three sections, of approximately 15 interactive exhibits each, which explore the physical principles of wave motion, the properties of electromagnetic pulses useful for communications, and the signal processing that enables us to handle information. An Advisory Committee comprised of highly qualified individuals at the leading edge of their fields will support development of SIGNALS; a very experienced team of exhibit developers will fabricate the exhibition. SIGNALS will become a permanent exhibition in an expanded Fleet Center, where it is expected to attract 1 million visitors a year, including at least 100,000 K-12 students. Since the lack of technological understanding is a national problem, we propose to build a 3,000 square foot traveling version of SIGNALS, contingent upon an NSF review of the completed permanent exhibition. The total cost for both exhibitions is $1,983,480. We are requesting $985,900 from NSF: $692,800 for the permanent exhibition and $293,100 for the traveling exhibition. The project will begin in June, 1992, and be completed by June, 1996.
The Science Museum of Connecticut (SMC) proposes a three- year exhibit project called The State of the Environment. This cost-effective project will serve over 500,000 citizens a year by producing two permanent exhibits - 2400 sf for SMC and 400 sf for SMD's Roaring Brook Nature Center -- and eight traveling exhibits for use primarily in connecticut's Priority schools. These innovative exhibits use highly accurate sculptural relief maps which are animated by laser graphics and responsive to visitor inquiries through a research-calibre database containing vast information on Connecticut's environment. Thorough evaluation will help SMC design visitor experiences that make map-database interaction attractive, easy to use and understand, and educationally satisfying. State accredited teacher workshops will give educators a firm grasp of database capabilities prior to its use in the traveling exhibits for schools. Traveling exhibits will support goals in Connecticut's NSF-funded Statewide Initiative. Teacher's Guides will facilitate in-dept investigations for high school science lessons. These exhibits will provide hands- on experiences with professional tools for environmental research, show how environmental maps are made, teach basic principles of environmental science, and provide-in-depth information about the ecology of an entire state.
The North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences requests $544,390 for the design and implementation of Freshwater Westlands: Habitats of Beauty and Function. This project consists of two main components: a 2,800 sq. ft. exhibit and related education program. The exhibit will communicate ecological principles and provide visitors of all ages with an appreciation of the diversity and beauty of freshwater wetlands habitats. The exhibit is comprised of three main areas: an introductory theater, an immersion diorama, and an interactive hall. Exhibits are designed to present many aspects of freshwater wetland habitats, including hydrology, dendrochronology, organism structure, and function, life- cycle, ecological research, and environmental policy. Through interactive exhibits on scientific concepts, visitors will gain an appreciation of both a particular habitat and the process of science and its application to their lives. The major objectives of the education program are to help teachers of grades 4-8 to bring the study of freshwater wetlands into their classrooms and to employ experientially oriented pedagogy. The project will offer a teacher resource guide, prepared in collaboration with state science curriculum staff, a satellite workshop for teachers, a freshwater wetlands edition of Wildlife in North Carolina, a statewide publication prepared in collaboration with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, and a classroom program in the museum.
The California Museum of Science and Industry will create a 3,000 square foot permanent exhibition of hands-on participatory exhibits on chemistry and chemical phenomena that will allow visitors to manipulate the variables of chemical systems. Forty exhibit units will be organized in clusters in that represent the basic concepts of properties of atoms and molecules, molecular structure and chemical reactions, stability of molecules and rates of reactions, forces between atoms and molecules and energy of atoms and molecules. The exhibition will use state-of-the-art technology to present chemical experiments previously left to the lab bench or the demonstration table. Interactive computers and videodiscs will be used where danger or complexity prevents the visitor from using "the real thing." Exhibit content will be proved in prototype form and tested on museum staff, visitors, and school groups prior to final design and construction. NSF support will be used in the design and prototype phases, and an "exhibit cookbook" of exhibit technologies for use by other museums will be created. The project has already attracted more than $175,000 of matching funds towards a total of $800,000 in non-NSF matching funds to support its $1,100,000 budget.
The videodisc-based exhibit, the Powers of Ten in Time, will allow museum visitors to explore the unseen world of natural change - events that occur too quickly or too slowly to be perceived. Through the use of a touch screen and interactive software, users will be able to, in effect, speed up or slow down timeto witness changes that lie outside of the limits of human time perception. Visitors will see scenes such as a forest recovering after a fire, a wall of earth crumbling from erosion, tides coming in and out, the intricate motions of complex machinery and molecules colliding and reacting to produce fire. The videodiscs will contain more than 100 short video segments depicting a wide range of phenomena. We will use time-lapse footage, slow-motion clips and animations to show changes occurring over time periods form 300,000,000 to femtoseconds. Not only will museum visitors be able to watch these video segments at their own pace and in order they choose, they will also be able to learn more about such phenomena through on- screen textual and graphical explanations. The goal of the project is to engage museum visitors with captivating photographic segments, explain the phenomena shown with supplemental text and graphics, and stimulate them to look at the world in a new way - not just with their eyes, but with their minds and imaginations.
Field Museum requests $1,033,456 from NSF for the geological and biological science portions of the new, 14,000 square-foot multidisciplinary exhibit on Africa. This $3.45 million permanent reinstallation will capitalize on Field Museum's extensive African collections. We intend to use these collections and other presentational strategies, broad scientific and community input to develop a sensitive and appealing exhibit that will advance central scientific themes in anthropology, geology, ecology, and conservation. A variety of techniques will be used to appeal to the individual interests, needs and learning styles of our diverse audience. Project director will be Michael Spock, Vice President for Public Programs at Field Museum. Co-developers will be Karen Hutt and Fath Ruffins. Exhibit consultants and advisors include Field Museum scientists and educators, and experts in the fields of biology, zoology, and conservation from outside the Museum. An estimated 14 million children and adults will be reached by this ehibit over the next 20 years, and extensive documentation of the exhibit development process will serve as a model for development of other comprehensive exhibits throughout the world.