The Orlando Science Center has assembled a project team to create a unique environmental science learning tool: THE GLOBAL DECISION ROOM. Founded on, and enhancing, the Science On a Sphere (SOS) digital globe, the Global Decision Room is an interactive theatre that puts visitors in the role of being decision makers on behalf of the behavior of large populations on the planet. The results of global decisions relating to the environment are seen played out on SOS. The interactive strategy that is created for the Global Decision Room will be flexible and well integrated into the SOS software platform, making it possible to design other educational story scenarios that can use the same system. The Global Decision Room is designed as a multi-use, high impact, exciting content delivery platform. This proposal is based on a well developed initial educational premise, but the resulting construction of the Global Decision Room will be the perfect environment for other educational topics of interest to NOAA s outreach strategy. As new datasets become available in the future, new interactive stories will be developed for the Global Decision Room. The Orlando project brings with it significant additional funding from the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Orlando Utilities Commission, and the Florida Hydrogen Initiative, which will greatly leverage the funding from NOAA. Partners in the project include a strong technical team from the University of Central Florida and the Florida Solar Energy Center, interactive digital media experts from the Institute for Simulation and Training, the creative design team "i.d.e.a.s." located at Disney-MGM Studios, and the XhibitNet interactive multimedia design team.
This article presents some of the challenges faced in developing an interactive exhibit on nanoscience and nanotechnology in Brazil. Presenting a scientific-technological area which is still in formation and which is little known by the population leads to a (re)consideration of the role of museums and science centers in the conformation and consolidation of scientific practice itself. Museographically, the exhibit deals with the challenge of making matter visible in an expression which is distant from the human perception. Some reflections are presented here on the option of musealization
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sandra MurrielloDjana ContierMarcelo Knobel
ITR: A Networked, Media-Rich Programming Environment to Enhance Informal Learning and Technological Fluency at Community Technology Centers The MIT Media Laboratory and UCLA propose to develop and study a new networked, media-rich programming environment, designed specifically to enhance the development of technological fluency at after-school centers in economically disadvantaged communities. This new programming environment (to be called Scratch) will be grounded in the practices and social dynamics of Computer Clubhouses, a network of after-school centers where youth (ages 10-18) from low-income communities learn to express themselves with new technologies. We will study how Clubhouse youth (ages 10-18) learn to use Scratch to design and program new types of digital-arts projects, such as sensor-controlled music compositions, special-effects videos created with programmable image-processing filters, robotic puppets with embedded controllers, and animated characters that youth trade wirelessly via handheld devices. Scratch's networking infrastructure, coupled with its multilingual capabilities, will enable youth to share their digital-arts creations with other youth across geographic, language, and cultural boundaries. This research will advance understanding of the effective and innovative design of new technologies to enhance learning in after-school centers and other informal-education settings, and it will broaden opportunities for youth from under-represented groups to become designers and inventors with new technologies. We will iteratively develop our technologies based on ongoing interaction with youth and staff at Computer Clubhouses. The use of Scratch at Computer Clubhouses will serve as a model for other after-school centers in economically-disadvantaged communities, demonstrating how informal-learning settings can support the development of technological fluency, enabling young people to design and program projects that are meaningful to themselves and their communities.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Mitchel ResnickJohn MaedaYasmin Kafai
Considerable research has compared how students learn science from computer simulations with how they learn from "traditional" classes. Little research has compared how students learn science from computer simulations with how they learn from direct experience in the real environment on which the simulations are based. This study compared two college classes studying introductory oceanography. One class learned using an interactive computer simulation based on a dynamic, three-dimensional model of physical oceanography. The other class learned by spending a day on a research ship using
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
William WinnFrederick StahrChristian SarasonRuth FrulandPeter OppenheimerYen-Ling Lee
This article presents an overview of what we know about two perspectives, coined instructionist and constructionist, to games for learning. The instructionists, accustomed to thinking in terms of making instructional educational materials, turn naturally to the concept of designing instructional games. Far fewer people have sought to turn the tables: by making games for learning instead of playing games for learning. Rather than embedding "lessons" directly in games, constructionists have focused their efforts on providing students with greater opportunities to construct their own games and to
The aim of this research was to investigate the way in which parents of Grade One learners in a traditionally black school facilitate learning to help their children acquire mathematical skills and knowledge in mathematics, and also to help them become confidently involved in and give meaning to mathematics learning in Grade One. A questionnaire, which was compiled after an intensive literature study, was administered and semi-structured interviews were held. Data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively, and it became evident that the parents of Grade One learners in the school used for
3D interactive virtual reality museum exhibits should be easy to use, entertaining, and informative. If the interface is intuitive, it will allow the user more time to learn the educational content of the exhibit. This research deals with interface issues concerning activating audio descriptions of images in such exhibits while the user is navigating. Five methods for activating audio descriptions were implemented and evaluated to find the most effective. These range roughly on a passive- active continuum. With the more passive methods, an audio explanation was triggered by simple proximity to
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Briana SullivanColin WareMatthew Plumlee
The Silence of the Lands is a virtual museum of natural quiet. The project promotes a model for preservation, experience, and renewal of natural heritage that empowers the active and constructive role of local communities in the collection and interpretation of natural quiet as a cultural object. This is accomplished by using ambient sounds as conversation pieces of a social dialogue aimed at transforming the virtual museum in a place of cultural negotiation; that is, to make the virtual museum a living organism linking the people, visions, interpretations, and values that pertain to a
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Elisa GiaccardiHal EdenGerhard Fischer
To explore how the United States can harness the powerful features of digital games for learning, the Federation of American Scientists, the Entertainment Software Association, and the National Science Foundation convened a National Summit on Educational Games, on October 25, 2005 in Washington, DC. The Summit brought together nearly 100 experts to discuss ways to accelerate the development, commercialization, and deployment of new generation games for learning.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Federation of American ScientistsHenry Kelly
The proposal intends to develop software that, when combined with the OMNI device, produces a virtual touch sensation that allows the blind to "touch" surfaces such as Mars, Earth's Moon, etc. The experience is multimedia as users can get sight, sound, and touch at the same time. The proposal does a solid job of describing a well-constructed and well-designed plan. The collaborative group works to bring together a strong body of STEM material, a highly skilled project team, and a diverse audience to assess the material. The team brought together to implement the proposal is a good one and includes the Institute for Scientific Research, NASA IV and V Independent Verification and Validation, Facility Educator Resource Center, Alderson Broadus College, Davis & Elkins College, and the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Although NASA is a project partner, the reviewers encourage the project proposer to continue building direct NASA funding. For example, a NASA space grant may be a good dissemination vehicle in the future. Reviewers were impressed with the various project elements: the mobile unit, pre- and post- standards based lessons, hypothesis testing with immediate feedback. The evaluation and dissemination plans provide for effective and immediate impact on a statewide and national level. The project provides for broader impact as the multi-media tools will be of assistance to other groups of students with disabilities as well.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Marjorie DarrahPatricia HarrisSharmistha RoyAmy BlakeRebecca Giorcelli
Quarked!™ is a collaborative physics education project at the University of Kansas that provides engaging and educational science experiences for youth ages 7 and up, educators and the general public. This multimedia project material focuses on concepts of scale and matter, and presents subatomic particles as relatable characters in both human and quark or electron form that explore science through story-driven adventures. It includes a comprehensive website with a range of materials including animated videos, games, apps, FAQs and lesson plans, as well as hands-on education programs at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. Initially, funded through an NSF EPSCoR grant (Grant No. EPS-0236913 and matching support from the State of Kansas through the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation and EPP-0354836), this projects continued to grow and new resources have been added through funding from the Kauffman Foundation, Google grants and other NSF awards. Quarked.org attracts more than 75,000 unique visitors annually, local PBS television stations in Kansas and Missouri broadcast the 3D animated videos, and the museum programs have reached more than than 5,000 school participants and continue to be offered.
Robotics brings together learning across mechanism, computation and interaction using the compelling model of real-time interaction with physically instantiated intelligent devices. The project described here is the third stage of the Personal Rover Project, which aims to produce technology, curriculum and evaluation techniques for use with after-school, out-of-school and informal learning environments mediated by robotics. Our most recent work has resulted in the Personal Exploration Rover (PER), whose goal is to create and evaluate a robot interaction that will educate members of the general