The project conducts action research to learn more about how different groups use technology in meaningful ways, develops approaches that significantly increase access for underrepresented groups, and proposes ways in which technology might be modified or redesigned to engage, address, and represent diverse populations. The project targets children and young people from groups underrepresented with technology, informal and formal educators, community groups and organizations, researchers, policymakers and funders, industry, and the public. Products include: a report on the state of access of underrepresented groups to technology; case studies; guides to increasing community access to technology; guidelines about how to be critical viewers, users, and makers of technology; report on the issues involved in producing diverse and equitable technology design; exemplars and ideas for diversifying technology design; suggestions for software publishers and industry; commissioned papers on issues of access and design for particular underrepresented groups; an agenda for action; and interactive World Wide Web site; and a popular press book that synthesizes the knowledge gained through this project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
ellen wahlYolanda GeorgeEric JollyLaura JeffersAndres Henriquez
The Science Museum of Minnesota will develop "Buildings: A Traveling Exhibit and Permanent Installation with Education and Outreach Programs". This is a multifaceted project that includes a 5,000 sq. ft. exhibit that will explore the science, technology, and human perception of buildings. The exhibit will tell three stories: 1) buildings must obey physical laws to stay up, 2) buildings are complex operating systems, and 3) buildings reflect and shape the societies that create them. The exhibit will initially be developed as a traveling exhibit that will circulate among the member institutions of the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (8 institutions) and then it will be reinstalled in the new SMM $77 million building. Additional partners collaborating on this project include the National Building Museum, the Society of Building Science Educators, Habitat for Humanity International, The ReUse Center, the Vital Signs Program and the Center for City Building Education. Special attention will be given to reaching girls and women and the physically challenged. A broad menu of public programming is planned and school-linked materials will be developed.
Discovery will develop and disseminate museum activity manuals and hands-on science activity materials to Magic School Bus museum sites nationwide. These materials will enable participating museums to: o provide enrichment activities, demonstrations, tabletop exhibits, and other science programming to support seasons III and IV of The Magic School Bus series; and o maintain and nurture collaborations at each site between schools and teachers, public television stations, youth-serving organizations, libraries, and the museum. The key staff will include Jerald H. Reynolds of Discovery Place who will be PI and will have responsibility for coordination of The Magic School Bus collaborative. Marcia Rudy, Director of Public Programs at the New York Hall of Science will lead the development team for the museum activity manuals. Rhonda Kiest, Director of Educational Exhibits at the Children's Museum of Houston, will have primary responsibility for design of the new tabletop exhibits and for upkeep of the two Scholastic's The MAGIC SCHOOL BUS Inside the Earth exhibits that are now traveling to museums. Cheryl Gotthelf, the Executive Project Director for The Magic School Bus television series will assure coordination between the museum project and series development.
The Science Education Department of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will produce and evaluate a pilot for a series of after school television program targeted at youth aged 9 -12. The series, which is based on the research into children's misperceptions about science conducted by the applicant, will help viewers make sense of often poorly understood or misunderstood science principles. The project will be highly interactive through the use of the Internet and 800 numbers. In the television series, viewers will see "evidence" for different ways to interpret basic science concepts and will be called upon to make sense of the key evidence, conduct further investigation on their own, and register their findings via the Internet and World Wide Web or by calling an 800 number. In response to the viewer's verdict, local stations will air either a "guilty" or "innocent" resolution -- both of which will clarify the science concept being considered. The PI for the project will be Philip Sadler, Director of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Project Manager will be Matthew Schneps, Director of the Science Media Group. Education and science content will be the responsibility of Hal Coyle, a science teacher and curriculum developer, and Roy Gould, an Education Specialist at the Center. The principal science advisor will be Irwin Shapiro, Director of the Center for Astrophysics, and the chief educational advisor will be Charles Whitney, Prof. Emeritus Harvard University. The video will be produced in cooperation with Terra Associates in New York.
The New England Aquarium (NEAq) will develop a traveling exhibit and associated programs to focus on parallel scientific and environmental issues facing Lake Victoria (East Africa) and North American fisheries. The NEAq is working in partnership with the national Museums of Kenya (NMK). This project results from NSF supported research on Lake Victoria biodiversity crises and a workshop that involved 70 scientists, policymakers, and resource managers. A 5,000 sq. ft. exhibit "Lake Victoria: Mukasa's Tear" will be developed that will present both the Lake Victoria and North American fisheries issues in six modules including: Biodiversity Then and Now; Changing Life Styles; Lake Victoria Timelines; Fisheries Technology; Global Markets; and Towards the Future. Complementary educational programs will include on-site interpretation, special programs for K-12 classes, teacher workshops and curriculum materials, special events. The exhibit will open at NEAq in 1998 and will begin its national tour in 1999. A second version of the exhibit (which will be funded separately), will be shown in Kenya.
The California Museum of Science and Industry (CMSI) will develop a new exhibit "Body in Balance: Developing Integrative Life Science Exhibits." This will be a 3000 sq. ft. component in the new 17,500 sq. ft. World of Life Exhibit Hall when the CMSI opens its new facility in 1997 and becomes the California Science Center. The World of Life is organized around several key science concepts which emphasize the commonalties among living things and their life processes. One of the major ideas to be communicated in this area is homeostasis as it applies to human beings. Homeostasis has been chosen because it is the unifying theme of system physiology. The exhibit will include seventeen exhibits (with a total of sixty- seven interactive elements) as well as a "The Body in Balance" theater presentations and bilingual (English/Spanish) exhibition books. This integrative view of body functions is consistent with recommendations from Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the Science Framework for California Public Schools Grades K-12. A broad menu of complementary formal education materials will be developed.
This project, coordinated by the New Jersey Mathematics Coalition (and a major partner with the SSI) will use the recently completed New Jersey Frameworks in mathematics and science as the core of a parent education effort that will reach 300,000 parents of school age children in the state, representing 50% of the parent population and all 603 school districts. This project will be a vehicle for providing opportunities for parents to become familiar with these standards. The project will undertake a three-stage approach to parental outreach: (1) awareness activities, including the development of materials printed in both English and Spanish, public television, and a Website; (2) increasing involvement of parents through establishing a clearinghouse for information; and (3) activation activities to help parents work more effectively on mathematics and science reform efforts at the school, district, and state levels.
The Massachusetts SSI (Project PALMS) will conduct this project in partnership with MITS (the Museum Institute for Teaching Science, Inc.) and will develop, demonstrate the effectiveness of, and disseminate a locally-driven model for parental involvement in mathematics, science, and technology education. The model builds on the SSI structure by starting with parents who are active in PALMS District Leadership Teams for Systemic Change (approximately 2900 parents). These parents will have opportunities for additional training with materials such as Project PRISM, EQUALS, AAAS, etc. These support the new State frameworks and assessments developed through he SSI, and are also in support of the high quality curriculum materials recommended for implementation in schools. Parents will then develop local plans for engaging other parents in their communities. Materials will be developed, including a manual on How to Build Coalitions to Engage Community Members in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Reform. In addition, materials will be developed and outreach activities will be conducted to include activities for parents and children (estimated to reach an additional 21,000 parents) held in nontraditional environments such as subways, laundromats, health clinics, and malls. Products will include a manual on building coalitions to engage communities in supporting mathematics and science reform, and a collection of field-tested prototype outreach activities. Findings will be disseminated through the Eisenhower Consortia, National PTA, Urban League, and National Council of La Raza.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Thomas NoonanMary Jane SchmittPendred Noyce
David Grubin Production, Inc., in conjunction with Thirteen/WNET, is producing a multimedia project entitled, The Secret Life of the Brain. The project will examine new understandings into the processes of the human brain that have developed over the last decade. Through an exploration of the brain's normal development from conception through old age, the project conveys the most recent knowledge available. The series will enable audiences to appreciate the current revolution in neuroscience, understand how new technologies have enabled scientists to unearth a wealth of information, and learn how neuroscience research impacts the health and future well-being of the average person. The five one-hour programs in the series will explore the brain from conception through age two, childhood from age two through puberty, adolescence, adulthood, and normal aging process in older age. Educational outreach materials for use in informal and formal setting will include two separate sets of printed materials, one for adolescents and one for adults. A Secret Life of the Brain Web Site will include Brain Games, the Brain Quiz, and the Live Brain that present learning opportunities for adults and teens. The project Principal Investigator will be David Grubin who will serve as Executive Producer. Grubin previously was the producer of Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers and the critically acclaimed biographies of Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. June Kinoshita, an internationally recognized science reporter and editor, will serve as the Series Science Editor. Lead advisors for each program will be Bruce McEwen, President-elect of the Society for Neuroscience and Professor at Rockefeller University (Program 1); Steve Petersen, Director, Division of Neuropsychology, Dept. of Neurology and Neurological Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine (Program 2); Steven Hyman, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (Programs 3 & 4); and Carl Cotman, Director for the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California, Irvine (Program 5). Robert Miller of WNET will be responsible for the educational materials to accompany The Secret Life of the Brain.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David GrubinTamara RobinsonWilliam Grant
The Hattiesburg Area Education Foundation is conducting a 12-month planning project in preparation for a Parental Involvement project. The planning objectives include the identification of materials and strategies in use, actively engaging parents, teachers, and other partners in dialogue about standards for mathematics and science education and in strategic planning, developing a plan for replication and dissemination, developing an evaluation plan, and developing a full proposal. A broad-based planning team is conducting the planning activities.
This planning project, sponsored by the Washington MESA program, will carry out a planning program which will result in a full proposal to support a strong parents program in the four MESA centers in the State of Washington. With funds from the planning grant the MESA staff will do an assessment of need for a parents program at ten target sites, identify potential partners in working with the project and develop a parent involvement plan for each center. Specific tasks will be to identify a parent coordinator at each site, to prepare the sites to deliver a program for family math, science and technology training and to develop parent leaders at each site who will work with the schools so that they can deliver a strong math, science and technology to all students as well as prepare parents to become active in their children's learning.
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.