Philip Bell, University of Washington
Linda Shear, SRI International
Noel Wanner, Exploratorium
Eric Baumgartner, Univesity of California, Berkeley
How can Web-based curriculum materials be integrated into an informal science learning environment to scaffold the public [base']s inquiry, interest, and learning? In our partnership, members from the SCOPE, WISE, and CILT projects collaborated with designers from the Exploratorium museum of hands-on science in San Francisco to develop a Web-based curriculum project that will be used in conjunction with a major exhibit on frogs.
The materials we developed were focused on a current scientific controversy -- an apparent dramatic increase in frog deformities being documented across North America. Middle school students in Minnesota used the Internet in 1995 to bring media attention to the phenomenon when they published their field observations. The deformed frog controversy represents a complex, multidisciplinary problem involving environmental, chemical, and genetic arguments. We adapted and augmented curriculum materials developed and refined for use in middle school science classrooms to create this new project for the museum setting. The project offers museum patrons an authentic way to explore the competing hypotheses and associated scientific evidence being vigorously explored and debated by the scientific community. It includes instructional visualizations that depict the complex hypothetical mechanisms being investigated by scientists. The instructional experience is a 1.5-hour immersion into detailed aspects of the controversy facilitated by a moderator in the Learning Space, a new, enclosed computer lab that is integrated into one of the main exhibit spaces.
We are investigating several aspects of this partnership. First, how can curricular materials and instructional practices developed for a classroom setting be re-purposed for use in an informal science learning setting? Second, how successful will this project be at fostering sustained scientific inquiry in a museum setting? Finally, how can such materials be designed to coordinate productively with the surrounding exhibit space and to accommodate the broad range of patrons visiting the science museum?
Project URL: http://scope.educ.washington.edu/partnerships/exploratorium/.