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NISE Working Groups
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NISE
Resources for Professionals
Contact:
Pat Murphy
Director of Publications
Exploratorium
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The NISE Resources Website is designed to help informal
science educators who are working to educate the public about nanoscale
science, engineering, and technology. This site will provide tools,
connections with the research community, and professional development
for informal science educators, as well as information about the
on-going development of NISE projects.
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Visualization Laboratory
(Viz Lab)
Contact:
Thomas Rockwell
Director of the Center
for Public Exhibitions
Exploratorium
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The Visualization Laboratory (Viz Lab) serves to expand the
range of strategies for helping the public visualize and learn
about the nanoscale landscape in an informal setting. Viz Lab consists
of a series of experiments by artists, scientists, illustrators,
and educators aimed at expanding how we visualize and learn about
the nanoscale landscape. Our goal is to push the boundaries of
conventional illustration with both high- and low- tech simulations,
models, animations and environments, and to use these innovative
methods for making nanoscale phenomena accessible to museum visitors
and the science-attentive public. Through collaborative experiments
between scientists, artists, engineers, film makers and educators,
the Viz Lab will focus on generating new ideas, selectively evaluating
the most promising ones and documenting its work for the rest of
the NISE network.
Planned Viz Lab experiments range from the construction of large
3D models with museum visitors to the use of advanced microscopes
and digital media by artists and designers to create interactive
environments. Research on and evaluation of promising experiments
will build greater understanding of how the public can learn
about nanoscale. The most successful experiments will eventually
be turned into exhibits or presentations by the rest of NISE
network.
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NISE Public Website
Contact:
Pat Murphy
Director of Publications
Exploratorium
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The NISE Public Website will extend the Network's reach to adults,
teens, teachers and students beyond the reach of the Network's
organizational sites. Through online access to exhibits, visualizations,
learning materials, and other information developed through the
NISE Network, the site will support public understanding of current
nanoscale research.
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Education Outreach
Institute for Nanoscale Graduate Students
Contact:
Barry Kluger-Bell
Assistant Director,
Institute for Inquiry
Exploratorium
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To build the capacity of the next generation of nanoscale scientists
to collaborate with ISIs and to engage the public in their research,
NISE Net will offer an inquiry institute for 45 graduate students
in the nanosciences. The Institute will focus on the design and
implementation of science activities that give people firsthand
understanding of the sciences through inquiry-based teaching approaches.
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NISE Research and Evaluation
Contact:
Sherry Hsi
CLT Director of Research
and Evaluation
Exploratorium
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The NISE Network will be evaluated in: 1) the effectiveness
of the network deliverables in raising the public's awareness
and understanding of nanoscale science and technology, and 2)
the extent to which the network builds long-term and sustainable
capacity in the ISE field to engage the public with nanoscale
research.
[note: This working group will not meet separately during the
NISE Net conference, but on-going during the project]
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NISE Network
Media
Contact:
Carol Lynn Alpert
Co-PI
Museum
of Science, Boston
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The NISE Network Media initiative will build media content,
production, and distribution partnerships with other informal science
education organizations, nanoscale science and engineering research
centers, radio and television producers, and educational media
groups to produce and distribute audio/visual media for use in
informal science education settings such as science museums, libraries,
and research center visitor centers, and via local and national
radio programs. NISE Network media will also be disseminated through
the Network's public website. The media team will launch an experimental
media production center at the Museum of Science, Boston. The team
will also include consulting staff from the Exploratorium, the
Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Science Museum London, and
it will work in close collaboration with the Network's Web, Viz
Lab, and Exhibits development teams. A special focus of the Network
Media group will be to explore the development of a open-source
digital network architecture that will support multi-site content
production, rapid updating, and a downloadable catalogue of nano-related
media content optimized for interactive display in public locations.
The displays will also be integrated into many of the exhibit packages
the Network develops and distributes.
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Forums for Dialogue and Deliberation
Contact:
Larry Bell
Principal Investigator
Museum of Science, Boston
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Forums for Dialogue and Deliberation will research, develop,
and test a variety of program models aimed at engaging adults and
older youth with in-depth informal educational experiences that
incorporate dialogue and deliberation around societal implications
of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. Program models
will be tested with a variety of target audiences, including museum
visitors, the general public, socially aware adults, community
leaders, diverse community organizations, and teens. Team members
will include the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Exploratorium,
the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and North Carolina's
Museum of Life and Science, along with advisors and key Thinking
Partners. Each partner working in its own community will create
local partnerships with research organizations and community groups
to expand outreach and to connect scientists with members of the
public. The development team's work will include assessing existing
program models, developing new models, participating in staff training
for dialogue facilitation skills, and formulating overall goals
and strategies for conducting experimental programs and developing
background materials informed by front-end evaluation.
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Exhibit & Program
Packages
Contact:
Sue Koch
Science Museum of Minnesota
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The ultimate product of the NISE Center for Exhibit and Program
Production will be "exhibit and program packages" - flexible,
scalable, thematic packages of exhibits, demonstrations, immersive
media experiences, multi-media resources, program templates, graphics,
printed activities and interpretive materials. These packages will
allow informal educational institutions to mix and match pieces
from the packages into a custom set of experiences that fit the
specific needs of each institution. Furthermore, the pieces will
be designed in a modular format using templates and standardized
design elements so that the pieces can be continually modified
to respond to changing local and scientific realities. The creation
of these flexible exhibit and program packages is a key feature
of the NISE Network's strategy for making Network products available
to more institutions, even those not usually defined as ISE institutions.
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