| Popis: |
The mantra of “science is all around you” echoes through a multitude of classrooms and textbooks. However, as our youth step out of their schools every afternoon, there is frequently very little evidence of the value placed by society on science in their communities, and little connection is made between the science curriculum learned at school and student identities as they participate in their everyday life activities. Community-based science programs bring science to the neighborhoods in which the youth live and allow community members access to a wide range of scientific processes in familiar settings. They can be powerful experiences for all if they are well designed and situated. Science practitioners, ranging from gardeners, farmers, and chefs to engineers and doctors, have science concepts and skills embedded in their daily tasks. When communities are able to highlight the relationship between these activities and science, community members who participate in such events stand to gain an appreciation of the value of science as well as the diversity of scientific understandings and their applications. Further, the fact that community members are involved in such presentations points to the feasibility of local people enjoying a relationship with science. The power of local role models can be great. Finally, because parents, particularly mothers, can engage in such programs, it is extremely valuable from a science education standpoint, since their influence on their sons’ and daughters’ academic interests is known to be strong. An illustrative example of a science-related community-based program is the Contact Science program, launched in Texas in 2010 with the goal of bringing a set of diverse, engaging, and interactive science experiences to various communities in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. It is the brainchild of Russell Hulse, Nobel Laureate in Physics, located at the University of Texas at Dallas. At the heart of the program were the design, construction, and placement of adventure stations around various themes in public libraries. These stations functioned as miniature lab benches and had real science tools as part of them. For example, the Electrical Adventures station included an oscilloscope and all the various components to allow for a wide range of experimentation with electricity; the Microworld Adventures Station included a high-end light microscope, as well as a “scope on a rope” that allowed users to look at a monitor to get close-up views of their skin, a leaf, clothing, or anything of interest. Each station had a computer guide with step-by-step experiments for the user to start off with, or the user could play with the components independently and truly experiment as they wished. Each station was designed so that it was convenient for the libraries to rotate the theme and materials every few months. The bench or base unit would stay at the library, but the oscilloscope and other equipment could be removed and easily driven over to a different library. In this way a group of libraries could get a new exhibit every few months. The key strategies used by Contact Science were, firstly, partnering with a system that was already designed to serve |
