Informal science educators network project Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated. Final report

摘要

Funding from the Department of Energy and the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project have helped the Association of Science-technology Centers Incorporated (ASTC) to establish and sustain an on-line community of informal science educators nationwide. The Project, called the Informal Science Educators Network Project (ISEN), is composed primarily of informal science educators and exhibit developers from science centers, museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, parks, and nature centers. Although museum-based professionals represent the majority of subscribers to ISEN, also involved are some classroom teachers and teacher educators from colleges and universities. Common to all ISEN participants is a commitment to school and science education reform. Specifically, funding from the Department of Energy helped to boot strap the effort, providing Barrier Reduction Vouchers to 123 educators that enabled them participate in ISEN. Among the major accomplishments of the Project are these: (1) assistance to 123 informal science educators to attend Internet training sessions held in connection with the Project and/or purchase hardware and software that linked them to the Internet; (2) Internet training for 153 informal science educators; (3) development of a listserv which currently has over 180 subscribers--an all-time high; (4) opportunity to participate in four web chats involving informal science educators with noted researchers; (5) development of two sites on the World Wide Web linking informal science educators to Internet resources; (6) creation of an on-line collection of over 40 articles related to inquiry-based teaching and science education reform. In order to continue the momentum of the Project, ASTC has requested from the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science project a no/cost extension through December 1997.