# Presentation: 437404

## Virtual Field Trips to Real Science

**Rob Semper**
**Workshop on Education and Outreach**
**Aspen Center for Physics**
**June 28, 2004 - July 9, 2004**

- © Exploratorium

## Public access to process of scientific discovery

**Difficult to discuss current science**
**Current science is about the very small, very big, very abstract and very complex**
**Thinking changes rapidly, opinions differ and the conceptual roadmap is unclear**
**Public inexperienced with science process**
**Last science experience for most is high school bio or chem lab**
**Science happens outside of public view**** **

## Presentation Paradigms

_**Paradigm**__**	**__**Activity**__**	**__**	**__**Mediator**__**	**__**Benefit**__**	**__**	**__**Weakness**_
**Lecture****	****	**class		teacher		organized         formal
**Colloquium****	**presentation	scientist		authentic	too advanced
**Reporting****	**news		journalist	timely		no context
**Narrative****	**TV film doc	director		story-based	passive
**Exhibition****	**browse		exh. designer	self directed	inflexible
**Field Trip****	**location visit	tour guide	experiential	impossible
**On-Line**		webcast		media host	interactive	isolated

## Exploratoroium

**Exploratoroium**

## www.exploratorium.edu

## Museum as Mediator

**Science Location**

**On-site**
**On-line**** ****Audience**

**CERN **
**Hubble **
**Antartica**

**Program Development**
**Media Production**

**Webcast**
**Website**
**Home and School**

**Museum**
**Studio**

**Museum as Mediator**

## Public Events

**Mission controlled at Ames research Center - Mountain View, CA**
**Live video feed of real-time images to public event at Exploratorium**
**5,000 people showed up for the 6 hour event**
**Demonstrated public interest in scientific discovery**

**Pioneer 10 Flyby of Jupiter**
** ****December 3, 1973**

## Remote Fieldtrips

**Live connection between a class at the Exploratorium and their teacher and Exploratorium staff on the KAO**
**First Internet videoconference with an airplane using ACTS satellite**
**Compare in-class and airborne experiments**

**Kuiper Airborne Observatory**
**Spring 1995**

## Live @ Exploratorium

**Field trip opportunities to worldwide scientific locations**
**Webcast studio serves as production hub and exhibit**
**Remote studio connections to scientific locations**
**Live and archive viewing by an on-line public**
**Museum audience acts as surrogate for on-line user**

**Exploratorium Webcast Studio**

## Webcasting

**Daily Webcasts during 10 day HST servicing mission**
**Live connection to Space Telescope Science Institute**
**On-site event at Exploratorium**
**On-line event on Exploratorium Website**
**Interviews with scientists and astronauts**

**Hubble Space Telescope**
**Servicing Mission - Spring 1997**

## Faultline Project

**Weeklong road trip up the San Andreas Fault**
**Daily Webcasts from research labs along the way**
**INMARSAT video transmission**
**Participation by research scientists at research sites and at the Exploratorium**
**Sponsored by NSF-GEO**

**San Andreas Fault**
**October 1989**

## Eclipse Webcasts

**Collaboration with NASA OSS Sun-Earth Connection**
**Use eclipse interest to discuss sun-earth science**
**Aruba 98, Turkey 99, Zambia 01**
**70 Museum network**
**Public Website with archive**
**Supported by NASA**
**www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse**

**Eclipse: Zambia 2001**

## Live @ the Exploratorium: Origins

**Electronic field trips to six observatories/laboratories**
**Origins of matter, the universe, the earth and life on earth**
**Provide a window on the process of doing current science**
**Show science as a human enterprise**
**Choose major laboratories with significant activity**
**Extensive Website and Webcasts**
_**[www.](http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins)**__**[exploratorium](http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins)**__**[.](http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins)**__**[edu/origins](http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins)**_
**Sponsored by NSF-ISE**

**LEP Accelerator**
**CERN**

## Origins: CERN

## Origin Locations

**Elementary particles - CERN (Geneva) **
**Astrophysics - Hubble Space Telescope (Baltimore) **
**Life in Extreme Environments - McMurdo Station and South Pole Station (Antarctica)**
**Biodiversity - Las Cuevas Research Station, (Belize) and The Natural History Museum, (London)**
**Genetics - Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (New York)**
**Astrobiology - Arecibo Observatory and NASA Astrobiology Laboratory (Mountain View) **

**Antarctica**

## Access to Real Science Data

**Scientific research occurs on the Web**
**Difficult for the public to interpret raw on-line science material**
**Create a mediated portal to authentic on-line science activity**

## Slide 17

## Slide 18

## Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?

**Nature and role of scientific evidence**
**Combine remote field trip idea with authentic science data **
**Different locations and topics in science**
**	****Gravity waves, neutrinos, earthquakes, evolution, oceanography, dinosaurs**
**Webcast of discussions on How Do We Know What We Know**

## Science Outreach On-line Discussion

**Taxonomy of use**
**	****Acquiring information**
**	****Connection  to science activity**
**	****Working with real data**
**	****Doing science**
**Collaboration and partnerships**
**Understanding the value proposition for everyone**
**Get the right people in the right place**** **
**Reaching an online audience**
**Using existing audiences**
**Attentive public**
**Marketing by Google**