Public Spaces for Earth Science Education: Augmenting the Discovery Labs at PRI's Museum of the Earth

地球科学教育的公共空间：扩大国际关系研究所地球博物馆的探索实验室这个奖项是为了扩大国际关系研究所地球博物馆探索实验室提供的动手编程，以增加公众对地球科学的参与和兴趣。 这些实验室，提供了两年，已被用来提高公众的认识，兴趣和了解有关化石记录，如何收集用于解决科学问题，如何创建和照顾自然历史收藏，以及如何亲自参与古生物学研究的过程。 探索实验室中最大的化石实验室将首先进行扩建，以便游客有更多的机会发现化石，识别和说明这些发现，并作为公民科学家参与收集数据进行研究。 冰和恐龙实验室随后正在扩大，根据评估修订后的化石实验室的影响。 对于所有三个实验室，正在开发新的编程，包括频繁的演示，用户友好的显微镜和相机，艺术用品，参考收藏，教师研讨会，信息手册和网站。教师工作坊将培训教师开发开放式的调查为基础的课堂研究经验，结合博物馆的真实的研究。 该项目有望成为将地球科学实践活动纳入其他地方非正式科学教育环境的典范。

Public Spaces for Earth Science Education: Augmenting the Discovery Labs at PRI's Museum of the Earth This award is expanding the hands-on programming offered in the Discovery Labs of PRI's Museum of the Earth in order to increase public involvement and interest in Earth science. These labs, offered for two years, have been used to increase public awareness, interest, and understanding related to fossil records, how collections are used in scientific problem solving, how natural history collections are created and cared for, and, how to be personally involved in the process of paleontological research. The largest of the Discovery Labs, the Fossil Lab, is being augmented first so that visitors have greater opportunities to find fossils, identify and illustrate those finds, and participate as citizen-scientists who collect data for ongoing research. The Ice and Dino Labs are being expanded subsequently, based on evaluation of the revised Fossil Lab's impact. For all three labs, new programming is being developed that involves frequent presentations, user-friendly microscopes and cameras, art supplies, reference collections, teacher workshops, informational booklets and websites. Teacher workshops will train teachers to develop open-ended inquiry based classroom research experiences that incorporate real research from the Museum. This project is expected to serve as a model for incorporating hands-on geoscience activities into informal science education settings elsewhere.