Improving Earth System Science Literacy Through Fundamental Exhibits

橙子县发现科学中心（DSC）正在建设一个“动态地球”画廊，致力于提高地球系统的科学素养。这笔赠款用于购买和安装由展览设计方面的国家领导者Exploratorium，Exhibits Services开发的三个展览。构造盆地、裂谷带和辫状河旨在教授基本的地球科学概念，让参观者了解另一个展览“球体上的科学”中的复杂概念，这是由美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）开发的一个戏剧性的视觉展示。志愿者教育工作者提供补充桌面演示，通过口头和视觉展示实践活动接触所有类型的学习者。这种多层次、多方面的方法（a）提高了70，000多名K-12学生的非正式地球科学教育质量，（包括7 000名低收入、少数民族学生获得奖学金）;（B）增加K-12教育工作者的数量和能力，他们在课堂上教授与地球科学有关的概念，该中心每年为420，000多名各年龄段的参观者提供服务，向公众宣传地球科学的重要性，提高公众对地球系统科学的认识。项目的有效性由加州州立大学富勒顿分校的促进数学和科学教学研究的催化剂中心进行评估，该中心汇集了两所学院和七个部门的科学和数学教育专家，以促进整个数学和科学教育领域的教学研究，包括非正式教育。

Discovery Science Center of Orange County (DSC) is building a "Dynamic Earth" gallery dedicated to improving Earth systems science literacy. This grant funds the purchase and installation of three exhibits developed by Exploratorium, Exhibits Services, a national leader in exhibit design. Tectonic Basin, Rift Zone, and Braided Stream are designed to teach fundamental Earth science concepts, preparing visitors to understand complex concepts from another exhibit, Science On a Sphere, a dramatic visual display developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Volunteer educators delivering supplementary table-top demonstrations reach learners of all types by verbally and visually presenting hands-on activities. This layered, multi-faceted approach (a) improves the quality of informal geosciences education for over 70,000 K-12 students visiting on structured field trips (including 7,000 low-income, minority students participating on scholarship); (b) increases the number and competency of K-12 educators who teach geosciences-related concepts in their classroom by serving as teaching props for 1,000 teachers in professional development workshops onsite; and (c) communicates the importance of the geosciences to the public and increase public literacy regarding Earth system science by serving more than 420,000 visitors of all ages each year. Project effectiveness is evaluated by California State University-Fullerton's Catalyst Center for the Advancement of Research on Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science, which brings together science and math education experts across two colleges and seven departments to advance research in teaching and learning across the entire spectrum of math and science education, including informal education.