I-Corps: Natural Sounds and Audio Digital Network

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提供一种手段，向美国3000多个科学，技术和自然中心提供高度原始的自然声音录音，这些中心正在努力使其展览空间变得更加清晰。展览空间现在正迅速电子化和互动化，需要视听材料。音频聚焦扬声器技术的进步使得将声音集中到一个小空间中以实现单个或小组体验成为可能，并且触摸屏现在正在公共场所出现。我们的客户发现活动将决定自然声音展览如何满足这个非常大的非正式STEM学习社区的需求，因为他们变得数字化。这些产品将1）在人们可访问的空间中提供自然环境的延伸，2）使用触觉方法向视障人士介绍STEM概念，3）在营地/教室的课程中使用科学标准，配备真实的科学设备，4）建立有关生物多样性和保护栖息地等概念的知识，以及4）影响人们如何引入STEM概念。这些产品有可能从一个代表性不足的社区招募个人到STEM。这个I-Corps项目将导致对自然展览产品的市场规模和商业潜力的重要了解。这个音频集合代表了全球实地考察的高潮，在50多个陆地和海洋研究地点代表了十二个主要生物群落中的九个。现在可以沿着从几乎每一个主要的陆地和海洋生物群落收集到的500多万份自然声音记录，以及为研究生物多样性、野火、入侵物种、过度放牧、有毒物质和气候变异等重要环境问题而进行的科学研究项目的丰富信息。这些音频文件和科学项目已被组织成互动的，信息丰富的和鼓舞人心的学习模块，形成了一套灵活的工具，用于建立数字展览。互动信息亭已在几个非正式学习场所开发和测试，并取得了相当大的成功。 最后，非正式学习课程的结果和来自婆罗洲、蒙古、巴塔哥尼亚和坦桑尼亚的完整研究，已在广泛的同行中发表，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估来支持审查标准。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide a means to deliver highly original natural sounds recordings to over 3000 science, technology and nature centers in the United States that are moving to sonify their exhibit spaces. Exhibit spaces are now rapidly becoming electronic and interactive and they require audiovisual materials. The advances in audio focusing speaker technologies are making it possible to concentrate sound into a small space for single or small group experiences and touchscreens are now emerging in public spaces. Our customer discovery activities will determine how a nature ounds exhibit can serve the needs of this very large informal STEM learning community as they become digital. The products will 1) provide an extension of a natural setting in an accessible space for people, 2) introduce visually impaired people to STEM concepts using tactile methods, 3) utilize science standards in curriculum for camps/classrooms with authentic scientific equipment, 4) build knowledge about concepts such as biodiversity and preservation of habitats, and 4) impact how people are introduced to STEM concepts. These products have the potential to recruit individuals from an underrepresented community to STEM.This I-Corps project will lead to significant understanding of market size and commercial potential for nature exhibit products. This audio collection represents the culmination of global fieldwork at over 50 terrestrial and marine study sites representing nine of the twelve major biomes. Over 5,000,000 natural sound recordings from nearly every major terrestrial and marine biome are now available along with rich information on scientific research projects being conducted to study important environmental issues such as biodiversity, wildfire, invasive species, over grazing, toxic substances and climate variability. These audio files and scientific projects have been organized into learning modules that are interactive, informative and inspiring forming a flexible set of tools for building digital exhibits. Interactive kiosks have been developed and tested in several informal learning venues with considerable success. Finally, the outcome from the informal learning curriculum and complete studies from Borneo, Mongolia, Patagonia, and Tanzania, have been published in a wide range of peer-review journals which provides the validity to the scientific interpretation of the role that sounds play in nature.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.