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Media Advisory

 


NSF PA/M 98-13 - May 18, 1998

National Science Board to Solicit Public Input on Science Education

The National Science Board (NSB) will hold a public hearing in Los Angeles on May 29 to investigate the value of informal science education activities (such as zoos, science museums, television programs, community organizations, and interactive Internet sites).

The NSB advises the President and Congress on science policy matters and oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF), a federal agency that funds research and education projects in all 50 states. In FY 1997, California received some $80 million from NSF for education projects of all types. Of NSF's 166 current informal science education projects, 21 (or 12.6 percent) are in California, totaling more than $18 million. The NSB has selected California for this field hearing, given California's sizable NSF portfolio. The NSB will hear from the general public and educators, who teach in either formal (school-based) or informal (non-school) settings, to assess the level of success and range of informal science education. The NSB defines success as reliably measurable impacts on learning, awareness, and enthusiasm for science and technology.

Jointly hosted by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Science Center, the hearing will feature panels on programs, exhibits, and outreach activities that communicate scientific and technological concepts, discoveries, and applications. The NSB will examine common assumptions about education-for example, that the general public and students alike are increasingly challenged in our age of ever-accelerating technological advances, and that the responsibility for education is not the schools' alone.

Who:

National Science Board (Committee on Education and Human Resources)

What:

Public Hearing on the Value of Informal Science Education

Where:

Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd.,
Los Angeles, California

When:

Friday, May 29, 1998, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For a meeting agenda and more information, see:
http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/meetings/1998/fieldmay/fieldmay.htm or call:

At NSF:

K. Lee Herring, (703) 306-1070, kherring@nsf.gov (media)
Daryl Chubin, (703) 306-2000, dchubin@nsf.gov (non-media)

At Natural History Museum:
Chris Hills, (213) 763-3515, chills@nhm.org

 

 
 
     
 

 
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Tel: 703-292-8070
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