Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?
Aaron Kline, Exploratorium, USA
Adrian Van Allen, Exploratorium, USA
http://www.exploratorium.edu/evidence/
"Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?" is a major, multi-year, multi-component Web resource created by the San Francisco Exploratorium. For the past three years, a diverse project team has worked with media specialists, scientists, journalists, evaluators, educators, and more to create an online resource that not only offers users a window into the way scientists evaluate and use evidence in their research, but also mirrors the way individuals assess information to build their own body of scientific knowledge. Published in both Spanish and English, the rich-media site helps arm visitors with strategies for evaluating the scientific information they encounter in their everyday lives, offers portable media in the form of podcast programs and conversations, and gives users the opportunity to interact with live data sets, RSS feeds, and online interactives on the subject of human origins, the "case study" featured in the site. In this demonstration we share our experiences with both the formative process and technical challenges of presenting this topic in an interactive and engaging way. "Evidence," scheduled to launch in Spring 2008, is made possible by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation with support from the McBean Family Foundation.
Demonstration: Demonstrations - 2 [Demonstrations]
Keywords: scientific evidence, science education, informal learning, interactive exhibits, rich media, web 2.0
