Nisenet.org: Visualizing Small Science and Dispersed Communities
David Beck, Exploratorium, USA
Kate Duckworth, Exploratorium, USA
http://www.nisenet.org
Advances in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology are revolutionizing medicine, computing, materials science, energy production, and manufacturing. Yet to the general public, these advances remain largely invisible and difficult to understand.
The Museum of Science, the Exploratorium, and the Science Museum of Minnesota have joined together with a group of partners and advisors to develop a Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) Network.
The NISE Network is designed to bring the education and research communities together in an effort to:
- create new methods and approaches to communicate the work of nanoscale scientists and engineers
- inform the public about the advances in the scientific research, and
- capture the imagination of youth who may choose careers in nanoscale science and engineering.
Nisenet.org is the primary communication nexus for the NISE Network. Built using open-source tools by diverse developers in the US and Europe, the site uses AJAX and Flash to create a multi-layered, massively cross-linked community space. It is designed to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration between informal science educators and nanoscale science researchers, to capture and disseminate current knowledge about nanoscale education, and to explore novel ways of visualizing both the nanoscale and the network itself. Please join us for an inside look at how we work, the challenges we've faced, and what we've learned!
Demonstration: Demonstrations - 2 [Demonstrations]
Keywords: nanoscale network informal science visualization community
