Poster presented on March 6-8, 2002 at the conference on Communicating the Future: Best Practices in Communication of Science and Technology to the Public, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and NIST. Poster topics were selected as "best practices" through a formal peer review by a committee of distinguished science writers, educators, and researchers.

Passport to Knowledge (P2K)
Program conducted by: Passport to Knowledge

Abstract
The Passport to Knowledge (P2K) mission: real science, real scientists, real locations, real learning. P2K energizes the core content of secondary school science by relating classroom instruction to real-world research, and connecting students with leading scientists. Since 1994, P2K has developed, disseminated and evaluated two complementary series of multiple media instructional materials and experiences. The LIVE FROM "electronic field trips" have become public television's longest-running interactive learning project. They are also carried by NASA-TV, and streamed and archived on the Web.

Four P2K Modules (Rainforest, Weather and Climate, Antarctica, The Solar System) each include eight 15-minute classroom videos and two 30-minute teacher resource programs. These Modules can be implemented—using videotape, the Internet, mail lists and inquiry based hands-on activities—at any time throughout the school year.

They offer an integrated suite of current and comprehensive instructional materials, directly linked to core Earth, space, life and physical science content targeted by the National Science Education Standards and Project 2061's "Benchmarks." Each LIVE FROM mini-series reaches from 1.5 to 2 million viewers. PASSPORT TO Modules, broadcast as instructional TV by PBS stations and educational networks over multiple school years, may be seen by up to 10 million students.

P2K has prototyped and tested several innovative video and Internet techniques, such as "You Are There" tours of sites as remote as Earth's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and as scientifically significant as Fermilab. Online BIOgraphies and Field Journals personalize the scientific enterprise and provide role models for future careers in science and high technology through portraits of working researchers, both male and female, and from varied backgrounds.

P2K has demonstrated the effectiveness of transforming the hard work of real-world research into "teachable moments" that excite and inform students, and their teachers. It has shown that ongoing support is required to encourage mainstream educators to implement inquiry-based pedagogy and new technologies, but that in-service experiences using the Internet can be successful and reach national scale. Both real-time and "evergreen" materials are required, in flexible formats, to accommodate the great diversity of school schedules and technical resources. Evaluation, however, has shown that this new kind of instructional resource can have measurable, positive impact on students of diverse intelligences and aptitudes, in schools of widely varying demographics.

Both the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have cited Passport to Knowledge as an example of the successful integration of research with education and outreach in reports to Congress. P2K was twice a finalist in the Education category of the Information Infrastructure Awards, and was the winner of the 1997 EdNET "Hero" Award for Excellence.

Toolkit: P2K Development & Distribution process

• Select content central to the curriculum, featured in NSES/Benchmarks, AND inherently exciting (“telegenic”)
• Establish relationships with scientists and research agencies working with that content, at interesting locations
• Fund raise! Develop in-kind collaborations. Fund raise some more!
• Working with teachers and education researchers, as well as key scientists, develop video programming, hands-on activities, and online content directly related to the ongoing research AND the Standards
• Tape, record and edit the videos; research, write, review and field test the activities; print and publish, or distribute online; commission or develop in-house web resources (information and images) and opportunities for interaction (chats, Researcher Q&A, etc.)
• Promote, broadcast, and publish
• Respond to teacher and student feedback
• Fund raise some more!
  

Research and Evaluation

The International Mathematics and Science Study continues to show that American students lose world-class skills in math and science somewhere between elementary and high school. P2K therefore focuses on the middle school years, where attitudes as well as competencies and career choices are often set for life. It’s also the time when females may decide science and high tech are “not for them”, and under-served populations may feel excluded from what NSF Director Rita Colwell calls the “male and pale” science and engineering community.

P2K features a cast of on-camera researchers who “look like America” while being leaders in their subjects. The LIVE FROM and P2K videos show people, places and the research process in the dynamic TV medium most familiar and compelling to today’s students. Hands-on activities provide a concrete and memorable experience of some of the key concepts being used to study our world and the Universe at the remote locations. The Internet enables students to go much deeper than any textbook or TV program allows, and also - in a very important aspect of the project - to interact with some of the researchers seen on camera, or read about in online BIOgraphies and Journals.

Supported by NSF, a 3-year evaluation by the Center for Children and Technology, EDC, found positive improvements in knowledge, skills and attitude as a result of participating in P2K. For example:

• 89.6 percent of teachers say content “related or closely related” to curriculum
• 80 percent of students say participation made them “more interested” in science and high-tech careers
• 22 percent gains in Standards-related learning through participation
  
  

Budget and organization
From 1994-2002, inclusive, P2K has cost some $6 million, resulting in 65 hours of broadcast television, a family of award-winning websites (accessible via passporttoknowledge.com) and print publications (Teacher's and Implementation Guides, and Factbooks) including 200 inquiry-based hands-on activities.

The small P2K interdisplinary core staff (>20) includes media developers, education researchers, classroom teachers and consulting scientists. Additional contract employees support live productions and major events. LIVE FROM materials are available from P2K; the PASSPORT TO Modules are distributed via GPN, the nation's leading educational AV supplier.

P2K is supported through grants from the NASA, NSF, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in-kind support from science centers, universities, and project generated revenues (license fees, sale of materials, etc.)

Contact
Geoff Haines-Stiles, Project Director (alternate: Erna Akuginow, Executive in Charge)
Passport to Knowledge
27 Washington Valley Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
Phone: 973-656-9403
Email: ghs@passporttoknowledge.com
Alternate email: ea@passporttoknowledge.com

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Created: 6/17/02
Last update: 8/17/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov