NSF Awards: 1713142
When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time is a comprehensive educational media and outreach initiative produced by Twin Cities PBS in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute. Across multiple platforms, this initiative will engage diverse audiences around deep time and evolution, and provide insight into the connections between the past, present, and future of life on Earth. The project’s main components include a two-hour film broadcast on PBS nationwide and simulcast on Smithsonian Network during primetime; a VR game which allows players to become virtual paleontologists; ongoing educational engagement at the National Museum of Natural History which includes a Family Fossil Festival on the National Mall; a national outreach initiative empowering Smithsonian Affiliate museums to integrate When Whales Walked educational resources and professional development into existing programming; and robust research and evaluation projects.
These dynamic and connected STEM learning experiences will harness the powerful reach of public media, leverage the Smithsonian's world-class collections and programming expertise, and capitalize on the power of collaborative learning and the promise of immersive technologies. The research team for When Whales Walked will explore the strategic impacts of intergenerational co-play with physical vs virtual artifacts to inform ongoing innovation in the free choice learning space, and will share findings with the informal science learning field. Used in concert, project components will promote STEM learning and engagement, encourage scientific thinking and inquiry, and support family learning. When Whales Walked connects media-makers, thought leaders, educators, researchers and 21st century technology, to promote broad audience participation in person and across multiple platforms, and ultimately magnifies access to informal STEM learning.
Kristin Pederson
STEM Director, Project Development & Communication
Greetings from Twin Cities PBS and the Smithsonian Natural Museum of Natural History! We are excited to participate in the 2019 NSF STEM for All Video Showcase, and to share When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time. This project (formerly titled Lineage) is a comprehensive educational media and outreach initiative that will engage families in learning about deep time and evolution, and will help audiences come to newfound understandings of the connections between the past, present, and future of life on Earth.
This multi-platform initiative centers around a two-hour documentary, When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time, which premieres on PBS stations nationwide and is simulcast on the Smithsonian Network on June 19, 2019. Additional project components include a virtual reality (VR) game which allows players to become virtual paleontologists; hands-on programming at the NMNH which features standards-aligned activities and a Family Fossil Festival; and a national outreach initiative which provides museum educators nationwide with the professional development and resources they need to integrate When Whales Walked into their institutions and communities. A robust research and evaluation project seeks to explore the strategic impacts of intergenerational co-play with physical vs virtual artifacts, and will inform ongoing innovation in the free choice learning space
Together, the project partners have co-designed a series of dynamic STEM learning experiences that harness the powerful reach of public media, leverage the Smithsonian's world-class collections and programming expertise, and capitalize on the power of immersive technologies. All project components work in concert to promote STEM learning and engagement, encourage scientific thinking and inquiry, and support family learning. We hope that When Whales Walked connects media-makers, thought leaders, educators, researchers and families, and look forward to your questions and comments!
Julia Griffin
I look forward to the series. I'm curious, what museum locations will be involved in the VR gaming and other resources? How will you be tracking the impact of those resources on learning?
Kristin Pederson
STEM Director, Project Development & Communication
Hi Julia—
Thanks for your question! To select the museums who will participate in the first phase of our national outreach initiative, co-PIs Amy Bolton and Kristin Pederson worked with a team of educators at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) colleagues to issue an RFP to the Smithsonian Museum Affiliate network. We asked applicants to name a smaller institution with whom they would partner to implement When Whales Walked outreach programming, which will employ hands-on activities, the VR game and a 20-minute version of the film that focuses specifically on evolution of whales. We received a wealth of worthy applicants who wish to build capacity around paleontology and deep time education, so the selection process was challenging! We ultimately named the following institutions/partner organizations, all of whom will specifically work to reach rural and/or underserved children and families:
Training for these institutions is scheduled for July 13 and 14 at the NMNH, and implementation of Family Fossil Festival programming at each site will begin in fall 2019. To further increase the reach of the When Whales Walked initiative, all resource will be made available for formal and informal educators in the following ways:
Finally, TPT and SI will host a full-day, hands-on workshop prior to an annual meeting of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) in 2020, during which the Project Team will share best practices on creating and facilitating STEM-focused family learning experiences, demonstrate the project's fossil-based activities as examples, and share results of the project's research effort. Meals and networking opportunities will be provided, and a one- night hotel stay will be covered by the project, for 25 museum professionals who will bring this knowledge back to their own diverse institutions. Research and evaluation of these resources and programming will be led by Dr. Debbie Siegel of ILI and Jennifer Borland of Rockman et al; we look forward to sharing impact and outcomes at next year’s Showcase!
Elysa Corin
Senior Researcher
Great video, I enjoyed seeing the animals and fossils in their natural environments. Could you provide some more information about the research and evaluation exploring how children and parents are using hands on activities and VR to learn about deep time? Are these results influencing the products you are creating, or the workshops for informal educators? Thanks!
Jennifer Borland
The evaluation team has been gathering and sharing feedback from the target audience (both adult and youth) for the film, as well as the hands-on and VR activities. In the first year of the project, there were a series of focus groups held with adults with children ages 6-12 - these focus groups were held in four geographically distinct areas of the US and were inclusive of diverse individuals including evolution believers, as well as those who were more skeptical and/or leaning toward disbelief or unsure what to believe. The evaluation team was also able to engage with a subset of this group to reflect on a written treatment for the film and, more recently, was able to re-engage focus group participants in the process of viewing a rough cut of a segment of the film with their children and providing feedback. Evaluators have observed sessions wherein the hands-on activity and VR game have been tested, and look forward to diving into evaluation and research efforts designed to learn more about these experiences, as well as the film, this summer.
Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein
This project is really exciting and I can't wait to hear more about the results. I'm curious if you'll have the opportunity to talk to people who engage in more than one component (e.g. film and hands-on museum experience) and how those experiences might interact.
Jennifer Borland
While the research will focus on the impacts of the film, hands-on activity, and VR game in a more controlled and therefore isolated way, the evaluation team will have the ability to explore the impacts of multiple touch-points for participants. As part of the evaluation, we plan to explore the impacts of watching either a short version of the film or the entire film on both the hands-on activity and VR gameplay experiences. We're particularly curious about whether the viewing experience can provide different ways for parents and children to talk about the experiences they are having as they play...if it gives them a better foundational understanding of what they are doing, and more confidence and tools to wrangle with concepts that are conceptually more challenging. We're excited to start in on this part of the project later this year, and look forward to sharing out findings with the field!
William Spitzer
Vice President
The footage and stories for this documentary look great, a really interesting way to pull together some different aspects of paleontology and natural history into a unified story. It sounds like it is just about to launch next month, so I am looking forward to seeing it.
It would be helpful to hear more about the specific learning goals for the documentary and associated activities. What specific concepts are you focusing on, and how are they connected with what we know about gaps in public understanding? It sounds like there is a focus on "deep time" as one of the concept -- what do we know about how people understand this concept, what do we know about how to advance understanding, and what do we need to find out?
Thanks,
Billy
Amy Bolton
Manager, Deep Time Education and Outreach
Hi Billy,
Thanks for your clarifying question about the learning goals. In the activities, we have a number of learning goals: (1) engaging in scientific practices that relate to paleontology, and an increased understanding that (2) all things have a shared, common ancestor, (3) related things have shared, derived characteristics, (4) paleontologists use physical traits in fossils to show relationships, and (5) a phylogenetic tree is a representation of evolutionary relationships.
More specifically, research has demonstrated that understanding evolution and deep time relationships are particularly challenging topics even for museum visitors who typically express more interest and awareness of science than the general public (MacFadden, et. al., 2007). The learning products (e.g. video, hands-on activities and virtual reality experience) developed through the When Whales Walked project provide a rich context in which to further understand children and their caregivers’ abilities to understand and effectively engage with the concepts and scientific practices around paleobiology, evolutionary thinking, and deep time. Prior research suggests that museum learning experiences have the ability to support children’s recognition and articulation of natural selection and common decent (Evans & Lane, 2011). In addition, recently developed socially immersive media in the form of DeepTree collaborative tabletop exhibits has demonstrated the learning value of visualizing relational concepts in a dynamic interface (Davis et.al, 2016; Horn et.al. 2016). These findings in particular suggest that the ability of technology to support visualization of how complex relationships between species change over time, is a powerful strategy to support evolutionary thinking. Research in museums has also suggested that learning is supported through conversations, joint attention, and physical engagement with elements in the learning environment (Crowley et.al, 2001; Eberbach and Crowley, 2005; Falk and Dirrking, 2000). However, when families encounter concepts that are unfamiliar to both adults and children, parents and caregivers may improvise in their attempts to address children’s questions. Museums have the opportunity to meet a broader range of the learning needs of their family visitors through the creation and systematic research of the role of digital collections and emerging technologies.
William Spitzer
Vice President
Amy, thanks so much for sharing your learning goals and all the research behind them, this is really helpful!
Debbie Siegel
Building off of Amy's comment:
Critical to this question about learning goals is sharing the target audiences, both public and professional, for the project. This includes general audiences of all ages who will watch the television broadcast on PBS, and families with children who will participate in the family learning activities at the exhibition (hands-on activities and Virtual Reality experience), as well Family Fossil Festivals. The project design also includes targeted outreach to rural populations who are underserved in science enrichment opportunities, and the museum professionals and other informal science educators with whom they work. However, in this response we focus on public audienes
Referring to the general audiences viewing the PBS program:
General audiences will increase their understanding of:
The Lineage exhibition also provides a rich context in which to understand children and their caregivers’ abilities to understand concepts and scientific practices around paleontology, evolutionary thinking, and deep time. With regard to families who participate in the Lineage learning activities, children and their caregivers will be better able to
In terms of what we know about how people understand these concepts, what might help advance their understanding, and how learning activities such as a film, exhibition, etc. can be designed to support understanding, research demonstrates that evolution and deep time relationships are particularly challenging topics, even for adult museum visitors to natural history museums, who typically express more interest and awareness than the general public, in science in general, and paleontology, in particular (MacFadden B.J., Dunckel, B.A., Ellis, S., Dierking, L.D., Abraham-Silver, L. Kisiel, J. & Koke, J. 2007. Natural history museum visitors’ understanding of evolution. Bioscience, 57 (10: 875-882). In terms of deep time specifically, key points of misunderstanding include:
However, there is evidence that out of school experiences can be powerful and lead to new or
more developed understandings of scale, including an appreciation of deep time. Recommendations for making these concepts more accessible include:
In terms of families, prior research suggests that museum learning experiences have the ability to support children’s recognition and articulation of natural selection and common decent (Evans & Lane, 2011; Evans et al., 2010; Legare, Lane, & Evans, 2013; Palmquist, Danter & Yalowitz, 2011). In addition, recently developed socially immersive media in the form of DeepTree collaborative table top exhibits has demonstrated the learning value of visualizing family trees in a dynamic interface (Davis et.al, 2016; Horn et.al. 2016). In particular, these findings suggest that the ability of technology to support visualization of how complex relationships between species change over time, is a powerful strategy to support evolutionary thinking. Research in museums has also suggested that learning is supported through conversations, joint attention, and physical engagement with elements in the learning environment (Crowley et.al, 2001; Eberbach and Crowley, 2005; Falk and Dierking, 2018).
The project's primary exhibition innovation is its exploration of new learning designs for families, including the use of cutting-edge technologies such as the VR experience and collaborative learning experiences that advance science knowledge and inquiry-based learning. The resulting research, which will investigate how intergenerational co-play between children and adults with physical hands-on experiences, compared to virtual artifacts, influences STEM learning and engagement, will lead to critical strategic impacts for the field, building knowledge about "what works," "why," and "how," informing ongoing innovation in the free choice learning space.
We would love to hear your thoughts, questions, and considerations as we move forward with this exciting project.
William Spitzer
Vice President
Debbie, thanks for all the additional detail on target audiences and associated learning goals, they really give a sense of how you are approaching the project with clear intentions.
Margaret Glass
Independent consultant
Hi,
Great video - and thanks for the background about your research approach for this project.
I also appreciate the attention you give to training and professional learning opportunities for the staff of the museums that will participate in this initiative. You have picked some great partner organizations that can have direct reach to your target audience of rural and underserved families. How are you thinking about the continued support for these museum staff – both now and in future expansion? Are there formative assessment techniques that might be helpful for museum facilitators to mediate interactions they see in their spaces? Will the participating museum professionals continue to be connected as expansion continues?
Looking forward to learning more!
Margaret
Jennifer Borland
Greetings Margaret - Great question! I'll let some of the other project partners share more about the specific plans for training and supporting the museum staff during the lifetime of this project and beyond, but I wanted to note that I share your appreciation for the project's goal of working with informal science ed professionals to broaden the reach of the resources and activities that are being developed--this outreach is a key factor of the project design that will hopefully lead to sustained impacts beyond the lifetime of the grant.
The external evaluation team plans to gather feedback from museum/remote ISE facilitators following the initial training sessions and as they implement programming at remote sites. The goals of these evaluative efforts are to 1) ensure timely feedback to project stakeholders to keep them informed about ways they can best support remote facilitation efforts and 2) better understand the resulting impacts on these ISE professionals and the communities they serve. We will also gather feedback on what works well during the implementation phase and what, if anything, could be enhanced in future initiatives of this nature. I'm looking forward to the things we'll be able to learn and share out with the rest of the ISE community!
Margaret Glass
Margaret Glass
Independent consultant
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for the additional details. I love the idea of additional feedback from the remote facilitation sites. I look forward to following the project!
Margaret
Amy Bolton
Manager, Deep Time Education and Outreach
Hi Margaret,
I thought I would add to Jennifer's response and talk about how we are staying connected to our partner institutions. The Smithsonian Institution has an Affiliates program (see link: https://affiliations.si.edu/) and the partner organizations are part of that program. Through this existing relationship we will be able to follow up on how the program impacted their museum and discuss future opportunities to collaborate. The Smithsonian Affiliates programs is a great way for us to reach out to communities and diverse audiences across the country. It allows us to meet people where they are--literally and figuratively. We enjoy the opportunity to learn from them as well and better understand the needs and interests of a multitude of audiences.
Amy
Margaret Glass
Jan Heiderer
Hi There. No questions really! The film did a great job of answering all my question just as they emerged. Just want to say: beautiful video! I really enjoyed it.
Michael Rosenfeld
VP of National Productions
Hi Jan, thank you for watching and commenting. I’m glad the video could give you a complete sense of the project. Stay tuned next year for another video detailing results of the research and evaluation components that will take place later this year and into 2020.
Rebecca Roberts
great project - looking forward to more from the team
Michael Rosenfeld
VP of National Productions
Thank you, Rebecca!
Jonathan Lewis
Great video and exciting project! Thank you. I like many other geoscientists have long been flummoxed by the fact that, in spite of wonderful programming such as this, we are plagued by low enrollments and a general lack of understanding about what kinds of jobs are available to people in this STEM realm. Are there ways to gauge the impact that your project might have on the educational trajectories of middle and high school students? Our STEMSEAS project aims to get early-stage STEM-interested students out to sea to discover previously unknown futures, but I am also keenly interested in interventions that might tackle the pipeline disconnect upstream.
Kristin Pederson
STEM Director, Project Development & Communication
Hi Jonathan.
Thanks for your question! Unfortunately, our "When Whales Walked" project does not have funding earmarked for longitudinal research around how/if students are inspired to seek STEM educational and career pathways. However, we at Twin Cities PBS ALWAYS share that same concern and curiosity. Although it is a different project, we have started to tackle that challenge with another NSF-supported initiative called "SciGirls Strategies." This project focuses on empowering CTE/STEM instructors, counselors and administrators at the high school level with gender equitable teaching strategies (or GETS). These approaches give educators the tools they need to recruit and retain girls in high school CTE/STEM classes, with an eye toward post-secondary education and career pathways. If this sounds interesting, you can learn more about the programming at http://www.scigirlsconnect.org/evaluations/ (scroll down to the SciGirls Strategies section).
Additionally, on the same site you will find a wealth of role model videos that SciGirls has produced. These short-form profiles feature relatable and interesting STEM professionals sharing about their careers, as well as about their path to achieving STEM success. As per our research, these women also talk about their hobbies, families, pets and other interests, underscoring that they have rich lives outside of their STEM pursuits. We've even produced a series of these role model videos in Spanish, which feature Latina STEM professionals. These videos have been instrumental in helping both kids AND parents understand what a STEM career really entails and offers. If interested, check them out at http://www.scigirlsconnect.org/resource_topic/role-model-profiles/. We have also entered SciGirls videos into this Showcase.
I know this answer veers away from the "When Whales Walked" project, but I hope you find it helpful. Thanks, Jonathan!
Amy Bolton
Manager, Deep Time Education and Outreach
Hi Jonathan,
Adding to Kristin's response--and adding my enthusiasm for the SciGirls project--we are also concerned at the Smithsonian about the future of people entering into STEM fields, especially underrepresented audiences. What I appreciate about When Whales Walked, is the emphasis on showing a wide variety of careers in science, what doing science really means, and what scientists look like. It must be difficult for students to imagine a career in science if they don't see scientists who look like them or if they have a very limited image of how science is done. This program, I think, helps to give a wider perspective on science, which I think is an important place to start.
Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.