INTERACTIVE MEDIA TO STIMULATE SCIENCE AND MATH-BASED CAREER INTEREST

THE PROJECT IS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS AND INFORM THEM ABOUT SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS BASED CAREERS. THE APPROACH IS TO DEVELOP AND TEST INTERACTIVE MEDIA: COMPUTER, TEXTUAL, AND HANDS-ON MATERIALS THAT ILLUSTRATE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES IN AN ENGAGING "ADVENTURE" FORMAT. THE CD-ROM COMPUTER PROGRAM USES INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS, ANIMATION, SOUND EFFECTS, VOICE, QUICKTIME, AND OTHER TECHNIQUES TO ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO ASSUME THE ROLE OF SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS, CONDUCTING SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS AND DESIGN SYSTEMS INTERACTIVELY, SUPPLEMENTED BY HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES. MATERIALS ARE BEING DEVELOPED FOR GRADES 3 TO 5, FOR ALL STUDENTS, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES AND YOUNG WOMEN, USING ROLE-MODELS AND SPECIAL PROGRAM INFORMATION. A DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM IS BEING GENERATED IN COOPERATION WITH AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SYSTEM, UTILIZING A MULTIMEDIA AUTHORING TOOL FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS. PLANS ARE BEING CREATED FOR FULL DEVELOPMENT INCLUDING SCENARIOS AND EFFECTS, AND SUPPORTING STUDENT AND TEACHER GUIDES AND TRAINING. A PLAN FOR TEST AND EVALUATION OF THE SYSTEM IS BEING ESTABLISHED, AND DISSEMINATION METHODS EXAMINED. THE COMPLETE PROGRAM AND SUPPORTING TEXT MATERIAL WILL BE COMPLETED AND INITIAL TESTS CONDUCTED IN THE LONG BEACH SCHOOLS.