MicroWorlds

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.

MicroWorlds: Exploring the Structure of Materials
Program conducted by: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

What is MicroWorlds?
MicroWorlds is an electronic science magazine on the Web. Written for students in grades 7-12 and their teachers, and for the general public, it features information about research at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Each "article" has learning activities to help students understand basic concepts related to the research described. The site seeks to engage students in activities that help them learn about the type of science going on at one of the newest DOE facilities and realize that science is accessible and fun.

MicroWorlds has several unique features that set it apart from many educational projects: it features real science that is happening today, rather than text book examples; it connects key science concepts like electromagnetism and light to the way the concepts are used in everyday life, engineering, and science; the material is integrated with hands-on activities which make the student a participant in the learning process, it is developed by ALS writers who are used to describing science to a lay audience, in collaboration with teachers and students. It is also an integral part of the other ALS outreach activities which include teacher workshops, classroom visits, and curriculum materials. We have local teachers who contribute and advise us on our outreach activities. The Bright and Busy module that features people who work at the ALS is almost entirely written by student interns who get to learn about what people do as careers in a national laboratory. New science articles, also written by students, include "the eXperiment files" which follows an experiment at the ALS from start to finish, and "Students' Corner" which is a first-person story about what it is like to be a summer student working with scientists at the ALS.

How Does It Work?
Teachers
Teachers have been key contributors in three phases

Initial development with teacher consultant
Development and testing of curriculum materials in teacher workshop
Ongoing input from Berkeley Lab summer teacher programs

Students
Berkeley Lab summer students have developed three new sections

The Bright & The Busy (career-oriented bios of ALS staff)
The eXperiment Files (articles on research done at ALS)
Students' Corner (first-person accounts of student work at ALS)

Editors
In-house editors

act as mentors for students
guide the work of teachers
ensure editorial consistency
maintain web site

Rationale and Evaluation

Why the Web?

Gives MicroWorlds a worldwide audience
Reaches students and teachers who would otherwise have no access to real-world, state-of the art science
Interactive nature of Web engages students

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