ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions. ***************************************************************************** Hello, My name is Rachel Morgan Theall. I am working with high school students to build exhibits through an NSF Division of Chemistry funded grant called Discovery Corps Post Doctoral Fellowships. This is the first year of my grant titled Science in the City. I am working with three Tucson area high schools. One is a small charter school that I meet with twice a week, once for 30 minutes and a second time for 3 1/2 hours. The other two schools meet for one hour, once a week, as after school clubs at the schools. One of these schools is a science magnet school and the other is a high school with mostly Hispanic students. The exhibits are to be based on some aspect or issue concerning science in the students' community and they are to be bilingual. I am finding the opportunity to work with these students to be a great deal of fun but, I am finding it difficult to get the students motivated to choose a topic for their exhibit. The exhibits created must be able to travel because the local science center, a partner in the project, will be closing for a time to plan for an expansion. Also, the local center, Flandrau Science Center, has only focused on astronomy. So the creation of these exhibits will be an expansion on their focus as they plan and build their new center. I'm sure that planning an exhibit with a group of adults is difficult enough, but I'm working with high school students who are not necessarily motivated by the same things as adults. I have never built an exhibit so I am new to this process as well. I thought I would ask for advice from anyone willing to give it on how to tackle the planning process in such a way as to motivate and excite the students. So far, we have brainstormed possible exhibit topics but the students are still very centered on things they all ready know about, which tend to be very personal, rather than community oriented. And, because the topics are so personal, getting the groups of students to agree on one will be a challenge. The plan at most of the schools this week is to provide some experiences that the students can draw on - either by visiting a local business that designs and creates exhibits or by setting up a bunch of opportunities for students to interact with science things. This is a full year process for these students and I hope to be able to come to this community for advice and guidance as we work on our exhibits. Thank you in advance for any input or comments you have. Rachel Morgan Theall, PhD University of Arizona, Department of Chemistry PI Science in the City [log in to unmask] 520-626-0544 *********************************************************************** More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org. To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to [log in to unmask]