Title,Recipient,Competition,"Fiscal Year","Award Number","Federal Funding","Principal Investigator",State,City,County,District,Lat/Long,"Grant Dates",Abstract,Partners "The Global Decision Room: An Interactive Science-on-a-Sphere Installation","Orlando Science Center","2006: Science On a Sphere Installation Cooperative Agreements",2006,NA06SEC4690010,"$175,000","Brian Tonner",Florida,Orlando,Orange,FL10,"28.57228, -81.36836","2006-10-01T00:00:00 - 2007-09-30T00:00:00","The Orlando Science Center has assembled a project team to create a unique environmental science learning tool: THE GLOBAL DECISION ROOM. Founded on, and enhancing, the Science On a Sphere (SOS) digital globe, the Global Decision Room is an interactive theatre that puts visitors in the role of being decision makers on behalf of the behavior of large populations on the planet. The results of global decisions relating to the environment are seen played out on SOS. The interactive strategy that is created for the Global Decision Room will be flexible and well integrated into the SOS software platform, making it possible to design other educational story scenarios that can use the same system. The Global Decision Room is designed as a multi-use, high impact, exciting content delivery platform. This proposal is based on a well developed initial educational premise, but the resulting construction of the Global Decision Room will be the perfect environment for other educational topics of interest to NOAA's outreach strategy. As new datasets become available in the future, new interactive stories will be developed for the Global Decision Room. The Orlando project brings with it significant additional funding from the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Orlando Utilities Commission, and the Florida Hydrogen Initiative, which will greatly leverage the funding from NOAA. Partners in the project include a strong technical team from the University of Central Florida and the Florida Solar Energy Center, interactive digital media experts from the Institute for Simulation and Training, the creative design team ""i.d.e.a.s."" located at Disney-MGM Studios, and the XhibitNet interactive multimedia design team.","University of Central Florida / Geospatial Analysis and Modeling of Ecological Systems (GAMES) Lab, University of Central Florida / Institute for Simulation and Training (IST)" "Envirosphere Educational Project","McWane Science Center","2006: Science On a Sphere Installation Cooperative Agreements",2006,NA06SEC4690011,"$185,948","Angela Turner",Alabama,Birmingham,Jefferson,AL07,"33.51482, -86.80783","2006-10-01T00:00:00 - 2007-09-30T00:00:00","McWane ScienceCenter (McWSC) is a non-profit, interactive science museum committed to showing the public how science and technology enrich their lives and help them solve problems. McWSC has a goal of extending the power of experiential learning to as many people as possible, particularly those who would otherwise not be able to do so on their own. McWane’s environmental education initiative, the Envirosphere Educational Project, uses NOAA’s Science on a Sphere (SOS) to provide environmental education and workforce development programs for an estimated 200,000 people. This number includes the general public, school groups from across the region, and 2,500 children in low-income communities from across the state of Alabama. All visitors have the opportunity to go to the SOS exhibit and participate in environmental education programs led by McWSC Education Staff. Each program corresponds to one of the SOS data sets and to the Alabama Course of Study Standards for elementary and secondary schools. The intended outcomes of the Project are to make complex environmental science concepts more accessible to people of all ages; to provide educational opportunities to children who would otherwise not have access to this type of information; to partner with local and state academic institutions, school boards and municipalities to improve environmental science curricula and awareness; and to increase the visitor’s knowledge of and pique his/her interest in science and its related real-world applications.","Birmingham City Schools / Minor Elementary School, University of Alabama at Birmingham"