TryScience, a worldwide, online science and technology center, is a collaboration of the New York Hall of Science, IBM, and the more than 500 member institutions of the Association of Science-Technology Centers. TryScience offers a new way for people everywhere to gain access to and discover the science presented by museums around the world through interactive exhibits, multimedia adventures, and live camera "field trips." TryScience also provides hands-on science projects that children, parents, and teachers can do at home or in school.
"All children are natural-born scientists, and TryScience – like the museums it links – enables young people to put their sense of curiosity and wonder to work to explore all kinds of phenomena through a scientific lens," said Alan Friedman, director of the New York Hall of Science. "Because of changes in technology, we can now recreate much of the interactive experience that makes an onsite visit to the New York Hall of Science and other hands-on museums so interesting."
"TryScience breaks down the physical, intellectual, racial and gender barriers that keep students from experiencing new and different challenges and helps prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, and technologists," said Paul Horn, IBM's senior vice president for worldwide research. "Through the Internet, a child in New York or Biloxi, Mississippi or anywhere else can have access to museums in San Francisco, London, Sydney, and Mexico City."
TryScience has four clusters of activities:
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Adventures - An in-depth, rich interactive experience surrounds the TryScience Adventures. Become a cadet at the StarTrek® Starfleet Academy or attempt the Extreme Challenge sports interactive through mountain biking, snowboarding, kayaking, or rock climbing. All of the science behind the adventures comes from science museums around the world. You can even build your own "course" and share it with a friend anywhere in the world.
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Field Trips – A featured trip that will change monthly takes TryScience visitors into the best exhibits from science centers worldwide. IBM technology will permit visitors to experience animated tours and to direct their own panoramic explorations of the exhibits. In addition, TryScience will have live video from a number of other museums featuring their favorite attractions. Also, the site provides information on more than 400 science and technology centers so that wherever you are on the globe, TryScience can help you find a museum nearby.
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Experiments – Visitors can build a treetop walkway like those scientists construct to observe tropical rainforests – either online through an interactive animation or "hands on" with common household items. The treetop bridge is one of many experiments organized by fields of science. Simple how-to instructions that can be printed out lead children, parents, or teachers step-by-step to completing the projects and learning the science they involve.
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Curious – This area uses links to media sources to focus on the hottest science topics in the news. It helps visitors make sense of those stories by relating them to personal experiences. For example, "Curious about Your Genes," is an online survey that teaches visitors about their own genetic make-up. The information collected becomes part of a database, which allows visitors to compare their physical traits with others worldwide. Like science itself, TryScience will not be static. The content of TryScience will change continually as institutions create new experiences and exhibits.
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Among the science and technology museums linked to the TryScience Web site are the Deutches Museum in Munich, and the newly opened Maloka Ciencia + Tecnologia Interactiva, the largest interactive science and technology center in Latin America.
"The great thing about TryScience is that it stimulates interest in science both on and off line," said Bonnie VanDorn, executive director of the Association of Science-Technology Centers. "By featuring activities developed by science centers, and providing links and 'field trips' to them, TryScience opens a window into the exciting variety of science-rich activities going on daily around the world. I believe this can entice people to 'experience it all' by taking the next step and visiting a science center in person."
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By giving access from school or home to experiences that have traditionally required travel – whether across a city or across the country, TryScience allows young people more opportunities to be captivated by science.
Although more students than ever are enrolled in rigorous science classes, and there has been some improvement in test scores, studies have found that U.S. students' science achievement overall has been stagnant. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, fewer than three in five students take high school chemistry, only one in four (24 percent) takes physics, and fewer than five in 100 take Advanced Placement Biology. As a result, students graduating from U.S. high schools trail behind their peers in other countries in science, ranking near the bottom in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study.
"The key to turning these statistics around is providing young people with interesting, hands-on, learning activities to reinforce learning that takes place in the schools," says Eric Marshall, project director of TryScience at the New York Hall of Science. "Instead of just reading about something they're interested in, or looking at pictures, TryScience allows them to experience science by performing experiments, making observations, designing, building and testing their creations. They'll be able to learn what science is all about – the joy and wonder – by doing it. This is a one-stop shop for science discovery on the Web."
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According to Dr. Friedman of the New York Hall of Science, the project is made possible by an unprecedented partnership between the world's leading science and technology centers and newly developed technology now being unveiled by IBM. The TryScience site uses Hot Media which allows for streaming video and interactive explorations without a plug-in, IBM WebSphere Application Server for polls and live web cams, Lotus Domino for the Site application software and bulletin board functions, and Java and JavaScript. The TryScience.net collaboration system uses Lotus SameTime and online content is published using IBM's e-Publishing software to allow science centers to update information easily.
In addition to featuring IBM's leading web technologies, the Web site draws on the knowledge and expertise of several IBM e-business service and solutions organizations. IBM's "farm" of RS/6000 servers, located at its global services delivery site in Boulder, Colo., uses IBM's AIX platform to provide a secure, scalable and flexible environment that will support millions of "hits" to the TryScience Web site each day.
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The New York Hall of Science features the largest collection of hands-on science exhibits in New York City. Ranked as one of the best science museums in the country, the New York Hall of Science is a leading innovator in exhibit technology and education programming. The New York Hall of Science is located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park neighborhood of Queens, N.Y.
The Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated (ASTC) is a nonprofit organization of more than 425 science centers and museums in 42 countries engaging over 150 million visitors annually in intriguing educational science activities and explorations of scientific phenomena.
IBM is the world's largest information technology company with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Powered by IBM, the TryScience Web site utilizes IBM's leading Web technologies while drawing on the knowledge and expertise of several of its IBM e-business service and solutions organizations, including IBM Global Services. IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services provider and the fastest growing part of IBM, with more than 138,000 professionals serving customers in 160 countries. IBM Global Services integrates IBM's broad range of capabilities – services, hardware, software and research – to help companies of all sizes realize the full value of information technology.
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