The Plan

The project timeline outlined below is tentative and subject to change. Care has been taken during planning to ensure that implementation of the project harmonizes as best as possible with the other responsibilities of the four participating teachers.

The executive summary for the project and a link to a PDF-version of the entire project proposal follow the timeline.

Timeline of Events
Completed events are shaded.
PDF versions of key documents are in red.

Executive Summary of the Project (from the EPA Proposal)
1a. Organization
For 153 years the Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago's oldest museum organization, has promoted scientific literacy through outreach, online, and museum-based educational programs that focus on the ecology and natural history of the Midwest. The Academy's new Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which recently installed solar panels, offers six engaging exhibits that promote scientific learning to people of all ages. The Academy will work in partnership with the Frank W. Reilly Elementary School, the first Chicago public school to install solar panels.

1b. Summary Statement
The Academy's Online Learning team proposes Chicago del Sol, a pilot project for teaching environmental science to elementary students based on an innovative environmental technology initiative promoted by the City of Chicago. Two exciting recent initiatives involve installing solar panels on Chicago Public Schools and Museums and adding rooftop gardens to numerous downtown office buildings (the Academy's Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum has both); our proposal would begin with the former initiative. Using the Reilly school as a pilot test bed, we propose:

• The development of at least four seasonal solar energy activities to be disseminated through the project Web site;
• The development of one interactive online experience (such as a hypertext novel, shockwave game, etc.);
• The use of streaming video and interactive chat technologies to connect students with solar energy experts through two "Webcasts;"
• The presentation of two outreach lessons in four Reilly school classrooms; and
• The use of a museum visit to provide the students with another perspective on solar energy.

Once the program is in place and tested at Reilly, it would be ready for use with the six additional CPS schools that will soon be identified for solar panel installation. The Academy would become a local center for information about solar energy environmental education and the project would provide a model for how other cultural institutions, nature museums, and science centers throughout the country might look to the promotion of innovative environmental technologies by their cities as a basis for their environmental education programming.

1c. Educational Priority
This project will address the following EPA educational priorities:
#2. Education Reform by using the City's implementation of innovative environmental technologies as a springboard for real-world learning in science classrooms;
#3. Community Issues by offering a model for community education that is transferable to any city in the United States where the government is implementing innovative environmental technologies; and
#5. Teaching skills by providing teachers training in and information about the environmental issues surrounding solar energy to improve their environmental education teaching methods.

1d. Delivery Method
In addition to providing teachers with a professional development workshop on solar energy, the Academy will reach its student audience through on-site teaching visits in their classrooms, via the Internet during Webcasts that will feature two-way chat, and through the mutual use of a Web site that offers both teachers and students one learning interactive and at least four seasonal activities related to solar energy.

1e. Audience
The initial target audience for this project is four grade 4-6 science classes at the Reilly school and all 20 teachers of students in those grades. The school population is 75 percent Latino, one percent African-American, and 22 percent Caucasian. Once piloted, the project could be expanded to serve at least the six Chicago Public Schools to receive solar panels in 2001. In addition, Webcasts and online activities will be promoted via CAoS Club, an Academy distance learning program that had over 5,000 teacher members from Illinois during the 1999-2000 school year. Feedback from this group will help determine the strength of the online component of the project as a method for wider dissemination of the project.

1f. Costs
The Academy is requesting funds to develop the Chicago del Sol pilot program, which includes outreach visits, a teacher workshop, a museum visit, online activities, two Webcasts, and a Web-based interactive. The expenditure emphasis is on creating rich, multidisciplinary Web resources that can be used by a broad audience (including parents) in conjunction with classroom and museum visits.

Read the entire Chicago Del Sol Proposal.
(Get Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Chicago del Sol Home