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For more than 130 years, the American Museum of Natural History has been teaching teachers within its walls. New technology now enables the Museum to reach teachers well beyond those walls through online distance learning. Seminars on Science is the newest addition to the Museum's distinguished roster of professional development programs. Developed by the Museum's National Center for Science Literacy, Education, and Technology, Seminars on Science is designed to bring authentic science experiences to teachers nationwide.

Behind the scenes in the American Museum of Natural History's Frick Wing, which houses the vertebrate paleontology collections.
© AMNH

The National Center embarked on the four-year project in the summer of 1998 by exploring how a science-rich, informal learning institution might contribute to distance-learning professional development courses. A year was spent researching distance education and a second year planning and developing the courses. The project launched its first three online seminars in May 2000 through the online university, Connected University, of Classroom Connect. These seminars give teachers access to the Museum's most exciting asset: authentic connections to working scientists who are grappling with ongoing questions about the nature of our world and the universe. The courses are designed to provide teachers with an opportunity for hands-on, inquiry-based learning. We believe that this experience will translate into engaging ways of teaching science to their own students.

These images are from an animation developed for the Diversity of Fishes course. The animation illustrates the opening, protrusion, and closing of the jaw in a stylized bony fish's head.
© AMNH

The three courses are titled: Diversity of Fishes, The Study of Spiders, and Why Are There No More Woolly Mammoths?. Museum scientists and education staff from the National Center jointly developed each course. This marks the first time these Museum scientists have been intimately involved in the professional development of teachers.

Spiders from the American Museum of Natural History's Arachnology collection.
Tina Gaud © AMNH

The work of the scientist is the driving force behind every Seminars on Science course. The scientist's own research is the lens through which each course covers the big ideas in science, such as extinction, biodiversity, or systematics. These individual case studies show scientists at work, using the tools of their trade to conduct authentic investigations. At the same time, the seminars place these processes within a larger scientific context and connect them to the concepts teachers must convey in order to meet standards. The different scientific themes cover the range of benchmarks set by The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the National Science Education Standards.

Online technology gives teachers new access to Museum resources. Much of the course content, as well as a variety of media resources, exists online. The course materials include: videos of scientists at work in the Museum and in the field; interactive specimens that learners can manipulate and examine; animations that explain events in Earth's distant past; and a wealth of photographs, ranging from ichthyologists collecting at the Alabama Deep-Sea Fishing Rodeo to mammalogists drilling for end-Pleistocene extinction evidence on Siberia's Wrangel Island.

Each course follows a simple template, containing a syllabus, a list of weekly objectives and expectations, a weekly reading and a review of Web materials, and assignments. In place of face-to-face classroom discussions, the courses offer a meeting place called the Forum. Here, students post comments and questions about class topics, and answer weekly course questions about the learning process and the course content. We are working with Connected University to develop a Web design that meets the ongoing and emerging needs of this new audience of learners.

Dr. Adriana Aquino, of the Diversity of Fishes course, in her lab at the American Museum of Natural History.
© AMNH

The Diversity of Fishes course was developed and taught by Dr. Melanie Stiassny, Curator-in-Charge of the Ichthyology Department, and Dr. Adriana Aquino. These two scientists explore the diversity of species through a study of the diversity of fishes. Dr. Stiassny's introduction explains why fish are so diverse, and describes the special features required for life in water. Then Dr. Adriana Aquino's study of the big-eyed armored catfish, Hypoptopoma, engages teachers in an actual investigation. Dr. Aquino takes you through her research of the genus Hypoptopoma and the challenges involved in understanding and identifying a species. Dr. Aquino's in-depth explication shows how biologists apply broad-based knowledge to a specific research question.

The Study of Spiders course focuses on the work of Dr. Vladimir Ovtsharenko, a Research Scientist in the Museum's world-famous arachnology lab. Did you know that you are never more than six feet away from a spider? Not only is this course full of bizarre spider facts, but it also illustrates how to practice the techniques scientists use to collect and identify specimens. Dr. Ovtsharenko takes learners spider-collecting in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and explains how to begin a proper arachnid collection. Learners end up with a thorough grasp of the tools needed to collect, identify, and classify spiders in their own backyards.

Why Are There No More Woolly Mammoths? differs slightly from the fish and spider courses in that scientists don't yet know the answer to this question. Learners find out that scientists first need to learn about a time and place very different from our present environment and setting. What was the world like 20,000 years ago, when mammoths walked areas of the planet during the Pleistocene Epoch and then, quite dramatically, went extinct? Dr. Ross MacPhee and DNA specialist Dr. Alex Greenwood are trying to figure out the cause of their sudden extinction. This course examines three hypotheses - one of them developed by Dr. MacPhee - that attempt to explain the extinction of the woolly mammoths, the surrounding hypotheses controversy, and current testing for DNA evidence to solve this intriguing mystery.

With three courses under our belt, the Museum is well on its way to developing a catalogue of courses and resources that will be available through Connected University. Topics featured in new courses this fall include earth science and astronomy. And coming in late winter 2001: genomics and sharks.

To enroll in Fall courses, visit Classroom Connect or for more information on Seminars on Science send an email.

For profiles of Dr. MacPhee and Dr. Stiassny, see AMNH Profile.