Subject: Please read and let me know what you think.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 16:18:15 EST

2. PROJECT SUMMARY
 
The essence of the proposed project is to promote and deliver  informal 
science education in an economically efficient manner  to a broad spectrum of the 
general public at  the National and International levels.  To accomplish this 
we will need to substantially expand our  current model, that employs two (2) 
significant and innovative  elements, which we have tested and found to be very 
successful. First,  we have constructed a website that serves as an informal 
source of  accurate scientific information for a broad spectrum of the general 
public,  as well as for science educators at all levels. This website,  
darwinday.org, contains detailed information on the topics  of Charles Darwin's 
life, his contributions as an important scientist,  and evolutionary biology -- 
including the molecular mechanisms that  underlies the process of evolution. (A 
measure of the current success of  this website can be seen from the fact 
that over 1,100 other websites point to  it for information on these subjects.)  
Secondly, by using Darwin as a  symbol, we are promoting an annual Celebration 
of Science and  Humanity, on or near his birthday on February 12. We 
accomplish this  through informal partnerships and collaborative activity with many 
other groups  throughout the USA, and in other countries. For instance, in 
February  2005 there were 143 informal educational EVENTS open to  the public, that 
took place across America and in 12 additional  countries around the world. 
These events were attended by many thousands of  participants. Samples of these 
informal, educational events can be seen on  our website under EVENTS. The 
funds we are seeking will be used  to improve and expand the content of our 
website and to greatly expand our  outreach to groups across the country and 
around the world who in turn develop  the educational celebratory events.  
 
The intellectual merit of this project is that, in addition  to its inherent 
scientific value, it addresses a timely and  current topic in the public 
arena, that of the authenticity of evolution as a  scientific theory and the need 
for the general public to learn more about  it. Our approach makes it possible 
to includes exciting new data on  the relationship between molecular genetics 
and evolution. For instance many  members of the general public have shown a 
strong interest in the structure  of DNA and function of the human genome and 
in it's relationship to  the genetics of all other living organisms on this 
planet. Therefore, we feel  confident that our approach to informal science 
education has been  shown to be an effective method for reaching out to those 
interested in  life-long informal learning and is ready for significant expansion. 
Through our  activities we encourage life-long informal education by making it 
 possible for the general public to access, not only the informal  
educational opportunities on our website that they can visit  online but also through 
attendance at numerous educational events  sponsored be University Biology 
Departments, Museums, Libraries and others  organizations that independently learn 
about our efforts from our  website. Individual public members can even 
contemplate participating  by sponsoring their own private or public event.  
 
The broader impact of these activities can be seen in the  long-term effects 
of these ongoing informal educational opportunities. For  instance we have 
been able to build excitement around the fact that Darwin's  200th birthday will 
occur in 2009 and among other activities we are promoting a  countdown to 2009 
to achieve what we refer to as a Global Celebration. In this  context large 
numbers of the general public both in the USA and around the  world will be 
informally educated as we encourage professional  individuals and institutions to 
develop an informal programs to  Celebrate Science and Humanity and to invite 
the public to attend.  
 
The funds we are seeking in this application are to cover expenses in  two 
areas as follows:
     1. Website maintenance and expansion: We will need  to increase our 
current webmaster from 1/2 time to full time to (a) cover  increasing website 
maintenance needs (b) post new items under the "What's  New" section of the NavBar 
(c) handle increasing incoming email related to the  website and (d) 
coordinate and post translations of our website into other  languages as they are 
receive them from volunteers translators in other  countries. Currently volunteers 
in 4 countries have contacted us to do  these translations and we will 
solicit many more.      
 
     2. Greatly expanded outreach efforts to focus  on domestic the 
international markets: To accomplish this we will need to  hire two new full-time 
professional communicators. One to handle the domestic  desk and the other to 
handle the international desk. To date most of  our outreach effort has consisted 
of contacting professional scientists and  soliciting their voluntary 
cooperation in the development of an informal  educational event to be held at their 
institution and that will be open to the  public. We invite them to visit our 
website and offer them non monetary  assistance on how to initiate an 'event' 
appropriate at their  institution. As we understand it from our experience to 
date  these two-way email communications will require an individual to address  
each of these markets.