About Us | Our Partnerships
The Museum requires many and various material resources and intellectual expertise to accomplish our mission. It is not practical or economical for the Museum to maintain and support many of these resources internally, so we seek partnerships to fill those gaps. Each partner organization offers the Museum something of value—material or intellectual, and we in turn assist them in delivering their own mission. The following organizations represent a handful of the many partnerships the Museum cultivates and relies on to accomplish shared goals:
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science serves as a grantor supporting Nanotechnology programming, and strategic partner offering Museum members significant discounts in AAAS membership.
Environmental Protection Agency
The Museum and the EPA signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2007 that enables the EPA to share material and personnel resources with the Museum in pursuit of improving our region's environmental education. The EPA is also interested in assisting the Museum with our efforts to incorporate more sustainable environmental practices. In the short term, the EPA has offered to help the Museum calculate our carbon footprint which will help us better understand how our energy consumption impacts the environment.
Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network
The Museum is a member of the eight-museum Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network. Our involvement with the network will bring $700,000+ to the Museum over the five years of the grant, to engage the public in nanoscale science, engineering and technology education. The Network is funded by a five year $20M award from the National Science Foundation, their largest award ever to the science museum community.
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
The Museum has partnered with UNC-CH’s computer science department to develop two computer-based haptic feedback (sense of touch) interactives which provide the user with insights into how the nanoscale world is different from the world we perceive. UNC-CH professors have also helped us by acting as experts in our adult programming, science cafés and forums.
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University professor Gail Jones has partnered extensively with the Museum in her efforts to promote nanoscale science education, serving on behalf of our Museum as an advisor to the NiSE Network.
Other partnership projects with NCSU include the development of the environmental education based rain garden located above the Butterfly House, and the development of a genetics-focused science-in-a-suitcase kit to satisfy one of NCSU’s outreach requirements stemming from an NSF funded project.
North Carolina Central University
North Carolina Central University has partnered with the Museum to assist us in reaching underserved audiences. Museum staff made a nanotechnology presentation to 90 high-achieving high school students from across North Carolina in the summer of 2007. NCCU graduate students assisted us in facilitating a nanotechnology forum for 24 students following that presentation, and we brought those same students to the Museum to experience our nanohaptic experiences on a third visit.
We look forward to building partnerships with NCCU that take advantage of their new focus and infrastructure for biotech manufacturing education.
Duke University
Not surprisingly, our most extensive partnership efforts to date are with hometown school Duke University. We plan to bring a conceptual musical computer science interactive exhibit to the Museum early in 2008. This project represents the first major Museum-University based collaboration that will take the place of our historical preference for purchasing off-the-shelf, traveling exhibitions from other Museums or vendors.
We work with the Duke Durham Neighborhood partnership to reach underserved audiences. The Museum will host a bi-lingual literacy event September 9, 2007 in attempt to familiarize more of our Spanish-speaking residents with what the Museum has to offer.
In the fall of 2007 we submitted an NSF proposal with the Pratt School of Engineering entitled "Nanoscale Undergraduate Education: Concepts and Tools for Nanoengineering Systems and Devices" that, if awarded, will fund the Museum’s efforts to work with Pratt School faculty and a select group of Pratt School Fellows, who will design and build an Atomic Force Microscope, sharing their experiences along the way through onsite programs and through a blog for our website.
We also have a long-standing partnership with the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke which supports our environmental education efforts.
Durham Public Schools
The Museum of Life and Science has provided resources to the teachers and students of Durham Public Schools (DPS) for over 20 years. We believe such resources support the district’s goal of achieving educational excellence for all students. Administrators within Durham Public Schools state that "The Museum of Life and Science is a crucial partner to Durham Public School's K-8 Science Initiative. The Museum enhances the curriculum program through our contract-partnership by providing school programs and visits, kit refurbishment, and consultation." All DPS students on a field trip are admitted free to the Museum.
The Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties (JLDOC)
The JLDOC has a strong history of community involvement over the past 70 years. The Museum is the JLDOC's current focus project, under the broader mandate of "Helping Families and Children Succeed." Past partnerships with JLDOC have assisted the Museum in building the Treehouse discovery room and more. Today, JLDOC volunteers are working with the Museum to improve our volunteer program, and have so far doubled the number of adult volunteers at the Museum, a critical impact. JLDOC has also contributed $25,000 to support the Investigate Health! exhibit at the Museum, and is providing programming and other expertise to benefit the Museum and the community.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science serves as a grantor supporting Nanotechnology programming, and strategic partner offering Museum members significant discounts in AAAS membership.
Environmental Protection Agency
The Museum and the EPA signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2007 that enables the EPA to share material and personnel resources with the Museum in pursuit of improving our region's environmental education. The EPA is also interested in assisting the Museum with our efforts to incorporate more sustainable environmental practices. In the short term, the EPA has offered to help the Museum calculate our carbon footprint which will help us better understand how our energy consumption impacts the environment.
Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network
The Museum is a member of the eight-museum Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network. Our involvement with the network will bring $700,000+ to the Museum over the five years of the grant, to engage the public in nanoscale science, engineering and technology education. The Network is funded by a five year $20M award from the National Science Foundation, their largest award ever to the science museum community.
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
The Museum has partnered with UNC-CH’s computer science department to develop two computer-based haptic feedback (sense of touch) interactives which provide the user with insights into how the nanoscale world is different from the world we perceive. UNC-CH professors have also helped us by acting as experts in our adult programming, science cafés and forums.
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University professor Gail Jones has partnered extensively with the Museum in her efforts to promote nanoscale science education, serving on behalf of our Museum as an advisor to the NiSE Network.
Other partnership projects with NCSU include the development of the environmental education based rain garden located above the Butterfly House, and the development of a genetics-focused science-in-a-suitcase kit to satisfy one of NCSU’s outreach requirements stemming from an NSF funded project.
North Carolina Central University
North Carolina Central University has partnered with the Museum to assist us in reaching underserved audiences. Museum staff made a nanotechnology presentation to 90 high-achieving high school students from across North Carolina in the summer of 2007. NCCU graduate students assisted us in facilitating a nanotechnology forum for 24 students following that presentation, and we brought those same students to the Museum to experience our nanohaptic experiences on a third visit.
We look forward to building partnerships with NCCU that take advantage of their new focus and infrastructure for biotech manufacturing education.
Duke University
Not surprisingly, our most extensive partnership efforts to date are with hometown school Duke University. We plan to bring a conceptual musical computer science interactive exhibit to the Museum early in 2008. This project represents the first major Museum-University based collaboration that will take the place of our historical preference for purchasing off-the-shelf, traveling exhibitions from other Museums or vendors.
We work with the Duke Durham Neighborhood partnership to reach underserved audiences. The Museum will host a bi-lingual literacy event September 9, 2007 in attempt to familiarize more of our Spanish-speaking residents with what the Museum has to offer.
In the fall of 2007 we submitted an NSF proposal with the Pratt School of Engineering entitled "Nanoscale Undergraduate Education: Concepts and Tools for Nanoengineering Systems and Devices" that, if awarded, will fund the Museum’s efforts to work with Pratt School faculty and a select group of Pratt School Fellows, who will design and build an Atomic Force Microscope, sharing their experiences along the way through onsite programs and through a blog for our website.
We also have a long-standing partnership with the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke which supports our environmental education efforts.
Durham Public Schools
The Museum of Life and Science has provided resources to the teachers and students of Durham Public Schools (DPS) for over 20 years. We believe such resources support the district’s goal of achieving educational excellence for all students. Administrators within Durham Public Schools state that "The Museum of Life and Science is a crucial partner to Durham Public School's K-8 Science Initiative. The Museum enhances the curriculum program through our contract-partnership by providing school programs and visits, kit refurbishment, and consultation." All DPS students on a field trip are admitted free to the Museum.
The Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties (JLDOC)
The JLDOC has a strong history of community involvement over the past 70 years. The Museum is the JLDOC's current focus project, under the broader mandate of "Helping Families and Children Succeed." Past partnerships with JLDOC have assisted the Museum in building the Treehouse discovery room and more. Today, JLDOC volunteers are working with the Museum to improve our volunteer program, and have so far doubled the number of adult volunteers at the Museum, a critical impact. JLDOC has also contributed $25,000 to support the Investigate Health! exhibit at the Museum, and is providing programming and other expertise to benefit the Museum and the community.