The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) is featuring their ‘Inclusive Audiences initiative’ in their December 2011 newsletter. From the Inclusive Audiences webpage on the NISE Net website,

The goal of the Inclusive Audiences team is to increase professional and institutional capacity to effectively engage underserved and underrepresented audiences, including girls, bilingual audiences, and persons with disabilities, in informal learning experiences related to nanoscale science and technology.

They go on to detail what they mean by underrepresented audiences,

The NISE Net strives to reach a diverse audience with regard to geography, dis/ability, gender, race/ethnicity, language and income. The Inclusive Audiences team acknowledges the NISE Net’s existing work and proposes making extra efforts to reach those audiences more thoroughly.

• Geography: Although the NISE Net has connected with small museums and rural libraries, Inclusive Audiences encourages the broader Network to spread throughout rural regions in all states. This will be done by building partnerships with existing regional networks and other informal learning organizations that serve rural areas.
• Dis/Abilities: Through an intensive charrette focused on universal design, NISE Net has worked diligently with field experts to revise and refine four of its public programs. Inclusive Audiences advocates for greater inclusion of all people, despite level of ability, and seeks to make more NISE Net materials accessible through the use of video captions and accessible website features.
• Gender: Inclusive Audiences advocates for a better understanding of how NISE Net programs and exhibits connect with girls and is looking for opportunities to share NISE Net products with other informal learning organizations that serve girls.
• Race/Ethnicity: Inclusive Audiences actively shares NISE Net programs and products with diversity-serving organizations. The goal is to create ongoing partnerships with these organizations to better serve underrepresented communities in nanoscale science education. Efforts are underway to modify outreach materials and programs for greater accessibility and distribution.
• Language: Inclusive Audiences is committed to making a representative set of NISE Net programs and products available in Spanish. These offerings will include graphics, bilingual audio exhibit labels, the NanoDays kit, key programs and the Nanomedicine Forum.
• Income: The Inclusive Audiences team encourages museums and other informal learning organizations to connect NISE Net activities to existing avenues for free days and programs.

They have resources in the catalog such as Spanish Language Translations, a Translation Process Guide and more on this page.

I was pleased to see another item in the catalog, a video about the mesocosm project at the Center for Environmental Implications of Nano Technology (CEINT) at Duke University. I featured the mesocosm project in my August 15, 2011 posting and noted its mention in the recent three part series on nanotechnology that was shown on the CBC’s (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Nature of Things programme (my Nov. 4, 2011 posting). Here’s the video,

Does Every Silver Lining Have a Cloud? from NISE Network on Vimeo.

Finally, here’s the monthly nano haiku for December 2012,

Big ones, little ones
Every box is filled with fun
Yay for NanoDays!

KC Miller, of the Science Museum of Minnesota is looking forward to the 2012 NanoDays Kit!

By the way, 2012 NanoDays will take place March 24 – April 1, 2012. The deadline to apply for a physical kit is Dec. 8, 2011.