The Madison Children's Museum has organized a partnership with business, industry, and community people and organizations to encourage minority youths and their caregivers to develop computer literacy and to learn to use the computer as a tool in business, science and technology. A complete, interactive instructional system of 12 Apple computers will be installed in a community center in a neighborhood of minority and disadvantaged households. The program will use a broad-based intervention model with cross-age tutoring and parent participation. Professionals on loan from industry, schools and the University of Wisconsin will be instructors and role models, serving to make the industrial and university environments more accessible to an underrepresented population. The partnership will involve corporations, professional societies, the metropolitan school district, a children's museum, a community center, and a state university. Computer clubs, science fairs, museum in-house and outreach activities, and teacher in-service workshops will be integral parts of the program and will serve to enhance the study of computer applications in the physical, life, and health sciences, engineering and mathematics. Field trips will expose students to the real world of the technology- driven work place --- data processing in business offices, computer aided design applications in engineering firms, and research facilities in industry and the university. Cost sharing by the partners will total 97% of the National Science Foundation funding.
