• Looking into HIV (preview edition):  a two and one half minute animation about HIV and its enzyme reverse transcriptase.
• S.T.A.R. Power: an interactive educational CD-ROM game (see General Atomics educational web site) that teaches middle and high school students about fusion physics.

• Awareness Campaigns:
• Toast and Roast Gala

 A distinctive formal occasion with gourmet fine dining and entertainment.  The program will include a keynote address, and awards presentations.  The special guests will include professionals and educators who represent science to the public.
We will present amusing awards to professionals who represent science authentically to the public, and offering good-natured criticism to individuals associated with prominent misrepresentations of accepted scientific principles.
We will make tickets available to the public and promote the event widely in the local and internet communities.

• Science Fiction versus Science False

Have you ever heard a scientist in a movie rattle off a very technical term?  Did the writers make it up?  Did they use a real scientific term?  If so, did they use it properly?
Because of science fiction we have conceived and even manifested incredible advances.  We've also misled naïve audiences that one can clone a human being in short order.  Fictions that contradict scientifically accepted principles thwart teachers' efforts to educate our children.  We have a presidential mandate to reform science curriculum, and yet we appear to ignore the influence of popular culture.  We can present science conscientiously to everyone, without sacrificing entertainment value.  Accordingly, the Foundation conducts an ongoing letter writing campaign to inform, raise awareness and make recommendations to rectify scientific contradictions in the media.  These letters go directly to the producers who misrepresent accepted scientific principles.  To anyone who chooses to support scientific literacy, the Foundation offers consulting services to review scripts and provide technical computer graphics.
The Foundation will also publish examples of "Science False"  in popular culture in the newsletter, Entertaining Science.


• HIV/AIDS

Our Founder, Dr. Larsen, has long worked to educate about the HIV epidemic and AIDS.  In addition to teaching on the subject she has produced a short video (Looking into HIV (preview edition)) describing HIV and showing how its unique enzyme, reverse transcriptase, works.  She has corporate support from AVS and SGI to produce a half hour educational television program that shows, using computer graphics, the life cycle of the virus, how its enzymes work and how therapeutic drugs work.  Once complete she will distribute and promote the program nationally.
Also, she has built a realistic model of HIV at one million times actual size as a teaching tool.  To finish both the TV program and the model, she requires funding: about $100K for her time and necessary expenses to produce the video and about $60K for prototype engineering for the model. To learn more about these projects see her web site at The Scripps Research Institute.


• Consulting

Dr. Larsen makes herself available to scientists, educators, entertainment professionals, etc. as a scientific consultant.  She has experience in research, education, molecular modeling, and computer graphics.  Please contact her at our mailing address for a complimentary personal consultation.

Proposed Projects

• Curriculum and curriculum supplements:

Computer graphic imagery and animations of otherwise invisible processes such as Protein Synthesis and DNA Replication.
• Educational Resource Catalog:

The Foundation will maintain a catalog of products we create as well as those available through other sources.  This will provide a resource to teachers, professionals, students and the public for teaching tools, games, entertainment, etc. reviewed and approved by The Foundation for Scientific Literacy for faithful representation of science.  Products we offer and commercial products sold through links included on our web site will support the Foundation for Scientific Literacy.  Please check back with us for this valuable service.
• Educational computer games for children and adults.
• Teaching aids for courtrooms; empower judges and juries to interpret scientific evidence.
• Training programs:

The Foundation will develop workshops for scientists and non-scientists on how to represent science accurately and understandably.
• Entertaining educational television programs.
• Entertaining educational images and movies for pre-feature entertainment in movie theaters.
• A cable channel of science entertainment and education reviewed and approved by the Foundation for Scientific Literacy.
• Sponsorship Programs:

Underprivileged kids can apply to us for grants to pursue a scientific education.  Scholarship and grant availability will depend on our financial resources.  We will publish an announcement on our web site when we launch this program.
• Science camp:  a fun environment to make science real and relevant for kids.