21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings Forum: Contributed Resources

21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings Forum: An overview of contributed resources for the learning research agenda and field.

This InformalScience.org online forum was a continuation of the 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings project. A key component of the project was the 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference, held at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, February 12 - 15, 2012. During the conference, 100 participants from across the US and three international sites engaged in a dynamic process of initiating the development of a Call to Action and Learning Research Agenda to guide natural history museums into the future.

The discussion about the Learning Research Agenda continued with articles published by some of the meeting participants, a follow-up meeting at the 2013 Association of Science – Technology Centers conference, and most recently from January 29 – February 11, 2014, seventy-nine ISE professionals joined an online forum on InformalScience.org. A complete record of the forum is available upon request at caise@informalscience.org.

The next step in the project is to document the feedback and suggestions received during the InformalScience.org online forum and integrate these with other input from the field to generate a new version of the Learning Research Agenda. The agenda will appear on InformalScience.org in the next few months as both a summary of the process up to this point and as a “living” document where the field can continue to modify and extend the discussion about learning research and natural history settings.

In service to continuing the dialogue while the agenda is being updated, CAISE staff have compiled, cataloged, and listed in this blog post each of the resources contributed by the participants in the InformalScience.org online forum.

Resources Contributed by Forum Participants

21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://21centurylearningnmnh.wikispaces.com/.

American Museum of Natural History (2009). Summative Evaluation of Climate Change: A threat to life and a new energy future. Retrieved from http://informalscience.org/evaluation/ic-000-000-008-657.

American Museum of Natural History (2009). Using 3D printing to reconstruct dinosaurs, students learn to think like paleontologists. Retrieved from http://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/education-posts/students-use-3d-printing-to-reconstruct-dinosaurs.

Bitgood, S. (1990). The role of simulated immersion in exhibition (Tech Rep. No. 90-20). Jacksonville, AL: Center for Social Design.

Bixler, R.D., James, J., & Vadala, C. E. (2011). Environmental socialization incidents with implications for the expanded role of interpretive naturalists in providing natural history experiences. Journal of Interpretation Research, 16(1), 35-64.

Chicago Wilderness. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.chicagowilderness.org/index.php.

Climate Literacy Zoo Education Network (CliZen). (n.d.) Retrieved from http://clizen.org/.

Crowley, K., Louw, M., Nelson, A. G., Knutson, K., & Ellenborgen, K. (2010). Building Informal Science Education: Supporting Evaluation of Exhibitions and Programs with an informalscience.org Research Network. Retrieved from http://informalscience.org/projects/ic-000-000-001-250/.

Davidson, B. (1991). New dimensions for traditional dioramas: Multisensory additions for access, interest and learning. Boston: Museum of Science.

Fialkowski, C., Siska, J., Edington, G., & Roe, B. C. (1992). Chicago Academy of Sciences. In P. Anderson & B. C. Roe (Eds.),MIES: The Museum Impact and Evaluation Study: Roles of affect in the museum visit and ways of assessing them (Vol. 3) (pp. 2/1-2/33). Chicago, IL: Museum of Science and Industry.

Forrest, R. (2012). "Why is sport 'easy' but art 'hard'?" Retrieved from http://reganforrest.com/2012/07/why-is-sport-easy-but-art-hard/.

Giusti, E. (1994). The comparative impact on visitors of hi-tech & traditional exhibits in a natural history museum. Current Trends in Audience Research, 8, 21-25.

Graslie, E. (n.d.). The brain scoop. Retrieved from http://fieldmuseum.org/users/erica-osterloo/blog/brain-scoop, http://www.youtube.com/user/thebrainscoop, and https://www.facebook.com/TheBrainScoop.

Harvey, M., Girjulin, A., & Loomis, R. (1993). A virtual reality & human factors analysis of a renovated diorama hall. Visitor studies: Theory, research and practice: Collected papers from the 1993 Visitor Studies Conference, 6, 129-139. Retrieved from http://informalscience.org/research/ic-000-000-008-099.

Hennes, T. (2007), Hyperconnection: Natural History Museums, Knowledge, and the Evolving Ecology of Community. Curator: The Museum Journal, 50: 87–108.

Irwin, B., Pegram, E., and Gay, H. (2013). New Directions, New Relationships: The Smithsonian's Twenty-first Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference and the Natural History Museum, London. Curator: The Museum Journal, 56(2), 273-278.

Korenic, M. S. (1995). The visitor and the diorama at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Public Museum.

Koster, E., Watson. B., and Yalowitz, S. (2012). Natural History: Past, Present, and Future. The Informal Learning Review, Mar.-Apr. 2012, 22-24.

Nyhart, L. K. (2004). Science, art, and authenticity in natural history displays. In S. de Chadarevian & N. Hopwood (Eds.), Models: The third dimension of science (pp. 307-335). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Office of Policy and Analysis. (2005). Visitor Responses and Behaviors in the Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved from http://www.si.edu/content/opanda/docs/Rpts2005/05.07.Mammals.Final.pdf.

Owen, Kathryn (2007). Summative Evaluation of Maasai Journey. [WPZ/Audience Research] Woodland Park Zoo. Retrieved from http://informalscience.org/evaluation/ic-000-000-007-418/.

Peart, B., & Kool, R. (1988). Analysis of a natural history exhibit: Are dioramas the answer? The International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, 7, 117-128.

Project Passenger Pigeon at the Notebaerdt Nature Museum (2013). Retrieved from http://passengerpigeon.org/whoweare.html.

Spock, M. (1997). Michael Spock: Looking back on 25 years. In M. Maher (ed.), Collective vision: Starting and sustaining a children's museum (pp. 3-7). Washington, D.C.: Association of Children's Museums.

Steiner, M.A. And Crowley, K. (2013). The Natural History Museum: Taking on a Learning Agenda. Curator: The Museum Journal, 56(2), 267-272.

Tunnicliffe, S. D. (2005). What do dioramas tell visitors? A Study of the history of wildlife diorama at the Museum of Scotland. Current Trends in Audience Research and Evaluation, 18, 23-31.

Tunnicliffe, S. D. (2009). Inquiry at natural history dioramas—useful resource in science education. International Council of Museums Natural History Committee Newsletter, 29, 16-20. Retrieved from http://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/16305246/ICOM_newsletter.pdf.

Watson, B. and Rosenstein Werb, S. (2013) One Hundred Strong: A Colloquium on Transforming Natural History Museums in the Twenty-first Century. Curator: The Museum Journal, 56(2), 255-265.