The article offers tips for early childhood educators on planning and implementing field experiences for young learners in natural history museums. It cites that providing children with access to nature could build their science literacy. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of intrinsic motivation and recommends that teachers should focus on children's interests and provide them the time to relax. Teachers should also encourage active learning and ensure to make the visit memorable.
The purpose of this study was to describe and understand the range of outcomes of class visits to natural history museums. The theoretical framework is based on the multifaceted process of learning in free choice learning environments, and emphasizes the unique and individual learning experience in museum settings. The study’s significance is in highlighting several possible cognitive as well as non-cognitive learning effects in museums class visits, by providing the student’s point of view. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews with 50 students in grades 6–8 on the day following
This article describes an initial attempt to find out students’ perceptions of class visits to natural history museums, with regard to the museum’s role as a place for intellectual and social experience. The study followed up approximately 500 Grades 6–8 students who visited four museums of different sizes, locations and foci. Data sources included the Museum Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (M-CLES), which was adapted from Constructivist Learning Environment Survey, an open-ended question and semi-structured interviews with 50 students. The three instruments highlighted some
The article focuses on the survey titled, "Use of Informal Education Resources in Technology and Engineering Education" (ITEEA) on the informal science education (ISE) resources. In the survey, half of the respondents were not familiar with the term informal education (IE), even though it was clear by their responses to other questions. All of the respondents who held Doctorates were familiar with the term IE. Most of the respondents with only a Bachelor's degree were not familiar with the term IE. This article includes survey questions.
In the article, the author discusses technological developments in the education sector in the U.S. as of October 2013. He cites the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in early 2013 that is focused on science and engineering in the K-12 curriculum. The NGSS' four disciplinary core concepts include Earth and Space Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering and Technology. He presents several NGSS-friendly software like Celestia and NetLogo, as well as hardware such as the Arduino open-source programmable controller.
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David Thornburg
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
What Teachers and Districts Most Need from Research and Researchers: In this presentation from a workshop on research and practice at the NARST annual conference, Dan Gallagher of Seattle Public Schools and Tana Peterman of University of Washington discuss examples of what practitioners need from the education research community.
This article focuses on educational enterprises outside the formal sector, such as museums, botanical gardens and interactive science centres. International research is drawn on to illuminate how design, culture, educational strategies and settings combine to affect the way in which young people respond to experiences on offer, leading to analysis of the impact of such settings in promoting learning, and the likely implications for those who staff such venues. Aikenhead's concept of the educator as 'culture broker' is developed to suggest ways in which learning might be best supported. It
This paper identifies the need for developing new ways to study curiosity in the context of today's pervasive technologies and unprecedented information access. Curiosity is defined in this paper in a way which incorporates the concomitant constructs of interest and engagement. A theoretical model for curiosity, interest and engagement in new media technology-pervasive learning environments is advanced, taking into consideration personal, situational and contextual factors as influencing variables. While the path associated with curiosity, interest, and engagement during learning and research
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marilyn ArnoneRuth SmallSarah ChaunceyH. McKenna
In his writings, David Orr claims that the US is in an 'ecological crisis' and that this stems from a crisis of education. He outlines a theory of ecological literacy, a mode by which we better learn the ecology of the Earth and live in a sustainable manner. While emphasizing a shock doctrine, the diagnosis of 'crisis' may be correct, but it is short-lived for children and adults of the world. In this philosophical analysis of Orr's theory, it is argued that we move beyond the perspective of crisis. By extending Orr's ecological literacy with biophilia and ecojustice and by recognizing the
We examine the research conducted by Kang, Anderson and Wu by discussing it in a larger context of science museum-school partnerships. We review how the disconnect that exists between stakeholders, the historical and cultural contexts in which formal and informal institutions are situated, and ideas of globalization, mediate the success for formal-informal partnerships to be created and sustained.
This presentation given at the 2013 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting examines evidence for the effectiveness of STEM education programs at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
This article examines the literature on Native science in order to address the presumed binaries between formal and informal science learning and between Western and Native science. We situate this discussion within a larger discussion of culturally responsive schooling for Indigenous youth and the importance of Indigenous epistemologies and contextualized knowledges within Indigenous communities.
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Bryan Mckinely Jones BrayboyAngelina Castagno