This article proposes new methods of strategic planning for the twenty-first century. Potential futures can be imagined (and diagrammed) as radiating out from the present in a “cone of plausibility” that puts extreme possibilities on either side of the expected future: how the future would look if business proceeds as usual.
Although schools traditionally take their pupils to Natural History Museums, little has been elicited about either the overall content of the conversations generated by such groups or of the effect on content in the presence of an adult. Transcripts were coded using a systemic network which had been designed based on pilot studies. A range of variables was created from the coded data. The number of conversations that contained at least one reference to the designated categories were ascertained overall and those of the three sub-groups, pupils and teacher, pupils and chaperone and pupils alone
This paper explores the role of questioning in scientific meaning-making as families talk, look and gesture in front of realistic and artful dioramas at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The focus is on the ways questioning can either enable movement towards scientific understanding or hinder such progress. The socio-cultural framework of this research emphasizes Vygotsky's interpretation of the zone of proximal development (zpd). Questions are viewed as tools for mediation in the zpd. This paper examines three families' dialogues, excerpted from a larger study of collaborative
This book describes the process of retrofitting a diorama exhibit, using principles of universal design and engaging people of all ages, with various disabilities to assist in the project.
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Museum of Science, BostonBetty Davidson
This chapter explores natural history exhibits, particularly dioramas, with regard to both art and authenticity. Dioramas are treated as a novel form of scientific model.
This study evaluates the Living Land Living Sea exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum, with specific attention to gathering data related to visitor response to dioramas. The results of this study indicated that small but significant amounts of knowledge gain did occur upon visiting the Living Land Living Sea gallery, that attitudinal change was not measured, and that exhibit type clearly affects attracting power and holding power.
Interviews conducted during the summer of 2006 with people in and around the international museum community suggest that the interests natural history museums share in common with each other and with other kinds of organizations and communities are creating an array of new links across institutional, social and cultural boundaries. These links are active, complex, networked relationships directed toward common purposes. Museums that are taking advantage of this emerging environment are becoming “hyperconnected hubs” across which knowledge is exchanged and action initiated. In forging a
RK&A was contracted by Liberty Science Center (LSC) to conduct a formative evaluation for the development of a multi-touch table in collaboration with the Center for Enabling New Technologies Through Catalysis (CENTC). The touch table included four stations at which visitors could build molecules for crude oil products like aspirin and plastic water bottles. How did we approach this study? This evaluation explored engagement, usability, and meaning making from the CENTC multi-touch table, which was displayed at LSC in the Energy Quest exhibition. An RK&A evaluator observed and interviewed
Climate Change: NASA’s Eyes on the Arctic is a multi-disciplinary outreach program built around a partnership targeted at k-12 students, teachers and communities. Utilizing the strengths of three main educational outreach institutions in Alaska, the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska partnered with the University of Alaska Museum of the North, the Anchorage Museum and UAF researchers to build a strategic and long lasting partnership between STEM formal and informal education providers to promote STEM literacy and awareness of NASA’s mission. Specific Goals of the project include: 1) Engaging and inspiring the public through presentation of relevant, compelling stories of research and adventure in the Arctic; 2) strengthening the pipeline of k-12 students into STEM careers, particularly those from underserved groups; 3) increasing interest in science among children and their parents; 4) increasing awareness of NASA’s role in climate change research; and 5) strengthening connections between UAF researchers, rural Alaska, and Alaska’s informal science education institutions. Each institution chose communities with whom they had prior relationships and/or made logistical sense. Through discussions analyzing partner strengths, tasks were divided; the Challenger Center taking on the role of k-12 curriculum development, the Museum of the North creating animations with data pulled from UAF research, to be shown on both in-house and traveling spherical display systems and the Anchorage Museum creating table top displays for use in community science nights. Each developed element was used while visiting the identified communities both in the classroom environment and during the community science nights.
The goal of this project is to advance STEM education in Hawaii by creating a series of educational products, based on NASA Earth Systems Science, for students (grades 3-5) and general public. Bishop Museum (Honolulu HI) is the lead institution. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is the primary NASA center involved in the project. Partners include Hawaii Department of Education and a volunteer advisory board. The evaluation team includes Doris Ash Associates (UC Santa Cruz) and Wendy Meluch of Visitor Studies Inc. Key to this project: the NASA STEM Cohort, a team of six current classroom teachers whom the Museum will hire. The cohort will not only develop curricula on NASA earth science systems but also provide guidance to Bishop Museum on creating museum educational programming that best meets the needs of teachers and students. The overall goal of Celestial Islands is to advance STEM education in Hawaii through the use of NASA Earth Science Systems content. Products include: 1) combined digital planetarium/Science on a Sphere® program; 2) traveling version of that program, using a digital planetarium and Magic Planet; 3) curricula; 4) new exhibit at Bishop Museum on NASA ESS; 5) 24 teacher workshops to distribute curricula; 6) 12 community science events. The project's target audience is teachers and students in grades 3-5. Secondary audiences include families and other members of the general public. A total of 545,000 people will be served, including at least 44,000 students.
This study examined organizational change in science museums toward practices that are inclusive of people with disabilities. Guided by two overarching frameworks, organizational learning and the social model of disability, this study sought to answer the following: What are the contexts and processes that facilitate, sustain, or impede a science museum’s change toward practices that are inclusive of people with disabilities? The research orientation was a qualitative, multiple case study. The cases featured three science museums that varied in size and location, but shared a documented
Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM): Engineering Robots to Explore the Red Planet engages the general public and K-8 students in exhibits and programs designed to foster awareness of robotic technology, computer programming, and the challenges and opportunities inherent in NASA missions and S-STEM careers. The Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) of St. Louis, Missouri is the lead institution and project site; partners include Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, the St. Louis regional FIRST Robotics organization, and the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis. Project goals are to: 1) inform, engage, and inspire the public to appreciate NASA’s Mission by sharing findings and information about NASA’s missions to Mars; 2) ignite interest in S-STEM topics and careers for diverse K-8 students; and, 3) encourage students in grades 6-8 to sustain participation in educational experiences along the S-STEM careers pipeline. The SLSC will design and build a Martian surface and panorama where two rovers can be remotely controlled. Visitors in the McDonnell Planetarium will use controllers to program rover exploration of the Martian landscape in real-time. Visitors in SLSC’s Cyberville gallery, located one-quarter mile away across a highway-spanning enclosed bridge, will program the second rover with simulated time lag and view its movements via a two-way camera system. SLSC will organize and host a series of Innovation Workshops for K-8 students, each featuring teamwork-building engineering challenges from current and updated NASA-based science curricula. Participants will be recruited from SLSC community partners, which include community centers and faith-based programs for underserved families.