There is growing concern that opportunities for outdoor learning by school students in England have decreased substantially in recent years. In response to this, and recent Government calls for ‘schools to make better use of the outdoor classroom as a context for teaching and learning’, the Field Studies Council (FSC) and several partner organisations commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake a review of research on outdoor learning.
This document summarises the key findings of this review, which critically examined 150 pieces of research on outdoor
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark RickinsonJustin DillonKelly TeameyMarian MorrisMee Young ChoiDawn SandersPauline Benefield
The Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance is developing Sugar from the Sun, a project consisting of a 5,400-square-foot exhibition intended to help children and their families explore photosynthesis. This immersive exhibition will use real plants to delve into the process that plants use to manufacture sugar (food energy) from the sun (light energy). Selinda Research Associates (SRA) conducted a front-end evaluation as part of the exhibit development process. The first phase examined what was known in the research literature about the public's understanding of photosynthesis and also about
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cecilia GaribayJane SchaeferBeth ChangGarfield Park Conservatory
This paper examines learning among museum staff involved in exhibition development in four European natural history museums. It draws upon a larger body of research undertaken for the Mirror project, a European Commission Framework Programme 5 Information Society Technologies (FT5 IST) project aimed at enhancing and improving co-operative practices through the use of new technologies. The aim of this paper is to characterize learning and co-operative practices derived from the interactions of highly heterogeneous teams involved in constructing museum exhibitions, and particularly to
Many biomedical research universities have established outreach programs for precollege students and teachers and partnerships with local school districts to help meet the challenges of science education reform. Science outreach programs held in university research facilities can make science more exciting and innovative for high school students and can offer them much more insight into the nature of science and laboratory research than is available in most high school science courses. This paper describes a long-term follow-up study of high school students enrolled in the Summer Science
The purpose of this longitudinal case study is to describe the educational trajectories of a sample of 152 young women from urban, low-income, single-parent families who participated in the Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) program during high school. Utilizing data drawn from program records, surveys, and interviews, this study also attempts to determine how the program affected the participants' educational and career choices to provide insight into the role informal science education programs play in increasing the participation of women and minorities in science, math, engineering, and
This paper discusses the "Scences de Silence/Scenes of Silence" exhibition designed to enable hearing people to gain access to the world of the deaf. This paper describes the exhibition and evaluation findings which examined the project's impact on visitors and deaf guides.
Extensive research of the exhibit, Kachemak Bay, Alaska: An Exploration of People and Place shows it to be popular and effective with visitors on every communication and affective goal set forth in the Exhibit Master Plan. Research also finds that Community Collaborators who helped to create exhibit elements found the experience deeply meaningful and satisfying, meeting every desired cognitive, affective and behavioral outcome established for the collaboration programs. Pre- and post-test surveys of the exhibit involved nearly 600 visitors to the Pratt Museum. In most studies, Travelers and
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) was contracted by the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) to evaluate Tissues of Life, an exhibition funded by the National Institutes of Health. Data collection took place at the SMM in July and August 2004. The evaluation documents the impact and effectiveness of the exhibition through timing and tracking observations and exit interviews.
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Science Museum of Minnesota
Overarching evaluation questions focus on continuous improvement, the degree to which the Salmon Camp project achieves it's objectives with regards to students' skills and attitudes, as well as implementation and outcome questions. Evaluation activities are designed to probe five major areas: 1. Student Knowledge and Skills. To what extent do students gain experience with digital tools, field research, and workplace skills? 2. Student Attitudes. How are students' attitudes and self-efficacy as science students changing with involvement in Salmon Camp? How are career interests changing or
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Phyllis AultOregon Museum of Science and Industry
SUMMARY The Peabody Museum at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to evaluate the Dinosaurs and More school tour. In the spring of 2004, RK&A surveyed second grade teacher and student samples, including: 27 pre-tour teacher questionnaires, 519 pre-tour student questionnaires, 24 post-tour teacher questionnaires, 412 post-tour student questionnaires. RK&A also conducted 21 teacher and 35 student interviews, and 3 classroom observations to document the impact and effectiveness of the Dinosaurs and More school tour.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Yale University
Assessing the Impact of a Visit to a Zoo or Aquarium: A Multi-institutional Research Project will create a functional taxonomy of zoo/aquarium visitors' entering knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. This taxonomy, in conjunction with data about the specific experiences visitors have during their visit, will enable investigators to understand and predict the contribution of zoos and aquariums to the public understanding of animals and their conservation. The results will clarify the role of zoos and aquariums as centers of informal learning and point to ways to strengthen their educational impact. The AZA convened a national advisory committee that commissioned and completed a thorough review, confirming a critical need to conduct more research, particularly research that attempts to ask broad questions, collect data systematically, and includes sufficient number and types of institutions to permit community-wide generalizations. Twelve AZA institutions of various sizes, geographic regions and types will participate in the study. The net result of the study will be a descriptive model of zoo and aquarium visitor learning experiences and development of a set of diagnostic tools to help zoo and aquaria staff understand and enhance the nature and extent of their public impact.
In 1998, the Exploratorium staff submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to develop a collection of life science exhibits "to offer science center visitors new ways to explore characteristics shared by all living things." The intention was to combine existing Exploratorium components as well as new exhibits and emphasize in the exhibit collection "that all life, no matter how diverse, shares common essential traits." This proposal was one of a series planned to develop permanent exhibits at the Exploratorium. The evaluation was intended to document several aspects of visitors'