This paper addresses the role of museums in education in science and technology through the discussion of a specific project entitled EST "Educate in Science and Technology". The Project puts together methodologies and activities through which museums can be used as resources for long-term project work. In-service training for teachers, work in class with learning kits or with materials brought in by a science Van, and visits to the museum are planned and developed jointly by museum experts and teachers. The Project proposes a teaching and learning model which sees the museum experience as
Harris and Koenig make a compelling case for the importance of adult “testimony” and its influence on children's developing conceptions of topics in science and religion. This commentary considers how their analysis relates to constructivist and sociocultural theories and discusses several ways in which Harris and Koenig's arguments help to debunk some prevalent assumptions about research on the social context of cognitive development. Finally, a number of additional issues are raised for debate and discussion, and some critiques and suggestions for future research are discussed. The issues
This research examines the impact of related classroom activities on fourth grade students' science learning from a school field trip. The current study draws upon research in psychology and education to create an intervention that is designed to enhance what students learn from school science field trips. The intervention comprises a set of activities that include 1) orientation to context, 2) discussion, 3) use of field notebooks, and 4) post-visit discussion of what was learned. The effects of the intervention are examined by comparing two groups of students: an intervention group which
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Journal of Museum EducationMarilyn Petty GlickAla Samarapungavan
This article offers findings from a learning sciences-informed evaluation of a nanoscience and nanotechnology exhibition called Nano-Aventura (NanoAdventure), based on four interactive-collaborative games and two narrated videos. This traveling exhibition was developed in Brazil by the Museu Exploratório de Ciências for children and teenagers (ages 9 to 14), but it was also open to the general public. We report findings from a mixed-methods study incorporating questionnaires completed by visiting school children (n=814) and the general public (n=338) and interviews with school visitors (n=23)
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Museu Exploratorio de CienciasSandra MurrielloMarcelo Knobel
Gender differences in the pursuit of technology careers are a current issue of concern. We report on two studies that use surveys, drawings and interviews to examine sixth- and eighth-grade students' perceptions of knowledgeable computer users and their self-perception as a computer-type person. In Study 1, participants were asked to generate representations of computer users in pictures or words. The results indicate that the majority of representations were of male users and they frequently wore glasses. Students of both genders were more likely to draw males. Eighth-grade students'
This article reports on an investigation of African American families' perceptions and experiences in an after-school family-school involvement program at two inner-city schools. Centered in the sphere of sociocultural theory and situated cognition, this study focuses on family-child relationships to improve children's literacy using oral histories and technology. It also explores a model for preparing preservice teachers to work with families. Families indicated that prior to program implementation, they had received bureaucratic invitations of school involvement and empathized with other
This article reviews how the relationship between computer games and learning has been conceptualized in policy and academic literature, and proposes a methodology for exploring learning with games that focuses on how games are enacted in social interactions. Drawing on Sutton-Smith's description of the rhetorics of play, it argues that the educational value of games has often been defined in terms of remedying the failures of the education system. This, however, ascribes to games a specific ontology in a popular culture that is defined in terms of its opposition to school culture. By
Both in common parlance and within the academy, the word “learning” has broad and varied meanings. On the street, we apply the same term to a child who, as a result of bitter experience, will no longer tease an older, tougher peer, and to those who achieve the highest Latinate degrees after many years of study at the University. In the field of psychology, “learning” was the major topic in America for fifty years, before it was replaced and almost consigned to oblivion, courtesy of the “cognitive revolution” of the 1960s (Gardner 1985). Now, with study becoming a lifelong enterprise, and with
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Margaret WelgelCarrie JamesHoward Gardner
Afterschool and community science programs have become widely recognized as important sanctuaries for science learning for low-income urban youth and as offering them with "missing opportunities." Yet, more needs to be known about how youth, themselves, perceive such opportunities. What motivates youth to seek out such opportunities in the nonschool hours? How do youth describe the doing and talking of science in such programs? Given such descriptions, how do youth perceive the role of these programs in their lives? This paper relies on stories from three youth drawn from a multisited
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Jrene RahmMarie-Paule Martel-RenyJohn Moore
What meaning visitors make from their interactions with science center exhibits— and how they do so — is an issue of enduring interest in the field of learning in informal contexts. In order to explore what resources schoolchildren bring to bear in making meaning, this study used video clips taken during school trips to prompt reflection in stimulated recall interviews. The results indicated that students utilized their existing science understandings to interpret and explain their interactions with exhibits. Such findings provide evidence for the educative value of the experience as well as
In this paper we present a way to study science learning on a discursive level in a teaching activity designed for a museum of natural history. We used here an analysis of practical epistemologies. The method, which allows a description of students' meaning making in socially shared practices, has been used previously to analyze learning in various school practices. The data presented in this study proceeded from a videotaped activity of the educational program for student teachers at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The activity utilizes a variety of dioramas with preserved
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Swedish Museum of Natural HistoryJesus PiquerasKarim HamzaSusanna Edvall
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Delaware Valley Innovation Network (DVIN); a coalition of government, industry and educational institutions, received a three-year $5.1 million federal grant to create a data tool that incorporates economic, research and development, investment and real-time job information to provide a current and accurate picture of the region's life science economy and its assets. The project goal was to expand the talent pool for life sciences companies in southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and northern Delaware. DVIN generated research projects, inventory assessments, cross-disciplinary
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Delaware Valley Innovation NetworkJohn Hall