The aim of the work reported here has been to give an overview of the support that the informal sector provides for learning and engagement with science. In addressing this goal, we have taken the view that engagement with science and the learning of science occur both within and without schools. What is of interest is not who provides the experience or where it is provided but the nature and diversity of opportunities for science learning and engagement that are offered in contemporary UK society. Thus in approaching the work we have taken a systems perspective and looked at informal
Museums invest considerable resources in promoting and supporting elementary-school field trips, but remain skeptical about their educational value. Recent cognitive psychology and neuroscience research require a reappraisal of how and what to assess relative to school-field-trip learning. One hundred and twenty-eight subjects were interviewed about their recollections of school field trips taken during the early years of their school education: 34 fourth-grade students, 48 eighth-grade students, and 46 adults composed the group. Overall, 96% of all subjects could recall a school field trip
Each school year, millions of children participate in organized field trips to museums, zoos, aquaria, and nature centers. Naturally, school groups represent a significant percentage, if not an outright majority, of visitors to such informal educational institutions. Educators at these institutions must often direct the greatest proportion of their time and effort towards educational programming for the streams of visiting school groups. Understandably, many informal educators have a strong interest in evaluating the impact of their efforts directed towards young visitors. Museum education
This study compared grandparent–grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums and websites are not yet supporting? Do they find museums and websites to be good places to learn alongside their grandchildren? The authors’ findings suggested that grandparents prefer museums as locations for intergenerational learning because the museum
This article explores the development of observation in scientific and everyday contexts. Fundamental to all scientific activity, expert observation is a complex practice that requires the coordination of disciplinary knowledge, theory, and habits of attention. On the surface, observation appears to be a simple skill. Consequently, children may be directed to observe, compare, and describe phenomena without adequate disciplinary context or support, and so fail to gain deeper scientific understanding. Drawing upon a review of science education, developmental psychology, and the science studies
Reports effects of an outdoor field trip on learning within the context of a community-based Summery Ecology Program for children between 7 and 13 years of age. Results include the finding that novel environments are poor settings for imposed task learning when compared with familiar environments.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
W. Wade MartinJohn H FalkJohn D. Balling
Discusses the objectives of Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies (OBIS), one aspect of the program (lawn communities) and the evaluation of this activity. Includes resultant recommendations. The evaluation criteria are suggested as a model to be used in either designing or in evaluating curricula.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of California-BerkeleyJohn H Falk
Free-choice learning, a new paradigm for the learning that youth and their families engage in outside school, can play an important role in the healthy development of youth, their families, and communities.
A Maryland school district and the Smithsonian Institution have become partners in outdoor science education. Working together, they have developed a series of activities for students in grades 1-8 that are an integrated part of a total unified science curriculum, meeting the need of teachers and students alike.
Six studies on school field trip learning are reviewed. Among the findings reported are those indicating that students' perceptions of the novelty of the trip affects what they learn, and that imposed learning will be inhibited in settings where novelty is either extremely great or small.