The article focuses on the creation and development of an interactive science museum by middle level students as part of informal science education in the U.S. The said project which primarily targets fifth-grade students aimed at maximizing the active engagement of a learner during his or her experience. It also promotes the minimization of lecture-laden instruction while maximizing an experience-based learning system. The project which is adopted in the late part of 2006 help students to review and synthesize information, collaborate with peers, and specialize science topics.
The author discusses her experiences in utilizing a sixth-grade Earth science field trip for students as an active research project. She examines a research project assignment conducted on the Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The author suggests that the use of active research can be applied to any museum or exhibit in the U.S.
The summative evaluation of the Farming for Fuels classroom program and family event was conducted over two years. Two interim reports were delivered with preliminary results about specific areas of focus. This final report described the overall evaluation study methods and results, and made recommendations for potential revisions and improvements to the program. The evaluator worked with the program team at the Creative Discovery Museum to generate a list of questions to guide the evaluation study. The questions covered each of the major audiences for the program: museum educators, teachers
The current political and social backdrop in China that is characterized by rapid educational reforms to the K-12 education system, rapid growth in the number of science museum institutions, and Central Government policy which encourages collaboration between museums and school has the potential to be fertile ground for meaningful engagement between museums and schools. Notwithstanding, the Chinese K-12 education system generally does not utilize museum resources to support the curriculum, as is common in Western countries. This hermeneutic phenomenographic study elucidates the current Chinese
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Changyun KangDavid AndersonXinchun Wu
FUSE is a new kind of interest-driven learning experience being developed by researchers at Northwestern University with the goal of engaging pre-teens and teens in science, technology, engineering, arts/design, and mathematics (STEAM) topics while fostering the development of important 21st century skills including adaptive problem solving, creativity, self-directed learning, persistence, and grit. FUSE is now offered in-school, after-school, and on the weekends at 23 different locations in the greater Chicago area. Through FUSE, teens can "hang out, mess around and geek out" with the FUSE set of challenges, the core activities in our Studios. Each challenge uses a leveling up model from gaming and is carefully designed to engage teens in different STEAM topics and skills sets. FUSE currently has 21 challenges in areas such as robotics, electronics, biotechnology, graphic design, Android app development, 3D printing and more. New challenges are always in development. FUSE Challenges can be tackled individually or in groups. Professional scientists, engineers, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students are available as mentors and provide a real-world connection to the concepts learned and practiced through the challenges. All challenges result in digital media artifacts that are shared online for peer review, remixing, expert judging, and collaboration. We designed the FUSE program to appeal to the interests of all young people, especially those youth who are not interested in or don't think of themselves as "good at" math and science in school. FUSE challenges provide a new way to explore science, technology, engineering, arts and design, and math in a fun and relaxed way. FUSE is based on many years of research in the learning sciences by faculty in School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.
This paper reports on the findings of a case study that investigated the interaction of the agendas and practices of students, teachers, and zoo educators during a class field trip to a zoo. The study reports on findings of the analysis of two case classes of students and their perceptions of their learning experiences during the field trip. The goals, expectations, and perceived outcomes of the trip for students, their classroom teachers, and the zoo educators were elicited through interviews, surveys, student work, and observations. Both cases demonstrated how students placed high value and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Susan Kay DavidsonCynthia PassmoreDavid Anderson
This study examines the development and ongoing activities of a collaboration between an urban elementary school and a nearby aquarium. Although the benefits of such collaborations in support of science education are touted by numerous national organizations, the pathway to creating a successful relationship between these two different institutions, with inherently different cultures, is less well documented. Using the theoretical framework of communities of practice (E. Wenger, 1998), a better understanding of the challenges and successes of this collaboration is presented. In particular, the
In what ways do urban youths’ hybridity constitute positioning and engagement in science-as-practice? In what ways are they “hybridizing” and hence surviving in a system that positions them as certain types of learners and within which they come to position themselves often as other than envisioned? To answer these questions, I draw from two ethnographic case studies, one a scientist–museum–school partnership initiative, and the other, an after-school science program for girls only, both serving poor, ethnically and linguistically diverse youth in Montreal, Canada. Through a study of the micro
A number of studies have already investigated children's stereotypical images of scientists as being male, old, bald, wearing eyeglasses, working in laboratories, and so forth. There have also been some interventions to impose more realistic images of scientists. In this study, a science camp was conducted in Turkey with a team of scientists consisting of elementary science education researchers. They interacted with the children throughout the camp both formally and informally. Twenty-four 6th and 7th grade students participated to the science camp. The science camp was conducted near a
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Gulsen LeblebiciogluDuygu MetinEsra YardimciPinar Seda Cetin
The article discusses a program to make Latino parents feel more welcome to bring their children and families to a natural history museum. The participating institution created a number of learning materials designed to make the families feel more welcome at the museum. The study relied primarily on questionnaires given at various stages of the program. Parents responded that, in general, following the program they felt more comfortable going to the museum and no longer viewed it as a place that was foreign to them.
The theory of evolution by natural selection has revolutionized the biological sciences yet remains confusing and controversial to the public at large. This study explored how a particular segment of the public - visitors to a natural history museum - reason about evolution in the context of an interactive cladogram, or evolutionary tree. The participants were 49 children aged four to twelve and one accompanying parent. Together, they completed five activities using a touch-screen display of the phylogenetic relations among the 19 orders of mammals. Across activities, participants revealed