In this article, Harris Shettel presents an allegorical tale as a response to Mark St. John's paper, "New Metaphors for Carrying Out Evaluations in the Science Museum Setting."
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Harris ShettelVisitor Studies Association
In this article, D.D. Hilke of the National Museum of American History presents his rebuttal to Mark St. John's paper "New Metaphors for Carrying Out Evaluations in the Science Museum Setting." Hilke discusses three examples that provide an alternative paradigmatic perspective to St. John's view.
In this article, Albert Ndayitwayeko, AFGRAD Fellow at the University of Florida, and John J. Koran, Jr., Professor and Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, analyze the informal education field in the Republic of Burundi, a small country located in Central Africa. This discussion focuses on natural history museums and zoos, their exhibits and visitor behavior, which may serve as a valuable and less expensive adjunct to formal learning.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Albert NdayitwayekoJohn J. Koran, Jr.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood presents a literature review of successful interactive exhibits. Bitgood outlines guidelines for designing interactive exhibits, focusing on two aspects of interactive exhibits: stages of evaluation; and design of the exhibit in terms of the physical device, labels for instruction and explanation, and the visitor-exhibit interface.
This article discusses a 1988-1990 study that analyzed the effectiveness of a collaborative effort between a museum and a school system to build an integrated curriculum package. The partners included the York County School System (VA) and the Yorktown Victory Center (operated by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation). The theme of the curriculum was 18th Century Medicine and the unit was designed to enhance the science, math, and social studies instruction of fourth graders.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ronald GieseJudy Davis-DorseyJoseph Gutierrez
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Kay Allen summarizes a 1988 paper in "Curator" written by J. Diamond, A. Smith, and A. Bond. Allen outlines key findings from a study of 14,961 visitors over a three month period as they visited the California Academy of Sciences Discovery Room, which features a collection of games, objects, and exhibits.
In this article, the Center for Social Design's Don Thompson summarizes a 1988 paper written by K.D. Hirschi and C.G. Screven featured in the "ILVS Review." Thompson summates findings from the researchers' investigations of the use labels which ask questions. The study was conducted with family groups of visitors to five different exhibits at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
In this article, John H. Falk, Ph.D., of Science Learning, Inc., discusses leisure decisions influencing African-Americans use of museums. Falk cites findings from two research studies that investigated the relative importance of a variety of critical variables postulated at possible reasons for the under-utilization of museums by African-Americans.
This article highlights findings from a study conducted by researchers at Jacksonville State University that assessed group visitor behavior at four exhibits at the Anniston Museum of Natural History. Researchers studied if male and female adults behave differently at exhibits when they are with a child than when they are with another adult as well as whether or not adult behavior was consistent across different types of exhibits.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen BitgoodChifumi KitazawaAndrea CavenderKaren Nettles
In this article, Barbara A. Birney of Interpretive Planning in Nuce discusses findings from a 1988 study of 12-year-old children's perceptions of their social experience in musuems and zoos. Birney found that children associated visiting museums and zoos with their parents with a lack of control over their own learning experience.
In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood and Ann Cleghorn share findings from a study that attempted to assess recall for three different types of exhibit events: visual (exhibit objects), semantic (label content), and other sensory impressions (sounds, temperature, darkness, touch). The aim of the study was to compare recollections for these three types of knowledge across exhibit areas at the Anniston Museum of Natural History.
In this article, Patricia A. McNamara answers questions about using formative evaluation to develop exhibits, based on nearly ten years of experience at the Science Museum of Virginia. McNamara discusses beginning the formative evaluation process, selecting staff, setting goals, building prototype exhibits, working with visitors, using visitor data to make exhibit design decisions, and securing support from top-level management.