This is an extended discussion of the question that appeared in the Viewpoints department of the January/February 2016 issue of Dimensions magazine. It presents perspectives from museums and science centers on using out-of-the-box methods to attract visitors.
If you follow at least one culturally minded Washington, D.C., resident on social media, you’ve likely seen images of WONDER. Launched with the reopening of the Smithsonian Institution’s newly renovated Renwick Gallery last November, the exhibition comprised nine contemporary works. (Two remain on view.) Each took over an entire gallery, filling the museum with rainbows of thread, a model of the Chesapeake Bay made from fiberglass marbles, and geometric designs fashioned from insect specimens.
Irresistibly Instagrammable—the museum even posted “Photography Encouraged” signs—the
This is an extended discussion of the question that appeared in the Viewpoints department of the May/June 2016 issue of Dimensions magazine. It discusses whether smartphones benefit or detract from the museum experience from a variety of perspectives from the field.
n July 2016 the much-anticipated new Science and Technology galleries opened at the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh. In this latest offering from the Museum, as part of its ongoing masterplan for redevelopment, visitors are treated to three floors of science and technology, in many cases shown through the lens of Scottish contributions to the field. This local focus provides an additional layer of interest and gives the galleries an edge that this collection is uniquely placed to achieve. Located at the opposite side of the Museum to the Natural World galleries, which opened in
Museums are on the up. More than fifty per cent of the UK population now visits one every year; with attendances across many western countries having grown as much as ten per cent in the last decade. During half that period, a variety of funding agencies and individuals have poured no less than five billion dollars into America’s museum infrastructure, with entirely new museums (such as the Eli Broad in LA and Smithsonian’s African American Museum) or hefty extensions of established ones (like that at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) being built as a consequence. While on the other side
The status of photographs in museums is receiving increased attention. This is exemplified by the debate over the transfer of the Royal Photographic Society collection held at the SMG’s National Science and Media Museum to the V&A (see Terwey, this issue), and the implications for photographs of a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) focus at the National Science and Media Museum. So it seems to useful moment to think about the terms under which photographs exist in museums collections. What are they doing there?
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Elizabeth Edwards
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
I received the invitation to deliver a paper as part of a panel about photography at the Science Museum Group’s [SMG] inaugural research conference towards the end of 2015. A few months later, SMG announced its plans to give a significant part of the photography collection held at the National Science and Media Museum – one of the four institutions for which the umbrella group is responsible – to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. What has proved to be a controversial decision will see 400,000 objects, originally the collection of the Royal Photographic Society, and now categorised as
In January 1885, the Glaswegian Professor of Chemistry Dr Robert Carter Moffat organised a special operatic concert at St James’s Hall, London, to which he invited around two thousand scientists and musicians. The point of this invitation concert was that all the singers used bottled air. Moffat himself appeared between the various performances, wielding his mysterious Ammoniaphone, or bottled-air machine, a long silver tube which he flourished in the faces of his audience while describing its virtues with considerable animation. The premise of the Ammoniaphone was that since Italian opera
Co-led by the University of Washington and Science Gallery Dublin, this project aims to drive and transform the next generation of broadening participation efforts targeting teen-aged youth from communities historically underrepresented in STEM fields. This project investigates how out-of-school time (OST) programs that integrate epistemic practices of the arts, sciences, computer science, and other disciplines, in the context of consequential activities (such as creating radio segments, designing museum exhibitions, or building online games), can more broadly appeal to and engage youth who do not already identify as STEM learners. STEM-related skills and capacities (such as computational thinking, design, data visualizations, and digital storytelling) are key to productive and creative participation in many future civic and workplace activities, and are driving the 30 fastest-growing occupations in the US. But many new jobs will entail a hybrid blend of skills, such as programming and design skills that many students who have disengaged with academic STEM pathways may already have and would be eager to develop further. There is not currently a strong foundation of research-based evidence to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation transdisciplinary programs - in which STEM skills are embedded as tools for meaningful participation - or how such approaches relate to long-term outcomes. Hypothesizing that OST programs which effectively engage youth during their high-leverage teenage years can significantly impact youths' longer-term STEM learning trajectories, this project will involve: 1) Five 3-year studies documenting learning in different technology-rich contexts: Making Afterschool, Media Production, Museum Exhibition Design, Digital Arts Programs, and Pop-Up/Street Science Programs; 2) A 4-year longitudinal study, involving 100 youth from the above programs; 3) The creation of a number of practical measurement tools that can be used to monitor how programs are leveraging the intersections of the arts and sciences to support student engagement and learning; and 4) A Professional Development program conducted at informal science education conferences in the EU and US to engage the informal STEM field with emerging findings. This project is funded through Science Learning+, which is an international partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Wellcome Trust with the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The goal of this joint funding effort is to make transformational steps toward improving the knowledge base and practices of informal STEM experiences to better understand, strengthen, and coordinate STEM engagement and learning. Within NSF, Science Learning+ is part of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program that seeks to enhance learning in informal environments.
Transdisciplinary, equity-oriented OST programs can provide supportive social contexts in which STEM concepts and practices are taken up as the means for meaningful participation in valued activities, building students' STEM skills in ways that can propel their future academic, career, and lifelong learning choices. This project will build the knowledge base about these emerging 21st century transdisciplinary approaches to broadening participation investigating: 1) The epistemic intersections across a range of disciplines (art, science, computation, design) that operate to broaden appeal and meaningful participation for underrepresented youth; 2) How transdisciplinary activities undertaken in the context of consequential learning (e.g., producing a radio segment, designing an exhibition for the general public) can illuminate the relevance of STEM to young people's lives, concerns, and futures; and 3) How participation in such programs can propel students' longer-term life choices and STEM learning trajectories. The project is a collaboration of the University of Washington, Science Gallery Dublin, Indiana University, Youth Radio in Oakland California, Guerilla Science in New York and London, and the London School of Economics.
Front-line staff are an integral part of the visitor experience at museums and science centers across the country, facilitating activities and programs, leading classes, and more. But do these staff make a difference for visitor learning? And what are the most effective facilitation strategies and approaches? In 2013, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) received funding from the National Science Foundation for a three-year study, Researching the Value of Educator Actions for Learning (REVEAL), to begin to address these questions. Building on the Design Zone exhibition, REVEAL
This document is a list of culturally responsive research resources developed by the Researching the Value of Educator Actions for Learning (REVEAL) project.
This document outlines the culturally responsive research (CRR) framework developed to guide planning, data collection and analysis, and dissemination throughout the Researching the Value of Educator Actions for Learning (REVEAL) project. REVEAL was a National Science Foundation-funded initiative that studied the impact of staff facilitation by museum educators on family learning at interactive exhibits in a science center. Led by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the project was conducted in partnership with Oregon State University and TERC. The project included a design-based