This article reports on part of a larger study of how 11- and 12-year-old students construct knowledge about electricity and magnetism by drawing on aspects of their experiences during the course of a school visit to an interactive science museum and subsequent classroom activities linked to the science museum exhibits. The significance of this study is that it focuses on an aspect of school visits to informal learning centers that has been neglected by researchers in the past, namely the influence of post-visit activities in the classroom on subsequent learning and knowledge construction
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David AndersonKeith LucasIan GinnsLynn Dierking
The Franklin Institute and the Girl Scouts of the USA will develop, implement, and evaluate "Girls at the Center," a family outreach program that will foster girl-centered, learning within the context of the family. Partnerships will be promoted between local science and technology centers and Girl Scout Councils. It is a multi- component program that will increase girls' and their families' understanding of and interest in basic science principles and processes. Consisting of a series of family-oriented activities that coincide with the school year, science/technology centers will serve as the hosts. These museum-based activities will be supplemented by home-based activities. The activities will follow the constructivist theory of education and will cover a broad menu of scientific disciplines including ecology, energy, and human physiology as well as science careers opportunities. They will be linked to the requirements for the Girl Scout recognition (badges) program. It is building on the success of a previously NSF funded project "National Science Partnerships for Girls Scout Councils and Museum" and is expected to reach 75,050 girls and 112,575 adults in 25 sites across the US during the funding period. It will be institutionalized and will continue to operate in those sites as well as expand to other sites after the NSF-funded period.
Through a collaboration of the DuPage Children's Museum, Argonne National Laboratory, and National-Louis University, a three-element project is being conducted focusing on the following: 1) a research component that studies children's naive perceptions of the phenomena of air and wind energy, 2) an exhibition component that uses the project research to design, develop, and construct a 3- 4,000 square foot "process" oriented exhibition with a 2-story exhibit tower and 12-15 replicable exploratory workstations, 3) a program component that offers explorations for children adapted for museums, preschools and elementary school classrooms. Target audiences include young children and their parents, pre- and in- service early childhood teachers, and museum professionals interested in reaching very young children.
Inventure Place will present "Interactive Experiences Introducing Polymer Science." This planning grant will enable Inventure Place and its partner, the College of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Akron, to conduct audience research and prototyping and resolve design issues for the development of an integrated program of permanent and traveling interactive exhibits, learning labs, and educational activities introducing families and students to polymer science. Through accessible experiences, Inventure Place will introduce some basic concepts in the physical sciences, raise "polymer literacy", and introduce related careers.
The Exploratorium requests $1,389,665 to develop "Live @ the Exploratorium: Origins." The Exploratorium will conduct a three-year pilot project to develop an experimental series of Webcasts, related Web-based resources, and museum activities . The project will use new communications technologies to create an ongoing link between Internet and museum audiences and current scientific research efforts at observatories around the world where scientists are investigating the origins of matter, the universe, the Earth, and life itself. The Exploratorium will establish a remote connection to six science research locations investigating particle physics, cosmology, polar research, earthquake research, astrobiology and genetics. During each live Webcast museum visitors and Internet visitors will be able to interact with scientists at the remote observatories.