"In the past several years, New England Aquarium (NEAq) renewed all exhibits, built new additions, and made substantive efforts to restructure its interpretation strategies to transform the visitor experience. With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant #MA-06-12-0143-12, the Aquarium embarked on A New Strategy for Visitor Engagement: Interpreting our Mission for a Changing World. From fall 2012 through summer 2014, NEAq developed, implemented, and evaluated a comprehensive approach to increasing the capacity of front-line staff and interpreters to engage with
The cultural phenomenon of 'science festivals' is ever expanding throughout the world, as universities, city and regional governments, and science engagement professionals alike embrace the concept of a focused 'celebration' of science. In the past however science festivals have been criticized for neglecting underrepresented audiences. This special issue explores the extent to which current science festivals have managed to engage with diverse publics, and identifies the key challenges facing the future of science festivals, most notably the need for deeper research into the impacts of
The “Being Me” program was developed to bring the educational process to life through hands-on learning that promotes children’s awareness of health issues and encourages scientific inquiry in an art-focused curriculum supporting National Science Content Standards (now Next Generation Science Standards, or NGSS). In 2009, the “Being Me” partnership – Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC), the National Children’s Museum (NCM), and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GW) – received a five-year National Institutes of Health Sciences Education
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Children’s Research InstituteJohn Fraser
Overview of Clever Together/Juntos somos ingeniosos and Evaluation: As part of the National Science Foundation funded "Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education" project, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and its partners developed a bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibition. The goal of this and other project deliverables was to promote sustainable decision making by building skills that allow participants to weigh their choices and choose more sustainable practices. Clever Together/Juntos somos ingeniosos is a permanent, bilingual exhibition at
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Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryRenee B. Curtis
Overview of Sustainability
Events and Evaluation: As part of the National Science Foundation funded Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education project, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) project team designed and hosted seven events between September 2011 and July 2014. In line with the overall project goals: Participants will 1) capture the big idea, “We can cultivate a more sustainable community by building skills and making decisions that maximize positive impacts,” 2) practice skills necessary for making more sustainable choices that consider
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryRenee B. Curtis
This paper argues that the "kindergarten approach to learning" – characterized by a spiraling cycle of Imagine, Create, Play, Share, Reflect, and back to Imagine – is ideally suited to the needs of the 21st century, helping learners develop the creative-thinking skills that are critical to success and satisfaction in today’s society. The paper discusses strategies for designing new technologies that encourage and support kindergarten-style learning, building on the success of traditional kindergarten materials and activities, but extending to learners of all ages, helping them continue to
In today's rapidly changing world, people must continually come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. Success is based not only on what one knows or how much one knows, but on one's ability to think and act creatively. In short, people are now living in the Creative Society. Unfortunately, few of today's classrooms focus on helping students develop as creative thinkers. In addition, the proliferation of new technologies is quickening the pace of change, accentuating the need for creative thinking in all aspects of people's lives. In this article, the author discusses two
This paper presents ten guiding principles for designing construction kits for kids: design for designers; low floors and wide walls; make powerful ideas salient - not forced; support many paths, many styles; make it as simple as possible - and maybe even simpler; choose black boxes carefully; a little bit of programming goes a long way; give people what they want - not what they ask for; invent things that you would want to use yourself; and iterate, iterate - then iterate again.
This document was shared in the session “Math Phobia and Science Centers: Some International Perspectives” at the 2004 Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Conference in San Jose, California. It explores math phobia as a cultural (and specifically English-speaking) phenomenon, using examples from his experiences in France and working with the Tuyuka, an indigenous population in Brazil. He links math phobia to a disconnect between math as a part of everyday life and math as a formal process disconnected from one's experiences.