The San Francisco Zoological Society will use this planning grant to involve representatives of their audience in the development of the learning experiences that will be encorporated into their new exhibit program "ZooWEB: Worldwide Education for Biodiversity." They will bring together an Advisory Panel made up of representatives of a broad spectrum of potential and current zoo visitors (traditionally underserved groups, formal education specialists, people with special needs, family groups, scientists) and science educators to meet with the zoo's Planning Team who are developing the master interpretive plan called ZOO Web. ZooWEB will adapt ecological themes and topics from the section of Systems and Interactions in the California State Science Framework for Public Schools. The planning activity is a modification of a business model designed to understand and meet customer needs by constant improvement of product and service quality pioneered by W. Edwards Deming. This is a considerable departure from the traditional manner in which zoo interpretation is developed. Thus, the Zoo will implement a new approach to exhibit development, one that begins with focusing on visitors' interests in science, their needs, learning styles, perceptions of zoos, etc. Data will be gathered by a number of techniques including focus groups, interviews, and surveys. Results of the planning activity will be broadly disseminated.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Diane Demee-Benoit
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Museum of Life and Science will use this planning grant to bring together zoo, botanical garden, and science center professionals to a) assess the feasibility of an "interactive zoo," b) identify animals species that exhibit behaviors in a zoo environment that provide natural opportunities for related interactive exhibits, and c) generate a White Paper reviewing relevant exhibits in zoos and science centers and proposing design criteria for the interactive exhibits. The planning activities include: the development of a "White Paper" that will include a review of key research findings in developmental psychology and visitor behavior as they apply to playgrounds, zoos, and interactive exhibit environments, an overview of relevant exhibit techniques and technologies, and case studies of existing exhibits; a 2-day meeting to discuss the issues; and travel to exemplary museums, zoos, aquaria, and botanical gardens. These results will be used in the development of interactive exhibits in an outdoor setting included in the museum's Master Plan 2000. They have proposed the analogy of a field research station in their approach to learning in an outdoor setting. They envision three thematic "field stations": "Down to Earth," "Watery Worlds," and "Catch the Wind." The specific exhibit plans will be finalized after the completion of the planning grant. Although the Museum of Life and Science will be the primary beneficiary of this planning activity, the background information gathered, the issues discussed, and the critical appraisals will be relevant to other museums with and interested in developing exhibits in an out-of-door setting. The results will be broadly disseminated by means of publications and presentations at professional meetings.
The California Museum of Science and Industry requests $1,103,410 over three years to work in a partnership with the National Council of La Raza to develop two content-rich "discovery rooms" in the Museum that are supportive of further learning in the larger museum context and that guide parents from culturally diverse backgrounds in supporting their children's science learning at the museum and in the home. A major component of the project is the "Our Place Academy," a comprehensive education program that will train Latino parents of preschool and school-age children to serve as learning facilitators in the discovery rooms. The curriculum of the Academy will focus on skills that will both serve Latino parents as partners in their children's science education and as leaders and disseminators within their own communities. A training guide entitled, "Making it our Place" will be developed as a practical guide for building a trained staff from the parents in a community to facilitate learning in a discovery setting. Target audience is parents with preschool and school-aged children.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ann MuscatSylvia ConnollySharon SchonhautCarol ValentaRoxie EsterleMaria Bonillas
Under the Small Grants for Exploratory Research Guidelines, Serrell and Associates will do "A Meta-Analysis of Visitor Time/Use in Museum Exhibitions." The research will examine the long considered and debated questions revolving around visitors expenditure of their time (duration and allocation) in science museums exhibits. Serrell will undertake the largest, systematic study of its kind. Using a large number of systemically made observations of visitors time/use, baseline data will be developed that will answer some of the fundamental questions about visitor's movements in an exhibit. This work builds on and expands, considerably, the current data base of observations from 48 exhibits to over 100 exhibitions. This is not a new research topic but it is one that deserves more attention because it has not been studied systematically. Researchers generally assume a positive correlation between time spent on task and learning but beyond that there are a number of provocative questions and unverified theories. Many questions lack sufficient data to draw conclusions. This study will provide statistical correlations between variables observed and will be absed on large, methodologically similar database, which does not currently exist.
Under the Planning Grant Guidelines, the Arizona Science Center will explore "Using Narrative to Introduce Science Concepts to Diverse Audiences at a Science Center." By bringing together a group of experts to review key questions about the uses and structure of narrative, the staff of the science center will 1) develop a strategy and range of approaches to science storytelling, 2) develop ideas for story premises and texts to interest visitors representing diverse populations and including women, people in non-technical occupations and minority families, 3) conduct research to determine visitor's attitudes to these materials in order to learn about the appeal and effectiveness of the narratives. Finally, they will synthesize and broadly disseminate their findings. The discussion will be focused on a comprehensive set of 120 exhibits entitled "How We Live With The Sun." The topics include light and optics; heat, cooling, and convection; weather, electricity; and technologies for harnessing solar energy. These topics represent the physical science that underlies the way people adapt to the desert and the ways in which Arizonans have applied knowledge of science fundamentals to useful ends.
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.
The Zoological Society of Florida and Miami Metrozoo will use this award to plan their strategy for "Attracting New Neighbors". During their planning activities they will address issues involved in attracting the traditionally underserved and large Hispanic population of Dade County, Florida to the educational programs of the zoo. The planning grant will support 1) audience research within Dade County, 2) a national study to see what others have done to attract diverse audiences, 3) a three-day invitational planning conference, 4) site visits and focused research by Metrozoo staff on attracting a diverse audience, and 5) dissemination of the information about marketing strategies and programming techniques developed during the planning activities to zoos and science museums across the country. The planning process will culminate in the development of a long-range exhibition, educational program, and marketing plan for the zoo's new Education Court scheduled to open in 1998.
"Under the Rock: An Experiment in Neighborhood Exhibit-Making" is a project that will engage children in the development of exhibits as well as present information about backyard ecology. The Children's Museum staff will work with Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses (a group of inner city neighborhood centers in Boston) to develop a model activity that uses the theory and practice of exhibit making as a tool to engage children in science learning in their neighborhoods. They will work with children and their parents in the exploration of insect life in their urban settings and presentation of their findings in exhibits the children will make. Exhibit making includes the entire process of: studying live insects, doing research, writing text, designing and building interactive activities for an exhibit about insects, and marketing the exhibit. Exhibit making has been chosen as the pedagogical technique because it parallels creative work done in the real world; it involves people working together in teams, and utilizes different skills and intelligences of the participants. In addition to the exhibits, other results of this project will include: an educator's guidebook documenting the process of exhibit-making in community centers; a proposal for an activity book for kids with writing samples and illustrations that will be submitted to a publisher; video and electronic resources; and contributions and recommendations for the Museum's "Under the Rock" exhibit, a new exhibit to be developed subsequent to the completion of the first two phases of this project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Signe HansonTimothy PorterDorothy Merrill
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Louisville Science Center will develop "The World We Create", a 13,000 sq. ft. exhibit which will transform their second floor to an active learning environment where visitors can explore the simplest element of the creative process to the most sophisticated networks available to our society. The activities will be organized into five core exhibit areas: New Way Tunnel, Think Tank, Inventor's Garage, Chemistry Kitchen, and Tech World and will reinforce educational reform activities in math, science, problem- solving, team cooperation, and decision making. In addition to the large number of interactives, there is a substantial technology/telecommunications component known as the Tech Forum. This will serve at the home site for the Kentucky TeleLinking Network (KTLN). The educational objectives of the exhibit were developed under the guidance of prominent formal educators in the state and they address both the education reform goals of the state and national science and math standards. The exhibit has also been developed with direct participation of a number of private sector partners. It is an impressive community effort. The exhibit is scheduled to open in March, 1997.
The goal of the CAISE Policy Study Inquiry Group (PSIG) was to inventory and comment on policies which affect the capacity of informal science education to have an impact. The issues discussed in this white paper are intended to spark conversation and awaken us to the policy contexts around us.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)Lisa Craig BrissonAlan FriedmanSaskia TraillArthur EisenkraftIra FlatowJeffrey KirschMaritza MacdonaldEric MarshallEllen McCallieTrevor NesbitRebecca Nesbit ProsinoCharles PetitJerry SchubelDan WhartonSteven WilliamsJoe Witte
The Museum of Science is initiating a unique approach to its permanent exhibits which concentrates on the process of learning science rather than on the facts to be learned. The first stage, development of "Seeing the Unseen", one of six activity centers, is the focus of this proposal. Guided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's call for reforms in science teaching and by recent research on learning styles, the Museum will organize its exhibits around six "activity centers". Each center introduces a basic skill, such as observation or experimentation, and prompts a visitor to use the new method in special surrounding exhibits. The project is a breakthrough approach to science learning in the museum setting because it encourages visitors to discover for themselves characteristic scientific activities and habits of analysis. Although the Museum will use many current exhibits in the layout of the new plan, many others will be created which engage visitors interactively in learning science. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $18 million.
This research is to examine free-choice leisure behavior of African Americans as it relates to the utilization of science museums. Hard statistics for African American museum visitors are not available; but preliminary data based on visitor profile studies undertaken by individual organizations suggest that of the three categories of visitor frequency, most African American visitors fall into the lower two: infrequent (one or two times per year) or not at all. (The vast majority of frequent visitors are non African Americans.) The purpose of this research is to dig deeper into the question of the utilization of science museums by African Americans. Not only will the relationships between variables identified in previous studies (socio-economic, cultural/ethnic, institutional, and regional factors) be examined but others such as how individuals learn about museum programs and the structure of the African American family (household) will also be included. The research will begin by collecting base line visitor profiles at a zoo, aquarium, natural history museum, and a science center. Detailed information relating to the past history of museum-going will be collected by means of interviews of randomly selected African American and White family visitors at several science museums. Finally, indepth interviews regarding leisure time activities and preferences will be conducted in six African American and racially mixed communities representing different socio-economic levels. The ultimate goal is to analyse the attitudes of African Americans toward museums and to provide an understanding of the variables involved that will be of use to museum program planners and educators as they design their activities. The desired result is for this segment of our society to have a better opportunity to benefit from the rich resources of these informal science education institutions.