Museums are favorite and respected resources for learning worldwide. In Israel, there are two relatively large science centers and a number of small natural history museums that are visited by thousands of students. Unlike other countries, studying museum visits in Israel only emerges in the last few years. The study focused on the roles and perceptions of teachers, who visited four natural history museums with their classes. The study followed previous studies that aimed at understanding the role teachers play in class visits to museums (Griffin & Symington, 1997, Science Education, 81, 763
The data collection for this project involved three audiences: (1) a post-event survey completed by participants at the 'Eight-Legged Encounters' event, (2) a club experience survey completed by middle school students in an after-school club, and (3) focus groups, observations, and end-of-course evaluations conducted with students in the BIOS 497/897 'Communicating Science through Outreach' seminar class at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska. Year two data collection was completed from September 2013 - March 2014. Appendix includes survey.
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University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
This project takes advantage of the charismatic nature of arachnids to engage the public in scientific inquiry, dialogue, and exploration. The project has two specific programs: (1) The development, implementation, and assessment of an informal museum event entitled 'Eight-Legged Encounters' which now has more than 25 associated activity stations. These activities encompass stations relating to (a) classification and systematics (e.g., 'What is an Arthropod', 'Create a Chelicerate', and 'Assemble an Arachnid'), (b) spider-specific stations focused on silk (e.g., 'Build a Burrow', 'Cribellate vs. Ecribellate Silk', 'Weave a Web', and 'Catch a Moth'), and (c) research related stations (e.g., 'Microscope Madness' and 'Community Experiment'). In addition, there is a stand-alone module entitled the 'Path of Predators' that includes an activity booklet and eleven stations that walk participants through the eleven living arachnid orders. Each stations has original artwork backdrops, clay sculptures, trading cards, and collectible stamps (participants place stamps on a phlylogenetic tree depicting the current hypothesis of evolutionary relationships among the eleven orders). Most stations have live animals and prizes are given to participants that complete their stamp booklet. 'Eight-Legged Encounters' has been hosted at the Nebraska State Museum (Morrill Hall) twice, with record-breaking attendance (>800 people in
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University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
This project is a full-scale development project that builds upon a pilot program funded by the NSF in 2007 (LEAP into Science/Pilot), developed by The Franklin Institute (FI) in collaboration with The Free Library of Philadelphia. By connecting children’s literature and hands-on science activities in out-of-school settings, LEAP/Pilot has promoted student and family engagement in science and literacy in Philadelphia for over six years. In 2011, a cohort of ten national sites joined the initiative to pilot LEAP into Science resources in multiple out-of-school time contexts and within unique institutional partnerships. The 10 sites, consisting of 27 institutional partnerships representing a diverse group of organizations (museums, libraries, K-12 school districts, universities, and public media). Through continued collaboration in Philadelphia and with these national cohort sites, LEAP into Science: Engaging Diverse Community Partners in Science and Literacy is leveraging the relationships, experiences, and resources initiated in LEAP /Pilot to address the needs of new audiences, meet partners’ requests for enhanced professional development, and study the efficacy of this program in different out-of-school time structures and populations across the country. The result will be an adaptable program that more effectively reaches diverse audiences in science and literacy through community partners, as well as a stronger understanding of implementation for improved sustainability.
The availability of mobile and stationary devices opens up new challenges to support users in several contexts. Here we present a multi-device environment to support cooperation among museum visitors through games. In particular, we present a design and the associated implementation for using a combination of PDAs and public displays to enhance the learning experience in a museum setting by using game playing interactions. The basic assumption is to use the mobile devices for individual game play, and the situated displays for synchronized public views of shared game play; the individual game
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Riccardo DiniFabio PaternoCarmen Santoro
The museum visit is an important part of elementary school science teaching. However, a divide exists between teachers, who require curricular accountability, and museums, who emphasize free-choice exploration. Can a carefully constructed worksheet bridge this divide by providing free-choice exploration of curricular topics during the museum visit? In the present study, a theoretical framework was constructed to inform the design of worksheets as free-choice learning devices. This framework was used to analyze the design of an existing museum worksheet. Subsequently, curriculum-related
This article presents a contextual model of learning that examines visitor learning in museums. It explores features of the model, factors that can influence learning in a museum setting, and challenges associated with teaching in a museum context.
"Hybrid spaces for science learning" refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Learning science within hybrid spaces can be a fun, engaging, and reflective experience. Further, hybrid spaces are inherently social, facilitating dialogue and social exchange, as well as the construction of knowledge, paralleling the nature of contemporary science. This symposium brings together several research programs that address learning "across contexts" that span classroom activities
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Ole SmordalJim SlottaTom MoherMichelle LuiAlfredo Jornet
Guided by contextual and constructivist perspectives, this study situates museumgoing in the everyday lives of children, exploring how children perceive their experiences in museums in relationship to the other places they visit. Children tended to categorize places by their relationship to them, placing museums most frequently in groupings organized by quality descriptors, when they visit, and social context. They perceive and value museums as places to look at unique, special things of interest to them. Most children prefer visiting museums with family and friends, with control of their
This collection of case studies serves as an appendix to the report "Promising Practices for Community Partnerships: A Call to Support More Inclusive Approaches to Public Participation in Scientific Research," a report of a task force comprised of PPSR practitioners and researchers, science center administrators, and experts on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in Informal Science Education (ISE) settings. The report provides evidence-based recommendations for improving the cultural inclusiveness of PPSR projects and explores the possible role that science centers might play in this