This article highlights four controversial exhibits from various institutions who, in the end, used controversy to their advantage. The authors include Kimberly Louagie, Curator of Exhibits at the Outagamie County Historical Society in Appleton, Wisconsin, Saudia Muwwakkil, Public Information Officer at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, Diane Perlov, Senior Vice President for Exhibits at the California Science Center, and John Russick, Curator at the Chicago Historical Society.
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Kimberly LouagieSaudia MuwwakkilDiane PerlovJohn Russick
Revealing Bodies was an experimental exhibition that explored the messages and meanings found in biomedical and anatomical representations of human bodies. It further explored what happens when these images are removed from their original context and reinterpreted for other purposes such as arts, advertising and politics. The exhibition also examined how the culture and point of view of the original creator may have shaped the image and what happens to this intent with the iterations of time and societal change. The exhibition was approximately 4000 square feet. It was a mix of artworks
Native Universe: Indigenous Voice in Museums, a collaboration between the Indigenous Education Institute, University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii at Hilo, builds on the successful NSF-funded Cosmic Serpent collaborative (DRL 07-14631/DRL 07-14629). The Cosmic Serpent professional development project explores commonalities between native and western science, enabling participants to use STEM as an entry point for museum programs and exhibits. Native Universe endeavors to move to the next level by creating a professional development program which fosters systemic institutional change through the infusion of indigenous voice in programs and exhibits focusing on environmental change. Topics to be explored include species distribution, environmental vulnerability, adaptation of human systems, and science and policy issues on the local, regional, and global levels. This project is designed to assess how cultural background and exposure to indigenous knowledge systems integrated with western science influence these perspectives; develop sustainable institutional competence in presenting multiple perspectives on environmental change; and create models for inclusion while building an enduring community of practice. The project design relies upon a conceptual framework grounded in the literature on indigenous voice and traditional ecological knowledge, as well as current models for institutional change. Front-end, summative, and process evaluation will address questions related to how science museums facilitate engagement and inclusion of indigenous voice in the presentation of environmental change content, stages of readiness, and the emergence of models for this process. Methods for data collection include reflective logs, pre-post questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews at multiple points to measure the degree and nature of change within museums, as well as how change was initiated, supported, and sustained by staff. Project deliverables include three museum case studies developed during 9-month residencies, public experiences for visitors, a culminating virtual conference, and a dynamic community of practice among museums committed to indigenous voice in informal science education. The museum residencies will take place at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the Museum of the North in Alaska. Intensive case studies will be conducted at each site following the Diné Strategic Planning Process (consisting of initiation, growth, implementation, and renewal) and featuring the Ìmiloa Astronomy Institute as a model for institutional change. Exhibits and programs have been identified at each site that will be developed or expanded to integrate environmental change content and native perspectives. Dissemination of the project findings will be accomplished through publications, conference presentations, videos, webinars (four per year), and the virtual conference. It is anticipated that this project will impact over 1.2 million visitors at the collaborating institutions, in addition to the professional audience of museum staff. Native Universe may provide valuable interpretive tools for the field to understand and address the challenges associated with integrating cultural perspectives and science content. The museum case studies will contribute knowledge about the cultural process of science learning, and may transform the way science is presented in museums by leveraging indigenous voice to enhance public awareness and understanding of environmental change from a culturally-grounded perspective. The overall benefit is increased participation of indigenous individuals in STEM and increased public science literacy in the area of environmental change.
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences project is based on current NSF-funded research, BCS-0342661, a study that is modeling the demographic collapse that occurred in the Hohokam region of southern Arizona between A.D. 1300 and 1450. The Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson, AZ is partnering with the Pueblo Grande Museum (PGM), operated by the City of Phoenix, and the Huhugam Heritage Center (HHC), operated by the Gila River Indian Community in Chandler, AZ. The primary deliverable of the 24-month project is the development of a 700 sq. ft. traveling exhibit that provides visitors with experiences related to how archaeologists research questions such as, how to date pre-historic populations, how to estimate the numbers of people in these populations, how to determine their migration patterns, and how to model the decline of their numbers and "coalescence." The exhibit is based CDA's research philosophy of practicing "preservation archaeology" that uses methods that avoid or limit the disturbance of exiting archaeological sites. The exhibit, being designed and fabricated by PGM staff, incorporates some of the latest innovations in computer animation and GIS that help scientists approach these questions. CDA will create a special section of its website devoted to the research and exhibit, along with an exhibit guide and a special issue of its Archaeology Southwest magazine. The project is positioned also as a vehicle for stimulating continued conversations between archaeologists and Native American peoples.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
J. Brett HillPatrick Lyons
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Understanding the Tree of Life was a 36-month-long conference project that brought together evolutionary biologists, museum educators (including natural history museums, science centers, zoos, aquaria and botanical gardens), and STEM-education/cognitive psychology researchers with the goal of improving both the research agenda and practice of the use of phylogenetic "tree of life" visual representations in museum exhibits on evolution. The project was multi-faceted, incorporating pilot research studies, a planning meeting and a major conference, and evaluation of the conference and impact on professionals. Participants represented several museums and university-based researchers across the country and one in Israel. Four research groups, twenty planning meeting participants, sixty-two conference attendees from thirty institutions, and twelve advisors were involved.
This full-scale development project would use a multi-platform approach (TV, Field School, and Web site) to engage public audiences and underserved youth in archaeology research and discovery. The project will advance knowledge and practice in the field of ISE by establishing the utility of archaeology as an entry point to multiple STEM fields showing how it answers important questions about human origins-culture, history, and the natural environment. The target audience includes a broad demographic of viewers who will watch the PBS broadcasts. The other key audience is underserved youth who will participate in the archeology digs and be featured in the national broadcast. They will engage other underserved youth who will have the opportunity to participate in the interactive online virtual field school. Primary organizational partners include the Crow Canyon Archaeology Center in Colorado and other archeology organizations at the 4 field sites. Deliverables include four hours of PBS programming filmed at four archaeological sites telling the stories of diverse cultures (Native American, African American, Hispanic); field schools designed for underrepresented youth both onsite and online; blogs, online discussions, and user-generated videos. The evaluation will determine the impact of the television series, online content, and the on-site Field School on audiences' understanding of, interest in, and interactions around STEM topics within the context of archaeology. Formative evaluation will provide input and help refine the television programs, web site, and field school. The summative evaluation will use a variety of methods and artifacts to determine the degree to which the process of the TV series, web site, and Field School was successful. The television programs are expected to reach 13 million viewers via broadcast, 300,000 via streaming video and 50,000 unique web site visitors. The lessons learned from this project will be disseminated to other media and ISE organizations.
The purpose of this three-year collaborative design research project is to examine the role of culture in the development of knowledge and reasoning about the natural world and the subsequent sense-making of and participation in natural resource management. The PIs propose to examine the ways in which culture impacts observational habits, explanation constructing, uses and forms of evidence, and orientations towards socio-scientific challenges such as natural resource management. Collaborating on this project are researchers from the American Indian Center of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. The audience for this study includes the academic informal science education community and indigenous science educators. This project also offers extensive cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary research opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral research trainees. The project will employ a mixed methods approach and proposes evaluation through an advisory board and community input. A community assessment team is proposed to review activities, obtain feedback from the larger community, and identify challenges to the effective implementation of the program. The project is comprised of two main panels of studies: the first consisting of a series of investigations of learning in everyday activities and the second consisting of two community design experiments that engage two Native American communities and two non-Native communities, one rural and one urban for both communities, in a culturally based citizen science (CBCS) project focused on ecosystem disruption (e.g. invasive species; climate change) and natural resource management. The CBCS project will engage participants in question formation, data collection, data analysis, forming policy recommendations, and citizen action around the findings. This project will develop a citizen science model that effectively engages diverse communities towards productive science learning, helpful scientific data collection, and citizen engagement in community planning and local policy decisions. The researchers believe that fundamental advances in STEM teaching and learning are needed across the broad landscape of learning environments and that the success of such advances may pivot on innovations and discoveries made in informal environments. Insights obtained from prior research on learning in indigenous cultures, especially in biological and environmental sciences, combined with the anticipated results from this study could lead to a deeper understanding of cross-cultural similarities and differences in science learning.
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Karen WashinawatokMegan BangDouglas MedinUniversity of Washington
The Exploratorium and the Museum of Life and Science will develop, evaluate and implement Science of Sharing, a three-year full-scale development project designed to bring the scientific study of human social behavior to a broad public audience. Science of Sharing will create new ways for visitors to experiment with social psychology and will generate important information for informal science institutions committed to involving visitors in discussions of personal, societal, and scientific responses to real-world challenges. Science of Sharing addresses a critical ISE issue: creating ways for visitors to experiment with inquiry based exhibits and activities that heighten public knowledge of the study of human social behavior. Based on research in social psychology and game theory, the project (a) fosters public engagement in activities exploring collaborative behavior and resource sharing; (b) promotes awareness of connections between these experiences and STEM-related research in psychology and economics; and (c) links individual behaviors to real-world issues of resource depletion and group conflict. The primary audience is youth and youth-adult museum visitors, with particular focus on underrepresented communities with limited access to communication technologies. The secondary audience is ISE professionals with interest in new kinds of interactive experience and visualization tools focusing on social behavior and techniques for fostering social interaction and public discussion of science. The project will (1) conduct front end evaluation to assess visitor attitudes and knowledge about issues of cooperation and resource use; (2) design, prototype, and evaluate 15 inquiry-based exhibits and 4 Experimonths (public events with web, museum, and community-based components on social-psychological topics); (3) conduct design-based research to investigate aspects of these exhibits and activities that prompt self-reflection and build metacognitive skills; and (4) work with local school districts to adapt exhibits for classroom use.
The University of Minnesota and the University of Florida are collaborating on the creation of a Master Naturalist Program for adults that will serve as a model for nationnwide dissemination. This program, which builds on the existing Florida Master Naturalist Program, will provide intensive 40-hour training sessions in ecology, natural/cultural history and the environment for volunteers in Minnesota. Participants will then complete 40 hours of supervised volunteer service at local natural history centers while volunteers in both Florida and Minnesota will have the option of participating in advanced training workshops. Staff members at informal science education institutions and natural history centers take part in train-the-trainer workshops to assist with dissemination. Deliverables include three training modules (Big Woods, Big Rivers; Prairies and Potholes; North Woods, Great Lakes), advanced training workshops, local Master Naturalist Chapters, annual conferences, training materials and workshops for Master Naturalist Instructors, and a project website. It is anticipated that this project will result in the implementation of 64 Master Naturalist workshops, directly reaching 1,280 volunteers, while 750 participants are anticipated for advanced training workshops. It is estimated that 130 staff will participate as Master Naturalist Instructors. Indirect impacts will be realized as volunteers contribute more than 51,000 hours in service to nature centers and informal science institutions interacting with public audiences while conducting natural history activities. Strategic impact will be realized in the outcomes of the comprehensive evaluation plan that will assess immediate and longitudinal impacts on public and professional audiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert BlairMartin MainAmy RagerKaren Oberhauser
The investigators plan to design, develop and test a series of exhibit prototypes that build visitors' capacity to engage in discussions of socio-scientific issues, particularly those related to the numerous human-biology and health-related socio-scientific issues present in their lives today. The purpose of this small-scale project will be to explore the feasibility of designing un-facilitated museum exhibit experiences that engage museum visitors in activities where they recognize the components of socio-scientific arguments, evaluate them, and pose arguments of their own. The exhibit will use techniques of interactive exhibits usually applied in science museums to explore objects, phenomena, or scientific and engineering processes but the subject of this exhibit is about words and talk rather than things and physical phenomena. It is intended to give visitors practice in science thinking skills that citizens can use in listening critically, assessing arguments, and framing arguments of their own. This project will support the design, development, and testing of six unfacilitated activities that engage visitors in deconstructing, evaluating, and developing arguments related to socio-scientific issues. The investigators will develop prototypes so that labels, content, and physical design can be changed during the course of formative testing. The prototypes will be developed by members of the Museum of Science Education and Strategic Projects Departments. This project is intended to gather evidence through evaluation about whether an unstaffed exhibit can be designed to increase visitors\' capacity to engage in discussions of socio-scientific issues and health-related socio-scientific issues. The Museum of Science Research and Evaluation Department will conduct the formative evaluation of these prototypes. It will provide new evidence about the ability of museum exhibits to increase the scientific thinking skills of visitors.
Through programs (including small group conversations, citizen conferences, and public forums) an interactive exhibition, and two research studies that address issues that are fundamental to establishing museums as places of public dialogue and deliberation, this project engages the general public, policymakers, and caregivers in deliberations around the latest early childhood development (ECD) research. It also builds on an increased understanding of the importance of ECD to expand civic engagement around this urgent social issue. The overall goal of the project is to help audiences understand child development, how environment and experiences impact development, and what we as a society can do to support our youngest citizens. Specifically, audiences explore: How the brain develops from birth until kindergarten (or age five); how a child's environment and experiences sculpt the brain, with some experiences enhancing the child's self-control and learning, and other experiences that actually impede development; and what the project audiences can do to ensure that all children have a strong foundation to learn and thrive.
Situated within the framework of their NSF funded sociolinguistic research, partnering institutions, Gallaudet University and the University of California-Davis, will develop and broadly disseminate a 2-hour DVD that builds knowledge and fosters community awareness, among informal and formal audiences, about the scientific structure and history of American Sign Language (ASL), with an emphasis on Black American Sign Language. Through this Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) grant, the DVD and its existing companion guidebook will: (a) link ASL to current empirical research; (b) describe the complexities of the science of language development (written and spoken); (c) detail the evolution of Black American Sign Language; (d) provide strong evidence that sociolinguistic variations and dialects are not unique to spoken languages; and (e) foster related discussions in formal and informal settings. The project will involve ASL interpreters and hearing, hearing impaired and deaf local community members, students, and teachers; ranging in age (adolescents to seniors), geographic location within the United States, and socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Informal settings such as local community, resource and cultural centers will participate in project dissemination efforts and activities. Formal settings such as postsecondary linguistics courses, deaf studies courses, interpreter training courses, and professional workshops will also serve as secondary venues for project dissemination activities. The research design, videotaped data clips and findings from the seminal sociolinguistic research involving data from 22 study groups at six different sites will be encapsulated and made accessible via the primary deliverable, a 2 hour DVD. Designed for various audiences, the DVD will present the socio-historical significance of the research, data collection and methods employed, and data clips of participants narrating their life experiences. Phonological variables, syntactic & discourse variables, contact phenomena, and lexical variations will also be discussed and illustrated in the DVD. Targeted public and professional audiences will be recruited to receive the DVD, the companion guide book, and other project resources. Project deliverables include a 2 hour DVD, training materials, workshops, and web site enhancements. Through active dissemination efforts, the project intends to reach approximately 29,000 people. The project should: (a) increase knowledge and awareness about the scientific structure and history of ASL, and (b) provide greater access to content- including STEM content-through a broader understanding of geographical and social factors that influence non-spoken language variations, particularly Black ASL. A mixed methods evaluation study will be employed to monitor all aspects of the DVD and training materials development, refinement, and implementation. Focus groups will be conducted and questionnaires will be distributed to collect data and determine the extent to which the project has effectively met its primary goal to share and disseminate its research findings more broadly to public audiences, with a special emphasis on informal audiences and organizations. The project will address a need in the field for research about the scientific structure, history, and socio-cultural factors influencing variations in non-spoken languages, particularly in Black ASL. Broad dissemination of this research could raise public awareness about ASL variations thereby, providing interpreters and a sizable portion of the deaf and hearing communities with valuable insights on ASL that could improve content accessibility among deaf and hearing impaired individuals. The project also highlights an important, overlooked component of American history. In addition, this project would further the ISE program's efforts to diversify its portfolio with respect to content (science of language; linguistics) and target populations (deaf, African-American). The original NSF funded scientific research project and the proposed dissemination efforts, also support ISE's commitment to fund projects with an aim to communicate NSF funded research to informal audiences and within informal settings. With an anticipated reach of 29,000 people, the project?s website, local community events, and linkages with ISE organizations such as The Department of African American Studies Afro-American Studies Resource Center at Howard University in Washington, DC; The Stiles African American Heritage Center in Denver; and The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY and professional organizations such as the Gallaudet University Press and the National Association of Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA); will provide multiple opportunities for public engagement in the research and cross-disciplinary, cultural discussions about this work within the context of informal and formal education.