In this interview, Douglas Worts, educator/evaluator at the Art Gallery of Ontario and Associate of LEAD-Canada, discusses sustainable development within the museum community in Canada as well as efforts led by LEAD-Canada (Leadership for Environmental And Development).
This paper discusses efforts at the New England Aquarium to attract multicultural audiences, with projects like the Lake Victoria exhibit. This NSF-funded, collaborative project, centered on Lake Victoria in East Africa, addresses the aquarium's lack of representation by racial minorities, specifically Boston's African-American community.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jason J. DrebitkoGillian NelsonVisitor Studies Association
In this paper, Hannah Jennings of the Brookfield Zoo discusses findings from the zoo's evaluation initiative to study how to best communicate with and serve audiences with visual disabilities.
In this paper, Pedro J. E. Casaleiro of the University of Leicester (UK), Department of Museum Studies, discusses methodology and findings from a comparative analysis of audiences for "The Return of the Living Dinosaurs" exhibition in four separate locations: London, Paris, Spain, and Portugal. The exhibit consisted of robotic dinosaurs (animatronic models).
This is a summary of an article by W.G. Conway featured in "Curator" in 1968, which describes the narrative of a dream. In the dream, a devil called "M" takes the author through a bullfrog exhibit to demonstrate the unlimited possibilities of exhibitng even the most common type of species.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Visitor Studies AssociationW.G. Conway
In this article, Michael Pierce of the Anniston Museum summarizes D. Jenkins's research on interactive technologies featured in the "Proceedings of the 1985 American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums." Jenkins divides interactive exhibits into four types: comparisons, extending human senses, learning play, and conservation.
This is a brief summary of a 1982 report by Jacksonville State University researchers entitled "Research and Design at the Reid Park Zoo." This report outlines design research by describing an evaluation of the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson. The authors suggest three ways that careful design research benefits a facility and identify principles for better zoo design.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Visitor Studies AssociationJ MartinJ O'Reilly
This is a brief summary of the historical periods described in Jon Coe's 1986 article entitled "Towards a Coevolution of Zoos, Aquariums, and Natural History Museums." Coe traces the history of exhibit design in these three types of informal settings.
This is a brief summary of Jeff Hayward's article, "Research and Evaluation in Children's Museums: Negative, Positive Results" featured in the ILVS Review. This article discusses several aspects of evaluation.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Visitor Studies AssociationJeff Hayward
This is a summary of Roger Miles's 1986 article, "Lessons in 'Human Biology' - Testing a Theory of Exhibition Design," featured in "The International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship." In this article, Miles described an attempt to apply 11 "initial working assumptions" based on current education and psychological research to the development of an exhibit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Visitor Studies AssociationRoger Miles
In this article, researchers from Ohio State University discuss evaluation methods and findings of a study of the Old Woman Creek school visitor program. Researchers evaluated changes in knowledge, shifts in attitude, and enjoyment levels of the visiting schoolchildren.