This is an interview with paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould exploring his personal background, career accomplishments, research on Darwinism, and views regarding religion.
This study investigated middle school students’ identity development as learners of science during learning conversations at an informal science education camp. The central research question was: What is the role of conversation in influencing science learner identity development during an informal science education camp? Identity in this study was defined as becoming and being recognized as a certain type of person (Gee, 2001). This study focused particularly on discursive identity, defined as individual traits recognized through discourse with other individuals (Gee, 2005; 2011). The study
Although schools traditionally take their pupils to Natural History Museums, little has been elicited about either the overall content of the conversations generated by such groups or of the effect on content in the presence of an adult. Transcripts were coded using a systemic network which had been designed based on pilot studies. A range of variables was created from the coded data. The number of conversations that contained at least one reference to the designated categories were ascertained overall and those of the three sub-groups, pupils and teacher, pupils and chaperone and pupils alone
This paper explores the role of questioning in scientific meaning-making as families talk, look and gesture in front of realistic and artful dioramas at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The focus is on the ways questioning can either enable movement towards scientific understanding or hinder such progress. The socio-cultural framework of this research emphasizes Vygotsky's interpretation of the zone of proximal development (zpd). Questions are viewed as tools for mediation in the zpd. This paper examines three families' dialogues, excerpted from a larger study of collaborative
This chapter explores natural history exhibits, particularly dioramas, with regard to both art and authenticity. Dioramas are treated as a novel form of scientific model.
This study evaluates the Living Land Living Sea exhibit at the Royal British Columbia Museum, with specific attention to gathering data related to visitor response to dioramas. The results of this study indicated that small but significant amounts of knowledge gain did occur upon visiting the Living Land Living Sea gallery, that attitudinal change was not measured, and that exhibit type clearly affects attracting power and holding power.
Interviews conducted during the summer of 2006 with people in and around the international museum community suggest that the interests natural history museums share in common with each other and with other kinds of organizations and communities are creating an array of new links across institutional, social and cultural boundaries. These links are active, complex, networked relationships directed toward common purposes. Museums that are taking advantage of this emerging environment are becoming “hyperconnected hubs” across which knowledge is exchanged and action initiated. In forging a
This report presents findings based on the largest and most international study of zoo and aquarium visitors ever conducted worldwide. The study used a pre- and post-visit repeated-measures survey design to evaluate biodiversity literacy - biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity - in zoo and aquarium visitors. In total, more than 6,000 visitors to 30 zoos and aquariums around the globe participated in the study. Appendix contains survey.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
World Association of Zoos and AquariumsAndrew MossEric JensenMarkus Gusset
The Maryland Science Center (MSC) Astrobiology project includes an interactive exhibit and Davis Planetarium program for school and public museum visitors, exploring the search for life in our Solar System, the search for exoplanets and an understanding of extreme forms of Earthly life. Four day-long Educator Workshops have taken place during the project with a total of 179 teachers participating.
Baltimore’s MSC is the lead institution, with the project led by PI Van Reiner, MSC President and CEO and Co-PI Jim O’Leary, MSC Senior Scientist, and science advisors consisting of astronomers, biologists, a geologist and educators representing NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Space Telescope Science Institute, Carnegie Institute of Washington, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland and Maryland School for the Blind.
The project provides visitors with a sense of the Milky Way Galaxy’s size and composition, the galaxy’s number of stars and potential planets, and the number of other galaxies in the Universe. The exhibit explores Earthly extremophiles, what their survival signifies for life elsewhere in the Solar System, and examines possibilities for life on Mars and moons of the Solar System, explores techniques used to detect exoplanets and NASA’s missions searching for exoplanets and Earth-like worlds. The project looks to provide a sense of the vast number of potential planets that exist, the hardiness of Earthly life, the possibilities for life on nearby planets and moons, and the techniques used to search for exoplanets.
The exhibit and Planetarium program premiered November 2, 2012, and both remain as long-term Science Center offerings. Since opening, MSC has hosted nearly a million visitors, and with the Life Beyond Earth exhibit located in a highly trafficked area near the Davis Planetarium and Science On a Sphere, the great majority of visitors have experienced the exhibit. The We Are Aliens program in the Davis Planetarium has been seen by more than 26,000 visitors since opening.
This is a summary of results and evaluations of the first citizen science project awarded by the National Science Foundation to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1992 (before the term "citizen science" was used to define public participation in scientific research and before the Internet or even computers were in widespread use). The report lists several publications and evaluation reports, none of which are available electronically as of April, 2014. For more information about these reports and the data they contain please contact Rick Bonney (RickBonney@cornell.edu).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cornell Lab of OrnithologyRick Bonney
This article presents extracurricular lesson plans and activities about sound propagation and acoustic communication. The activities were developed by STEM researchers. They align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and are designed for fourth-grade students.
At a family service agency in the North Bronx, staff members have drawn a vital connection between community and literacy. The authors explain how their literacy program evolved from a basic tutoring opportunity into a curriculum using themes and information gleaned from the young participants’ immediate community surroundings.