The Museum of Science will launch the "Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies" (COVES) project to construct an infrastructure for collaboration, which will unite science centers across the country in the systematic collection, analysis, and reporting of visitor experience data. The COVES program will develop common instruments for studying visitors in science museums and provide staff training on how to use these instruments and how to make sense of findings. The collaborative effort will enable participating science centers to become data-driven organizations focused on their audiences and will allow museums to learn from one another.
From 2011 to 2013 Pacific Science Center created content for and regularly updated The Studio, a portal to current medical research within the Science Center’s new human health exhibit, Professor Wellbody’s Academy of Health and Wellness. The Studio is a 500 ft2 hybrid exhibit/program space that combines artifacts, hands-on exhibits, media, and a programming area where local researchers communicate their work to visitors. The Studio was designed to be extremely flexible and it's modularity enables the project team to install a new current research exhibit every six months. The aim of the IMLS
The Wild Center will partner with Adirondack Museum, Cornell’s Maple Program, and New York State/Northeastern New York Maple Producers Associations to build regional identity, revitalize a heritage industry, and connect people to nature through the art, story, history, and science of maple sugaring. The Northern New York Maple Project will create interpretative exhibits with ecological, historical, and economic information. The museum will develop an instructional maple sugaring video; a touch-screen story kiosk that lets visitors share stories through the exhibit and social media; a storytelling workshop for staff, project partners, and maple producers; community events and conferences; a school education program; community sugaring workshops; and educational materials, website, social media, and outreach to industry, food enthusiasts, and the business community. Regular planning meetings on goals and deliverables will track results and an outside consultant will evaluate the overall success of the project.
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will enhance its staff capacity and train current educational staff in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education delivery, both of which will increase its ability to deliver interpretive tours and programming around the newly opened permanent exhibition, “Inspiring Minds: African Americans in Science and Technology.” The project will include hiring a full-time STEM educator to work with education and archival staff to create and implement a family learning approach to the sciences in the rich context of African American history and culture. A training facilitator will develop a cohort of STEM interns and train current staff educators to present STEM learning experiences. At the conclusion of the project, the museum will have increased staff capacity and widespread expansion and integration of STEM opportunities for the youth, families, and schools of Detroit.
The Wild Center will develop, implement, and disseminate a model program, VTS in Science, for the science museum field adapted from the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method. In partnership with several museums, educators, and a consulting firm, the Wild Center will use current research to develop informal and formal learning programming; implement a model professional development program for science museum professionals and elementary teachers; provide educators resources and knowledge to develop VTS in Science programming relevant to daily teaching—including a VTS in science toolkit; facilitate a long-term collaborative process and model school-museum partnership among a diverse group of education providers; and evaluate the effectiveness of the VTS in Science program in order to promote replication by science museums nationally.
The New Children's Museum will launch the LAByrinth project to engage the community in the creation of a permanent art installation. The museum will convene a cross-disciplinary team to design and build the LAByrinth, a climbing structure that will serve 140,000 people annually. The museum will develop relationships with underserved families and current and future museum users, and also create an ongoing community-based exhibition development process to create sustainable mechanisms for continued community involvement. The project will introduce a new socially-engaged process for creating exhibitions, which will serve as a sustainable creative catalyst for San Diego families.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts will hire an evaluator to asses and facilitate the growth of its three signature programs–Bronx Stories, Back in the Bronx and Bronx Lab–to ensure that they continue to celebrate, affirm, and advance the vibrancy of the borough and its multigenerational voices. The museum will assess training, seek community input, and apply new knowledge gained through program redesign and implementation. It will enhance outreach and communication, and analyze and share outcomes. Using an advisory group of community stakeholders, the museum will amplify its services by drawing increased audiences, expanding its role as a cultural gateway, and highlighting the Bronx as a dynamic community.
The Nurture Nature Center will conduct a community needs assessment in four Easton neighborhoods to broaden its engagement with populations at risk for natural environmental hazards. The needs assessment will discern topics of greatest concern to residents in the four neighborhoods, identify factors triggering alarm and awareness, gain a sense of general knowledge and misconceptions, learn what people want to know, and understand better how to develop comfortable ways for people to talk about problems in places where they live. The assessment process will be incorporated into the nature center's Risk to Resiliency model of community engagement and science learning about environmental hazards. This model will be applied regionally and nationally to communities that face a wide range of hazards such as flooding, wildfires, climate change, earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes.
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico will develop and implement "Art and Technology," which will provide learning opportunities to at-risk youth in the San Juan metropolitan area by integrating the museum's exhibits and collections as a platform for learning activities and dynamic thinking. Through lessons on digital media, photography, and art aligning with academic standards, students will acquire technology and problem-solving skills, language proficiency and communication skills, the ability to better interact with peers, and enhanced information skills. At-risk youth will be able to use the museum as an innovative learning facility with free art and technological resources to develop their skills to learn, create, and share with their peers their work in a safe environment.
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History will develop traveling natural history science curricula kits for K-12 students. This project will expand the museum's outreach program, featuring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) content with a focus on Oklahoma geology, life, and cultural science. The museum will share the educational kits, featuring materials aligning with state educational standards, with teachers across Oklahoma. The museum's digitization of the kits will increase the capacity and number of teachers who have access to the material and enable students to experience high-quality STEM educational opportunities offsite and online.
The Palo Alto Art Center is partnering with the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo to develop a series of four artist residencies, each involving an artist who explores the natural world in his or her artwork, and exhibitions of artwork created during the residencies. The museums will address the challenge of successfully integrating art and science to enhance learning in museum contexts. During each exhibition, public programming will focus on the artwork and its scientific and environmental context, engaging a broad audience in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) based activities. The project will also serve as a model demonstrating the success of education through effective collaboration between an art museum and a science museum.
The Greensboro Children's Museum, in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Guilford County Schools, will develop and implement the "Grow It, Cook It, Eat It" project to study the impact of food systems literacy education on the knowledge and behavior of K-2 children in an underserved school. The project will bring food education to a local elementary school where museum educators will work alongside classroom teachers to create and deliver weekly lessons to 60 students based on sustainable gardening practices, kitchen efficacy, attitudes toward fresh, seasonal food, and behavior toward garden work and trying new foods. Participating elementary students will build the beginnings of a skills set that will empower them, and their families,to make smart food choices for a lifetime.