What is the relationship between experiences in informal settings and students’ understanding of and attitudes toward science? By analysing existing data sets, Suter finds that science museum attendance has an effect—albeit a small one—on student achievement.
This project brings real scientific research into the public domain by establishing a research laboratory in a museum setting where visitors not only enroll in the study, they help shape it through their work as citizen scientists. Findings from the study will increase the public understanding of how genetic research translates into meaningful personal information that can be used to better understand personal health risks and opportunities. In a community-based participatory research laboratory, school-aged children and their families will participate in an authentic research project on the genetics of taste. In a series of simple but highly specific taste tests, participants will learn which gene variations they possess and how these variations influence how they taste foods. Taste function has been increasingly linked to human health, in that variability in taste sensation correlates with, and may in part be causal for, major health problems, including cardiovascular disease and obesity. Interactive exhibit components will inform participants about the scientific process, the principles of genetics, the human genome project and genetic variation. Teaching the public about their genetic profile and its influence on taste may have a positive impact on major health threats such as cardiovascular disease and obesity. The data collected from museum visitors who choose to enroll in the study will be sent to the museum's academic partners for further analysis and inclusion in their ongoing research analysis and publications. This laboratory experience not only engages and educates the public, but also advances the research enterprise and offers a vivid model for how to translate research into the public domain.
This cooperative effort among Purdue University, public schools in Indiana, and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis aims to develop, evaluate and disseminate educational programs for K-12 students, parents, teachers and the public about the science involved in keeping people healthy. Obesity prevention, cancer prevention and asthma will be emphasized. Fitness programs, research programs using animal models, K-12 outreach programs, professional development workshops and recruiting efforts will be networked to fill gaps in health science education, interest schoolchildren in health science research and improve public health. This project will develop and rigorously assess curricular modules for grades three, six and nine. The science behind health advances, the clinical trials process and the role of animals in developing drugs and medical devices will be addressed. In addition, the project will engage schoolchildren in becoming health science researchers by providing them with role models. Researchers will interact with K-12 students during classroom visits, camps and after-school programs. Finally, the project will involve and engage children, parents and the public in educational fitness activities and programs. Dogs will be incorporated into fitness programs as exercise companions. The program includes an interactive traveling exhibit, highlighting the science involved in keeping people healthy.
As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is conducting regional STEM workshops, entitled NFB STEM2U, for blind youth [youth], grades 3 – 6. During this first regional workshop in Baltimore, the NFB operated three different programs simultaneously: one program for youth, a second program for their parents/caregivers, and a third program for a group of teachers who work with visually impaired students. A fourth program, for Port Discovery museum staff, was conducted earlier to prepare the museum staff to assist with the youth program
With NCRR SEPA Phase I funding, the Exploratorium developed a microscope imaging station (MIS) for public use in the museum. At this facility, visitors explore living things using research-grade equipment. For visitors, microscopes and images are engagement points for learning more about basic biology, biomedical research, and human health. With SEPA Phase II funding, the Exploratorium proposes to use the infrastructure and educational approach developed in Phase I to: (1) Create a wider, more comprehensive array of biomedically relevant, image-based materials-including still and time-lapse images, movies, and teaching activities; and (2) Disseminate these to students, teachers, museum visitors, the broader public, and other science centers. The Exploratorium will collaborate with biomedical researchers to generate high-resolution images and plan public programs. Material from these collaborations will be on current biomedical topics. Planned dissemination activities include eight "Meet the Scientist and Learn about Their Research" public programs; Saturday teacher workshops; development of multimedia exhibit content for museum display; development of web content for the MIS site; creation of image-based teacher activities; inclusion of images, movies, and activities in established web-based teacher resources (as well as new resources for high-bandwidth Internet2 application). Materials will be free to other educational institutions. Using these dissemination strategies, the Exploratorium expects to attract and engage well over 1 million visitors annually.
Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition is a traveling exhibit based on the popular television show. When housed at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, it included a traditional, interactive free flow exhibition space followed by a live facilitated show. This paper describes results from an experimental study about the effects of the Live Show on the learning of and attitudes towards science. A pre-test was given to 333 children entering the exhibit. A post-test was given to 80 children after they walked through the free-flow portion of the exhibit and to 191 children after they watched
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Museum of Science and IndustryAaron Price
Feinstein and Meshoulam’s study examines the nature of equity work in museums and science centres across the U.S. Based on 32 interviews with leaders from 15 informal science education organisations, the authors identified two different perspectives, client and cooperative, each with its own strengths and implications for informal science education.
This annual report presents an overview of Saint Louis Science Center audience data gathered through a variety of evaluation studies conducted during 2014. This report includes information on the Science Center's general public audience demographics and visitation patterns, gives an overview of visitors' comments about their Science Center experience, summarizes major trends observed in the Science Center's tool for tracking educational programs, and presents highlights from front-end evaluations of a new exhibit about the Mars rovers.
In 2010 the Royal Society journal Biology Letters published an article, ‘Blackawton bees’, which caused something of a sensation: the findings, on bees’ foraging patterns, were original, but the true originality lay in the fact the experiments were in part devised, and the paper written, by a group of 8- to 10-year-old children at Blackawton Primary School in Devon (Blackawton et al., 2011).[1] The article attracted considerable media attention, troubling, as it did, the boundaries of professional science, and distinctions between scientific practice and education, not to mention the
Increasing numbers of museums and galleries worldwide have developed an array of working practices that might be termed 'participatory' or 'co-creative', which seek to involve visitors, non-visitors, community and interest groups with diverse forms of expertise and perspective in their activities. Frequently the central aim of such practices has been to strengthen relationships between a museum and its audiences through projects that are jointly conceived and developed with local communities. However, relatively little attention has been given to participatory practice within the work of
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katy BunningJen KavanaghKayte McSweeneyRichard Sandell
Science centres and museums in Europe traditionally offer opportunities for public participation, such as dialogues, debates and workshops. In recent years, starting with the support of grants from the European Commission, the purpose of these initiatives is increasingly more connected with the policy making processes where science centres play a role as brokers between the public and other stakeholders. This article begins an investigation on how these two levels of participation – the participation of museums in policy, and the participation of visitors in museums – are related in seven
The paper aims to build a ground for thinking about museums’ role in society and the development of the twenty-first century learner. The first and second parts of the paper focus on the influences technological evolution and current global challenges have brought to our lives, and the consequent requirements for ‘new’ learning and skills. The third part examines how different elements of new pedagogies and approaches could reinforce the twenty-first century learner and could, moreover, inspire museums. The final part of the paper focuses on the specific contribution that museums could make by