This study examines the historical conditions that fostered significant reform in science education. To understand these conditions, we employ a framework drawn from the new institutionalism in organization theory to study the founding and early development of the Exploratorium—a prominent science center that greatly impacted the field of science education. We examine how the Exploratorium employed institutional resources that were available in its environment to develop a new type of organization: an interactive science center. Our findings reveal that the Exploratorium was shaped by the
The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a process evaluation for Smithsonian Affiliates’ involvement in Places of Invention (POI), an exhibition funded by the National Science Foundation. Affiliates are working with community partners to create digital content for the Interactive Map featured in the exhibition, and using POI core concepts to create local programming in conjunction with the exhibition. The study sought to understand the successes and
Key to introducing information and communication technologies in museums is to support meaning-making activity in encounters with artefacts. The study presented in this paper is exploratory in nature and investigates the use of social and mobile technologies in school field trips as a means of enhancing the visitor experience. It is anchored in sociocultural perspectives of learning as meaning making, with a focus on mediating artefacts in the development of understanding. The Museum of London was selected as the site of the study and the participants were a Year 9 History class (13-14 years
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Koula CharitonosCanan BlakeEileen ScanlonAnn Jones
To investigate how parents support children's learning at an exhibit on evolution, the conversations of 12 families were recorded, transcribed, and coded (6,263 utterances). Children (mean age 9.6 years) and parents visited Explore Evolution, which conveyed current research about the evolution of seven organisms. Families were engaged with the exhibit, staying an average of 44 minutes. Parents' and children's explanatory, nonexplanatory, and evolutionary conversation was coded. Overall, substantive explanatory conversation occurred in 65% of parent utterances, whereas nonexplanatory
This researcher analyzed parent-child attention-directing interactions observed in a museum. The questions addressed were as follows: Do certain exhibit types elicit more attentional behaviors than others? Do frequencies of attentional behaviors vary as a function of age of children (family type)? Do frequencies attentional behaviors vary as a function of sex of parent-child dyads (dyad type)? Data for 56 families on 13 types of attentional behaviors were collected and analyzed, utilizing a 4 (exhibit type) x 3 (family type) x 4 (dyad type) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures
This summative evaluation was commissioned by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to explore visitors’ perceptions of the exhibition, “Climate Change: ” – which was installed from October 2008 through August 2009. This report provides systematic information about visitors’ perceptions of the intended messages and about the different types of exhibitry used to create the educational and experiential value of the exhibition. The information can be used to reflect on the exhibit development and design process, to consider whether to rent the traveling exhibition, and to inform future
This study, requested by Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small, was conducted between April 2004 and May 2005, over all four seasons, and used the following methods: 1) open-ended interviews with 55 visit groups; 2) formal observations of a sample of 100 visitors, for which the observer estimated the age and gender of visitors and noted their paths, all stops over 3 seconds in length, what displays they looked at, and which hands-on devices they used; 3) a peer review panel comprised of seven ex- hibition specialists (curators, designers,writers, educators, and exhibition developers) who work
This newsletter issue focuses on natural history dioramas. Articles describe children's responses to dioramas, biological interest development in natural history dioramas, and inquiry at natural history dioramas.
Signs in both English and Spanish alert museum visitors when evaluation activities are taking place. Signs indicate whether filming, photography, or videotaping with audio are taking place.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
This umbrella protocol developed by the Exploratorium outlines their policy of determining whether they can share video recordings of minors based on whether or not they have obtained parental consent. Distinctions are drawn between recordings filmed in public and non-public (ie. focus group) spaces.
This document outlines OMSI's general approach to consent, differentiating between adults and minors and between adults who have been explicitly “invited” to participate and those who are in non-invitational settings, then describes details of consent for each method and audience.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
This study was commissioned by Intel Corporation to explore the ways in which corporate sponsorships of museum exhibitions influence visitor perceptions of both the corporation and of the museum exhibition. [Note: Intel was not one of the sponsoring companies studied during this research, and was not mentioned to visitors during the course of the study.] The overall implication of this study for museums is that carefully chosen and presented sponsorships, for a majority of visitors, have no impact on opinion of exhibits, but, in some cases, can lead to improvements. For companies, such