This report summarizes the processes and findings of a two-year, multimethod evaluation of the Museum of Science & Industry's Mystery at the Museum program. The evaluation's purpose was to assess the program's impact on teachers and students and to guide program improvements.
This case study is an analysis of the art criticism of one undergraduate and eight graduate art education students about the work of contemporary artist Robert Rauschenberg. The purpose of the analysis is to identify the students' use or nonuse of four thinking strategies found in the practice of three professional art critics and to assess implications for classroom art criticism.
Visitors to art museums vary on a number of a dimensions related to how they construct their museum experience. The visiting preferences and intentions of a sample of visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art were examined by having them respond to a survey as they entered the Museum. Visitors were presented with a set of nine contrasting statements (e.g., “I know how I like to look at art” and “I would like to learn more about how to look at art”.) separated by a six-point scale. Responses to the statement pairs indicated wide variability on items concerning whether visitors liked to look at
The contemporary approach to art education focuses on content that is derived from a broad range of the visual arts with an emphasis on what can be learned from works of art. This is a significant departure from earlier aesthetic approaches which led to purely formalist criticism in the classroom. Based on the work of Arthur Danto, the author proposes that teachers develop student abilities to go beyond the visual level of artworks and enable them to gain access to the complexity of meanings that works of art possess. To exemplify this practice, an analysis of Adrian Piper's work entitled I
Summative evaluation of the NSF- and NEH-funded Hunters of the Sky exhibition, including remedial, timing and tracking, and summative. The 5,000 square foot exhibition takes a science and humanities perspective on birds of prey. A particular focus of the evaluation was the exhibition's impact on "getting visitors to explore their own values and beliefs about the human relationship to the natural world" as well as "getting visitors to critically examine questions of economics, public policy, and environmental ethics related to the survival of raptors and their habitats." Sample data collection
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Deborah PerryKarla NiehusScience Museum of Minnesota
Bill Nye the Science Guy is a widely-viewed, children's television series on science. Designed for eight-to-ten year olds, this series is shown in late afternoons Monday through Friday on PBS stations and on commercial television over the weekends. Rockman et al, an independent research group in San Francisco, was contracted by KCTS, Seattle, WA, to undertake an evaluation of the Bill Nye the Science Guy television series. The evaluation was charged with exploring the impact of the series on children at home, in school, and in other settings where children can watch television. Both the
This report presents findings from a formative evaluation of the Becoming American theme and the Choosing Revolution story. Becoming Americans tells how diverse peoples, holding different and sometimes conflicting personal ambitions, evolved into a society that valued both liberty and equality. Becoming Americans is the umbrella theme for several stories, one of which is Choosing Revolution. The Choosing Revolution story is about the changing community and the decisions people living in the colony made to shape their future. Choosing Revolution was presented at eight key sites and many
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi KornThe Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In 1988 and 1989, ASTC offered a seven-day institute for founders of new science centers, funded by the National Science Foundation. The impact of these institutes was profound, making the difference between success and failure for several, and helping many others clarify and strengthen their plans. Since then demand for technical assistance to new science centers has increased rather than decreased. Building on its experience, ASTC proposes a 3-1/2 year multiple-strategy program to provide knowledgeable, supportive guidance to the founders of new science centers. The elements are: (1) a 4-day workshop on how to start a science center; (2) a resource book on starting and operating science centers; (3) a network for new science centers which meets at the ASTC annual conference for mutual support and information sharing; (4) one-day workshops held in Conjunction with the ASTC conference and planned by the steering committee of the New Science Center Network; (5) increased coverage in the ASTC Newsletter; (6) an annual progress report on new science centers; and (7) on-going, individualized technical assistance.
The Exploratorium is developing a model program that demonstrates the vital role science museum exhibits can play in supporting formal science education reform. The development of exhibitions and enhancement activities is based on the Science Framework for California Public Schools and the emerging National Science Education Standards. The project includes: A series of four museum exhibitions (with a total of 60 exhibits) based on the Science Framework themes of Patterns of Change, Stability, Scale and Structure, and Systems and Interactions Publications (Exhibit Guides and Pathways) for each collection A series of workshops and evening events for teachers, families and students A symposium, video and Internet resource for museum and education professionals An important feature is an information desk and resource kiosk to inform teachers, parents and the general public about science education reform efforts. The project aims at 5,000 teachers, 32,000 parents and caregivers, 140,000 students and 1,320,000 members of the general public.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Thomas HumphreyLynn Rankin
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences plans to conduct a 5 year project to train 150 mentor teachers (30 teachers/year) and their principals, who will then train the remaining 1100 elementary teachers in the Buffalo Public School System. The training would include two 5-week summer sessions (in a Magnet school that is physically incorporated into the Buffalo Museum of Science) and 4 in-service workshops during the academic years following each of the summer workshops. This innovative leadership project is a collaborative effort between the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences (including both education and curatorial/science staff persons) the Buffalo Public Schools, and individuals from local colleges and universities. The setting of the project is enhanced by a Science and Math Magnet School which is housed within the museum, and by the school/museum's location in a largely inner city environment with easy accessibility to minority persons. The project is designed to provide mentor teachers with a strong science background in pedagogy and content over a two-year period of summer and academic-year workshops, and to prepare and support these mentors as they inservice their colleagues. Project staff from the museum, public schools, and the academic community will provide strong support through academic-year workshops, site visits and telecommunications networking. Principals will be appropriately involved, and will work with mentors to develop a science inservice program tailored to meet the needs of their individual schools; as a consequence, virtually all of the 1100 K-6 classroom teachers of science in the Buffalo Public Schools will have been prepared to teach investigative, hands-on science to their students. Non-NSF cost sharing is approximately 27.9% of the amount requested from NSF.
"The Connecticut Museum Collaborative for Science Education" is teacher enhancement program that will serve approximately 5,000 middle school teachers (and their students) from throughout Connecticut over a three-year program period. The proposed program has been developed cooperatively by four of Connecticut's Science Museums and Centers (The Discovery Museum, The Maritime Center at Norwalk, Mystic Marinelife Aquarium, and Talcott Mountain Science Center), in consultation with the school districts they serve and the Connecticut Academy for Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology, the State's leadership organization solely devoted to enhancing education in mathematics, science, and technology. The Collaborative seeks to enliven and enhance the teaching of science, mathematics, and technology by drawing upon the resources of Connecticut's science-rich institutions and related businesses and industry. The proposed project will provide direct services to a core group of 72 middle school teachers and their students in eight urban and suburban school districts at the four participating museums and in their classrooms, as well as teacher training, curriculum development, and networking activities. Larger numbers of teachers and their students will be served through a planned series of interactive video teleconferences. A theme-based approach will be followed in which the unifying theme of "Earth Resource Monitoring" will serve to connect the activities at the four cooperating museums. The central concept of the project is collaboration among museums throughout the state to provide a bridge between science-rich institutions and the schools for teacher enhancement, curriculum improvement, and student enrichment. Special program components involve the participation of business and industry through "Video Field Trips", and parents through a "Family Science" activity. The involvement of the Connecticut Academy for Education in Mathematics, Science and Technolo gy as a member of the "Connecticut Collaborative" provides a direct link for integration of project activities into Connecticut's NSF-funded Statewide Systemic Initiative.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, in collaboration with the Association of Science-Technology Centers and several science centers, has requested $837,958 in NSF support of a project to make science museums more accessible to minority groups. In the project, AAAS and ASTC propose to provide technical assistance and staff training to science museums on equity issues, with emphases on institutional self- assessment, developing effective science education programs reaching minority audiences, and working effectively with community organizations and other institutions serving minority groups. Several museum sites will be involved initially in the development of the four program components: 1. development of guidelines for an equity self-assessment in museums; 2. science equity training for all museum staff; 3. the development of relationships between museums and community groups and schools and colleges and universities that serve minorities; and 4. a national effort to create awareness among minority groups of employment opportunities in science museums. Additional dissemination will be provided through training workshops and sessions at museum conferences. A "how-to" guide and video will be developed for museums on conducting an equity self-assessment.