In this message from the President of VSA, Ross J. Loomis introduces this issue of "Visitor Studies Today!" and discusses a few relevant topics including student involvement in visitor studies and VSA housekeeping items (conference, committee nominations).
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Ross Loomis
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this article, Ellen Giusti, exhibition evaluator at AMNH and the AAM Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation (CARE) Chair, discusses proceedings from the 1999 Annual AAM National Program Committee Meeting in Cleveland as well as plans for next meeting and updates on AAM organizational issues.
In this note from the editor of "Visitor Studies Today!", Kris Morrissey introduces the issue with an update on the annual VSA conference. Morrissey also discusses two new columns in the issue: one on thoughts and experiences with the processes or products of evaluation and one on technology.
The Exploratorium will develop an exhibit "Memory: A Biological Cognitive and Cultural Exploration" along with various complementary components. The primary objective of this project is to increase the public's awareness of the extent, importance, and nature of their everyday rememberings. Exploratorium staff will use an approach to memory, and cognition in general, that considers culture and cultural differences as essential to people's thinking and behavior. The exhibit area will be about 2000 sq ft in size and will consist of ten to twelve new activities and six revised interactive, interdisciplinary exhibits. Here visitors will have the opportunity to interact with the exhibits, researchers, scientists, artists, and other visitors, to explore the nature of memory and its effect on their lives. The exhibits will give visitors direct, experiential insight into the workings of their memories. Other major components of the project include multimedia presentations, printed materials, demonstrations, film programs and a symposium. A publication Memory and Perception will be a supplemental guide that can be used by teachers and students at the secondary level. It will address appropriate themes in the Science Framework for California Public Schools. Museum professionals, researchers, teachers, and evaluators will be invited to participate in a one- week symposium on Cognition in Science Centers. The purpose of the symposium is to develop a conceptual and practical model of what presenting cognition in an informal education setting means. A report will be published and broadly disseminated by professional museum organizations. It is estimated that the project will reach approximately 629,000 visitors annually which includes 69,000 students and 550 teachers.
WGBH is requesting $100,000 for a two-day conference for 75 outreach professionals from public television, museums and science-technology centers, and community-youth organizations. The conference will be developed in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The conference will provide professional development for outreach staff in key organizations that conduct local and national outreach project in informal and formal education. Participants will have the opportunity to: * learn how they can extend the impact of major outreach projects by establishing local coalitions that build on the strengths and resources of public television, science centers, youth-serving organizations, and other agencies focused on science education. * find out how outreach is carried out by organizations outside their fields of expertise in order to identify new approaches and strategies that they can adapt for their own projects, and * develop a plan of action for implementing an outreach initiative that takes advantage of the skills they have gained from the workshop and will benefit their communities. Beth Kirsch, Director of Educational Outreach for WGBH, will be PI. She will work closely with Judy Kass, Director of Outreach Programs at the AAAS, and Joan McIntosh, an independent consultant and trainer, to develop and manage the conference.
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Beth Kirsch
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The World Congress of Science Producers is an annual event of leading broadcasters and independent science producers from around the world. This year's congress is being planned and osted by WGBH. For this Congress, WBGH will add two new dimensions to the meeting: 1) involve working scientists in the meeting to increase the dialogue and contact between broadcast journalists and scientists, and 2) partially support attendance by individuals who are either are considering entering science journalism or are newly involved in the field. Sessions that include scientists include: an exploration of the most important science stories that journalists should be covering, an in-depth analysis of a specific science issue, a discussion of ethical issues related to genome research, legal issues related to science in the courts, an examination of coverage of science vs. pseudo-science, and visualization of science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Paula Apsell
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Science Learning, Inc. will plan and carryout a two day conference that will bring together researchers, practitioners and policy makers in an effort to seek to better understand the workings of the informal science education infrastructure. Being promoted as a seminal event for defining and understanding the role of informal science education infrastructure in facilitating public understanding of science, conference participants will better define and delineate the informal science education infrastructure, hear about studies examining the nature and function of the informal science education infrastructure, learn about research models in other fields that are related to this question, and look toward the future by proposing studies and approaches to understanding this infrastructure even better. This is an outgrowth of a projected ten-year research study conducted for LA's California Science Center looking at the impact of a major urban science center on its community. This conference will be held in association with the May, 1998 annual meting of the American Association of Museums. Participants will apply to attend; it is anticipated that approximately 100 individuals will be selected. The conference proceedings will be published and broadly dissemination after the conference. It will include the nine formal papers presented at the conference along with summaries of the small groups' sessions and conclusion. The James Irvine Foundation and the California Science Center will provide additional support for this conference.