In 1994, the Exploratorium launched the Framework project, a model initiative to demonstrate the vital role science museum exhibits could play in supporting science education reform. This publication offers an overview of the Framework project and discusses its assumptions, challenges, questions, and diverse perspectives. It is intended to help expand the dialogue about science education reform and how informal science museums and science centers can play an appropriate and productive role.
How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice provides a broad overview of research on learners and learning and on teachers and teaching. It expands on the 1999 National Research Council publication How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, Expanded Edition that analyzed the science of learning in infants, educators, experts, and more. In How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, the Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice asks how the insights from research can be incorporated into classroom practice and suggests a research and development agenda that
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TEAM MEMBERS:
M. Suzanne DonovanJohn BransfordJames Pellegrino
Informal environments—or out-of-school-time (OST) settings—play an important role in promoting science learning for preK–12 students and beyond. The learning experiences delivered by parents, friends, and educators in informal environments can spark student interest in science and provide opportunities to broaden and deepen students’ engagement; reinforce scientific concepts and practices introduced during the school day; and promote an appreciation for and interest in the pursuit of science in school and in daily life. NSTA recommends strengthening informal learning opportunities for all preK
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National Science Teachers Association
Respected museum professional and consultant Kathleen McLean examines the shift towards a more participatory culture of display and exhibition in museums. She cites numerous examples from different types of museums and the approaches they have taken in trying to better understand their visitors and become more visitor-centered. She lays open the debate within the museum community about the traditional role of museums and the resistance that advocates of visitor research and evaluation face from more conservative thinking colleagues. Useful background reading for interactive exhibit designers.
In this article, Jay Rounds, director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, analyzes "meaning making" as a new approach to exhibits. Rounds helps clarify what "meaning making" means and identifies conctrete ways in which exhibits can be designed to stimulate and support visitors in their processes of meaning making.
In this article, Eugene Dillenburg, Lead Exhibit Designer at the Shedd Aquarium, examines how poetry is a powerful medium for making meaning, and suggests ways to make exhibits more meaningful as well. Dillenburg analyzes the elements of poetry, including words, imagery, theme and countertheme, and abstraction, and how they relate to label and exhibit design.
In this article, John Chiodo, Senior Associate, and Alissa Rupp, architect and exhibit designer, both for the Portico Group, explore six ways museums can enable visitors to extract meaning out of exhibits. The authors contend that exhibits designed specifically to support meaning making can help visitors find order, connections and compassion in their environment, which will allow museums to retain and even grow audiences.
In this article, Ted Ansbacher, museum consultant with Science Services, presents a model for experience-based learning, based on the ideas of John Dewey. Ansbacher also presents an interpretation of "meaning making" and implications for exhibit development based on this model.
In this article, Michael Spock, a Research Fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and consultant, presents a collection of stories about museums. These anecdotes shed light on what it takes to create really meaningful exhibits and why efforts so often come up short.
In this article, Alissa Rupp, architect and exhibit designer at The Portico Group, reveals the importance of integrating emotional connections into exhibit designs for children. Rupp explains how exhibits can elicit strong emotional connections as well as the value of these emotional experiences for children and families.
In this article, Katharine T. Corbett, formerly of the Missouri Historical Society, examines how visitor meaning making can be stimulated by exhibitry that explicitly addresses the social construction of history, using personal and familial history-making as a point of connection. The Missouri Historical Society's exhibition on the 1904 World's Fair presents an excellent example of how to successfully engage visitors in exploration of the past as it relates to their present.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katharine T. CorbettNational Association of Museum Exhibition
In this article, Elizabeth Bogle, president of Limn Studios, analyzes how glass plays a wide variety of roles in exhibit design, all of which involve important technical issues. Bogle presents flat glass basics to help designers select the appropriate glass for their needs.