Nature-based playgrounds—known as playscapes—offer numerous opportunities for young children to learn about nature. In the current study, we focus on teacher talk on playscapes, namely to capture the spontaneous utterances teachers offer when engaging with young children during playscape visits. Two different playscapes were contrasted, both of which featured loose parts, native plants, and running water. The difference in playscape was whether it featured ecosystems: While the rural playscape had a natural forest and a wetland, the urban playscape had a man-made stream and a garden. Ten
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Heidi KloosCatherine MaltbieRhonda BrownVictoria Carr
Basing mainly on author's direct involvement in some science communication efforts in India, and other reports, this contribution depicts and analyses the present science communication/ popularization scenario in India. It tries to dispel a myth that rural people don't require or don’t crave for S&T information. It discusses need for science and technology communication, sustaining curiosity and creating role models. Citing cases of some natural, 'unnatural' and organized events, it recounts how S&T popularization efforts have fared during the past decade and a half. It's made possible using
Nowadays, India is experiencing a widespread diffusion of science communication activities. Public institutions, non-governmental organisations and a number of associations are busy spreading scientific knowledge not only via traditional media but also through specific forms of interaction with a varied public. This report aims to provide a historical overview of the diffusion of science communication in India, illustrating its current development and its future prospects.
This paper describes a complex process being undertaken by a major Canadian institution, the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature. The evaluation process is systematic, multi-faceted and demonstrates the fruitful interaction between evaluation and gallery development. The front-end phase is the focus of the paper. Discussion concentrates on the elements of the process which are unique to the Canadian experience, specifically the whole community aspect of this process (wherein input was from sources distant from the physical setting of the institution), and the mix of novel and "traditional"
In this article, Marilyn G. Hood of Hood Associates discusses a visitor study of the Holden Arboretum in rural Mentor, Ohio. The year-long study helped arboretum staff and trustees learn how the institution might more effectively serve its audience, which they suspected differ from season to season.
In this paper, Volker Kirchberg of the University of Lueneburg and Basica Research Institute analyses catchment areas to better understand museums' greater impacts. The author defines these areas as not only a function of distance of the the potential visitors' residence to the venue but also a function of socio-demographic structures of residential areas.