The Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts is one of the world’s largest science centers and the most visited cultural institution in New England. Located in Science Park, a piece of land that spans the Charles River, the museum is conveniently situated close to Boston and Cambridge. The museum has more than 700 interactive exhibits and a number of live presentations offered daily. One of these daily shows include live animal presentations, where museum visitors can learn more about some of the many animals that the museum cares for in its live animal center. An evaluation of these live
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah RosenthalKristina OhlSadia Sehrish IslamMaría José Brito Páez
Millions of children visit zoos every year with parents or schools to encounter wildlife firsthand. Public conservation education is a requirement for membership in professional zoo associations. However, in recent years zoos have been criticized for failing to educate the public on conservation issues and related biological concepts, such as animal adaptation to habitats. I used matched pre- and postvisit mixed methods questionnaires to investigate the educational value of zoo visits for children aged 7–15 years. The questionnaires gathered qualitative data from these individuals, including
This review of literature summarizes findings from current research on the development of empathy in childhood, and implications for developing zoo and aquarium programs that can strengthen children's sense of empathy. Key practices include: intentional framing of conversations about animals, modeling empathy - and providing opportunities for children to practice it, offering opportunities for direct interaction with animals, building children's understanding of the similarities and differences between the needs of humans and of other animals, and activating children's imagination to help them
Three accredited zoos and aquariums in the Pacific Northwest are collaborating on a project aimed at developing tools to assess program effectiveness in encouraging children's empathy towards animals. This short briefing paper outlines the team's initial work to 1) gain a shared understanding and definition of the construct (empathy towards animals) and how it develops during childhood, and 2) review existing research on the link between empathy and beneficial action towards wildlife, and 3) summarize research findings on best practices towards encouraging empathy.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded an Informal Science Education (ISE) grant, since renamed Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) to a group of institutions led by two of the University of California, Davis’s centers: the Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) and the W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES). The purpose of the evaluation was to gather feedback from museum professionals and the general public about the proposed 3D visualization project and its related components. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the current understanding
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University of California, DavisSteven Yalowitz
This paper discusses a study that tracked the behavior of 350 visitors to the Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House at Lincoln Park Zoo over a 12-month period. Findings relate to visit durations, including children vs. adults as well as visitors' responses to interpretive graphics. This data adds to the growing literature on visitor behavior in zoological parks and have helped to guide several aspects of exhibit design for Lincoln Park Zoo's new ape facility.
This paper presents the methodology and findings of the formative and summative evaluation of the "Kongo Ranger Station" interactive interpretive displayed located in the new "Africa Rain Forest" exhibit at the Metro Washington Park Zoo. This display focuses on conservation, natural history and cultural issues in West and Central Africa.
The focus of this summative evaluation report is the Shark Encounter exhibit at Sea World of California, which opened in June 1992. The design concept was to display the largest collection of sharks in the world. Visitors are transported to the "tropics" to view sharks from above, and then venture into the sharks' environment as they travel through an acrylic tube placed on the bottom of the habitat. The goal of the evaluation was to determine the overall effectiveness, or success, of the exhibit
This is a brief summary of Barbara Birney's 1988 article featured in "Environment and Behavior," which discussed key findings from the formative evaluation of Brookfield Zoo's "Flying Walk" exhibit. The exhibit was designed to teach visitors the proper wing movement of birds.
In this article, Barbara A. Birney of Interpretive Planning in Nuce discusses findings from a 1988 study of 12-year-old children's perceptions of their social experience in musuems and zoos. Birney found that children associated visiting museums and zoos with their parents with a lack of control over their own learning experience.
In this article, researchers at University of Florida present a report of a preliminary study that examined the effects of multispecies exhibits in zoological parks on visitor attention and possible interactions between factors identified as affecting visitor behavior. The study was carried out at the Jacksonville Zoo.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John Scott FosterJohn J. Koran, Jr.Mary Lou KoranSteven StarkAnn BlackwoodHarriet Landers