In this article, Marilyn G. Hood of Hood Associates discusses situations that affect and inhibit the institutional acceptance of audience research, including both the concept and findings from research projects. Hood argues that if institutions allow adequate time and resources, solicit input and develop support for use of the results and prepare staff to carry out implementation, than institutions are more likely to accept research results.
In this article, Stephen Bitgood, of Jacksonville State University, and Carey Tisdal, of the St. Louis Science Center, discusses the challenges of assessing visitor orientation. The authors provide an overview of a visitor orientation study at the St. Louis Science Center, including methods and key findings.
In this article, Stephen Bitgood, of Jacksonville State University, discusses evaluation efforts to assess people's understanding of evolution and to determine what type of messages might be most effective in communicating evolutionary theory. This article focuses on one aspect of their findings--the relationship between attitudes toward evolution/creation theories and the perception that evolution conflicts with Christian religions.
This article summarizes the various factors that can impede or compete with learning from exhibit labels. These impediments include novelty of surroundings, object satiation, competing sights and sounds, lack of orientation, and too much time and effort to get the message.
This article discusses the challenge of assessing the readability of labels. Two solutions to this problem are offered and briefly summarized: apply readability formulas to the text or obtain visitor input.
This article cites two ways one can approach designing labels in informal learning settings: tie learning style to label design or the Denver Art Museum Approach (bridge the gap between novices and experts and design labels that "make a human connection").
This article reviews how group variables (social interactions) play a role in museum learning as well as how exhibit variables influence group learning. Exhibit developers are encouraged to incorporate these findings into label development.
This article discusses memory processes: concepts for enhancing memory and types of memory. Studies cited relate to how memory processes influence visitor interaction with exhibit labels.
This paper discusses attention labels and differentiates between sensory orientation and motivational attention. Studies related to each aspect of attention are included to demonstrate how different variables influence each type of attention.
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
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Deborah PerryKarla NiehusScience Museum of Minnesota