This paper describes the Visitor Evaluation Program developed jointly by the Centre de Recherche Evaluation Social des Technologies (CREST) in Montreal (Bernard Schiele) and the CNRS in Paris (Jacqueline Eidelman). The purpose of the program is to ensure the successful installation of the future Galerie de l'Evolution at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The evaluation program is based on the application of principles and methods used in contemporary evaluation processes. This paper provides a brief description of the Galerie de l'Evolution project, the major stages of the
The American Museum of Natural History and the Environmental Defense Fund will produce a major exhibition on global warming. The prospect of global warming is viewed by many with increasing attention and concern, but conflicting reports have resulted in public confusion about predictions of climate change. Thus, a need exists for education on this timely subject, particularly in the direct and vivid way that only an exhibition provides. Wide-spread awareness of the significance of potential climate change will lead to making informed decisions and taking necessary actions regarding this complex and serious problem. Visitors will learn about the forces that drive climate change, the sources and properties of greenhouse gases, how scientists study climate, and debates on the accuracy of global warming predictions. The exhibition will also focus on potential environmental, social, and economic consequences of global warming and what choices individuals and nations can make to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Visitors will be able to explore these topics in depth and integrate the information with personal experience. The exhibition will present scientific data objectively, clearly distinguishing between what is known and what is predicted. The American Museum and EDF will produce scientific symposia, educational programs, and publications for greater outreach to general visitors, schools and the media. Consultants will monitor and evaluate the content and design, from planning through fabrication and display, to ensure the educational effectiveness of the exhibition.
The Science Museum of Minnesota plans to design, construct and circulate a five-thousand square-foot multidisciplinary exhibit whose purpose is to stimulate public interest in Antarctica and to increase understanding on the continent--its physical history, characteristics and geographies, and the approaches and tools that scientists use to help decipher and understand it. Because of the importance of Antarctica in relation to global environmental systems the exhibit will explore the physical connections between the continent and the rest of the world, as well as some of the scientific, political and economic issues and choices that will affect its future and ours as well. The exhibit will contain traditional displays of geological, biological and other museums specimens, historical and contemporary photographs, models, dioramas and descriptive text, as well as interactive displays and video. The museum will develop the exhibit in association with the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative, among whose eight members the exhibit will circulate beginning in the spring of 1991.
The Staten Island Children's Museum requests support for an interactive exhibition for children on the topic of water. WATER WATER EVERYWHERE will open in April 1991 and remain on view for three years; a smaller replica of the exhibition will be ready to travel in the Spring of 1992. The first year will allow an initial evaluation period during which both design and content can be improved. The exhibition has dual goals: to provide family audiences, focusing on children, with the materials and context that encourage experimentation and learning, and to educate visitors about an essential and widespread constituent of our world. WATER will present different aspects of this varied subject in six sections: the many forms of water in our world; the properties of water; how living things use water; how water works for us; experiments with water and local water issues. The exhibition will engage children imaginatively, inform, provide opportunities to experiment and learn, and stimulate creativity. Museum public programs and activities will be offered in conjunction with WATER to both extend and enrich the project. WATER will contribute to both children's and inter- generational learning. Its desired outcomes include further development of the Museum's critical thinking skills program, expansion of our renewed Informal Science Education Program, extension of our community service programs and heightening our participation in community issues, such as the environment, through the ecological aspect of the exhibition. By touring the exhibition and producing educational materials based on WATER, the Museum will extend its impact in learning skills, science education and environmental awareness to a scale that is potentially national.
In spring of 1992, Scripps Institution of Oceanography will open a new Aquarium-Museum. The enlarges facility will include a 3700 sq. ft. gallery, the Scripps Hall of Oceanography. Funding is requested for a new exhibit in this gallery, Exploring the Blue Planet, which will offer visitors an overview of the ocean sciences -- to our knowledge, the only major exhibit on oceanography in the United States. The exhibit first introduces visitors to our water planet, followed by a walk through the history of oceanographic research. Visitors are then invited to explore the ocean world as if they were oceanographers themselves, making discoveries as they follow the theme of "water" through the hall, adding components one-by-one to build a global system: first water alone (water chemistry and movements), then adding air (climate and weather), next adding land (seafloor spreading and plate tectonics), and finally adding life (adaptations of organisms to the marine environment). Through interactive exhibits on scientific concepts, coupled with exhibits on related Scripps research projects, visitors gain an appreciation for the process of science and its application to their everyday lives. The conclusion of Exploring the Blue Planet brings together the four realms of water, air, land and life to emphasize the nature of Earth as an interrelated global system. Visitors learn that oceanography, an interdisciplinary science that is global in scale and often international in practice, lends itself to a balanced and comprehensive investigation of global change and our future on earth.