Since 2005, the IMLS Office of Museum Services has funded research projects under the auspices of the National Leadership Grant program. These grants support projects that ‘raise the bar’ in museum research and practice. Funded projects have national impact and generate findings that, through broad dissemination, move the field forward. This project was funded in the program’s inaugural round. Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter: Working with Community Perceptions to Achieve Your Goals draws on the illuminating research conducted as part of the IMLS-funded study. Its findings provide useful
Museums are increasingly engaging with their communities in understanding and addressing the complex questions of our society. How is this effort manifested in museum practice, and what is the impact of this work? Our study attempted to explore the boundaries of these questions by reviewing and synthesizing reports on InformalScience.org. The work was part of the NSF-funded Building Informal Science Education project (BISE). We selected a small set of reports of projects that aligned with our definition of social issues as conditions that are harmful to society, complex and characterized by a
This report presents findings based on the largest and most international study of zoo and aquarium visitors ever conducted worldwide. The study used a pre- and post-visit repeated-measures survey design to evaluate biodiversity literacy - biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity - in zoo and aquarium visitors. In total, more than 6,000 visitors to 30 zoos and aquariums around the globe participated in the study. Appendix contains survey.
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World Association of Zoos and AquariumsAndrew MossEric JensenMarkus Gusset
Social science research into public understanding of animal cognition has tended toward a disciplinary focus with conceptual frameworks, questionnaires, concepts and categories that do not appear to align with the findings emerging from the scientific study of animal cognition. The goal of this paper is to present a framework that aligns the dimensions of these two disparate research fields to allow for better assessment of public perceptions of animal minds. The paper identifies different dimensions that have been categorized through the empirical study of animal cognition, as well as the
To find out if zoos and aquariums successfully promote conservation, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) formed strategic partnerships and undertook a three-year, nationwide study of the impacts of a visit to a zoo or aquarium. We found that going to AZA accredited zoos and aquariums in North America does have a measurable impact on the conservation attitudes and understanding of adult visitors.