In this article, Ethan Allen (Teachers Academy for Mathematics & Science in Chicago) describes two types of museum collaborations and how they improve visitor experience through different modes. Allen discusses the Chicago Museum Exhibitors Group (CMEG) and the Museum Partners of Chicago's Urban Systemic Initiative as two models of museum collaboration.
In December 2008, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in partnership with the New England Aquarium and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, hosted a summit of leaders from aquariums across North America and beyond. The intent was to empower aquarium professionals to elevate their collective focus on the relationship between climate change and the ocean, and to develop collaborative strategies for communicating climate change and inspiring solution-‐oriented actions among our institutions and audiences. The summit represented the birth of a community. The three‐day event succeeded in mobilizing 34
The Climate Interpretation Coalition is maturing beyond a set of discrete institutions to become a collective voice for communicating climate change and the ocean. As the three‐year funded NOAA program and the empowerment evaluation end, the question of how to build ongoing communities of support arises. The findings are based upon an interview‐based exploration of individuals who participated in the 2012 Baltimore summit and who represent a broad spectrum of engagement (highly engaged with creating the coalition through to limited engagement in a single summit). The interviews were nested
The overarching purpose of the Climate Literacy Zoo Education Network is to develop and evaluate a new approach to climate change education that connects zoo visitors to polar animals currently endangered by climate change, leveraging the associative and affective pathways known to dominate decision-making. Utilizing a polar theme, the partnership brings together a strong multidisciplinary team that includes the Chicago Zoological Society of Brookfield, IL, leading a geographically distributed consortium of nine partners: Columbus Zoo & Aquarium, OH; Como Zoo & Conservatory, St. Paul, MN; Indianapolis Zoo, IN; Louisville Zoological Garden, KY; Oregon Zoo, Portland, OR; Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, PA; Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, RI; Toledo Zoological Gardens, OH, and the organization Polar Bears International. The partnership leadership includes the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. The partnership is joined by experts in conservation psychology and an external advisory board. The primary stakeholders are the diverse 13 million annual visitors to the nine partner zoos. Additional stakeholders include zoo docents, interpreters and educators, as well as the partnership technical team in the fields of learning innovations, technological tools, research review and education practice. The core goals of the planning phase are to a) develop and extend the strong multidisciplinary partnership, b) conduct research needed to understand the preconceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and learning modes of zoo visitors regarding climate change; and c) identify and prototype innovative learning environments and tools. Internal and external evaluations will be conducted by Facet Innovations of Seattle, WA. Activities to achieve these goals include assessments and stakeholder workshops to inventory potential resources at zoos; surveys of zoo visitors to examine demographic, socioeconomic, and technology access parameters of zoo visitors and their existing opinions; and initial development and testing of participatory, experiential activities and technological tools to facilitate learning about the complex system principles underlying the climate system. The long-term vision centers on the development of a network of U.S. zoos, in partnership with climate change domain scientists, learning scientists, conservation psychologists, and other stakeholders, serving as a sustainable infrastructure to investigate strategies designed to foster changes in public attitudes, understandings, and behavior surrounding climate change.
This monograph has been created by the TEAMS (Traveling Exhibits At Museums of Science) Collaborative, a group of seven small U.S. science centers, to share experiences, observations, and lessons learned with the broader science museum field. Our intention is to help others who might be interested in forming a collaborative to work though some key issues, most of which have to do with the relationships between collaborative members, rather than more technical matters. We hope that this will provide a vision for others as to how collaboration among science centers can work. The monograph looks
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Charles TrautmannMark St. JohnDavid Goudy
The TEAMS Collaborative received three separate rounds of funding from the National Science Foundation; Inverness Research served as the external evaluator to the project for all three rounds of funding. This summative report details the return on NSF's long-term investment in the TEAMS Collaborative. It outlines the overall contributions of the project to participating museums, individual staff at those museums, and to the larger field of informal science education institutions. It also summarizes the ways in which the TEAMS Collaborative was able to effectively capitalize on NSF's investment
The Language of Conservation was a collaborative project between libraries, zoos, and poets nationwide to replicate a project originally undertaken by the Central Park Zoo. The project model built zoo, library, and poet-in-residence partnerships in five host cities: Brookfield, Illinois; Jacksonville, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and New Orleans, Louisiana. One aspect of the evaluation was to assess the collaborative process within each of the five partner sites, across the project as a whole, and with project leadership to determine the strengths and challenges of
The Language of Conservation was a collaborative project between libraries, zoos, and poets nationwide to replicate a project originally undertaken by the Central Park Zoo. The project model built zoo, library, and poet-in-residence partnerships in five host cities: Brookfield, Illinois; Jacksonville, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and New Orleans, Louisiana. It was anticipated that the zoo exhibits would result in positive outcomes for zoo visitors who encountered the poetry, including increasing the conservation thinking and language used after a visit and creating a
The Review of NISE Network Evaluation Findings: Years 1-5 seeks to investigate the work of the NISE Network since its inception in 2005 and provide an overarching summary of NISE Net Public Impacts evaluation efforts to the NISE Network and the broader ISE field. This Review is divided into six chapters, representing the following themes: Connecting ISE Professionals with Nano Informal Science Education; Connecting University-Affiliated Individuals with Nano Informal Science Education;Engaging the Public in Learning about Nano through NISE Network Educational Products;Engaging the Public with
Nanoscience is an emerging scientific field, and therefore an increasing amount of funding is flowing into nanoscience and nanotechnology research, including money from the federal government. Several studies of public understanding and public attitudes toward nanoscience have shown that most of the public is generally uninterested in and unmotivated to learn about nanoscale science and technology3. Because this emerging interdisciplinary field of science offers so much promise, and because it will have an increasing presence in everyday life, the NSF is committed to increasing public
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark St. JohnJenifer V. HelmsNanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) NetworkPam CastoriJudy HirabayashiLaurie LopezMichelle Phillips
This report highlights the findings from Inverness Research's summative study of the TEAMS III Collaborative. In particular, it highlights the lessons learned from a study to incorporate research on how to design exhibits that promote more effective conversations into the exhibit development process.
This white paper is the product of the CAISE Public Engagement with Science Inquiry Group. It describes how public engagement with science (PES) in the context of informal science education can provide opportunities for public awareness of and participation in science and technology. The term engagement is characterized by mutual learning by publics and scientists rather than a one-way transmission of knowledge from experts to publics.