In the title of this very brief article, Marilyn Hood, of Hood Associates, poses the question "Can aquariums, zoos and museums use TV to educate?" and then goes on to cite a Ohio State University study. The study found that high school students may retain information from watching TV as well as they do from listening to a classroom lecture.
In this brief article, Pete Conroy, Curator of Natural History at the Anniston Museum of Natural History, discusses his tactics for successfully grabbing the attention of kids during his wildlife lectures. He uses distasteful potty humor to make his presentations more effective.
In this article, Pete Conroy, Curator of Natural History at the Anniston Museum of Natural History (Anniston, AL), summarizes an article written by George Weiner (Supervisory Exhibits Editor at the Smithsonian) in 1963 about writing exhibit labels.
In this article, Gary Clarke, Director of the Topeka Zoo, describes the opening of Gorilla Encounter, a fascinating gorilla exhibit. Clarke's account of the opening day is important because of the successful planning that made standing in line almost a pleasant experience for visitors.
In this article, Steve Bitgood, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Jacksonville State University, presents general principles that can be used to guide exhibit designers, facility planners, and decision-makers of exhibit-type facilities. Bitgood offers two principles of visitor behavior that deal with physical qualities of the exhibit object or spieces.
Six museum education and learning researchers discuss the need to study how people learn and behave in museums and what kind of current research studies should be undertaken. Mary Ellen Munley, in "Back to the Future: A Call for Coordinated Research Programs in Museums," describes the differences between the terms "evaluation,""audience research," and "education research" and recommends establishing major systematic programs of museum-based research that are similar to ones initiated in the 1920s and 1930s. In "Educational Exhibitions: Some Areas for Controlled Research," C. G. Screven
Millions of people visit science museums every year (Kimche, 1978; Koran & Dierking-Shafter, 1982). Accordingly, a great deal has been written in the last few years about hte value of out-of-school learning experiences, museum experiences in particular, for enhancing scientific literacy (c.f. Kimche, 1978; Koran & Baker, 1978; Tressel, 1980; Falk, 1982a). In this paper, [the authors] will discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of museums as agents for science learning.