Calflora is a web site you can use to learn about about plants that grow in the wild in California: both native plants and weeds. You can enter the common or scientific name of a plant to view an illustrated table of plants that match the name you entered. Click one of the plants in the table to learn a lot of detail about that plant, in particular, where it's been observed in California. You can also enter a place and get an illustrated list of the plants that grow "here". You define "here" by zip code, place name, or any of a number of other ways. Then click "Search for Plants" to get an illustrated list of plants.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHU), Archilochus colubris, are the most widely distributed of the 339 species of hummingbirds, occurring in all ten countries of North and Central America. They come frequently to nectar plants and backyard sugar water feeders and are easily observed. Nonetheless, many aspects of RTHU natural history are not well understood, so “Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project” has teamed with EarthTrek to allow citizen scientists to collect data about RTHU migration and nesting. Operation RubyThroat has been in operation since 1984 as a outreach initiative of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, South Carolina USA. The project is also affiliated with The GLOBE Program, through which K-12 teachers and students make hummingbird observations and submit data through the GLOBE Web site. Now, through EarthTrek, adult citizen scientists and independent students also can contribute important data to the overall Operation RubyThroat project. Principal Investigator for Operation RubyThroat is Bill Hilton Jr., an internationally known educator-naturalist recognized by Discover Magazine as one of the top ten citizen scientists. Each winter Bill takes groups of adult citizen scientists to Central America to help with hands-on studies of RTHU on their wintering grounds. These trips to Central America are coordinated through Holbrook Travel, one of EarthTrek's concept partners; while in the Neotropics participants continue to collect RTHU data to earn additional EarthTrek points through participation in Operation RubyThroat. To learn about these successes—or to find out how you can join Bill on one of his exciting trips in 2010 or beyond—please visit the Operation RubyThroat Web site. You may also wish to keep abreast of hummingbird activities and other natural history happenings by subscribing to "This Week at Hilton Pond," a regular series of award-winning photo essays written by Bill and available on line through the Hilton Pond Web site.
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Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
In this article, Jay Rounds, director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, analyzes "meaning making" as a new approach to exhibits. Rounds helps clarify what "meaning making" means and identifies conctrete ways in which exhibits can be designed to stimulate and support visitors in their processes of meaning making.
In this article, Eugene Dillenburg, Lead Exhibit Designer at the Shedd Aquarium, examines how poetry is a powerful medium for making meaning, and suggests ways to make exhibits more meaningful as well. Dillenburg analyzes the elements of poetry, including words, imagery, theme and countertheme, and abstraction, and how they relate to label and exhibit design.
In this article, John Chiodo, Senior Associate, and Alissa Rupp, architect and exhibit designer, both for the Portico Group, explore six ways museums can enable visitors to extract meaning out of exhibits. The authors contend that exhibits designed specifically to support meaning making can help visitors find order, connections and compassion in their environment, which will allow museums to retain and even grow audiences.
In this article, Ted Ansbacher, museum consultant with Science Services, presents a model for experience-based learning, based on the ideas of John Dewey. Ansbacher also presents an interpretation of "meaning making" and implications for exhibit development based on this model.
In this article, Michael Spock, a Research Fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and consultant, presents a collection of stories about museums. These anecdotes shed light on what it takes to create really meaningful exhibits and why efforts so often come up short.
In this article, Alissa Rupp, architect and exhibit designer at The Portico Group, reveals the importance of integrating emotional connections into exhibit designs for children. Rupp explains how exhibits can elicit strong emotional connections as well as the value of these emotional experiences for children and families.
In this article, Katharine T. Corbett, formerly of the Missouri Historical Society, examines how visitor meaning making can be stimulated by exhibitry that explicitly addresses the social construction of history, using personal and familial history-making as a point of connection. The Missouri Historical Society's exhibition on the 1904 World's Fair presents an excellent example of how to successfully engage visitors in exploration of the past as it relates to their present.
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Katharine T. CorbettNational Association of Museum Exhibition
In this article, Elizabeth Bogle, president of Limn Studios, analyzes how glass plays a wide variety of roles in exhibit design, all of which involve important technical issues. Bogle presents flat glass basics to help designers select the appropriate glass for their needs.
This report presents the findings from a study conducted by Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A), for the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM), Washington, DC. The study was designed to investigate how visitors respond to the display of the Museum's human remains collection. Specifically, the research objectives were to: determine visitors' motivation for visiting the Museum and their expectations of the Museum identify reactions to a range of specimens, including models, illustrations, wet specimens, skeletal specimens, fetuses, and plastinated specimens ascertain what aspects of the
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.National Museum of Health and Medicine
The Please Touch Museum is requesting $684,602 for the development of educational resource materials in science and mathematics for four-year old children, and training for their parents and teachers in Head Start and other daycare programs. This 44 month project will develop, test, and produce six materials-based science and math activity kits, science training workshops for parents and daycare educators, and related family materials and events. It will culminate in a national dissemination program to promote more effective preschool science and math education through materials- based science inquiry and increased professional relations between educators in youth museums and daycare centers.
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Marzy SykesRenee HenryTracey Prendergast