21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings

21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings Preconference Discussion January 9­13, 2012

Contents 2. Introductions 39. Bridging Gaps and Resolving Tensions 45. 21st Century Learning 70. Participants

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Welcome to the Forum! We are excited about seeing everyone in Washington, DC, February 12­15. The goal of this forum is to begin the conversation that we will have at the conference about 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings.

During the forum, we will begin to:

• • Introductions

by Bill Watson ­ Thursday, 5 January 2012, 04:04 PM

Get to know each other and our respective work Develop a shared understanding of problems we can help address in the world and for our visitors by leveraging our unique assets together

We will also communicate the brief assignments to be completed before the conference and clarify expectations for participants during and after the conference.

To begin, we'd like to ask each participant to briefly introduce yourself and your work, and tell us about an event, an object, a person, or experience that sparked your passion for science, nature, or natural history.

Thank you for being a part of the Conference ­ and welcome!

Bill Reply

Re: Introductions

by Lynda Kelly ­ Thursday, 5 January 2012, 11:54 PM

Hi Bill and thnx for the invite. I'm also very excited about the conference and keen to see how you use online tools pre­ and post­conference.

I am currently Manager Online, Editing and Audience Research at the Australian Museum, Sydney. In this role I oversee the management of the Museum's vast website and other programs such as social media, external websites and online content for exhibitions. I also look after the Museum's mobile strategy and projects, as well as generating digital content throughout our public spaces and online. The Museum has been conducting audience research for over 20 years now and I keep my hand in by supervising a range of projects in that area ­ undertaking research is still one of my main passions!

I live with three lovely teenagers (two of my own and one ring­in) plus a puppy. I'm absolutely passionate about social media and the web. I write a food blog(well, when i can that is!), manage the publicity for our local soccer club and spend quite a long time on Facebook impersonating a blobfish... I'm sitting here in the heat of summer writing this while you're all tucked up trying to stay warm!

Look forward to meeting everyone both virtually and F2F and thanks again for having me.

Lynda.

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Re: Introductions

by Teresa Randall ­ Friday, 6 January 2012, 12:38 PM

Howdy, Teresa, Director of Education for the Oklahoma City Zoo, here! I wear several obvious hats and some not­so­obvious hats. I manage educators who conduct conservation education classes (we taught about 34,000 students last year), manage graphics staff (our zoo spans 110 acres) who provide interpretive signage for visitors and also volunteers who helped make "connections" with vistiors (nearly a million of them last year). I recently have become very involved in developing educational messages and spaces for new exhibits and guest expereinces. I also provide zoo wide training on customer service and interpretive messaging (aka: Message in a Minute). Love my job!!

My parents were both educators as well; thus we didn't have money for fancy summer vacations. Instead we would take off for a state or national park and camp. My love of nature, animals, plants and all things outdoors stemmed from these family experiences. I feel fortunate to have been given such a gift!

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Re: Introductions

by Erica Kelly ­ Friday, 6 January 2012, 03:44 PM

Hi everyone. I am Exhibit Developer at the San Diego Natural History Museum, where we are in the thick of a long­term, phased project to realize a suite of core exhibitions interpreting the past, present, and future of the southern California/Baja California bioregion. At the moment we are hard at work on the “present and future” piece of the puzzle—an immersive trek from SoCal's shores through its coastal foothills, mountain forests, and deserts, illuminating how these unique habitats are being transformed around us as the region’s century­long development boom continues.

An early childhood visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco spawned my first and most enduring recurring dream. It was terrifying, and it was about­­no joke­­a polar bear. So the enrollment key for this forum freaked me out just a little bit, because apparently Bill has access to my childhood psyche and the reason it was probably inevitable that I should wind up working at a natural history museum trying to help visitors make sense of their experience.

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Re: Introductions

by Leah Melber ­ Friday, 6 January 2012, 04:17 PM

Hi everyone...

I'm Leah Melber, Director of Student and Teacher Programs at Lincoln Park Zoo... my team and I oversee all aspects of on and off­site programming for students pre­K through graduate school ... serving upwards of 115,000 students each year. This includes everything from self­guided field trips to intensive, multi­ contact projects focused on supporting student­led conservation research. Like many of you here, we are a research­based institution with a wide range of active conservation research initiatives so I also work closely with our scientific staff on public understanding of research initiatives with local, national and global scope. This includes everything from capital planning at my institution to serving on taxon advisory committees within AZA. Lastly, I try and guide my team toward reflective practice so we are constantly engaged in internal evaluation and program revision to maintain relevancy and keep striving for excellence despite the day to day challenges we all face!

My love of natural history started as small child in my Santa Monica backyard. Needless to say... you can only identify a spotted dove and Brewers Blackbird with your child­friendly Golden Guide so many times before you start wondering where to find all those other pretty birds (I was especially obsessed with tanagers). I started working in the Discovery Center at NHMLAC while still in college and have been

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involved with museums ever since.

Very much looking forward to our shared discussion!

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Re: Introductions

by Rafael Rosa ­ Saturday, 7 January 2012, 10:56 AM

Hello everyone: I’m Rafael Rosa, VP of Education at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its’ Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum – one of the longest museum names I have encountered. I have been with the institution since 1992 and have had 15 different titles in the Education Department in that time. I now oversee a team that is responsible for all educational programming (sans general floor interpretation) conducted by the institution. While we always connect our audiences with the Museum in some way, I am especially proud of the amount of our work that is done in the neighborhoods of Chicago. This includes programs conducted in schools, parks and community centers or anywhere else where we have a chance of connecting people with local nature. We are in the midst of a major website redesign as well as the development of new educational materials related to upcoming exhibits – both of which I hope can benefit from our discussions.

My interest in science was initially sparked by a fascination with the space program when I was a child. As to nature, I grew up in rural Kentucky so I took access to outdoor experiences for granted until I moved to Chicago. Now, my family (wife and two kids) and I spend a lot of time in parks and forest preserves as well as taking a two week camping road trip each summer to visit our wonderful National Parks.

While the cartoon avatar is pretty accurate, I'll upload an actual picture later!

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Re: Introductions

by Teresa Randall ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 10:38 AM

Rafael: I had the fortune of visiting the PNNM this past summer during the VSA conference. It is such an awesome place & has really cool graphics and interactives. Loved it!!

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Re: Introductions

by Rafael Rosa ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 09:33 AM

Thanks Teresa. I'm glad you enjoyed the visit. I've been with the museum a long time and its been interesting watching and being part of the changes since we opened our "new" building back in '99.

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Re: Introductions

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 06:35 PM

Hi Rafael,

I really enjoyed visiting PNNM. Have you done any evaluation on your bird sillouette song/identification key? If it works well, we'd like to something similar.

Ellen Ellen McCallie Carnegie Museum of Natural History Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Chris Norris ­ Saturday, 7 January 2012, 03:36 PM

Hi, everybody

I'm Chris Norris and I'm the Senior Collection Manager in Vertebrate Paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. I look after a collection of around 80,000 fossils, which include the type specimens for such iconic dinosaurs as Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Allosaurus, andBrontosaurus. Yale makes heavy use of its collections for undergraduate and graduate teaching, and it also has an outstanding K­12 education program, but we struggle to find an effective bridge between the two. It's a not uncommon problem for collections that have been primarily focused on research support, and one that I hope we'll be able to be able to begin to tackle through this meeting.

In addition to my job at Yale, I'm also the incoming president of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (www.spnhc.org), a professional organization for collections care specialists. SPNHC has a mandate to increase accessibility of natural history collections worldwide, so I'm hoping to be able to engage our Society's membership to support future activities in this area that might come out of this meeting.

When I was a child, my mother used to take me on an annual pilgrimage to the Natural History Museum in London. It was the depths of the 1970s and the Museum was dark, gloomy, and approached through a ceramic tiled tunnel that looked and smelt like a public convenience. Needless to say, I loved it. Not that things aren't much better today, but sights like the procession of huge sharks hanging from the ceiling of the fish gallery made an indelible impression on me.

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Re: Introductions

by Lori Mannel ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 06:48 PM

Hi Chris!

You did an amazing job on our MAP. Looking forward to seeing you again!

All the Best, Lori Mannel Show parent | Reply

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Re: Introductions

by John Falk ­ Sunday, 8 January 2012, 02:54 PM

Howdy, John here. I'm one of the advisers to this wonderful project. I'm a long­time observer of and sometimes participant in the activities of natural history museum, zoo, aquarium, environmental center and other such sites. Currently I'm a professor of free­choice science learning at Oregon State University (if you've never heard the term free­choice learning before, be sure to talk to me next month at the meeting).

As I know many, but not all of you know, I've spent the better part of the last 30+ years trying to understand why people visit places like natural history museums, zoos, aquariums, etc., what they do when they get there, and what they take away from such experiences once they leave.

My wife Lynn and I are happily ensconced in Corvallis, Oregon these days ­­ which is quite a lovely place to be. We have three grown children, all still living in Annapolis, Maryland, all of whom had their first child this past fall ­­ so after the meeting I'll be heading east of Washington for a few days to go visit my grandbabies.

I grew up in that over­sized suburb called L.A. and from my earliest memories loved nature. I found I could best pursue that love summers when I went to summer camp in the Malibu mountains ­­ which at that time was still quite wild ­­ dark, dark night skies, mountain lions, mule deer and lots and lots of cool bugs. Not sure everyone who knows me as a "museum" learning researcher knows that I did my undergraduate degree in zoology, have a masters in vertebrate natural history and a doctorate in terrestrial ecology. So one of the reason I'm really looking forward to this meeting is that it helps to bring me back to my roots.

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Re: Introductions

by Teresa Randall ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 10:35 AM

John: I am excited to meet you! I completed my Ph.D. this past May & utilzed one of the MIRP tools and assessed free­choice vs. formal learning experiences as realted to teen conservation attitudes at our zoo.

I am very intrigued by free­choice learning and how those concepts can help create awesome, meaningful visitor experiences!

Teresa Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Stacey Sekscienski ­ Sunday, 8 January 2012, 06:18 PM

Greetings!

My name is Stacey and I am the Curator of Reptiles, Amphibians, and Aquatics at the Oklahoma City Zoo. I oversee the day­to­day operations of an incredible living reptile, amphibian, fish, aquatic invertebrate, and marine mammal collection. While one of my top priorities is the health and welfare of these animals, I consistently challenge my team of animal care staff to look at exhibitry, graphics, and spaces from a visitor’s perspective and to routinely seek out ways to enhance our visitor’s experience. I love having the opportunity to work with other departments i.e. graphics and education. Together, we constantly exchange and act on ideas that lead to increased awareness and learning among our visitors.

After finishing up my fine arts degree, I had resolved myself to working as a visual artist, but decided to take an internship at an environmental facility. I have always had an appreciation of nature, but my passion for biology and the environment grew out of this immersive experience working and living with oodles of passionate and knowledgable people. Shortly after this internship, I had the opportunity to release a sea turtle, which I had head started, back into the ocean. This moment, among many, was a profound one, and created a deep committment within me that I could "make a difference" in the world. So, I set out to

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find a career in a setting where I could create these types of moments for people. It is in a natural history setting such as a zoo, that I feel, I am able to help develop experiences that are not only memorable for people but that also foster a greater understanding of nature in the process.

Looking forward to the conference and sharing ideas!

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Re: Introductions

by Mary Ann Steiner ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 08:23 AM

I’m Mary Ann Steiner. I’m the Director of a new Center for Lifelong Science Learning at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. I’m also the Curator for Public Engagement, which encompasses the programming on the public side of the house.

I am in a doctoral program at the University of Pittsburgh, Learning Sciences and Policy, studying with Kevin Crowley at UPCLOSE. In this program, I am looking at the mutual learning in the outreach efforts of scientific researchers (in particular robotics researchers) and the public they interact with.

At the museum we are developing strategies to support discourse and direct interaction with the tools and objects of science to our visitor experience.

I became most excited about museums when I began working at Science Museum of Minnesota, and realized that it was a more productive learning environment for me than any formal schooling I had experienced.

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Re: Introductions

by Kevin Crowley ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 09:02 AM

Hello everyone, I'm Kevin Crowley from the University of Pittsburgh. I'm on the learning sciences faculty and also direct the Center for Learning in Out­of­School Environments (UPCLOSE). UPCLOSE partners with informal learning organizations to conceptualize, design, and study out­of­school learning, particularly in science, art, and technology.

My research has often focused on object­based learning, natural history museums, and the ways that people move from everyday to scientific observations in places like museums or botanical gardens. I've also explored the role of early, intense interest in nature and science on children's eventual success in STEM pathways.

Most recently, as a William T. Grant Distinguished Fellow, I've been working one day a week on the staff of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History as part of the team that is founding their new Center for Lifelong Science Learning, which includes design of new visitor experiences and a learning research agenda.

I'm on the advisory board for this conference, and I'm very much looking forward to these discussions and to seeing everyone in DC in a few weeks.

K.

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Re: Introductions

by Grace Kimble ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 09:06 AM

Hi, Thanks very much for the invite.

My part­time role is a PhD student at the Institute of Education, London.

I am researching learning in natural history settings. After suveying 40 organisations who had offered activities to support the International Year of Biodiversity 2010 I identified the question:

Is there a benefit to primary school pupils when established methods of learning about natural science on a school trip (habitat exploration, live animal experiences and natural history specimen handling) are combined?

Data collection starts in Spring with the Royal Veterinary College, Camley Street Nature Park and AnimalMan.co.uk.

Inspiration: My family are Scottish so holidays were always to very remote locations!

To be honest, my passion for wild places settled down at the start of university, but was rekindled in the second year summer. I took part in a John Muir conservation project in the Picos De Europa mountains, north Spain....since I was studying Zoology I realised I had a lot to explain about the plants and animals that the group discovered along the journey! So that's pretty much where the subsequent roles (teacher, education manager and learning programme developer) arose....

I will be helping to record aspects of the Conference so if anyone has any examples of particularly effective write ups from other events then please let me know.

Looking forward to February!

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Re: Introductions

by Judy Diamond ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 11:21 AM

Hi! I’m Professor and Curator of Informal Science Education at the University of Nebraska State Museum. I arrived in Nebraska over 20 years ago via Lawrence Hall of Science, Exploratorium, and the San Diego Natural History Museum. It has been wonderful working in a university setting on informal science education. With our public television station, we recently completed a NOVA documentary on Antarctica and climate change. I am currently working in three areas: 1) a five­year outreach project on viruses and infectious disease, 2) exhibit development and learning research with Chia Shen, Margaret Evans, and Mike Horn on the tree of life, and 3) a book on the evolution and psychology of concealing coloration. I just returned from a month of field research in New Zealand where I study the social behavior of parrots.

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Re: Introductions

by Richard Kissel ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 11:32 AM

Greetings from Ithaca! I am a vertebrate paleontologist, writer, and artist interested in inquiry­based approaches to science education, as well as the history and nature of science. In addition to my role as Director of Teacher Programs at the Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth, I teach courses at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and online for Johns Hopkins University. I have also written several books for young readers and am a featured scientist online at NOVA's scienceNOW. Prior to my work at PRI, I served as an educator and primary scientific advisor for The Field Museum’s Evolving Planet, a 27,000­square­foot exhibition on life's long history.

As a child growing up in western Pennsylvania, the Dinosaur Hall at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History possessed the perfect blend of specimens and atmosphere. Rounding the corner from the grand Architecture Hall, which merely served as a gateway to the dinosaurs in my mind, the first peek of that great collection was presented: a hunched over Allosaurus that appeared to be creeping out of the hall, daring visitors to enter. Beyond the doorway, the hall opened and an amazing collection of massive skeletons was visible, all facing the visitor with their empty eyes and menacing jaws. From Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus to Tyrannosaurs and Allosaurus, all of the classic dinosaurs were present in that long, perfectly dark hall. I'll never know or be able to estimate the number of hours I spent in that wonderful space, but that skeleton parade made the person I am today.

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Re: Introductions

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 06:41 PM

Hi Richard,

I really enjoyed visiting the Museum of the Earth earlier this year. I went to graduate school at Cornell­­ before you all opened, is that possible?

I'm interested in your extinction theme that anchors your exhibition. It seemed compelling. Would you recommend it as a compelling (and scientifically important) approach to hooking people in? Do you have any lessons­learned that you could share?

Thanks, and come on back to Western PA. We'd love to have you visit the new Carnegie dino hall: Dinosaurs in Their Time.

Thanks, Ellen Ellen McCallie Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Richard Kissel ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 09:29 AM

Hi Ellen! The parent institution PRI was established some 75 years ago, but the Museum itself opened in 2003, so you might have indeed been here before we opened. Regarding the permanent gallery, I think "anchor" is the right word. Including the six mass extinctions in any walk through time is necessary, but having them as "repeated elements" carrying similar/identical designs is key. And numbering them, too!

Visitors actually get excited when they encounter the element ("Here's number four!"). So, they provide

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anchors and places for the visitor to stop and reflect, which is key when covering such a huge topic as life's four­billion­year history. When I was working on Evolving Planet in Chicago, we discovered the same phenomenon: visitors really latched onto the mass extinction stops, moreso than we could've imagined.

And it is critical to have the extinction stories within such exhibitions. Life's history has been shaped by extinction.

My family is still near Pittsburgh and I've seen the Carnegie's new display; it'll be fun to sit down and chat with you about it. I actually worked under Mary Dawson within the Section of Vertebrate Fossils for a number of years back in the nineties, and I worked with Dave Berman et al. at the Bromacker site in the early 2000s; I still have many friends there. In our on­display Fossil Prep Lab, we actually have a block of dinosaur bones on loan from CM that I picked up last fall! Small world...

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Re: Introductions by charles eldermire ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 11:33 AM

Hello and thanks for the invitation!

I'm Charles Eldermire from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where my title is Public Education Outreach Assoicate. What that means in reality is that I'm responsible for the public spaces of the Cornell Lab, including a small museum space with exhibits about birds, biodiversity, and technology, as well as an excellent ornithological art collection and a 230­ac preserve called Sapsucker Woods.

My time is split between developing and implementing programs and new exhibits for visitors, recruiting and cultivating volunteers to expand our capacity, and managing the ongoing conservation of Sapsucker Woods. I started working here five years ago after a decade as an itinerant field biologist and a Master's student studying behavioral ecology in birds at the University of Montana.

While I always recall having been interested in nature, my inclinations entering college were focused on the ecological economics rationale for conservation and a faith in how "rational" economic reasoning would ultimately save the world. Around my sophomore year I found myself thigh­deep in a pond seining for amphibians and something just clicked for me (it didn't hurt that I found my econ classes to be a bit, well, boring). I transitioned from pure science to science education about 7 years ago when I realized that part of my joy was in communicating about the interesting things happening in the natural world.

I'm looking forward to learning and sharing as part of this conference­­thanks!

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Re: Introductions

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 06:45 PM

Hi Charles,

I'm interested in your recommendations in terms of "visitor sourcing" data. As I recall, at one point you all had an exhibit area on sound and public contributions. Does it work? Do speciality amateurs or professionals visit enough that they could make a different in a bioacoustics effort? Can non­specialist visitors contribute to our understanding of bioacoustics?

Thanks, Ellen Ellen McCallie

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions by charles eldermire ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 02:06 PM

Hi Ellen­ We still have an area that focuses on our sound collections, gives a simplified interface for viewing and manipulating sounds, and explains the history of wildlife sound collection and the role of a varied set of (sometimes non­scientist/non­professional) contributors. However, there wasn't any explicit call to action to get individuals/visitors involved with that process during their visit or even a clear message that they should get involved after their visit (though we do have a yearly sound recording workshop taught in California).

So the message that non­specialists can contribute to bioacoustics is there, but it's not something we do with general public visitors.

On the other hand, programs like eBird (ebird.org) are used by some proportion of our visitors during and after visits to record their bird sightings, and that has been one part of why we're one of the most heavily "birded" destinations in the country (as measured through eBird checklist submissions). I know that the CAS are doing eBird counts with the public on their living roof as well, but I don't know what their participation is like...

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Re: Introductions

by Briana Pobiner ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 11:43 AM

Hi everyone, I'm looking forward to being part of this conference and to meeting you all ­ what a fascinating group of people from the introductions already!

I'm a paleoanthropologist and the educator for the Human Origins Program. I have a PhD in Anthropology and always thought I'd end up in a traditional academic/research/teaching/university job, but after I came to NMNH 6 years ago to help work on the Hall of Human Origins I got bitten by the public understanding of science bug and I haven't looked back. Now I'm continuing my science career, doing field and laboratory research in East Africa ­ focused mainly on the human diet (especially the origin and evolution of human carnivory), but have worked on topics as disparate as chimpanzee carnivory and human cannibalism in the Cook Islands ­ but I also manage all the Human Origins Program education and outreach activities. That includes public programs, website content, exhibition­based volunteer training, social media (Facebook and Twitter), answering public inquiries, etc. I'm the PI on a project recently funded by NSF about using human examples to teach evolution in AP Biology classes and I can't wait to get started. I absolutely love blending these two realms of my work; I like to say that I'm married to science, but having a long­term affair with education.

On a more personal level I gave birth to my first child 3 1/2 months ago (named Tobias Rex ­ yup, we have a baby T­rex!) and my shifting identity and experience as Toby's mom has been quite an adventure.

I wasn't particularly enamored with science/natural history for much of my life, but I found my calling in college thanks to a very inspiring professor. I still remember the moment I first excavated a fossil with butchery marks left by stone tools that early humans used ­­ to be the next person to touch something that someone not quite like me touched a million and a half years ago? To touch actual evidence of what someone ate so long ago? How eerie and amazing.

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Re: Introductions

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 06:47 PM

Hi Briana,

So it sounds like you got turned on to science and THEN liked natural history museums. Is there anything from your story/experience that we should consider more universally?

Thanks, Ellen Carnegie Museum of Natural History Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Briana Pobiner ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 02:20 PM

That's a good question, Ellen. A funny part of the story is that my first natural history museum experience was in the summer after my first year of college; I had written a letter to the AMNH asking if I could be a volunteer tour guide and ended up getting an internship that led me to my first fieldwork experience, and I fell in love with that aspect of science. Another funny part is that everyone told me I'd never get a job at a museum (as a scientist/curator) because there were just too few of them. No one, all through grad school, ever mentioned anything about science communication or museum education as far as a career. But I digress. I think it's important for people to see museums as a place where cutting­edge science is happening...

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Re: Introductions

by Maija Sedzielarz ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 11:45 AM

As Senior Program Developer at the Science Museum of Minnesota, I work on a variety of projects, but most of my experience has been with the school/teacher audience. Formative experiences were at the Science Museum, and then at Field Museum in Chicago, where I worked on developing new strategies to support teachers in object-based learning. Early on, art museums provided inspiration to help learners interact with untouchable natural history objects (“only ¼ inch of glass separates you from…”).

My immigrant dad’s enthusiasm for “wilderness” spurred me to seek out nature-based experiences, which are annually replenished with a mother-daughter retreat in the Boundary Waters area and camping with said daughter and two granddaughters. Marvelous opportunities for informal science experiences for us all!

All of this informs my latest project, Collectors’ Corner Neighborhood Trading Places, in two partner libraries. This is an extension of our trading area here at SMM, more object knowledge = more points. We have a family day coming up and I am very 12

interested in supporting shared family learning in the natural world (aka “your own backyard”).

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Re: Introductions

by Rhiannon Crain ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 11:57 AM

Howdy folks ­ I'm Rhiannon Crain, and like Charles and Richard, I'll be joining you from Ithaca. I'm currently housed at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as one of the sprinkling of social scientists decorating the Lab's tremendous efforts at conservation, research, and education.

I run http://yardmap.org, an 'in development' citizen science project designed to help people see the impact of their actions on habitat for birds. Participants zoom in on satellite images to construct maps of their own yard, including features such as lawn, native plants, or feeders. Scientists and participants alike can see how yards connect with one another into larger landscapes supporting birds and other wildlife— and share what they’ve learned about improving habitats at home and across communities. I am fascinated by this project because it toys with the line between virtual and real, forcing us to ask questions about the role of the digital in natural history learning, but also because it is a social platform for citizen science­­making it an excellent research tool for understanding how social networking and social networks contribute to science learning.

I've lived all over the West­­from North Dakota to Arizona ­­always falling in love with the geology of place; the fossils, the mountains, the ocean, the rivers, the canyons, rocks and fossils. I developed a soft spot for the complexities of science education while working at a science center in my early 20s though, and haven't looked back.

Really looking forward to meeting everyone!

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Re: Introductions

by Kaleen Povis ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 12:05 PM

Hi Everyone, It has been fun reading each of your introductions and sparks. Thank you for sharing.

I am Kaleen Povis, Graduate Research Fellow at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and a doctoral student in Kevin Crowley's UPCLOSE lab at the University of Pittsburgh. My work focuses on informal learning spaces and how exhibit design can facilitate learning. One project I am currently working on deals with observation skills by getting natural objects into the hands of visitors and cueing visitors to focus their senses to see what they can discover.

Sports were my introduction to nature. I remember catching crickets on the soccer field and slopping in the mud at a young age. Bike riding with my father usually involved stopping to hurl sticks up into trees to shake down pecans. Living in Seattle over the past two years, I watched the seasons change on the disc golf course and have never felt more in tune with one plot of land. Recently, my husband and I have joined a mushroom club which has opened my eyes and added a treasure hunting element to our hikes.

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Re: Introductions

by Christine Chandler ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 12:13 PM

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Hi all,

I'm looking forward to meet all of you really soon. I'm the Curator of Natural Science at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa. We're one of those holdovers from the post­Civil War science academy movement, founded in 1867. So, as you can imagine we have an eclectic collection with everything from invertebrate fossils to pressed plants. I also serve as the collection manager for the natural science collections, as well as an exhibit designer/coordinator, computer database manager, and painter and lighting technician when neccessary.

What can I say, I fell in love with dinosaurs at a very early age and was lucky enough to actually pursue my interest into adulthood. I've always been interested in the history of natural science museums as well, so it's not unusual to find a mix of natural science, history, and art in the exhibits I design. I love to use stories about the history of objects to connect them to our audience; that way, when I get to the science, it's not as "scary" (spoonful of sugar, you know). Of course, when it comes to dinosaurs, I don't have to worry about that I also teach a course in Collections Management at Western Illinois University. One of my favorite things is giving behind­the­scenes tours to incoming students and visitors. Since the Putnam's collection covers history and natural history, it's an eye­opener for many to actually see the size and scope of the collection.

On the lighter side, I have 2 cats that keep me sane, Sabrina & Tabbie. Tabbie likes to type, so don't be surprised if some of my responses end up a little messy.

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Re: Introductions

by Judy Tasse ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 02:01 PM

Hi Folks, My name is Judy Tasse. As Exhibit Developer at the National Zoological Park in Washington DC, I serve as project manager, team leader, content developer and writer for interpretive exhibits, from capital projects to renovations to one­off graphics. I coordinate the work among exhibit designers, graphic designers, curators, scientists, other educators and contractors (aka "herding cats") with the goal of communicating our message to our audience: the visitor.

Every job or career path I've taken has centered on animals to some degree (except maybe that high school job at the fast­food joint), whether as animal behavior researcher, natural history educator, or science writer. But my fascination for watching animals has always been a part of me. On school trips to the zoo, my friends would marvel at how I knew so much about the animals. What they didn't know was that I rushed to the exhibit before them and quickly read the signs!

I look forward to meeting everyone!

Judy Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions by charles eldermire ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 02:27 PM

Funny I've had the same experience as a young man becoming the instant expert through fast reading— reminds me of the old saw about staying one chapter ahead of the class when teaching a new course Show parent | Reply

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Re: Introductions

by Judy Tasse ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 02:53 PM

Ha, ha Charles! That was my mainstay when i was a TA! Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Leah Melber ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 12:06 PM

I MAY have been guilty of this too while a professor... ummm... allegedly... I admit nothing... ; ­ ) Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Leah Melber ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 12:07 PM

I MAY have been guilty of this too while a professor... ummm... allegedly... I admit nothing... ; ­ ) Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Maureen Flannery ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 02:16 PM

Hello all, I am Moe Flannery, Collections Manager of Ornithology and Mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. As Collections Manager, I care for over 140,000 bird and mammal specimens from around the world. Our bird collection, of over 98,000 specimens, has particular strengths in western North America, Mexico, Central America, the Galapagos, Solomon Islands, and Southeast Asia.

We are actively involved in the Marine Mammal Stranding Network and as such have built one of the world's largest marine mammal collections, including the largest collections of California Sea Lion and Southern Sea Otter specimens.

Research collections at the California Academy of Sciences are primarily available to researchers.

However, with the opening of our new building in 2008, we have tried to bridge the gap between research and our visitors through our publicly displayed Research Project Lab, a fully­functional lab on the main exhibit floor. As the staff member with primary responsibility for coordinating this lab, I am particularly interested in instituting new programs and methods of engaging the public in the Academy’s scientific research.

My passion for birds and mammals began with a cormormant. While on my lunch break from my job as a theater lighting technician, I first noticed the snakelike bird swimming in the Charles River in Boston.

Having never noticed such a bird, I signed up for birding classes and soon identified it as a Double­crested Cormorant. More than twenty years later I continue to be amazed and inspired by the natural world every time I go out in the field.

I look forward to this week's discussion and to meeting you all at the conference.

Moe Show parent | Reply

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Re: Introductions

by Richard Efthim ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 03:01 PM

Hello,

I'm Richard Efthim, and I am the "new" Manager of Professional Development and Exhibition Experiences at the National Museum of Natural History. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you at the conference.

Up until this summer, I had spent the past 30 years as the manager/program director for the museum's Naturalist Center, a public study center in natural history, with over 35,000 museum objects, 5,000 volume library, science equipment and trained staff available for group or individual learning experiences. What we/I have learned over that time, are the elements that make up the "learning ecosystem" of natural history museum scientists, that allows them to be such passionate learners and recreate many of those elements in a public learning facility. One aspect of that learning helped us to create a professional development program for teachers, called "Iwonder" that over the course of a year of training and mentoring, helps teachers master inquiry based teaching and essentially, begin to redesign their classroom and curriculum using those same ecosystem elements to help students be more passionate about learning science. While the Naturalist Center was closed for good in July of 2011, the museum is moving forward to create a new Education Center that will incorporate much of what was learned at the Naturalist Center and other successful learning venues to stimulate learning for the 7 million visitors to the museum as well as the millions who "visit" on line.

Living with a middle school science teacher/ outdoorsman probably had the biggest impact on my interest in science. My father always found some "teachable moment" in family activities like fishing and hiking, gardening, even cooking... Why just clean a fish, when you can do a mini dissection and learn what the fish was eating (good for figuring out the best bait the next time you went fishing). I have found myself following in those footsteps with my own, now grown, children who often share their own memories of fishing trips, nature walks, and other teachable moments I shared with them over the years.

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Introductions

by Robert Bixler ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 05:44 PM

Hi!

I am an associate professor in a Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) Department at Clemson University. For those of you who do not follow college football, Clemson University is in South Carolina. And, yes you can get, and I do have a PhD in PRTM. I grew up in Kentucky on eight wonderful acres of wooded land with a pond, and three creeks. My mother came from the hollers of eastern Kentucky and deeply knew the woods in a folkish sort of way. My father was a clinical psychologist and professor at UofL who got his PhD under Carl Rogers (humanistic/self directed psychology). It wasn't until early adulthood that I realized that other fathers don't routinely answer their children's questions with questions, and that other moms doesn't go outside to the edge of the woods and pick poke weed and spring beauties for the dinner salad. I was sent off most summers to a traditional residential summer camp within a large public park that had a nature center. By age 16, I was pretty sure I wanted to be an interpretive naturalist. I eventually became interested in people's relationship (or lack) to nature simply because my perceptions of nature were so different from many people I encountered who could talk non­stop about sports but seemed oblivious to the world around them.

Since 1992, I have been working in a research area that I have crudely labeled "environmental socialization". The work seeks to describe all the peripheral issues outside of and around education that are probably related to developing a ROBUST identity with nature. I observe people's lives as they move through different developmental stages and experiences. If I could draw one conclusion from all of these studies, it is that our work is much greater than our jobs. I depend heavily on leisure psychology and

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sociology to inform my work.

My natural history interests are birds, insects and mushrooms. I have been known to look up at the sky with a naked eye, and am a miserably bad flint knapper.

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Re: Introductions

by Rafael Rosa ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 09:50 AM

Robert: Whereabouts in Kentucky? Despite the name I too am originally from the Bluegrass State. I grew up south of Louisville and my mother spent her childhood in the hills of Eastern Kentucky.

I am intrigued by your work. Being at a museum devoted to nature and the environment that is located in the middle of the third largest city in the country presents certain challenges to us when we try to help people understand their connection to the nature around them.

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Re: Introductions

by Michael Horn ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 05:33 PM

Hi everyone, I'm Mike Horn from Chicago. I'm an assistant professor in computer science and the learning sciences at Northwestern University where I direct the Tangible Interaction Design and Learning (TIDAL) Lab. I've always been fascinated by museums, but my real interest was sparked when I collaborated with the Boston Museum of Science to create a computer programming and robotics exhibit as part of my dissertation research. I was fortunate to work with people in Boston who weren't afraid to throw unfinished prototypes on the museum floor. I learned a ton through the process of making hundreds of tweaks and changes to the exhibit over a year and a half and watching to see what happened.

I'm currently working with Judy Diamond, Margaret Evans, and Chia Shen on a project exploring new ways for visitors to learn about the tree of life.

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Re: Introductions

by Anne Burnett ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 06:03 PM

Hello, All­ I'm so looking forward to meeting you all in person.

I am the National Director of Programs for NatureBridge, a non­profit, multi­campus environmental and natural history provider that has introduced almost one million students to national parks through residential programs over the past 40 years. We serve a diverse group of over 40,000 students and teachers every year at our campuses in Yosemite, Olympic, Golden Gate, Prince William Forest, Channel Islands, and Santa Monica Mountains National Parks. K­College students typically spend five or fewer days at our campuses engaging in inquiry­based, field science investigations. www.NatureBridge.org Essentially, I direct all education efforts across our organization, linking education leaders on campuses

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with education initiatives, trends in science and natural history, and program opportunities upcoming. I heart my job...

I've been really fortunate to work in some incredibly inspiring places throughout my career in environmental and outdoor education. I can't pick one, so I'll supply a mini­montage of images that sets my nature nerd soul afire: Barranca Del Cobre with Tarahumaran kiddos teaching me what's not good to eat around the cliffs of the canyon, Nepali villagers greeting me with dalbat at 16,000 feet, Lahu Hill Tribe elders instructing me on how to calm a pappa pig shaking my students' stilted hut, Dineh teenagers telling me their family's stories deep inside Canyon del Muerto, a fifth grader identifying snowpack layers in a Yosemite winter wonderland... Ahh, all for "work," which I stumbled upon through play.

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Re: Introductions

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 06:09 PM

Hello Fellow Educators and Avid Explorers of Natural History!

I am Kirsten Rowell. I have been a research scientist for the past 12 years in the crossroads of conservation biology, Paleoecology, geochemistry, aquatic ecology, and fisheries. I recently, 3 months ago, took a position at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at University of Washington as a Curator of Malacology. I am very excited about the diversity of research and expertise that goes on in a museum setting, and equally exciting about how this research can help the public understand the importance of Natural History Knowledge in every day life, resource management, disease control, food security...

Over the past year I have been heavily involved with the Natural History Initiative. This was a series of four (week long) workshops that got people together from arts, academia, gradstudents, k­12 educators, museums, resource managers and funders to talk about the importance of NH in their fields, the obstacles and opportunities and the future of NH. One of the most interesting insights that I came away with is that NH education needs to boldly move into the 21st century.

I look forward to this conference and what spawns from it!

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Re: Introductions

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 06:10 PM

PS. I am not as young as I look.

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Re: Introductions

by Kirsten Ellenbogen ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 10:05 PM

Hi Kirsten, I'd love to read more about the Natural History Initiative you mentioned. Can send a URL for us to read more?

Kirsten Show parent | Reply

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Re: Introductions

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 01:38 PM

Yes, I would love to share about the Natural History Initiative. It is currently being hosted on the Natural History Network website ­http://naturalhistorynetwork.org/what­we­do/the­natural­history­initiative/. The NHI was a collaboration between Me, Josh Tewksbury, and Tom Fleischner. We received funding from NSF and University of Washington. The participant list for each workshop is listed on the website.

One of the coolest products that came from these workshops is a multimedia project called the Natural Histories Project ­http://histories.naturalhistorynetwork.org/ . This is a collection of broadside portraits and audio clips of the participants talking about Natural History, its importance (both personally and to society). I am currently looking for funding to see this project get turned into a traveling exhibit. I would love to hear thoughts on that.

There were over 60 outcomes/products/papers that transpired from these workshops. But one thing I have heard from the participants that was the most valuable and hard to measure was the personal inspiration and relationships/collaborations that were built during these week­long gatherings. ­k Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions by charles eldermire ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 02:12 PM

Ha! I went to Grad School with Josh but haven't caught up with him in some time...the Lamarck fish t­shirts he designed (picture a Darwin fish with LONG LONG legs & Lamarck's name in the middle) were always a conversation starter & I was bummed when mine finally gave out...

Design was something like these shirts on cafepress, but if i remember correctly, a more bulbous font and not­so­sharp lines... http://www.cafepress.com/lamarck Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 02:35 PM

Well Charles, you are in luck. I will bring one for you. We have an entire chest full in the basement. I can't tell you how sick of them I am!

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Re: Introductions

by Scott Sampson ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 01:25 AM

Hi folks. I'm a dinosaur paleontologist and science communicator. Formally, I serve as research curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and as a member of the board of trustees of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Informally, my driving passion is to help connect (or reconnect) kids to the natural world. Speaking of which . . .

When I was four or five years old, my mother took me to a pond in our local forest. She knew that the little

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body of water, known locally as "the frog pond," would be full of tadpoles, and it was. I wore tall rubber boots, but within moments of my arrival, they were full of water as I waded in amongst the thousands of tadpoles. Standing in the middle of that pond, water up near my waste, picking up handful after handful of squirming bits of life, with a huge smile plastered across my face, I felt a deep sense of unity with nature that I don't recall feeling before that event. Rachel Carson once noted that a deep sense of wonder, and an abiding love of nature, require two things: abundant experience outdoors, and an adult mentor to share it with. I was fortunate enough to have both.

Thanks very much for the invitation. I look forward to attending this event and getting to know everyone.

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Re: Introductions

by Anne Botman ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 01:40 AM

Hello from snowy Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

I'm Anne Botman and I am the head of Web Services at the Canadian Museum of Nature. I'm responsible for the museum's bilingual (English and French) web site and social media channels. I've been involved in multimedia and interactive development for the exhibitions and I also just got the go ahead to develop our first mobile app and mobile web site in the coming year.

As a museum, we are in a bit of a transition period at the moment. Our public exhibition building (an historic heritage building) reopened in 2010 after more than 6+ years of extensive renovations. We also welcomed a new president this past summer. As we shift gears from the major goal of getting the renovations done and adjusting to the new facility, we are now eagerly trying to determine how we can best excite and engage and expand our audiences.

As for myself, I've always been captivated by the natural world, but there are two things that really converted me. The first was canoeing. I learned at summer camp and have since been on many wilderness canoe trips. I love the slow pace, seeing the changing landscape and the animals all around.

The second was the cover photograph of my physical geography text book in grade 12. The photo was of Moraine Lake, in Alberta. I was so inspired by that book that I majored in geography and environmental studies in university. I was fortunate enough to visit Baniff National Park a few years back and I captured a photo of it. You can see it here.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone in February!

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Re: Introductions

by Kirsten Ellenbogen ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 02:05 AM

Hi I'm Kirsten Ellenbogen. I'm coming to the conference from the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), along with Maija Sedzielarz and Ed Fleming. We're a natural history museum and science center. Along with Collectors' Corner that Maija talked about, and the Maya exhibition that Ed will probably talk about, we're also working on a learning research project to redesign some of our paleontology exhibitions to encourage more adult­child conversation related to the nature of science. I work on another project with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to create an evaluation toolkit for citizen science projects. And I'm interested in comparing notes on a study we're doing on facilitating online learning experiences ­ where some of the most interesting conversations are around natural objects and nature.

I'm Senior Director for Lifelong Learning at SMM where I lead the departments responsible for evaluation and research, field trips, school outreach, and programming for adults, families, and youth. I began my museum career as a demonstrator at the Detroit Science Center in 1987 and have worked in informal science education environments and academic settings as an exhibit and program developer, evaluator, and researcher. I'm a co­principal investigator of the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science

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Education and past president of the Visitor Studies Association, an international network of professionals committed to understanding and enhancing visitor experience in informal learning settings through research, evaluation, and dialogue.

Growing up, my mother loved chemistry. Growing crystals was one of my favorite activities. And my mother was willing to get me all sorts of things to mix (and yes, sometimes explode). I can't seem to get those chemicals for my own kids these days!

I'm also an advisor on this exciting project, and looking forward to our conversations in DC. Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Nan Renner ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 03:50 AM

Hello!

I’m Nan Renner from the San Diego Natural History Museum, where I do learning research and evaluation. I’m fascinated by human perception and the processesby which we make meaning from experience.

At present, I’m working on a PhD in cognitive science at the University of California San Diego. In various ways, my university comrades and I explore the nature of embodied and situated cognition—in short, how we think by using our bodies and interacting with things.

As a child in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, I loved being among the cottonwoods, elms, and fruit trees in our yard. Camping in the West satisfied a primal need. No singular event sparked my interest in nature. It was more a feeling of fullness—sometimes a subtle delight, sometimes a dramatic thrill. My love of nature began with the aesthetic and grew deeper as I came to know more about the complexities of life and ecosystems.

I look forward to spending time together and learning from all of you.

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Re: Introductions

by Honor Gay ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 06:59 AM

Hello colleagues and happy new year!

I'm Honor Gay, Head of Learning at the Natural History Museum in London, and I'm attending the conference with Ailsa Barry, our Head of Interactive Media. We are delighted to be participating in the conference, it's a great opportunity for us to share challenges and successes, and to learn from all of you.

I'm responsible for learning strategy at the Museum, and my team develops and runs the learning programme ­ activites for school students, families,communities and adults. Our programme ­ and indeed our exhibitions, galleries and on line offer ­ focus on exposure to real science ­ over 300 scientists work at the Museum, and we consider their presence and knowledge one of our greatest learning assets.

Some challenges ­ we wrestle with planing for and recongising quality learning and have been working on a quality learning framework linked to competencies. Linked to quality, we are looking to develop more strategic academic partnerships with science education faculties so that we can understand our impact better. A big opportunity for us is the development of a new learning centre over the next five or so years, funding permitting.

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In terms of what sparked my career, I have just always loved nature, especially through gardening, and I guess that having studied botany and begun a career in scientific research, it has just carried on.

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Re: Introductions

by Jim Kisiel ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 10:40 AM

A belated hello to all. Jim Kisiel here, a professor of Science Education at California State University, Long Beach. The 'hats' I've worn prior to this position­­high school science teacher and Natural History Museum Education Coordinator (Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History)­­have definitely shaped my perspectives on learning and the role of museums in our educational infrastructure.

Much of my previous research has examined the intersection of formal and informal learning settings, both advantages and challenges. I'm also very interested in how families and adults use these facilities, and their perceived value and learning that they gain from interaction with these often historic institutions.

I look forward to an interesting forum!

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Re: Introductions

by Puja Dasari ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 01:54 PM

Hi all, I'm Puja Dasari; Digital Learning Manager here at the California Academy of Sciences. I'm charged with finding authentic ways of connecting our mission of exploring, explaining and protecting the natural world with teaching digital literacy skills to high schoolers and middle schoolers. Currently, I'm working with a group of high schoolers who will be building a mobile app that will be part of our new earthquake exhibit that launches in May of this year.

I'll admit that my background is more tech focused. In a backwards story of sparking inspiration, I had a horrible experience in high school where our biology teacher thought it would be a wonderful learning opportunity for us to dissect live frogs (albeit paralyzed). I ran out of the room in tears and focused all my energy on the TEM in STEM. Years later I had an opportunity to start a "Junior MD" class for middle schooler­­teaching about how the body works and doing some pretty cool dissections and experiments, including letting them stick a straw in a set of calf lungs and breathing as though they were running to show what their lungs might looks like as they were physically active. I realized that even though I had been scarred by what I considered a traumatic experience, others still found science fun and engaging and inspiring and I was doing a disservice to the youth I worked with by shying away from my own fears. I am still pretty squeamish around dissections, but LOVE watching the face of fearless youth who knife into an eyeball or a heart with excitement in their eyes.

On a personal note, I live in San Francisco's East Bay with my husband and my adult tricycle, Betty. I love to spend my weekends at the farmers market (sometimes Betty joins me; less often my husband does).

A pleasure to meet you all virtually and I look forward to meeting you in person!

Cheers, Puja

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Re: Introductions

by Heejoon Richard Sears ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 03:45 PM

Aloha, My name is Heejoon Sears, I am an Environmental Educator and Curator of the Children's Garden at the University of Hawai`i Lyon Arboretum in Honolulu. I am very excited to participate in this seminar. Aside from instructing K­12 and students in Environmental Science, I maintain and curate the Children's Garden, which includes rare natives, ethnobotanical species, and an organic vegetable garden. I am also a prospective PhD candidate in Environmental Education, and I feel that the nature of this seminar is very timely and relevant to my studies.

Lyon is a relatively small organization, but we have many unique community resources for learning. The Lyon Arboretum's 194 acres are located in a tropical rainforest, with a waterfall, a stream, and many ancient and active Native Hawaiian bio­cultural areas on site. We also house the Hawaiian Rare Plant Program's Micropropagation Lab, which keeps tissue cultures of many of Hawai`i's rare and endangered plants.

My father was an avid hiker growing up, and when I was about four years old, we were living in Indonesia at the time, we went on a rainforest hike. Our guide was leading us to see a group of orangutans. I vividly recall the huge centipedes, the towering canopy trees, and the image of tiger paw prints in the mud. That memory has stayed with me ever since, and I believe it is that experience that has led me to where I am today. It awoke in me a sense of awe and inspiration, and an awareness about the necessity to protect these sacred natural ecosystems and organisms. It has been a lifelong journey to learn more about nature and to share that knowledge and inspiration!

I look forward to meeting all of you in person. Mahalo!

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Re: Introductions

by Bronwyn Jones ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 07:40 PM

Hello Everyone,

I am very excited to attend the conference and meet so many people who work in the same field as I do.

We feel honored to have been chosen to participate in the conference. I am the manager at the Alaska Museum of Natural History. The Museum is a growing non­profit which focuses on science education in Alaska. We have a very small staff which makes for an interesting job description. My job involves designing, creating and building exhibits while working closely with our large collections. Leading tours and teaching school groups about Natural History topics. Researching, and writing text for the museum exhibits. Interacting with staff, board members, museum clients, and contractors and assisting in grant writing. I really enjoy every aspect of my position at the museum. I grew up in Central New York and have always been fascinated by the natural world and how human civilizations have affected it. This fascination led to me studying Anthropology and Environmental Science in college. After college I traveled to Alaska, for an Environmental Education position. That job let me work closely with the Alaska Museum of Natural History and it eventually led into a full time position at the Museum. When I’m not at work I enjoy exploring all that Alaska’s hiking and skiing trails have to offer with my dog Atticus, and I play the banjo in a local bluegrass band. Looking forward to February! ­Bronwyn Jones Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Katey Ahmann ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 09:49 AM

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Hi everyone, Sorry to be so late in logging in! My name is Katey Ahmann and I am the Deputy Director of Education at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. We have been very busy here the past few months preparing for the opening of a new wing to our museum called the Nature Research Center (NRC).The mission of the NRC is to engage the public in understanding the scientific research that affects their daily lives. Our goal is for Museum visitors to receive interactive exposure to research being conducted by Museum scientists and scientists from partnering government agencies, universities, international organizations, corporations, and private foundations. The new wing houses five research laboratories (Genetics & Microbiology Laboratory, Biodiversity & Earth Observation Laboratory, Paleontology & Geology Laboratory, Space Observation Laboratory, and Instrumentation Laboratory) in which we will have research scientists working while visitors observe “science in action.”

Adjacent to the research laboratories will be public investigation labs in which visitors participate in hands-on scientific exercises. As part of my job, I will be overseeing the staff running these program areas. I am very happy to be coming to this conference because this is a time of big changes at our institution and is a great time to step back and consider new perspectives about ways of communicating science and reaching out to the public.

As far as what sparked my interest in science … I think it came from my parents and family being very excited about nature - we would often go out hiking as a family. Also, when I was growing up we always had pets and I was in 4H ... so being around animals was a big part of my childhood.

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Re: Introductions

by Steve Yalowitz ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 10:31 AM

Hello everyone,

I'm Steven Yalowitz, an audience researcher and evaluator at the Institute for Learning Innovation, in the Annapolis Maryland area. I've evaluated and researched visitors and the visitor experience in natural history museums for 20 years. My first evaluation "job" was as an intern at the National Museum of Natural History in Madrid, Spain and I've done work at or with quite a few natural history museums. I was also audience research manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for seven years. I have done a good bit of work in evaluation of environmental education experiences and also bilingual (Spanish/English) visitor experiences.

My interest in science, nature and natural history comes in large part from growing up in the DC area and going to museums, especially NMNH, and spending a lot of time outdoors at a lake in western Maryland.

That interest has continued, now in part by having some of the same experiences with my young children.

Steve Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Emlyn Koster ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 12:48 PM

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Greetings everyone, I’m Emlyn Koster who together with Steve Yalowitz is representing the MD­based Institute for Learning Innovation.

My early immersion in nature was with the coastal landforms and wildlife of the Hampshire, UK, part of the English Channel: this stimulating “backyard” forged my early interests in geomorphology and geology.

These continued as my undergraduate subjects at the University of Sheffield, UK, and then at the University of Ottawa, Canada, where fieldwork for a doctoral thesis was in the UNESCO­designated Kluane National Park, next to Alaska, to understand the redistribution of sediments by powerful rivers as a mountainous region warms from a glacial climate. Subsequent fieldwork programs took me to the UNESCO­designated Dinosaur Provincial Park of southern Alberta and to the Gobi Desert across northern China to study dinosaur­rich Late Cretaceous strata.

Driven by concerns about the prevalent gap between citizens and science, I switched my passions from geological research to the greater potential of the museum sector to illuminate the past, present and future and therefore become a greater force for good in societal improvement and environmental stewardship contexts. Appointments at the helm of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Ontario Science Centre and Liberty Science Center followed.

Building on my passion to probe and advocate for greater external relevance of the museum field, my latest publications focus on the evolution of purpose in science museums and science centers and on the possible renaming of the current geological epoch as the Anthropocene to emphasize the immense human impact on Earth’s natural processes and resources since the Industrial Revolution. My newest volunteer appointments are the board of the Visitor Studies Association (www.visitorstudies.org) and the natural sciences advisory council of the Fetzer Institute (www.fetzer.org).

I commend Bill Watson for his vision that natural history settings have a much greater role to play as 21st century society hopefully succeeds in forging progress towards a more sustainable pathway.

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Re: Introductions

by David Catlin ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 03:11 PM

Hello, everyone. My name is Dave Catlin. I'll be coming to Washington from Springfield, Missouri, which is where I had been running a nature center 11 years ago when I responded to a job posting by the National Audubon Society that said "Location: Negotiable." Audubon had embarked on an ambitious program to develop new nature centers around the U.S., and they needed someone to help with the process. As Senior Director of Field Support for Centers, I now head a small team that serves as sort of "in­house consultants" to Audubon's 40­plus nature centers, providing advice, training, fundraising, evaluation, and­­my specialty­­start­up help. The central questions that drive my work are: How can we inspire people to care about nature with such conviction that they will commit themselves to its stewardship? How can we reach people in urban areas, whose access to immersive experiences in nature may be limited?

And who's going to pay for all this?

I grew up in urban Detroit myself, back when there were fewer vacant lots there than today.

One of the experiences I remember most clearly and happily was being taken on a Detroit Audubon Society field trip by my Dad, when I was maybe eight or nine. I don't think it was his idea, but I will always be grateful for his humoring my whim. We went to Point Pelee National Park in Ontario at the height of the spring migration, and I saw a whole list of spectacular birds I'd never seen before: indigo bunting, scarlet tanager, ruby­throated hummingbird. In one capacity or another, I've been doing this sort of work ever since. I think that has made me pretty knowledgeable but sort of boring, so I really am looking forward to interacting with such a diverse set of people as are participating in this process and conference!

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Re: Introductions by martin weiss ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 03:53 PM

I seem to be a bit late but it is good to be here. I am Senior Scientist at the New York Hall of Science and have been devising and developing what I hope are enjoyable science rich exhibitions here since 1989. I was given enormous opportunities to develop exhibitions with a number of good colleagues. Of course, the less enjoyable part was applying for grants.

I began my science explorations as a very young, but frequent, visitor to the natural history museum in New York, was propelled by a biology teacher in junior high school, a microscope as a present and a fascination with the less enjoyable forms of life—parasites. I continued this enjoyment through my graduate studies.

At the Hall of Science my recent projects have been a) Charley and Kiwi An Evolutionary Adventure, which I developed with Margaret Evans, who did the research on children. In this exhibition we asked if an exhibition in an informal setting can act as a palliative to children’s natural creationist impulses. And the answer is yes it can. b) Wild Minds—What Animals Really Think which is about the relationship between animals’ cognitive abilities and ours; that there is not much difference except in degree. We talk more than they do. This traveling exhibition is a collaboration between a science center and their local zoo, c) Evolution & Health a five year outreach project about how aspects of our health can be understood through the lens of evolution.

A major interest is bringing an understanding of evolution to the public and pushing back the recent tide of “know nothingism” and fostering collaborations between different informal science settings on common programs, like evolution, from their particular perspective in order to help with the pushing.

Forgive the longwindedness. I warned you that we talk more than animals Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Randi Korn ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 04:53 PM

Hi all,

I've been reading everything all week long, thinking about expectations.

I am Randi Korn, and I have been studying museum visitors' experiences for quite some time, mostly from the perspective of conducting evaluations of exhibitions and programs. I agree with something Scott said a while back, people come to see the stuff­­the real thing­­the stuff that they can't see in person anywhere else. As I read everyone thoughts, I wonder how much museums have shaped visitors' expectations. Visitors (frequent ones, anyway) learn to expect what museums offer; for example, over time, people have come to expect temporary exhibits, fantastic objects and specimens, content, etc. While some visitors may come with pre­determined ideas of what they would like from a visit, our studies show those folks are in the minority. By in large, most are coiming with their eyes wide open, curious to experience something new.

Technology: our studies show that technology, whether a computer or a smartphone, is not a high priority for visitors. Upon reflection, I realized this made a great deal of sense, as most visitors already have that in their lives and they may not look to museums for more of the same. We have also learned that most prefer label text (this is when I started to realize that we have trained them to expect labels with text­­so asking them about their preferences seems like the wrong question).

So, I am curious to hear whether others think we have trained our visitors to expect certain experiences.

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Re: Introductions

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by martin weiss ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 07:25 PM

Randy I am going to make some guesses: dinosaurs in natural history museums; dolphins in aquariums; monkeys in zoos; something on electricity in a science center. Not very exciting. But from my experience the important issues for visitors are: the real thing is very important (I recall the awe visitors to the Hall of Science expressed when we were able to show HIV with an electron microscope in the 90's when HIV was rampant or when I overheard visitors discussing Lucy's skeleton) or visitors seeing cosmic rays in real time with a cloud chamber (now renamed cosmic ray detector after someone asked where is the cloud?); and clear and accurate information about issues in science.

If we have trained them to expect this from us then we deserve a pat on the back and should continue.

I am interested in your work about smart phones as it seems all I seem to hear about are apps for this and that for visitors.

Martin Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Maija Sedzielarz ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 11:37 AM

Back in the 1980s when I was at the Field Museum, there was much discussion about “natural history”. What does this mean to our visitors (and maybe more importantly, to our non-visitors!)? The Field eventually dropped this term from their name. At SMM, we also consider what message our name sends – are we communicating the nature of science to our audiences? Does the term Science or the term Museum sound daunting, unfamiliar, intimidating to people? Not to take this too far into this tangent, but I do think it has a lot to do what expectations and what assumptions we might be making about our visitors’ motivations (something alluded to in several posts). I am uncomfortable with making assumptions without evidence, especially about those who do not utilize our resources.

Are visitor expectations more affected by the reputation or previous experiences with our particular institution, rather than as anatural history or science museum?

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Re: Introductions

by Kerri Jackson ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 03:52 PM

Greetings everyone,

My name is Kerri Jackson and I am the education and outreach director for the Alaska Museum of Natural History. I am responsible for developing our school programs, scouting programs, summer activities, creating and maintaining partnerships with other science organizations and supervising our new outreach program. With our small staff, I am often involved in many other aspects of the Museum which means I get to do something new nearly every day!

I have loved science for as long as I can remember. When I was very little my grandpa had me look

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through a telescope and I was hooked. Originally I am from Wyoming and there is nothing like standing on the prairie looking up at the moon and stars with no lights around for miles. I have tried to pass on my love of science to my son and daughter, and I think it is working by the ooh’s and aah’s I heard as they looked at Jupiter for the first time through the new telescope we got for Christmas.

I am looking forward to attending the conference and meeting everyone.

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Re: Introductions

by Robert Petty ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 06:08 PM

Greetings from Montana, I am very please to be joining this exemplary group with my colleague Dave Catlin from the National Audubon Society. I have been working for Audubon for 14 years beginning at the state office here in Montana and for the past five years with the national Education and Centers department where I am the Director of Field Support for the Western States. Essentially I provide support to Audubon's network of nature centers west of the Mississippi River. Our education team works alongside our Policy and Science departments to conserve birds and their habitats. A of particular relevance to this project, that I have been working on during the past year has been an IMLS­funded collaborative planning grant that is exploring the question "What is the value of a nature center in a community. I've been digging into this question with three remarkable evaluation professionals from Virginia Tech, Ohio State, and Stanford. Preliminary findings have been interesting.

The spark of passion for the field of natural history was without question early ramblings with my father who was an ecology professor at Wabash College in Indiana where I grew up. I had the good fortune to tag along with him on many of his field trips and his work document and protect the remnant old growth deciduous forests in the state.

I look forward to meeting you all in person in a month.

Bob Petty Stevensville, Montana Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Carlyn Buckler ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 12:48 PM

Hello Bob ­ I hesitate saying this, as I believe I owe a number of people beverages now, but I'd love to buy you a beverage and talk to you about your research on nature centers. PRI and the Museum of the Earth has recently merged with our local Cayuga Nature Center, and we're doing a lot of work augmenting the existing programs and exhibits, and also thinking about the Center's role in the community (it's been around since 1930's). Looking forward to meeting you ­ Carlyn Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Alicia Borrego­Pierce ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 06:28 PM

Hello, My name is Alicia Borrego Pierce. I am the Deputy Director at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

My interest in museums and in natural history was sparked by my first field trip to the NM Museum of

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Natural History as a high school senior. It was that experience that sparked my passion for Natural History Museums and I began my career with the NM Museum of Natural History and Science in 1999 soon after I graduated from the University of NM. Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 07:09 PM

Hi all,

It's been great reading about all of you. Thanks, Bill et al, for putting this together so we aren't starting from scratch next month.

I'm Ellen. I serve as deputy director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, so I work with Mary Ann, Kevin, and Kaleen.

In terms of background, I'm a tropical ecologist by training. I worked primarily in Indonesia and Brazil in rainforests, secondary forests, and agroforestry systems. I switched over to science education when the National Science Foundation funded the Centers for Learning and Teaching. I participated in the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS), which allowed me to get a PhD in science education at King's College London. I had the priviledge of working with Honor Gay's team as part of my research on (scientific) argumentation in informal settings. Basically, I studied how scientists and publics made sense of controverisal issues like climate change and race­based medicine.

I've worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education, and on a TV show called Rough Science, so I find informal STEM education to be exciting, particularly in research­based organizations. I'm also on the board of the Visitor Studies Association with Kirsten Ellenbogen.

At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, we are reorienting how we work­­really trying to integrate science research into all of our education and exhibit offerings as well as public experiences into our research endeavors. We're doing this through Centers: Lifelong Science Learning, World Cultures, Biodiversity and Ecosystems, and among others.

In terms of early experiences with museums, my dad was in graduate school in Chicago when I was little.

My mom would pack my sister and me on the L (sp?) every Thursday and take us to one of the museums.

Thursday was free day. We'd take postcards and match them to art paintings. We wore out tiles in front of MS&I chicks. I still think every museum of natural history should have elephants in the front entrance. And, I spent hours watching the pink dolphin at the aquarium.

Can't wait to work more closely with you all. Ellen Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Karen Knutson ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 09:36 AM

Hi everybody, I'm Karen Knutson, Associate Director of UPCLOSE. A lot of my research has looked at how visitors converse during museum visits and how we might think about the ways in which these conversations reflect learning in the academic disciplines­­some recent work has been looking at art talk specifically. At the same time I am fascinated by the very personal ways in which people use museums to explore ideas and issues­­figuring out how to balance those two very different sides of the museum experience is a challenge! For the informal learning field I think it's important for us to come up with our own definitions of

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what counts as an authentic learning experience within our environments. (geez can you tell­­yesterday spent some time conversing with a school administrator about this!)

Anyhow, I work on a bunch of different projects­­one interesting one about NASA data in field trips with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one about family learning in different art museum settings, one called Building informal science education­­a project that is looking across numerous evaluations in the ISE field, and another one is about climate change and how museums can be a resource for other community groups­­this one is neat­how do you fit science information into a non­related activity and not fundamentally change its nature?

Finally i'm also working on a retrospective life history study of scientists, science educators, hobbyists and art related professionals (in the same job categories). You'll all be happy to hear that so many of these folks report an early and important interest in the discipline coming from their experience in informal learning organizations!

My personal interests: though I pretty much hated the school sciences, I've always been interested in nature and loved animals­­ and it's been only recently that I've connected my interests to science. It's been interesting to hear that many of our scientist interviews show the similar disconnect between nature and science! Does that reflect something of our institutional differences ­­the sci museum and the natural history museum?

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Re: Introductions

by Becky Menlove ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 12:39 PM

Hi all! Becky Menlove, here, from the Natural History Museum of Utah. I'm the Director of Exhibits and Public programs at NHMU, and having just opened our new museum in November, I'm all tuckered out. It will be a pleasure to participate in conversation with so many interesting and savvy folks and to re­ignite my passion for the work we do.

Some of my first encounters with natural history occurred in the halls of the biology building on the University of Utah campus, just a block from my house, where in glass cases jar upon jar of preserved animals were kept. They were kind of creepy, but on display as they were, they invited curiosity and the opportunity to create my own stories about them. I also learned to love museums in those days, spending hours in a tiny annex that was then the natural history museum and at the art museum then housed in the administration building. These spaces were as much my playground as the grassy expanses outside­­ where I could study strange and wonderful things and go on grand adventures in my imagination.

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Re: Introductions

by Carlyn Buckler ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 03:35 PM

Wow, this is really cool....

Hello Everyone. I'm Carlyn Buckler, Education Assoc. at the Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth. I am faculty at the Cooperstown Grad. Prog. in Museum Science, Adj. Prof. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, SUNY, Oneonta, I teach, have grad students in museum science, and in the off hours love dinner with friends, drinking local wine, teaching wine courses, and running. I was a research scientist in molecular biology and genetics ("male mediated birth defects"; great conversation over a beer) for a decade. When my husband and I came to Cornell, I saw a brand­new history museum had just opened; I took our 5 yr old for a visit. Walking through the Museum of the Earth I kept thinking, "Whoa ­ this place is fantastic! I wonder how I get in on this...?". Funny thing when you have a kid, you start thinking about science education in the US and that maybe more folks ought to get in there and change things. I started volunteering at the Museum writing grants for Education; we put my name on a few, they got funded, I dumped the idea of being a post doc the rest of my life, eight years later here I am­­

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and I could not be happier!

One thing that has been sticking in my head lately is the need to support more NHMs in becoming a primary resource in the public's mind for reliable information on science­related issues. When a natural disaster happens, a dam is proposed, questions about energy transitions or conservation arise, NHMs can and should play the role of providing credible science information in a timely manner, so that the public can make informed decisions. And part of that, too, is effectively communicating to the public about the process of science, and how we know what we know about past environments. Many venues do, to be sure, play this role very successfully. But I think there are things we might do to support more venues in this role; particularly those who may not have the resources or knowledge. With the advent of technology like Skype, social media, informalscience.org, etc. as well as this conference, now more than ever we are creating a great sense of community among ISE providers. I'm looking forward to talking about continuing that movement, strengthening the collaborations, talking about what the community needs, and what we can do to augment and share ideas and resources.

I'm also interested in about 30 things others have proposed. It's great to see so many familiar faces, and also many I've yet to meet. I'm really looking forward to this! (p.s. I was the hit of my kid's elementary school because I worked "At the Dinosaur Museum!". He's a teenager now, so not so much; but now I'm cool because I teach about evolution, genetics and climate change. Go figure, but I'll take that!) @font­face { font­family: " "; }@font­face { font­family: "Cambria Math"; }@font­face { font­family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font­size: 12pt; font­ family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font­family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; } Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Margaret Evans ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 04:04 PM

Apologies for this late posting (the beginning of the semester is really busy). I am a cognitive developmental psychologist --- an Associate Research Scientist at the University of Michigan and a teacher of research methods in the department of psychology. My research focuses on the development of children's and adults' understanding of the natural world, particularly of evolution.

The pivotal experiences that sparked this interest included a childhood spent in rural Wales, with much of my time spent in the hills or on the beach (not IN the water –too cold most of the time), undergrad courses with evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith (my major, Experimental Psychology, was housed in the School of Biological Sciences), raising children in Italy and Canada and, finally, a volunteer experience at the Hands On museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One day a Minister and his flock of preschoolers arrived for a tour and before it began the Minister asked me whether we had a natural history room. I proudly told him of our small room, chock-full of curiosities. Then he asked if we had dinosaur bones. When I replied affirmatively, he said: "Our children do not go in there." I was astounded, I had not imagined that I would encounter a belief system so different from my own in this affluent and highly educated university town in the US. Capitalizing on these experiences, a little while later when I went to graduate school in developmental psychology I studied the cognitive and cultural factors influencing the development of such diverse belief systems (and have continued to do so). More recently, I have applied insights gained from these studies to the visitor learning 31

component of several exhibits on evolution, working with Judy Diamond, Martin Weiss, Chia Shen and Mike Horn (and many other wonderful informal science professionals). I look forward to participating in a discussion about the optimal way to structure learning experiences that take visitors' prior beliefs into account!

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Re: Introductions by martin weiss ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 04:23 PM

Carolyn I'd like to pick up on your comments. I am at a science museum and feel that we should support all informal science institutions in presenting accurate engaging science to the public. And we might be able to do this through collaborations on important topics that keep arising in this discussion (climate change and evolution, are but two). Different ISI's have different perspectives and missions but the root of all is accurate science. We also have different strengths that I think can augment and enhance the presentation of any science topic in any community.

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Re: Introductions

by Carlyn Buckler ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 11:33 AM

Hello Martin! You and I have worked together (albeit via WebEx) at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, and with Rob Ross at PRI, where I am. I would love to site down and buy you a beer or something and talk about this. We a couple things in as proposals now, and I would be interested in your opinion on several of the projects and how you think we might move forward. See you at the conference ­ Carlyn Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Kathleen Tinworth ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 04:45 PM

Wow­­ very cool to see so many of my favorite colleagues and provocative thinkers above on this intro post. I am also thrilled to see names that are new to me and hear about all the fantastic ways natural history settings and free­choice science have found their ways into your lives. This is going to be a great conference. Thanks to Bill and the advisory group for making it all happen. I am looking forward to it.

I'm Kathleen Tinworth, Director of Visitor Research & Program Evaluation at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in gorgeous Colorado. I am a rare Colorado native, and so perhaps my love of the outdoors is literally in my blood. I have always found the natural world to be a particularly important, intense, and impressive place to confront what it means to be me. It's my very favorite place for free­ choice learning. (There's that John Lubbock quote that comes to mind... something like woods and mountains as excellent schoolmasters, teaching us more than we could ever learn from books...)

I didn't go to a lot of museums as a child, but am fortunate to work at the one that I remember best and the influenced me most. I am also fortunate to have the opportunity to infuse visitor and community voices into our work. I am particularly interested in how we work harder, smarter, and better to move away from didacticism and into real dialogue, engaging in two­way conversations and social learning. Coming from an institution with quite a traditional past and a committed curatorial model, I am fascinated by the ways that our museum scientists, educators, program staff, and evaluation department work (sometimes in productive collaboration, sometimes in disruptive opposition) to realize and define what learning could,

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should, and will look like in the 21st century for our audiences.

I will be coming to DC in February with Kirk Johnson, our chief curator and someone really committed to exploring, experimenting, and playing with science communication in some pretty fantastic ways. (He's also an advisor on this project.) I am greatly looking forward to the conversations he and I will have because of this forum, as well as how all of you expand our thinking. I know we'll arrive back in Denver with some great new ideas.

Finally, my other passion is how consumer trends collide with what we see in museums and cultural settings. I blog about it atwww.exposeyourmuseum.com, and as a result have a keen interest in what we’re all working on related to tech, mobile, and new media.

See you there!

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Re: Introductions

by Carlyn Buckler ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 11:50 AM

Hello Kathleen ­ What a great website! I loved the Wash and Coffee, and the idea that Newsome is letting folks tweet his office (having lived in SF, I'd love to read some of those tweets). The quote that , Are we too afraid of taking away from The Museum Experience to be willing to see the museum as a part of a larger whole? I'd love to talk with you about your opinions about media, society and informal science ed.

Cheers!

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Re: Introductions

by Chia Shen ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 05:23 PM

Growing up in the pre­culture revolution central Beijing in China, my favorite two things were to go to see the huge dinosaurs in the Beijing Natural History Museum, and to grow sunflowers and Chinese cucumbers in my small patch of dirt in the courtyard in front of our house. I am a computer scientist, a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Scientist's Discovery Room Lab at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. In my lab, we design and develop interactive visual learning systems and examine human­computer interaction techniques. Now, together with Judy Diamond, Margaret Evans and Mike Horn, and a group of life sciences advisers, we are working on a 3­year NSF project called Life on Earth that aims to help museum visitors to learn evolutionary concepts. This project will produce an interactive visualization of the tree of life on a multi­touch table. The exhibit will be installed in five partner museums across the U.S. Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Steve Sullivan ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 09:19 PM

Hello All. I’m Steve Sullivan, Curator or Urban Ecology for the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I oversee work in our natural history collections (including training volunteer taxidermists who work on public display), interface extensively with our education and public programs departments, and frequently work with the media to address urban wildlife issues.

I also direct Project Squirrel, a citizen science project for all ages, everywhere (you can 33

participate too at ProjectSquirrel.org). Project Squirrel uses tree squirrels as sentinel organisms to learn more about urban habitats. It simultaneously studies humans as the most impactful species in the urban game park.

Finally, I serve on the steering committee of Project Passenger Pigeon (P3), an international effort to commemorate the extinction of this remarkable species (100 years in 2014) and to use this occasion to explore connections between humans and the rest of the world with an aim to more sustainable relationships. We hope your institutions will join the P3 Alliance in this commemoration in 2014.

My family and I are active in the Chicago Herpetological Society and help put on an annual 40,000 sq ft hands on, educational (nothing for sale) reptile and amphibian show. We also are members of the North American Native Fishes Association and conduct a lot of outreach to encourage care and restoration of our region’s heavily impacted aquatic resources.

I think I never grew out of the childhood fascination with rocks, sticks, and bugs. Thankfully my parents tolerated these interests, even if they did not understand them. Eventually “Steve’s Museum” filled the basement and my Mom served as head of visitor services, making appointments for visiting preschool groups and middle school students, and making sure they had cookies.

Today life is pretty much the same. I share the home museum with my wife and three primates, a room full of snakes, and all the specimens you might (but my neighbors usually don’t) expect.

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Re: Introductions

by Reiko Trow ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 02:37 PM

Aloha, my name is Reiko Trow, and I work as the Education and Volunteer Programs Assistant at the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum in Hawaii. Here at the arboretum I help with the coordinating of some of our volunteers, and educate students from various backgrounds about the arboretum, nature, and conservation through hands on activities outdoors.

I grew up in rural areas around Oregon, and since I was little I have always loved the outdoors. I spent many summers making mud pies, catching insects, and camping. Ultimately my passion for science was sparked when I won a goldfish from the fair, in 2nd or 3rdgrade, since then I have been captivated with the natural world.

I am very excited about the upcoming conference and look forward to meeting all of you in DC. Show parent | Reply

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Re: Introductions

by Madlyn Runburg ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 02:47 PM

While coming in late (how is it already Friday!), I am no less enthusiastic. I have enjoyed reading all of your introductions and thrilled to move onto the discussions.

I am Madlyn Runburg and work as Director of School Programs for the Natural History Museum of Utah. In this capacity I direct all aspects of the museum's work with K­12 students and teachers. Our school programs range from museum educator facilitated classroom programs both on­site and in classrooms across our state to a statewide Teaching Toolbox program and a variety of teacher professional development opportunities. We, also, have a program that started through the YouthAlive initiative almost 20 years ago, Youth Teaching Youth. This multi­year, near peer mentoring program is focused on underserved youth beginning in the 4th grade and continuing through high school graduation.

Our programs are entirely focused on inquiry based learning centered around the museum's research and unique collections. Our curriculum is designed to help learners build understanding of the natural world and promote critical thinking skills through a variety of science content areas and interdisciplinary approaches with the ultimate goal of creating authentic and relevant learning experiences that empower learners to make thoughtful decisions about the future.

As far as my own spark with science and nature, I'd have to say that my grandmother and father were extraordinarily influential. We spent countless hours in the beauty of the Texas hill country and along the coast throughout my childhood. Their love of these areas and our regular treks to spend time in them fostered in me an innate connection with and curiosity of our natural world.

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Re: Introductions

by Bill Watson ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 05:35 PM

Thanks again to everyone for the diversity of perspectives shared here. We initiated the discussion online before the conference to give us all a chance to begin to get to know each other and raise some ideas from our work and on our minds. It's great to see a lot of that happening.

We're going to leave the forum open through next Wednesday "officially" and then see if we can leave it here as an ongoing resource at least until the conference.

Next week, we'll post the short "homework" assignment and a short survey to begin to work out which participants will work in which groups so we can start assigning rooms to different discussions.

Have a great weekend!

Bill Show parent | Reply

Re: Introductions

by Betty Dunckel ­ Monday, 16 January 2012, 11:11 AM

A belated hello to everyone. I'm Betty Dunckel, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. I have had the pleasure of being at this institution for many years and the opportunity to work with a wide range of programs. We are our state's natural history museum and a university museum.

I'm responsible for our education programs which include school tours, teacher education, outreach, public programs, and fee­supported classes and camps. I'm also working with museum and UF colleagues on

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several larger projects ­ the broader impacts components and program evaluation. This conferences will inform all of our work.

Go Gators!

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Re: Introductions

by Annie Holdren ­ Wednesday, 18 January 2012, 01:10 AM

Thank you for enabling this to remain open through today.

As a quick introduction: I work at a small, regional natural history museum on the Monterey Peninsula in California. The museum is almost 130 years old, but some four years ago it almost closed because the city (Pacific Grove) could no longer afford to keep it open. Volunteers rallied, obtained a large grant, and hired an interim director. Long story short, the museum is now in a public­private partnership and has a staff of six. I've held several titles in the three years I've worked here, but now I am Curator of Exhibitions and Education. My relevant background includes a PhD in Anthropology, 10 years' writing science and social studies curriculum for K­12 students, and many decades of creative writing and design. I will be attending the conference with Lori Mannel, our Executive Director.

My passion for natural history seems to have been inborn, but I determined that I wanted to become a 'naturalist' when I was in elementary school. I volunteered for years in our local "Junior Museum and Zoo." Ultimately I studied archaeology, because it offered a way to reconstruct entire environments and figure out how people lived within them. The relationships between humans and nature­­natural resources, natural systems to which we belong­­remain my strongest interest and, I believe, offer interpretive hooks for most visitors to our museum.

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Re: Introductions

by Diane Quinn ­ Sunday, 29 January 2012, 06:55 PM

I'm Diane Quinn, a late replier to introductions, but sincerely looking forward to meeting people in a couple of weeks. I am the Director of Education at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle.

For me this has been like living in a real­time, 3­D encyclopedia of Earth and all the life on it, past and present.

I sometimes see my job as being the host at a really amazing feast­­where everyone is invited and tries something they didn't even realize they were hungry for.

Over the past 18 years, I have had the utter pleasure of working with people from many disciplines and backgrounds in developing and facilitating programs inside and outside of our museum. Like most of you, we ground our programs in real scientific specimens and real artifacts, enlisting the expertise of people who can contextualize their meaning to build what we hope will be rich learning experiences. What keeps me there : no two days the same, countless opportunities to observe how people learn, and no excuse not to learn right along with them.

My grandmother took us on walks and knew all the birds and plants and knew when the persimmons would be ripe in the park. My parents said "go outside and play." My husband planned camping trips so we could see the aurora borealis.

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Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Bill Watson ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 04:38 PM

As I read through the rich discussion so far, it occurs to me that we’ve positioned many of the topics of interest to us in terms of gaps, disconnects, or tensions. This is by no means the only way to characterize our discussion thus far, but I think it's significant that we use this language to discuss our audiences and our relationships with them. With apologies for paraphrasing, a few of the gaps/tensions we've identified are between:

• • • • •

Scientific research and our audiences’ perceptions of its applicability to their lives Audience expectations and our desire/responsibility to deliver high quality content (i.e., "give them what they want" vs. "give them what we think they need") Day­to­day experiences in the 21st Century and knowledge about nature Virtual and "actual" experiences Conveying narratives about science to audiences and inviting them to be part of the practice of science

One of the reasons this particular group is assembled here and will gather for the conference in February is because we believe that natural history museums offer something unique for bridging these gaps and resolving these tensions. That brings up some new questions for me: 1.

2.

How can our unique resources help us to address these (and other) gaps or tensions? And do we all agree on what those resources are in the first place?

If we do use our resources in new ways, then how have we added new value to society or for our audiences?

Bill Reply

Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Emlyn Koster ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 05:14 PM

I agree with Bill that it is instructive to reflect on the early kinds of reflective questions that are being posed and reflected on among us. Mindful of the "21st century learning in natural history settings" scope of this convening, I think it would be fruitful to ask more "what for?" questions alongside "how to?" questions. Going forward through the 21st century, natural history settings are surely a critically needed resource for society to get into closer touch with the massive challenges facing the world. I therefore hope there will be more big­picture ends­focused deliberations as a driver to detailed means­focused deliberations, i.e. in a form­follows­function approach.

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Erica Kelly ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 01:53 PM

"Do we all agree on what those resources are in the first place?" Real objects, real scientists, and real science, certainly. In addition, I think that for many visitors, museums are largely a social resource. Nan touched on this earlier. When we asked our own visitors in San Diego what their motivations were for

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visiting us, many were largely­­even primarily­­seeking a social experience. They wanted to spend meaningful time with their family or friends, and the content of their museum visit was a framework on which they could build their social experience.

Knowing this, Nan and I are thinking more and more in our own practice about how a big part of our work creating exhibit environments­­bigger than we have understood it to be in the past­­might be about giving people the tools to have the kind of social experience they want around the content we hope to deliver. So it becomes less about a perceived tension between what they want (social experiences) and what we want to give them (accurate science) but about how one supports the other. And how the designed environment helps them to do this.

I'm curious if others have data that has led you to think about your museum as a resource from your visitors' perspective beyond the real objects/real scientists/real science paradigm.

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Nan Renner ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 02:40 AM

Erica, thank you for bringing our attention to the resources that our visitors bring with them.

How can we satisfy visitors' desire for fun and meaningful social interaction while treating it as a resource in our natural history settings? How can design support the efforts of facilitators within social groups? How do we invite sharing of relevant prior knowledge within social groups?

Either in this forum or in February, I'd like to hear what the conference participants are doing to enhance social interaction.

The human body presents a suite of powerful meaning­making resources too. The urge to move and explore presents infinite opportunities for multisensory integration. We don't yet the know the full significance, but we have some clues about how multimodal engagement can profoundly influence attention, learning, and memory.

I wonder about how seeing involves more than vision. I also wonder how natural history settings can provide the tools and experiences to help visitors learn to see more and see differently. So multimodal perception is a resource, and perceptual skill results when we develop that resource.

When you add up the desire for social interaction with the drive for multimodal exploration and expression, we have some powerful human resources to work with.

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Maija Sedzielarz ­ Thursday, 19 January 2012, 02:13 PM

Nan, Your comments really resonated with me in light of the project that I work on. We train volunteers to faciliate interactions with natural objects that kids bring in to trade. How to provide new ways to look at the objects and learn more about them. We are preparing to do our first family day around natural objects which we hope will support family learning, through activities and faciliation that pay attention to the social interactions within the family groups.

Can these experiences occur without a human, face­to­face interaction? Does electronic technology enhance or present new obstacles?

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Leah Melber ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 12:03 PM

I know one thing I am especially interested in exploring with everyone .... and ties into the above about what we deliver... is how we effectively balance innovation with traditional measures of accountability.

Finding the sweet­spot within the dichotomy ofestablishing new programming trends, exhibition philosophies, etc informed by the existing research base while retaining a pioneering spirit, willing to push the envelope beyond what we do know, that which is outside the research base. When as an institution (and community of researchers) we establish that 'this' works... how do we retain motivation not to simply settle into 'this' for the long haul...but rather continue with 'this' as well as the search for even more relevant and engaging connections...

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Briana Pobiner ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 02:02 PM

I'm really interested in this too ­ how do we balance making sure we do an excellent job at our "status quo" as far as programs and offerings are concerned while constantly seeking to improve and innovate? When and how do we decide to abandon an old method or program? In addition to traditional measures of accountability, what about traditional measures of success? How do (or do we) move beyond how many people walked through the door or attended an event when we measure success? Is it length of time for visitor interactions? Attracting new and different visitors? All of the above, but depending on the event/program/offering? And how do we balance putting significant effort into a one­time program versus a consistent/continuing program?

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Randi Korn ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 02:13 PM

Leah,

I would love to talk wtih you about balancing innovation with traditional measures of accountabiity.

Attendance is no longer the silver bullet­­the qualititative elements of an experience deserve attention. A few times in the dialogue last week people's comments made me think about a concept that author Jim Collins discusses: perserve the core; stimulate progress. How do we respect the essence of natural history museums (collections and the stories embedded in them) while innovating new ways to interpret and connect with audiences.

Looking foward to meeting everyone.

Randi Korn Best, Randi Korn Show parent | Reply

Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Leah Melber ­ Wednesday, 25 January 2012, 05:33 PM

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Definitely looking forward to talking more about this with you two and the rest of the attendees!

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Teresa Randall ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 01:01 PM

1. How can our unique resources help us to address these (and other) gaps or

tensions?

Maybe I’m being naïve but one of my initial hopes is to simply “connect” our visitors with our unique resources. Next is to provide a fantastic experience (yes, I also teach customer service training to our employees) so they will want to come back repeatedly. With repeated opportunities (ie: visits) I feel as though we can move them from dragged alongs, to curiosity, to awareness, to understanding, to caring about, to caring for and ultimately to stewardship! Visitors come to us at various points along the aforementioned spectrum; therefore needs and expectations will run the gambit. So I think knowing our audience (we need to more true research @ our organization) will allow us to begin to chip away on existing gaps/tensions of their expectations vs. our expectations.

And do we all agree on what those resources are in the first place? Obviously the tangible things we offer like collections, exhibits, experiences are resources unique to individual organizations. However I feel we need to also think of intangibles as resources as well. Providing a sense of community or family or belonging is equally as important. I believe it’s syngergistic to both the individual as well as our organizations. Guess I keep tucked in the back of my mind a paraphrased quote (unsure who to cite) “People won’t remember what you said to them but they will remember how you made them feel.”

2. If we do use our resources in new ways, then how have we added new value to society or for our audiences? I see us as a valuable “third places”. From Ray Oldengburg’s book The Great Good Place, "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace — where people actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Bronwyn Jones ­ Wednesday, 18 January 2012, 07:19 PM

We believe that our resources are a unique and rare collection of specifically Alaskan natural history specimens, our educational tools and knowledgeable staff. When dealing with the issue of our audience’s perceptions of scientific research and how it applies to their lives, we believe our ability to use collections to physically represent and assist in instilling various scientific theories and research ideas is one way to help us address the gap between perceptions and reality that sometimes divides our audiences daily lives from the scientific world. As I mentioned before, education is another important resource we have. Our education department is able to reach students, teachers and parents with our hands on workshops, lectures and outreach programs. This gives us the chance to answer questions and hear what it is our general audiences expect to gain from their museum experience.

Alaska has a unique audience, due to the fact that Alaskans by necessity are very aware of the environment and nature. We view this as an advantage for the museum. The vast majority of people are excited to learn more about Alaska’s natural features and we often are

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presented with interesting questions and suggestions for exhibits and education programs from our audience.

The line between virtual and “actual” is becoming thinner as technology advances. We believe that with this change, the way in which museums present exhibits must also change as well. Our audiences are starting to expect technology to coincide with our scientific exhibits.

However, it’s not a matter of watching a film or listening to an audio recording-they are expecting a creative interactive display mixed with advanced technology. We have made several changes to deal with this demand. For example, we have a bird display of Alaskan song birds with maps of migration patterns in one section of the museum. We recently placed a bird caller with the noises that coincide with the birds on display. This small change has attracted people to stay in that area of the museum for longer period of time and really interact with the display. Whenever possible we exhibit our collection in a way so the audience can touch or interact with it. We do this with the hope that the audience will read the information that goes along with the exhibit and will feel that they are actively participating in science and learning.

One large issue we have in Alaska is separation due to a lack of a road system. A large population of Alaskans will never be able to visit our or any museum. Therefore many of these people will not have the chance to attend a natural history lecture or see natural history collections. As we progress we would like to expand the idea of virtual vs. actual with more virtual outreach programs for these people. It is a way in which they will be able to see and interact with natural history without physically being present. As well as video broadcasting, we would like to have a complete online virtual museum. This would be a resource for people in and beyond Alaska. We often receive calls from university students from all over the world looking for a particular piece of information on Alaskan’s natural history. Being able to refer to this virtual museum would be a tremendous help to these students and others interested in Alaska.

-Bronwyn and Kerri Show parent | Reply

Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Scott Sampson ­ Thursday, 19 January 2012, 05:42 PM

If natural history museums are truly going to be relevant in the 21st Century, they’ll have to address the issue of sustainability. Although generally viewed as a crisis of technology, the eco­crisis is arguably more a crisis of consciousness. Until we learn to care about the places we live, until we view nature as a community of relatives rather than a collection of resources (to paraphrase Thomas Berry), until we see ourselves as embedded within nature rather than outside and above it, sustainability is likely impossible.

Natural history museums, it seems to me, have a fundamental role to play in this transformation of the human­nature relationship. We have the scientists, the educators, the exhibitors, and the real nature “stuff” necessary to offer the public (and particularly children) meaningful experiences grounded in a deep understanding of how things work (ecology) and how things came to be (evolution). In particular, if we focus our energies on the natural history of local place, using nature and narrative to bridge the science illiteracy gap, I’m convinced that museums can lead the way in this pressing endeavor. However, to address another critical element that Bill mentioned, virtual experiences indoors must be augmented by abundant experiences outdoors. Here to, museums can be a powerful force, but only if our institutions our viewed (by us and our visitors) as trailheads rather than destinations. It’s time to blow out the walls and engage people in the real world!

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Re: Bridging gaps and resolving tensions

by Becky Menlove ­ Thursday, 19 January 2012, 07:34 PM

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Having just opened the museum that Scott describes, I have to say that I agree with the assumptions he is making Scott was our chief curator when we rewrote our mission (We illuminate the natural world and the place of humans within it), and was a strong voice for the importance of engaging our visitors with authentic experiences with our collections, our scientists and the work they do, and the world outside our doors. Likewise, his was the driving vision that informed our interpretive plan­­one that revolves around evolution, ecology, and diversity. Early in our design process, another of our curators suggested that our museum should be a threshold­­a place from which to emerge and explore­­and out of that has grown our Trailhead to Utah program.

Visitors are coming back multiple times­­we've been open for just over two months and we've had some visitors who have made six visits in that short time. And many are saying, literally, that they're having transformative experiences, but that's anecdote. We'll soon be undergoing a major evaluative process through which we hope to see the degree to which our visitors are having the transformative experiences we hope for and believe is possible, over the short and long term. It's only through this kind of ongoing assessment that we can know whether we are creating the affective outcomes described by Scott.

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21st Century Learning

by Bill Watson ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 10:10 AM

Good morning! Thank you to all who have introduced yourselves so far in the "Introductions" topic. If you have not done so yet, please visit that topic and let us know who you are and what you do.

This week­long disucssion forum is intended to generate conversation that will help us develop a shared understanding about ideas and concepts important to our work at the Conference and beyond.

It seems a good place to start is with the term and concept 21st Century Learning. A lot is implied by that phrase. To get our discussion started, I offer the following questions for consideration: 1.

2.

3.

What expectations do our audiences have for their experiences in natural history museums ­ or in nature ­ in the 21st Century?

How has the social and societal context of that our audiences bring with them changed from 10, 20, or 30 years ago, and how has that changed their expectations of their experiences with us?

What opportunities are available to enhance or facilitate learning about natural history and nature in the 21st Century that were not available before?

These are intended as a jumping off point for what we hope is a rich disucssion that captures not only some good answers, but also some great new questions.

Bill Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 04:14 PM

I thought I'd jump in here and kick this off—given how broad each of these questions are, I imagine we'll have lots of branching off; here are some first thoughts I had after reading the questions...

EXPECTATIONS I think there's a duality to the expectations that our audiences have—one the one hand they expect curated, topical, expert information that is relevant; on the other hand, the internet has led to an almost universal expectation of an unlimited ability to delve deeper into any subject if your curiosity allows.

This observation extends to natural history museums, where, in the past, it seems like exhibits were primarily extended through trained personnel mediating or enriching a visitor's experience, or via scripted audio tours. The proliferation of smart­devices has helped form an expectation that the museum environment will be extended through QR codes or iphone apps, and that a visitor might even be able to continue exploring those concepts remotely through the museum's website or to participate in a larger effort to understand a concept.

I think there's also an appreciation growing for the value of free­form exploration and discovery, and the value of simply spending time in natural environments, but I wouldn't quite consider them an expectation of the majority of audiences...

SOCIAL/SOCIETAL CONTEXT Two things that come to mind which have changed over the last 30 years certainly are the strength/diversity of minority voices and the relentless pace of media pushing the public conversation.

Content consumption/creation in 1982 was still for the most part centralized & today there's more of an expectation that museum content will address the latest buzzworthy findings than in the past, not to

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mention that soapboxes were less far­reaching prior to the internet (meaning fringe/unsupported ideas couldn't cloak themselves in the anonymous legitimacy of a webpage).

OPPORTUNITIES I hate to mention the internet again, but the ubiquity of live streaming cameras, smart devices, satellite link­ups with scientists in the field, apps that allow you to enter data as you encounter it (e.g. Leafsnap), online forums to build moderated communities where learning happens before/after a visit; all offer a different style tool to connect people to nature, or to provide context or enrichment to an object/exhibit. In a sense it makes natural history more physically agnostic. [Of course there's a whole other discussion about the outcome of these virtual "natural" experience vs. more traditional natural experiences, but I suppose that's another discussion

]

I also think the growing strength of the "nature­deficit­disorder" movement and the global conservation crisis also offer an opportunity to extend the role of natural history museums in a way that helps bridge the knowledge & experience gap to make the natural world a less­scary, more­desirable place to connect with and conserve.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 02:31 PM

I agree with much of what you mention Charles.

I like the idea of using all the new technologies and internet to help connect people with their local environments and learn more about them, but I also see that Natural History Museums have the opportunity to help people connect to nature while in nature. This bridge between knowledge and experience is so important!

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Robert Petty ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 11:34 AM

I am intrigued by the effect of electronic devices on our expectations in places like museums as well as the potential this element in our culture has/is having to change our brains. I remember visiting a science center in the early 90s and among the interactive exhibits were some that were the "old fashioned" static ones. While I was viewing one the static exhibits, a couple of young boys came running up to the exhibit and almost in a frenzy they began looking around for "the button." When they didn't find anything to manipulate, one of them said "Oh, this one doesn't move." And they dashed off looking for one that would move.

My wife, who has been an elementary teacher for nearly 30 years, is convinced children's brains are changing as a result, at least in part, of our growing dependence on electronic devices. She is growing weary of the expectation of the children (and in many cases their parents) that classroom teachers be entertaining. Without that stimulation, children are bored and are unable to focus.

In my work with Audubon Centers, our hope, of course, is that experiences in nature can be stimulating enough, as I am guessing they were for many of us when we were children. But I find myself questioning that, and hesitating, I find myself wondering if smart devices could play a role in leading people back to nature in a way that doesn't substitute for those natural observations, but leads to and enhances them.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kaleen Povis ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 03:36 PM

What a great goal. I too have been thinking about what makes a nature (or natural history museum) experience stimulating.

I am sure many of us have had an experience where a topic of seemingly little or no interest to us became captivating the deeper we dove into the topic ­ often accompanied by a skilled facilitator. (I have to thank some of the scientists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History for sparking new interests for me as I've learned more about the citrus family and mollusks ­ topics I was not opposed to, just had never given much thought.)

The more I learn about a topic (about its history, its stories, its connections to other things) the more interesting it becomes ­ usually.

Interesting feels, to me, a step off from stimulating though.

Stimulating seems to imply action. If I am stimulated by something I may, at the least, ask questions about it or work to find out more about the topic/object.

A key word here is 'working.' Do we provide our visitors opportunities to work ­­­ to work toward a goal, toward understanding.

Thinking back to mentally stimulating experiences, I also recall a a feeling of success ­­ a moment when you were able to discover, connect, or apply knowledge.

Do we provide opportunities for visitors to feel successful ­ to learn and apply knowledge or skills?

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Reiko Trow ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 04:07 PM

I have to agree with the thoughts on the upcoming generation of students, which they are becoming or are wired, to expect instantaneous results from the push of a button, touch screen, or even a voice command. I just completed my master’s in Elementary Education, and the topic of being an “entertaining” educator came up often, and was a concern of many of my cohorts.

As an educator at the Lyon Arboretum, I hope to be able to teach students the value of interacting with real life organisms and plants. I believe we learn so much more by real experiences than by just goggling everything, though I do agree that the internet is a great tool for building solid background information for any lesson.

Technologies can and should be definitely be used to better learning environments, but should not replace real life experiences, but rather enhance them. Many of the students that come up to the arboretum are definitely still enthralled by nature, and it’s moments like those that I hope to also help keep them connected to their natural environment, and to teach them how important it is to our existence and culture.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Teresa Randall ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 05:23 PM

1. AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS a) Immediate gratification. This, in part, I believe is due to the formatting of tv/movies as well as the internet, smartphones and social media. Folks want current and trending information at their fingertips and they want it rather quickly. b) An entertaining, safe venue that taps into their interests. After learning more about visitor motivations, I have become more aware that we need to create experiences that also feed into their motivations for coming to our organizations as well.

2. CHANGES IN SOCIETY Wow, there are so many things I could say here but in the interest of brevity here are my thoughts! a) How Americans view science has changed drastically (pre-Sputnik, post-Sputnik and now). Science is something that is scary and viewed as mostly unattainable by the majority of American adults and sadly their children. So we can’t rely on simply “factvomiting” everything we want them to know about science. We must find ways to make our organizations more fun and less threatening from their viewpoint. We need to find ways to connect them by storytelling, compelling exhibits, programs, etc. b) Folks spend more time engaged in non face-to-face communications. For families this translates into wanting our organizations to provide opportunities for social gatherings that help them create family memories and that they see as the best value for not only their money but also for their time.

3. NEW OPPS THAT ENHANCE/FACILITATE LEARNING a) Quantitative research that shows that there is value to building experiences, graphics, and exhibit designs that are aimed at reaching our audiences in affective ways rather than assessing their cognitive gains.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Mary Ann Steiner ­ Monday, 9 January 2012, 06:24 PM

In addition to the ideas already stated...

Expectations Some basic stuff... I see a desire for comfort, a place to sit down and regroup, an opportunity to stop and do something focused with a friend or family member, sometimes for extended periods of time (some people stop in activity spaces for an hour). Our museums are big and meandering and being able to vary your pace and kind of activity seems important.

Orientation to what’s available and how to get there, people to interact with beyond the museum guard, beyond the rules of the place.

What’s changed?

Our museum used to be free. People I’ve talked to here have fond memories of coming to the museum after school and just getting lost in the building, on their own.

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Opportunities: There are a lot of social face to face opportunities. Like many museums we’ve been exploring all the ways people can get their hands on the real stuff of the museum, education collections, opportunities to interact with scientists, up close looks at the collection. People love being invited into new experiences, even in the physical non­digital world, they enjoy testing new programs with us and contributing their ideas for them.

They like to comment on what they see, document what they find, or make, even if that is just tacking it up on a board with other people’s work.

We can be a resource to help decipher current events, to help people unpack the social,economic, and environmental impacts of various issues We have the opportunity to use our space in mission­related ways, giving outside scientists (amateur and professional) a place to connect with the public, giving different groups opportunities to interpret our collections through their own frame, collaborating with arts organizations to provide various representations of nature, or with outdoors organizations to combine our experiences with outdoor experiences.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 07:15 PM

Wow, when I read your first sentence, I thought, "We're having the same experience at the Carnegie. We've given visitors places to sit down (in the middle of big galleries) and explore collections.

Some are doing so for minutes; others for hours. In a new gallery, M is for Museum, parents with young children are coming mulitple times a week. They like the fact there are lots of hands­on experiences with natural history concepts for their young children, plus places to read and play. One thing I hadn't considered that parents are regularly commenting on: they like the fact this area is contained­­heavy doors on all sides, so their kids can run around and play without the parent worried about them leaving the area if they don't see them for 15 seconds."

Then, of course, I saw it was you­­we're talking about the same stuff. Great to work with you, Mary Ann! I'd be interested in whether these themes of multiple visits, confined spaces, hands on are resonating with other people's experiences.

Thanks, Ellen Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Bill Watson ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 10:37 AM

Thanks to Charles, Teresa, and Mary Ann for getting the conversation started on this thread. There were also some hints of changed and changing contexts for our audiences in the Introductions, for example: a need for connections relevant to their lives and their communities, access to and interest in social experiences ("analog" and digital), and changes in what they know about science and nature.

As people are now getting more familiar with each other through the introductions, we'll all look forward to additional perspectives today on changing audience expectations and opportunties. After a little more foundation on this topic, we'll shift our focus to how we can do that ­ and why we should.

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Bill Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Jim Kisiel ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 10:57 AM

Thanks, Bill, for these thought­inducing questions. The research in me, of course, is looking for evidence.

While I would agree with much of what was described so far, I'm wondering if we know this. I'm guessing that many NHMs have done some audience studies regarding expectations, although I know we all have some anecdotal evidence to support our cases. Yes, I know there is still the Internet, and virtual experiences­­yet people still go to these places, so clearly there is the attraction of the 'real'. A small audience survey I conducted several years ago for a natural history museum suggested that people weren't necessarily looking at museums as primary information sources (e.g. not the first place they'd go to learn about...paleontology, archaeology, conservation, etc.) So it would seem that there is an opportunity (and perhaps a PR issue) to re­emerge in this area. Of course, I think this perception is likely quite dependent on context (city, museum, etc.)

Another thing to consider: as we think about opportunities to enhance and facilitate learning about natural history in the 21st century, we must keep in mind the traditional nature of these institutions­­this is a both an advantage and disadvantage. Natural history museums do research­­so scientists are easily accessed­­potentially. However I think re­thinking learning in these setting also means helping others within these institutions­­scientists, volunteers, administration and even funders­­to reconsider THEIR roles and the goals of the institution at large. I don't suggest this can't be done, or isn't already happening­­I think many places are already working to address the issues of the 21st century learner in natural history museums. I just know that if we look at reform efforts, in schools, in society, etc., that we need to look internally, at changing (or non­changing) perspectives and routines, to develop strategies to serve the public in increasingly varied and meaningful ways.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Rhiannon Crain ­ Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 08:29 PM

I’m with Jim here. My own investigations into how people think and talk about museums and how they actually move through them and experience them caution me to avoid relying on either anecdote or simple visitor surveys of expectations.

A few things I’ve noticed in data: 1) Asking someone about their expectations for a visit seems to cause them to reframe their actions and may even change the way they allow themselves to experience the museum. When asked, many people get nervous, and start to talk about museums as if they were schools, using words and phrases like “learn,” or “I found the answer to that one.” Asked post­visit about expectations I’ve even seen people, after reflection, dramatically change their perspective from viewing the visit largely as a success ("wow!

That was fun, everyone had a good time!") to viewing it as a failure ("huh, I guess I didn’t learn that much . . .").

2) In contrast, observations of visitors interacting and naturalistic conversation between visitors rarely evoke such ‘schoolified language’­­ and instead center more around metaphors of play, pleasure, surprise, amazement, self­reference, and bodily involvement. I’m not suggesting, even a tiny bit, that those activities don’t have real and concrete effects on learning, but I am hinting that museums (especially collections­ based institutions) have a complex, institutionalized relationship with Big “E” Education that is realized in visitors’ ‘expectations.’

None of this is surprising or that interesting to anyone who has ever worked in a museum before, but it is interesting when asked to reflect on the (changing) role of visitor expectations in museums. Is there some

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way in which expectations (both those of the staff and the visitors) get in the way of letting natural history museums realize a new potential? My guess is that more than changing expectations, we need to be on guard for stagnant, or even un­examined, taken­for­granted expectations.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Mary Ann Steiner ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 08:07 AM

Expectation is a hard concept to unpack.

At this point, we’ve mainly focused on people who come to the museum, and ways we are seeing their engagement change as we establish new exhibit experiences.

In an observational practice we have been using, more staff are on the floor talking with visitors and often just being available. They write down things they hear people say, what they notice people doing and where, how long people stick to a particular place or activity, and if they indicate directly or to others that they’ve been here recently.

We started doing this informally in one area, and more formally in another where we established the space initially by putting materials out and stepping back to watch how people responded without facilitation.

Over time gradual changes in the set up and what was offered have resulted in a large exploration space.

All that to say there is a bit of systematic observation to our anecdotes, but also, I agree, that these observations address what visitors do at the museum more than what they expect of the museum. I think through studies of why people have been coming back we can get at some of the reasons their expectations changed (causing them to come back more often) that Rhionnan talks about.

Getting to people who don’t come at all and figuring out what would change their expectations is another important activity.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 02:56 PM

Rhiannon ­ this is a very cool insight. Coming from the research side (collections), reflecting on how formal surveys may change the experience is very interesting.

I would like to throw out an anecdotal observation on visitors ­ again, I am very new to museum culture and don't work on the visitor side much, but it seems like some adult visitors also treat museums like a religious space. Let me explain. There is a level of expectation for reflection and meditation about life.

There is this sense that people are trying to reposition themselves in the world around them weather relative to evolution, history, environment or conservation issues. A sort of checking back in, or revisiting the truths of world around them.

I guess this goes back to what you stated earlier. People want a comfortable place to sit and ponder.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kirsten Rowell ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 02:58 PM

That last sentence was in reference to Mary Ann's comment.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by David Catlin ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 03:40 PM

I'm looking forward to interacting with all of you who are researchers, which is not my area of expertise.

But the power of anecdote to trump research is in some ways a tool we should be taking advantage of in education, I think. Anecdote: I know that here in the Ozarks, nothing humbles a climate­change skeptic like a 70­degree day in January!

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Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 10:51 AM

anecdotes are a slippery slope without scientific context; it becomes more of a, "I saw it, so it must be the way it is". Every time there's a snowstorm in May the anti­GW crowd has news headlines like "Al Gore's "global warming" debacle" etc.

Anecdote & observation has the power to connect a person's individual observations with the greater natural pattern of which is is a part; take your warm day in the Ozarks for example—visitors could maybe measure the temperature for the prior day looking at a min/max thermometer, then have some ability to look at the recorded weather history for that day across the last 100+ years, maybe connect each of those to tree ring growth patterns from the Ozarks, etc.

I think of anecdotes as a gateway drug to the truth—there is no "correct" observation, but all observation, when placed in the right context, can illustrate or frame the pattern that is actually happening. And I use them extensively Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Richard Kissel ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 11:35 AM

Yes! And regarding scientific content, remembering that a "back to the basics" approach is not a bad thing.

How often is the term "theory" misunderstood and misused? For the particular anecdotes in this conversation, it comes down to understanding the difference between weather and climate. They are very different concepts scientifically, but many individuals aren't aware of the distinction, so it clouds their conversation and leaves them misinformed. In education, anecdotes can be wonderful gateways to larger, more impactful conversation. Seen as authorities on content, the outreach of natural history museums­­in my lil' opinion­­should be framed within the concept of the nature of science. Knowing the processes and characteristics of science and its methods, to help frame subject­specific content, can lead to heightened scientific literacy.

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Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 01:38 PM

Wish there was a "like" or +1 button Show parent | Reply

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Madlyn Runburg ­ Saturday, 14 January 2012, 02:27 PM

Ditto!

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 07:20 PM

Hi Jim,

Are you finding that personal narrative is important as well? I'm hearing (anecdotally in galleries) people talking about their experience with a redtailed hawk or thinking they found a dino bone when it was really a cow bone that their dog buried.

Folks are writing more and more often that visitors come to museums to mediate specific kinds of social experiences and to connect with one another. I'm finding (anecdotally) that this really makes sense.

People want to connect with life and nature­­and other people. I hear them trying to make sense of their world and experiences as well as pushing the boundaries of their knowledge and experiences.

We're trying to give people opportunities through post­it notes, options to video record themselves, etc. to contribute their personal narrative to the museum. Visitors seem to like doing so, though we haven't quite figured out how to really incorporate this data into the museum and our learning yet.

Does anyone have advice or effective experience with this?

Ellen Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 11:09 AM

One good starting point might be transcription & word clouds. I wonder what words are most used when they contribute their personal narrative?

I did an exercise with some of our staff here as well as some community members, asking them questions via a google form (which is a bit more formal than your current approach) and it was neat to see what words floated to the top when asked questions about our identity, what we so, what are we good at, etc.

There's software to automatically transcribe audio and I believe even words from pictures that could give you a start...

Once you have these popular words you could display them in an infographic/wordcloud that starts to reflect some of what people are saying. There's something of a raging debate on the use of word clouds (a good introhttp://www.drewconway.com/zia/?p=2624) but I still find them useful for thinking about word frequency from multiple sources. c.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Leah Melber ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 12:49 PM

YEARS ago, post graduation, I re­looked at my dissertation transcripts (moms and 4/5 year old children) from a diorama hall through some 'meaning making' lenses... and in my very tiny sample... and very surface analysis... this personal connection with place/experience was used with much greater frequency than some of the other strategies I expected... even more than popular media references (though we still had our share of Bambi, Balko, references...) or connecting the diorama groupings to human family structures (baby, mommy, daddy, twins) and what surprised me most was sometimes it had to do with the background/secondary content of the dioramas... the painted scene of the grand canyon and not the deer, the replica redwood tree and not the deer... rather than the critters front and center... There are several folks who have done great work in this area (not including my outdated dissertation data...lol) which we can be fortunate enough to draw from...

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Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 04:27 PM

Great point about the opportunity of re­imagining roles of scientists relative to the educational goals of the museums.

I only recently became aware of the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit­us/darwin­centre­visitors/science­darwin­centre­visitors/index.html) and its explicit planning for overlap between scientists at work and the visiting public, which I think is one illustration of an institution emphasizing the role of science­in­action as one of the themes it wants visitors to experience and take away (tho I would guess that Honor or Grace from the NHM could comment on the challenges to implementing that plan...)

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Scott Sampson ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 09:54 AM

Interesting questions. Here a few thoughts.

AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS My gut feeling, based on minimal research, is that audience expectations for natural history museums have not changed much in the past few decades. First and foremost, people are looking to be entertained and engaged by real nature “stuff.” A desire for education is there for some, but is not a priority for most.

People’s expectations for nature, however, have changed dramatically in recent decades, particularly if we include all of the 20th Century. Today, with kids spending 90% less time outdoors than children of just one generation ago, nature, or at least the firsthand experience of it, has become alien. No longer do kids grow up with an understanding of their local place, including its natural inhabitants. Today, nature is rapidly becoming a two­dimensional experience most people, something gained through screens. Our cultural bias is to regard nature as resources rather than relatives, including a resource for entertainment.

SOCIETAL CONTEXT Many factors—from the digital revolution to fear of strangers—have generated the above­mentioned shift in attitude toward nature. It seems to me that the lack of firsthand experience in the natural world has translated into a reduced sense of wonder and curiosity. It used to be that we developed this deep sense as children and it informed our adult lives. But 21st Century kids are not getting the same kinds of multisensory experience in nature, which diminishes their ability to care for nature as an adult.

Unfortunately, for most people the natural history museum seems to be little more than another entertainment medium.

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NEW OPPORTUNITIES The 21st Century has arrived with many opportunities. The digital revolution includes new tools of potential use to natural history educators, from nature apps used in handheld devices to social media that allow audiences to engage and exchange information around natural history (particularly local nature). With regard to societal energies that might be tapped into for natural history projects, we can look to the growing children­in­nature movement, the place­based movement (local food, local energy, local culture, etc), and the sustainability crisis. All of these, it seems to me could help museums focus on a new agenda of engaging people in local nature.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by David Catlin ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 03:29 PM

I agree , Scott, with your making a distinction about what people expect of nature as opposed to natural history museums. Coming as I do from the nature center field, my sense is that one of the changed expectations of nature is that people expect it to be "As Seen on TV": fast­paced, filled with wild animal action, and very probably hazardous to their health. More than I ever encountered when I first entered this business 35 years ago, when we accompany people outdoors we spend our time either overcoming their fears or coping with their boredom. Happily for us, the wonder of Nature is still a potent force!

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Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 04:10 PM

I like the ring of "overcoming their fears or coping with their boredom." Definitely describes at least two audiences we handle, though it's not all­inclusive...

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Leah Melber ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 12:37 PM

Yes David... excellent point regarding the media and it's influence on public perception of animals and issues in conservation... and the challenges we sometimes face in overcoming these expectations...

Ranging from well camouflaged animals not seen without perseverence, nocturnal animals sleeping or selecting to be off exhibit, and how our philosophy of physical contact/animal encounters as an AZA accredited institution might vary from images in the media ....

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Nan Renner ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 04:49 PM

Drawing from visitor studies at SD Natural History Museum and other museums in San Diego, some visitor motivations (related to expectations) stand out. They want a unique experience (see and do things they can't see and do anywhere else); they want to spend time with family and friends; and they want to "learn."

The survey and responses did not define "learn," so I'm curious what learning means for visitors. Does this response reflect a kind of demand bias, i.e. what they think is the "right" answer? Might learning relate to identity or a quest for self­improvement? Might learning simply equate with having new experiences?

We inquired about motivations in 2000 and 2010, and these responses rose to the top in both cases.

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Observations of visitors in the Museum corroborate these findings. Although expectations for cool technology may be changing, perhaps our basic human desire for novelty and social interaction hold steady.

I wonder about the potential mismatch between visitor expectations/desires/motivations and what we may feel is our professional duty. How do we bridge the gap between visitors coming to have a good time and our sense of responsibility to inform people about climate change/global warming, ecosystem degradation, and the biodiversity crisis? How do we approach bad news overload and general anxiety about the present and future? Do people have examples that inspire visitors? And how would we know when visitors are inspired and what this inspiration means?

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Jim Kisiel ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 05:35 PM

I think Nan's point about mismatch is important. There is a potential tension between 'giving them what they want' and giving the audience what you (curators, educators, designers) think they should have.

Some of this question is answered by mission, but in the end, there's still a question of bringing people to the site (be it real or virtual). As well as the question of different perspectives from within the institution.

So we see examples of museums/aquariums/etc. having 'hip' evening events used to draw in younger audiences. Some have music and DJs, some have science cafe­type interactions, some have volunteers just doing good interpretation. Are events like these successful at 'slipping in' messages, or do they get lost in the 'give them what they want' experience. Don't get me wrong­­I'm fascinated by this approach, and the idea of creating social events that COULD be centered around learning. I'm just curious, in these cases, as to whether 'learning' is more related to visitor expectations, or the expectations of the hosting institutions (or neither or both?) [Would love to hear more about what evaluations have shown for these kinds of events.]

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Ellen McCallie ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 07:29 PM

I'd love to hear Honor (or someone on her team's) reaction. A couple of years ago, in Darwin Centre Phase 1, they tackled current and controversial issues. They hosted live events every day in which scientists talked about their work and often/sometimes related it to world events. This brought faces and specific research and experiences to publics. It was tough to get the discussion (during hour events) much beyond question and answer, though the evening events, which were longer, really got people talking about values and even visions for the future.

In the 1980s we had an exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden of a bulldozer in the rainforest and manakins representing people with various perspectives. It was effective in bringing the issue to light, but people's affective response was of hopelessness and lack of empowerment. How can move beyond this?

So, I see that the key is providing people opportunities to contribute or express what's on their minds, but that's not enough.

The folks at Cornell Lab of O provide people with many ways to contribute to scientific research. Are people responding to making habitat changes in their yards, Rhiannon? Have you all had a chance to do evaluation on affective responses at this point?

Ellen Show parent | Reply

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Rhiannon Crain ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 05:46 PM

YardMap isn't really public yet so we don't have a ton of data. Steve Y., his team at ILI, and I are poised to start formative evaluation around the very question you are asking here Ellen. I'm hoping these discussions might make that effort even more fruitful. Ears wide open!

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kaleen Povis ­ Saturday, 14 January 2012, 05:06 PM

Another interesting format I saw at the Melbourne Museum brought staff members (educators, curators, scientists) and local personalities/comedians together for a "judge for yourself" science panel debate. The purpose was to expose the audience to bizarre and interesting facts about the natural world and to get the audience to think.

Each "expert" (as they were called) told a story about a phenomena/creature and often had "evidence" to show ­ an object in a jar, a slide projected on the screen, etc. It was then up to the audience to vote and decide which of the stories were "true science" and which were false.

This approach was new to me and seemed to get the crowd buzzing. You can imagine such a panel bringing the research of museum scientists to the forefront, dispelling myths, having a bit of fun, or approaching some serious issues.

I'll see if I can find out more about this format from my colleagues in Australia, in case anyone would like to hear more about the program.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Carlyn Buckler ­ Monday, 16 January 2012, 08:30 AM

Ah! Penn and Teller do a show on the Discovery Channel called, "Penn and Teller tell a lie" which is the same format. 5 or 6 vignettes, all claims based on "science', and you have to figure out, by careful observation, which of the 5 or 6 is a lie. I never thought of doing it in a forum­type setting in the Museum.

Excellent Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Richard Kissel ­ Monday, 16 January 2012, 07:58 PM

At the Museum of the Earth, my partner Kelly and I designed a program that followed a similar but not identical format. The program was called Circus of Science. Kelly played the role of a carnival barker, and she started showing fossil remains and making claims regarding their identity (e.g., a four­foot­long femur was the thigh bone of a giant human; jaw bones full of sharp teeth were the remains of a dragon; etc).

Initially "hidden" within the audience, I then stood and played the role of scientist, explaining the true origins of the bones, tracks, and other fossils. The audience didn't vote regarding the identity of the specimens, but the program was great fun and quite an engaging, family friendly lesson on evidence­ based interpretation. It was also a great excuse to (finally!) get a vintage top hat. ;) Show parent | Reply

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Mary Ann Steiner ­ Wednesday, 11 January 2012, 07:32 PM

just echoing the two expectations Nan brought up and thinking about the mismatch question.

In terms of anxiety about the future, and building on the desire to have social experiences with real stuff, basing our experiences in how we make inferences and findings about the past, present and future through research on collections might be the best goal.

In that way ideas and evidence of climate change, or environmental impact of human activity surfaces through the activity of research, rather than telling people the whole narrative story and what to think or do about a topic. We can focus on the questions and methods we used that led to a particular finding and the range of findings that stack up allowing a larger story to emerge.

One of our scientists today was talking about reading chemical histories in streams through fish scales, much like we do with tree rings or ice cores, just the idea that the earth documents conditions through these kinds of natural meters is interesting, even if the story is sometimes grim... so keeping it focused on the work we do the stuff we have­ even if it is an evening event helps ensure it will be unique...

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Leah Melber ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 12:30 PM

You remind me of a point Mary Ann with the fish scale reference... during my time at NHMLAC I remember discussing a similar initiative that involved comparing feathers of waterfowl from the same area to explore environmental pollution and using collections from pre 1920... and the idea that our collections serve purposes now that the original collectors likely hadn't envisioned, using technology today not present at the time of the collection... and in that vein... our collections will likely serve society in the future in a manner that we cannot conceive of today... i think that is a great messaging opportunity for our audience and community members to assist the view of collections­based institutions as dynamic, relevant...

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Re: 21st Century Learning by charles eldermire ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 01:47 PM

Great point—one of the messages I stress when interpreting about the Cornell University Muesum of Vertebrates Research Collection (housed here at the Cornell Lab) is that each of those specimens is a piece of (formerly) living technology embodying millions of years of evolution that contains information we don't even know exists yet. DNA is an example that I use to drive that issue home, as some of our specimens predate comprehensive understanding of DNA, and yet now are able to be extracted to help us understand the changes over time.

One theme that I think Natural History Museums can (and do) serve is as that context related to baseline— to judge our current actions, impacts, and desired outcomes for the natural world you have to choose a baseline, and the information embedded in natural history collections and the research that mines it gives insight into baselines about various axes (climate, contaminants, habitat composition, etc.).

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Robert Bixler ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 10:24 AM

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1.

What expectations do our audiences have for their experiences in natural history museums ­ or in nature ­ in the 21st Century?

I don't know­­I do my work by examining the lived experiences of people, who occasionally go to summer camps, nature centers, museums, parks, zoos, aquariums, and other places and events that they IDENTIFY with.

I suspect that most folks, other than avid hobbiests, are not interested in "classes", rather an experience of some sort­­with novelty playing a major role. One expectation people have of our learning environments is to be surprised­­they expect the unexpected.

One thing that is increasingly clear to me is that most folks, who are visiting during their leisure time, trying to escape and recover from the stresses of work, do not want to listen to a 22 year old SCA intern lecture them on how environmentally insensitive they are. Part of what we should do is discuss what people shouldn't have to put up with.

2. How has the social and societal context of that our audiences bring with them changed from 10, 20, or 30 years ago, and how has that changed their expectations of their experiences with us?

At the turn of the last century, Liberty Hyde Bailey and Anna Comstock lamented the declining awareness and interest in nature, and this continues. Interest in sports and athleticism is growing. So, how fast, far, high animals can jump and run, and knowing about the animals that are sports team mascots are two surefire perspectives on species. (chuckle) I think people walk more slowly today than they did 30 years ago, because few of us regularly walk to get somewhere, but other than that, society is fast paced, and communications are brief.

3. What opportunities are available to enhance or facilitate learning about natural history and nature in the 21st Century that were not available before?

Technology is a fact and we need to embrace and encourage the use of technology WHEN it works for us.

I just got a smartphone two days ago because I had to­­to keep up with what is going on in leisure/rec learning environments (John euphemistically calls them free­choice learning). I am starting to see nature centers use Twitter to get people out to see ephemeral natural phenomena that cannot be scheduled because­­well they are­­well­­ephemeral. QR codes are being posted (and removed within a week) next to a log that a pileated woodpecker had shredded­­the QR code goes to a web page that explains what the visitor is seeing. One nature center is asking the evening walk­for execise/recover from stress crowd, to photograph box turtles they see in the woods at the nature center, to help with a census. Some apps are great­­I can't find fault with some of the smartphone bird guides with calls on them. I have an app for astronomy "Night Sky" that tells me what star, constellation, ecliptic or planet I am looking at. Costs 99 cents. The PROBLEM with it, is that it knows the stuff. If I wasn't already versed in astronomy, I do not think I could learn astronomy from it. I have heard about other apps that allow a person to photograph an animal or plant and the app makes the identification. Again, I don't think these are particularly useful, because the app know the stuff, not the user. Remember the pain of learning 135 species of trees and shrubs in your dendrology class? I think Natural History organizations can play a role in sorting through this stuff, and helping people make good choices that enhace self­competence and identity.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Richard Kissel ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 04:36 PM

Content authority is one expectation, as is establishing a comfortable setting for a wide range of social behaviors (from close interaction to "parallel play"). And I think that the desire and expectation to see the exotic certainly still has its place. Museums will forever remain curiosity cabinets to an extent. Whether it’s the Hope Diamond, Sue the T. rex, or the Star­Spangled Banner, museums pride themselves on presenting the rare. And it *is* special to see these objects; it creates a strong, emotional connection to our

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history and the planet on which we evolved. Who isn't humbled while standing in the shadows of a fifty­foot whale skeleton? I don't know that audiences necessarily expect these connections, but they are experiences that­­while I am developing an exhibition or program­­I hope that they have.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Rhiannon Crain ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 05:57 PM

I was fascinated by obsessed with the role of "realia," "authentic objects," "artifacts" etc in museum learning during my first 4 years of grad school. I seemed to constantly have my nose in Scott Paris' book, Perspectives on object­centered learning in museums and tried really hard to take that idea­­so often espoused­­that it *is* special to see objects and wrap some learning theory around it. I've got no answers here, but I did want to express a keen interest in this topic, which, of course runs down so many interesting learning science paths ­ bodies and cognition, activity theory, symbols/ discourse/ language ­­­yadda yadda.

I think it is particularly poignent in NH museums because they are so often, historically object­based.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kathleen Tinworth ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 05:16 PM

I am so wishing I had more time to dig into this... but that's what February will be for, right?

We did a really interesting pilot study last summer where we did brief interviews with 600+ people at free community events (NOT inside our museum walls). We asked them about their relationships with nature and science in their daily lives as well as if the museum was a resource to them in those areas and/or how we might become a resource in their communities.

We repeated the same study later (fall 2011) inside our walls (n=170), which provided some pretty fascinating insight both in terms of the differences between our on­site visitors and our larger community as well as if the museum experience appears to change how people think about and frame these topics.

First, these groups were not as divergent as perhaps some may have assumed in terms of how they defined and spoke about nature and science in their lives... though there were subtle differences that make sense within and between the two contexts. Second, when asked about how the museum could/should be a resource, both groups were strikingly similar.

Here are a few quick key findings I can share (and I am happy to pass on the eval reports to anyone who'd like them): Experiments were the most common thing museum visitors think of when they hear the word ‘science’; in the summer Community Study, respondents thought of science disciplines.

84.7% of museum interviewees think that science is a part of their everyday life. Of those, 91.6% said that food was the main reason. In the summer 2011 Community Study, the most prevalent way to experience science every day was through nature.

When museum visitors hear the word ‘nature,’ they most commonly think of animals; in the

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summer Community Study, the most common response was the outdoors.

83.5% of museum visitors think of nature as part of their everyday life. Of those, 57.7% experienced nature through the outdoors. In the summer 2011 Community Study, the most common way to experience nature was through sports.

34.7% of museum visitors mentioned that the museum should be active in the community through schools. Simply being in the community was identified by 21% of respondents as a way for the museum to be part of the community.

We learned a lot through this pilot and will be doing much more with it in 2012. Thought it might be good food for thought for this group.

The responses to this post also made me think about the photo study we have been piloting too, where our museum visitors document their entire museum experience with digital cameras.

This not only provides a much less invasive and time­consuming way to get tracking and timing data, but is fascinating because it is really their view of what they see and attend to. We plan to do future iterations where we do follow up interviews (digital narrative/photo voice stuff).

Anecdotally, there is something happening through this methodology that is changing the way visitors frame and understand their own experiences. We are really excited to dig deeper into what that looks like and could mean.

And finally, if you haven't seen the WorldPark example of using QR codes you really should (right Lynda?!?). Check it out here:http://exposeyourmuseum.com/2011/04/29/destination­qr/ More soon, Kathleen Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Becky Menlove ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 07:27 PM

I'm with you, Kathleen. So many interesting threads and so little time.

I'd love to have a copy of the report from which you've provided excerpts here. It's heartening to see that so many folks consider both science and nature to be a regular part of their lives.

I would like to see a time when the word science evoked a greater sense of depth and ownership; that it's not just something someone else does in a lab, but rather a way of engaging with and understanding the world.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Mary Ann Steiner ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 07:45 AM

Great resources, Kathleen, I'd love to see your evaluation report and I love the idea of a QR code game, maybe one that connects the informal learning places in our town across museums and parks and city streets....It reminds me of a digital ancestor's trail they organize in England where you can trace the ancestry of a particular modern animal but hiking a trail and visiting certain fossil outcroppings along the way http://www.ancestorstrail.net/

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This makes me return to the idea of a Learning Ecology and how each place can pull on the experiences people have in other places as a network rather than an individual destination. What is our role within that system and how do our unique resources support a more vibrant overall community?

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Teresa Randall ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 02:34 PM

Kathleen:

Thanks for sharing the World Park QR code YouTube. I've been trying to spread the word of QR codes at our zoo but never seemed to get much response. I will admit that I love technology, so the idea of using this media probably appealed to me instantly! The YouTube may be just the thing to bring it more to light in terms of how QR codes can be utilized.

Thanks! Teresa Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Kerri Jackson ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 07:49 PM

Bronwyn and I teamed up to answer these questions. While technology is a driving force in society, we wonder if it isn’t a double edged sword when it comes to museums? On one hand, interactive websites, movies and images can spark interest in a topic, but on the other it may create impossible expectations for museums to live up to.

1. Audience Expectations: ∙ See something new and unique, ∙ A sense of walking into another world, ∙ Easily learn facts without having to read deeply, ∙ Learn something unique and interesting about local features and inhabitants, ∙ Have an enjoyable experience, ∙ See or use technology along with the exhibits. ∙ Not be able to touch anything­we hear parents telling their children to not touch anything because they are in a museum. They are always surprised to find out that at least a third of the museum is touchable or hands on.

2. Change in societal context: ∙ News and information is not so mysterious due to internet and instant information, ∙ Science & technology are now so much more a part of our everyday lives than even 10 years ago, that neither is as intimidating as it used to be.

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∙ There may be universal expectations of museums based on social media, internet, etc. ∙ Given the images and information available today it may be more difficult to impress audiences, ∙ With the ability for people to have instant information at their fingertips, audiences may be expecting exhibit features to be tailored to their interests (for example, QR codes and smart phones).

3. Newly available opportunities: ∙ Obviously technology such as the internet which supplies instant information and interactive websites, ∙ Television has made educational shows and entire networks devoted to science and nature more available than ever ­Kerri & Bronwyn Show parent | Reply

Re: 21st Century Learning

by Steve Sullivan ­ Thursday, 12 January 2012, 11:13 PM

1. What expectations do our audiences have for their experiences in natural history museums ­ or in nature ­ in the 21st Century?

A lot of excellent points that I would echo have been made above. In addition to these, there seems to be a segment of our visitors who don’t really know what they expect from a Natural History Museum (even though ours is called “The Nature Museum”). Next to “Where’s the bathroom” the main question I get is “Is it real?” When they ask this about a polar bear mount or study skin I can understand, but it makes less sense when they ask this about a live, wriggling snake I’m holding, or a carcass I’m in the process of skinning. It is also puzzling to me that dead things are considered “not real” by many visitors. Many people seem to be unsure what nature is; some respond as if they’ve had an epiphany when I point out that their neighborhood is full of “nature” they can explore.

I also find that some visitors are simply doing what they feel good people are supposed to do (be cultural, take children on a field trip, spend time with the family, etc.) and that they choose the nature museum because it’s more interactive than the art museum, less noisy than the science center, and more wholesome than a movie.

These two groups though are relatively easy to work with and, when engaged by staff or volunteers, can often come away with an expanded perspective and appreciation of their world. The ones I really worry about include school groups who bring extra chaperones because anticipate a need to sit with children who refuse to go into the live butterfly display, teachers who attend workshops for credit but refuse to look at the insect specimens, or parents who wander the displays telling their children that the specimens are disgusting. These people have some kind of obligation to be in our museums but have an expectation they it will be unpleasant.

2. How has the social and societal context of that our audiences bring with them changed from 10, 20, or

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30 years ago, and how has that changed their expectations of their experiences with us?

Increasing isolation from nature seems to be a driving force for the challenges I see in these populations. Nature programs on TV depict faraway places rather than the urban backyard. Knowledge of local species has little value; those who do know local species usually only know a handful of game animals or pests. Few people involve themselves in the direct attainment or processing of natural products for daily use, even recreationally-- things like butchering meat (even just cutting up a chicken into quarters), knitting or sewing, planting a seed and nurturing it to fruit. Getting dirty and having experiences that allow empathy with other organisms is increasingly rare. As a result, they may not expect discussions of life and death, non-mammalian animals, and ecology, rather simple recreations of beautiful feathers and charismatic mammals.

3. What opportunities are available to enhance or facilitate learning about natural history and nature in the 21st Century that were not available before?

As I look at what I’ve written above, it’s got a bit of a negative tone. Sorry, I’ve joined the discussion late and many of the other more positive ideas have been expressed very well already. I’m not a pessimist and really I see these groups as great opportunities for outreach and progress!

To address this question directly, clearly the gadgets are a great tool that are only beginning to show their potential. They give us a chance to be timely in our discussions of how nature is currently affecting our visitors and to make visitors out of people located thousands of miles away. These gadgets can help us take the wind out of illegitimate but popular arguments—the “authoritative anonymity of a web site” can be countered with the authority of our Tweets. But to do this, we need to change our paradigm a little. While carefully worded and word-counted labels in well curated exhibits must continue, informal on-line dialogue and short posts form knowledgeable people are also important. Can we find place in our staffing for a “curator of online interactions”?

I would like to turn this question around a little too, though, in the context of the kinds of visitors I noted earlier. “What opportunities are available to enhance or facilitate learning about natural history and nature in our institutions that are not available to an increasingly urbanized 21st Century audience?

Our buildings are indispensable. As was mentioned by Mary Ann above, they should be places where people can get lost in learning. But, our buildings and their content should also stimulate people to get lost in observations outside when they leave. I want people to see new aspects of natural history the moment they leave our buildings. While I agree with Robert’s remark that devices can lead people to nature, I think we should also be pursuing ways to help them get into nature sans devices, too.

20th (or 1st) century things like touching (slugs, bones, snakes, fur,) probing (owl pellets, rotting pigs, compost piles) observing (dermestid colonies, taxidermy, animal feedings) participating (sorting artifacts from chaff, weeding the landscaping, working in collections) can all be enhanced with gadgets and virtual connections but also need to

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be made more available to 21st century audiences as pure experience.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Puja Dasari ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 10:36 AM

I think about this question from the perspective of how youth interact with and consume their museum experience. We have over 100k youth come through our doors each year on school field trips and time after time I see them experiencing the Academy through a viewfinder or a screen on their phone. They're so consumed with the idea of capturing their experience that they forget to to come face to face with it.

People want to take their experience home with them, and the most traditional way of doing that is to (now digitally) capture it on film. I am interested in thinking about how we can provide an opportunity for our audiences to take their experience home with them and yet still have a personal experience that isn't viewed through a view finder.

Since youth are so entrenched in the digital experience I know this is a much larger challenge and perhaps more unrealistic to try and separate their experience from their digital tools, so the question for them in my mond shifts to how can we use the technology they're using to capture their experience to add VALUE to the experience­­or better yet enhance the experience they're having.

Technology makes everything "sexier." while we have dioramas full of really stunning taxidermied animals, our adiences (especially youth) can easily get online and watch a video of the same animals in their natural environment on a 60" plasma tv in HD. We know our museum floor offers a totally different experience, but how do we find the middle road to connect our audience to the value of being in person?

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Heejoon Richard Sears ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 03:04 PM

Hi everyone, great discussion! Here in Hawai`i we have a great amount of cultural diversity that is reflected in our audience. We incorporate many culturally relevant lessons into our Science Education programs.

We are currently focusing on giving voice to the Native Hawaiian perspective. This project is entitled Welina Manoa.

Traditionally, the indigenous people of Hawai`i, Kanaka Maoli, have utilized the land where our Arboretum sits. Yet, through colonialism, the dis­enfranchisement of the Native people has meant that there has been a disconnection with people and place. There became a power shift which saw the privatization of land and resources that were traditionally public domain.

Insodoing, the voice of the Native Hawaiian, along with the chants and songs that describe this place, has been silenced. Yet, within those chants and ancient stories and traditions, lie a great amount of wisdom, spiritual healing, and knowledge of place and ecosystems. Hawaiians term it "Hawaiian Science," as exemplified in the ancient creation chant the Kumulipo, a unique binomial nomenclature system of classification is used to describe organisms.

The challenge of 21st Century Learning is to bridge the gap between ancient and modern, oral traditions and empirical science, indigenous and foreign knowledge systems, utilizing technology as a tool to connect communities with place.

The Welina Manoa project that we are currently working on seeks to address these issues. It is an inter­ generational, Native Hawaiian audience, whose inquiries need to be answered. By hosting site visits by Kanaka Maoli families, including grandparents, parents, and children, we are learning what those inquiries are. We are also hosting informal "ethnographic" sessions within the community to find as much traditional

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oral knowledge about our site. New layers of interpretation thus become revealed; history, genealogy, myths, gods, animals, plants, chiefs, water, and agricultural practices are breathed new life.

Websites, QR codes, signage, and our living collections all add to the very powerful multi­sensory experience of connecting people with history and environment, an experience that becomes embeded and leads to true learning, which is transformative.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Steve Sullivan ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 11:19 PM

Much of the technology we currently use (audio tours) and are beginning to use (QR codes) are simply a way to include all of the information that we insiders have always wished we could include on the printed label. However, these HD devices represent optics that our scientific predecessors only dreamt about. This presents us with the opportunity to encourage users to try their hand at some of the more flashy parts of natural history by adapting our exhibits to facilitate visitor involvement. "Zoom in on the hairs of this agouti specimen to observe the rings of pigment... the wings of this moth to observe the scales..." In this way visitors supply their own tools and have increased opportunities for exploration.

We can also create simple photo ops. At the zoo my kids always want a picture with their faces poking through the face holes in the mural of hopping cartoon kangaroos. What if we had a dermestid tank with glass on two sides, one for your face, the other for the camera. Maybe include labeled places to set your camera so you can take a picture with your friends. I'm constantly being stopped in the hall to take pictures of family groups in front of the polar bear. In such a context, if the label copy was big enough, the message near the bear would be part of the group photo.

Watching a "home movie" recently I saw a displaying bird of paradise. The filmmaker apparently didn't think it was anything special but all I could think of was the trials David Attenborough went through to film those first images of the same spectacle half a century ago. The technology has made such endeavors easier. We can show people what they can record and why it's neat. We can even make them in to citizen scientist photographers and filmmakers. Remember the "A day in the life of *your country here*" books?

What about a biological day in the life of everywhere? Such an activity would extend our museums beyond their walls.

Of course these are all still with the visitor looking at the screen. My best solution to that dilemma is to hand the visitor a live snake. They'll take a picture then sit with the snake for a good while afterwards.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Stacey Sekscienski ­ Friday, 13 January 2012, 06:31 PM

I want to first start by saying that zoos are naturally “experience stimulating” (Kaleen) places. I think we have a much less challenging job in terms of creating interactive and memorable experiences with our guests than those folks that don’t have as many opportunities for “live” interactions with animals/nature.

Somebody can walk into the zoo, stand in front of lion exhibit watching an animal for hours and never read anything and still have an “aha” moment and feel connected with nature.

1. Expectations of Audience Considering all types of audience, I have to agree with Teresa that our visitors are in search of an immediate gratifying experience. To expand upon that, and thinking about a “common thread or expectation” that we can identify among all of our types of visitors, I would say to think about it in the most basic of needs. Many have touched upon this in their posts i.e. satisfying experience, enjoyable experience (Kerri), escaping the stresses of the world (Robert). I think it is just that simple. One subject we seem to find ourselves discussing over and over again at the zoo is how do we measure if we’ve met

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those expectations? And I think, some people come to the zoo not even knowing what those expectations are. I know that sometimes the most memorable educational moments happen unexpectedly and that these probably happen quite frequently in free­choice learning situations. I think if we focus on these simple expectations to lure or encourage people into an experience where free­choice can occur, then you have just given the responsibility back to those visitors to learn something on their own. You have created a learning opportunity without forcing it on the visitors.

2. How has the social and societal context changed those expectations?

Again, back to immediate gratification as resulted expectation born out of our dependence electronic and digital media and social networking. I would also add most visitors have a short attention span which adds to the challenge of relaying a message effectively, but in a short amount of time.

3. What opportunities enhance or facilitate learning today?

I like Robert’s comment and believe that using smart and other electronic devices or “virtual” experiences to lead folks back to nature or “actual” experiences is a goal that all of us should have. I think as more of us tire of all of the “digital noise” of the world and start realizing that what our society is craving are these “real or actual” experiences, it will be easier to get people to seek out these real experiences on their own.

I love the idea of having live remotes with scientists and researchers in the field. I think this can be used in all settings to draw the visitor in or call them to action. In AZA realms, we discuss how storytelling can be an effective way to spark that connection within someone. Agreeing with Ellen’s statement about personal narrative being important, I think these live remotes of “storytelling in the field” could be a very effective tool for all of us in the future.

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Grace Kimble ­ Saturday, 14 January 2012, 03:35 AM

Hi, To identify a research question I surveyed educators who were involved in delivering biodiversity learning experiences for the International Year of Biodiversity.

Like our discussion here, people recommended the need to focus on the authentic. However, assumed definitions of 'real' varied depended on their natural history setting­ real meant outdoors, 3D specimens and alive.

I totally agree with Robert about audience expectations of surprise, particularly for school children.

In terms of understanding the societal context, changing themes affect what visitors already know when they come to the museum.

Has anyone got access to any data about visitor baseline knowledge about the natural world, say from 30 years ago?

It would be great to repeat a study using the same methodology and characterise those differences in prior knowledge.

As part of research I have some interesting data about what 9 year olds think about nature before and after informal learning experiences about the natural world.

I am keen to know, as part of thinking about new opportunities, if anyone has a simple 'ecological literacy assessment tool'?

I have a few ideas about how to place visitor knowledge on a spectrum when thinking about individuals before and after authentic experiences about nature, but I would like to hear what you think...

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Re: 21st Century Learning

by Briana Pobiner ­ Tuesday, 17 January 2012, 02:12 PM

I participated in and helped to facilitate a live, remote "Scientist is Out" program a few summers ago from our archaeological field site in southern Kenya. We've also done live tweeting with various scientists from this field site. I can tell you that from both my scientist and educator perspectives, this was a really exciting, enjoyable, and authentic program ­­ it's the next best thing to having museum visitors right there digging next to you! I'd love to hear from others who have done this regarding 1) what technology works best (with reasonable costs!) and 2) how both visitors and scientists viewed the experience.

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Participants Katey Ahmann

Raleigh

United States

Robert Bixler

Seneca

2

United States

3

Ailsa Barry

London

United Kingdon

Alicia BorregoPierce

Albuquerq ue

United States

Anne Botman

Ottawa

Canada

Carlyn Buckler

Ithaca, NY

Anne Burnett

San Francisco

David Catlin

Springfield

Christine Chandler

Davenport

Rhiannon Crain

Ithaca

Kevin Crowley

Pittsburgh

United States

Puja Dasari

San Francisco

United States

Judy Diamond

Lincoln

United States

Betty Dunckel

Gainesville

United States

Richard Efthim

Washingto n

charles eldermire

Ithaca

Kirsten Ellenbogen

St. Paul

Margaret Evans

Ann Arbor, Michigan

John Falk

Corvallis

United States

Bettendorf

United States

1

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

United States United States United States United States United States

11

12

13 14 15 16 17 18

United States United States United States United States

19 20

Kara Fedje

NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Clemson University Natural History Museum New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Canadian Museum of Nature Museum of the Earth NatureBridge National Audubon Society Putnam Museum Cornell Lab of Ornithology Center for Learning in Out­of­ School Environments (UPCLOSE) California Academy of Science University of Nebraska State Museum Florida Museum of Natural History National Museum of Natural History Cornell Lab of Ornithology Science Museum of Minnesota University of Michigan

Oregon University

http://naturalscienc es.org/ http://www.clemson .edu/hehd/departme nts/prtm/ www.nhm.ac.uk

http://www.nmnatu ralhistory.org/ http://nature.ca/en/ home http://www.museum oftheearth.org/ http://www.natureb ridge.org/ http://www.audubon .org/ http://www.putnam. org/ http://www.birds.co rnell.edu/

http://upclose.lrdc.p itt.edu/UPCLOSE/Wh o_we_are.html http://www.calacade my.org/ http://wwwmuseum.unl.edu/ http://www.flmnh.uf l.edu/ http://www.mnh.si.e du/ http://www.birds.co rnell.edu/ http://www.smm.org / http://www.umich.e du/ http://seagrant.oreg onstate.edu/educatio n/free-choicelearning

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San Francisco

United States

Cecilia Garibay

Chicago

United States

Honor Gay

London

Josh Gutwill

San Francisco

United Kingdom United States

Wendy Hancock

Washingto n

United States

Annie Holdren

Pacific Grove

United States

Michael Horn

Evanston, IL

Kerri Jackson

Anchorage

United States United States

Kirk Johnson

Denver

Bronwyn Jones

Anchorage

Erica Kelly

San Diego

Lynda Kelly

Sydney

Australia

Mary Kiely

Portola Valley

United States

Maggie Kilian

Ottawa

Canada

Grace Kimble

London

Jim Kisiel

Long Beach

Richard Kissel

Ithaca

Karen Knutson

Pittsburgh

United States

Washingto n Edgewater , MD

United States United States

Pacific Grove

United States

Pittsburgh

United States

Maureen Flannery 21

22 23 24

25

26 27 28

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

United States United States United States

United Kingdom United States United States

38 39 40

Randi Korn Emlyn Koster Lori Mannel

41 Ellen McCallie 42

California Academy of Science

Natural History Museum Exploratorium Association of Science­ Technology Centers Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Northwestern University

http://www.calacade my.org/

www.nhm.ac.uk/edu cation http://www.explorat orium.edu/

http://www.astc.org / http://www.pgmuse um.org/ http://www.northwe stern.edu/ http://alaskamuseu m.org/

Alaska Museum Denver Museum of Nature and http://www.dmns.or Science g/ http://alaskamuseu Alaska Museum m.org/ San Diego Natural http://www.sdnhm.o History Museum rg/ http://australianmus Australian Museum eum.net.au/ http://www.natureb NatureBridge ridge.org/ Canadian Museum http://nature.ca/en/ of Nature home Institute of Education www.ioe.ac.uk California State http://www.cnsm.cs University ulb.edu/depts/scied/ Museum of the http://www.museum Earth oftheearth.org/ Center for Learning in Out­of­ School http://upclose.lrdc.p Environments itt.edu/UPCLOSE/Wh (UPCLOSE) o_we_are.html

Institute for Learning Innovation Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History

http://www.ilinet.or g/display/ILI/Home

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

http://www.carnegie mnh.org/

http://www.pgmuse um.org/

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43 44

Leah Melber

chicago

Becky Menlove

Salt Lake City

United States United States

Chris Norris

New Haven

United States

Berna Onat

Washingto n

United States

Robert Petty

Stevensvill e, MT

United States

Jane Pickering

New Haven

United States

Briana Pobiner

Washingto n DC

United States

Don Pohlman

San Francisco

United States

45 46 47

48 49 50

Kaleen Povis

Pittsburgh

United States

Diane Quinn

Seattle

United States

Teresa Randall

Oklahoma City

Nan Renner

San Diego

Rafael Rosa

Chicago

Kirsten Rowell

Seattle

United States

Salt Lake City Muir Beach

United States United States

Heejoon Richard Sears

Honolulu

United States

Maija Sedzielarz

St. Paul

Stacey Sekscienski

Oklahoma City

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52 53 54 55

56 57 58

59 60 61

62 63 64

Madlyn Runburg Scott Sampson

United States United States United States

United States United States

Chia Shen

Cambridge

United States

Mary Ann Steiner

Pittsburgh

United States

Steve Sullivan

Chicago

United States

Lincoln Park Zoo Natural History Museum of Utah Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

http://www.lpzoo.or g/ http://nhmu.utah.ed u/ http://peabody.yale. edu/

National Museum of Natural History National Audubon Society Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

http://www.mnh.si.e du/ http://www.audubon .org/

National Museum of Natural History

http://www.mnh.si.e du/

Center for Learning in Out­of­ School Environments (UPCLOSE) Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle

http://upclose.lrdc.p itt.edu/UPCLOSE/Wh o_we_are.html

Oklahoma Zoo San Diego Natural History Museum Chicago Academy of Sciences Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle Natural History Museum of Utah Natural History Museum of Utah Children's Garden at the University of Hawaii Science Museum of Minnesota

http://peabody.yale. edu/

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Oklahoma Zoo Harvard University­ Life on Earth http://sdr.seas.harva project rd.edu/life-on-earth Carnegie Museum of Natural History Chicago Academy of Sciences

http://www.carnegie mnh.org/ http://www.chias.or g/

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Judy Tasse

Washingto n DC

Steve Thompson

Chicago

Kathleen Tinworth

Denver

United States

Reiko Trow

Honolulu

United States

Katie Velazco

Washingto n, DC

United States

Bill Watson

Washingto n

United States

Corona.

New Yorh Edgewater , MD

United States United States

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martin weiss Steve Yalowitz

United States United States

National Zoological http://nationalzoo.si Park .edu/ http://www.lpzoo.or Lincoln Park Zoo g/ Denver Museum of Nature and http://www.dmns.or Science g/ Children's Garden http://www.ctahr.ha at the University of waii.edu/hih/childre Hawaii n.asp National Museum of Natural History

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