By Jeff Hayward

Abstract

The exhibition, Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor, at the Levine Museum of the New South, in Charlotte, North Carolina, is more than a story about a changing community—it’s a platform for an experience that engages its local audience.

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• Jeff Hayward (jeffhayward@ppdresearch.com) is director of People, Places and Design Research.

DOI: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2010.00048.x

© 2010 The California Academy of Sciences

by Neal Stimler

by Robert R. Janes

by John W. Jacobsen

by Linda Duke

by Jessica J. Luke, Karen Knutson

Abstract

The Learning Science in Informal Environments report holds great potential for creating change among those who work in the field of science education. But to what extent can it inform other sectors of the informal education world? This article explores how the LSIE report might influence research and practice in art museums. By comparing the report to a recent study in art education, the authors point out areas of overlap and divergence relative to content and skills, identity, and communities of practice. We suggest several implications for how art museums and science museums might learn from one another. A call to action is made for further research and discussion about common learning goals and outcomes for the art museum experience.

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by Nancy Ross Dribin, Angelique Rickhoff

Abstract

Digital environments are one of the newest methods of resource- and program-creation to be added to the museum toolkit, and are increasingly employed by museums across all fields to support learning. Unfortunately, this category is also one of the least-fleshed-out components in the Learning Science in Informal Environments (LSIE) chapter devoted to media. The report does not take into account the increasingly interwoven nature of media resources, particularly those found in digital environments. It is imperative that museums both become familiar with the breadth of research that is available related to digital environments and that they continue to specifically build an understanding of how this works in a museum setting.

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by Dennis Bartels, Robert Semper, Bronwyn Bevan

Abstract

Writing from a science museum perspective, the authors argue that the Learning Science in Informal Environments report arrives at a critical time, when growing policy interest in informal learning environments provides new opportunities for the museum field but also introduces potential threats to autonomy, diversity, and creativity. The authors explore critical questions raised in the report, including: 1) whether and how we represent our subject matter as cultural fields of practice, as opposed to fixed collections of facts and artifacts; 2) how we ensure, at a time of increasing interest and scrutiny from policymakers, that we continue to design for a variety of learning opportunities both across and within our institutions, thus sustaining rich, robust learning for more diverse and inclusive audiences; 3) how we develop better assessment questions, methodologies, and instrumentation that can more effectively address the contributions museums make to local learning ecologies. The authors conclude that, at this juncture, it is just as important for the education research community to learn from the practices of the museum field, as it is for the museum field to learn from the research.

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• Dennis Bartels (dbartels@exploratorium.edu) is executive director of the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
• Robert Semper (rsemper@exploratorium.edu) is executive associate director of the Exploratorium and director of programs.
• Bronwyn Bevan (bronwynb@exploratorium.edu) is director of the NSF-funded Center for Informal Learning and Schools, based at the Exploratorium.

by Andrew Shouse, Bruce V. Lewenstein, Michael Feder, Philip Bell

Abstract

In this article, the editors of the recent National Research Council report Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits discuss the report’s implications for museum professionals. The report is a synthesis of some 2,000 studies and evaluations of learning in non-school settings such as museums. Here we focus on three specific topics discussed in the full report, which we see as particularly important for museum professionals. These are: a framework for developing and studying science learning experiences; cultural diversity as an integral resource for learning; and assessment of learning. Many museums include “learning” among their goals and many researchers concern themselves with how museums and other settings can be organized to support learning. Yet this wealth of research is rarely brought into focus and offered as guidance to the museum community.

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• Andrew Shouse (awshouse@uw.edu) is associate director of the Institute for Science and Mathematics Education and visiting assistant professor of Educational Psychology, University of Washington. 
• Bruce V. Lewenstein (b.lewenstein@cornell.edu) is professor of science communication, Cornell University.
• Michael Feder (mfeder@nas.edu) is a senior program officer with the Board on Science Education, National Research Council.
• Philip Bell (pbell@uw.edu) is director of the Institute for Science and Mathematics Education and associate professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Washington, 1100 NE 45th Street, Suite 200, Seattle, WA, 98105.

by Ken Yellis

There are an estimated 17,500 museums in the United States. If people think these institutions are pretty much the same once you get inside or that the differences between them are unimportant, it might be hard to persuade them that all 17,500 are needed. Exhibitions can have great transformational power; why don’t they exercise that power more often? Have museums not fully understood exhibitions as a medium? Have we not devoted enough attention to the full repertoire of visitor feelings? Have visitors been telling us this and we have failed to listen? For many people, museums play many roles in their lives; for most others few or none. How can this be? ‘‘Museum-adept’’ visitors seem to prize museums as theaters in which their own emotional and spiritual journeys can be staged, but what about the non-museum-adept? Can the museum-adept teach us how to realize our medium’s full potential?

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• Ken Yellis (Kenyellis@aol.com) is the Principal of First Light Museum Consultants, 378 Gibbs Avenue, Newport, RI 02840.