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Bill Schmitt asked:
>- a bad physics learning experience that does not generate quality
>cognitive engagement and personal understanding can be a significant
>contributor to science illiteracy that can actually foster people who are
>the problem when it comes to EV /ID and any other science understanding.
>
>So my questions are:  What are some specific criteria for any exhibit that
>seem to have the power to change a good exhibit into a great self learning
>science experience for a visitor?

Ed Sobey said:
>I suggest engaging people with a challenge ("Can you ...." ) sometimes
>followed by a record of what/how others did to meet that challenge.  This
>can be amazingly effective and infectious.
>
>Floor people engage visitors.  Explainers don't, but "engagers" do.  The
>goal is to supply questions and opportunities and not to supply so many
>answers (answers leading to the end of discussion).

I've just spent almost a couple of weeks working as guest presenter of 
science shows at the truly excellent Technorama science centre in 
Switzerland. http://www.technorama.ch/ Between shows I had hours to watch 
visitors and explore the exhibits. I fell in love with the place. 
Technorama is one of the few places which remain closely faithful to the 
original Frank Oppenheimer science centre philosophy, where the emphasis is 
on experiencing phenomena. Its crowds of visitors also love it and even 
teenagers seem to regard it as a cool place to hang out. The 
visitor-experience here is genuinely exploratory.

I think it's all about the balance between explanation and exploration. Too 
much of one, and less of the other remains. In the classroom, we need 
explanation. But exploration is the life-blood of the science centre. An 
'exploratory' science centre is a wonderful learning environment. Just the 
subtlest over-emphasis on directed learning and explanation, and we flip it 
over from learning environment to teaching environment, and the magic, and 
the quality of the visitor-experience vanish like a fragile rainbow bubble.

Some influential people believe visitors cannot learn unless they are being 
taught, by an 'explanatory exhibit' or by an 'explainer'. They are wrong, 
and are a threat to the effectiveness and popularity of science centres.

Frank Oppenheimer wrote, "Many people who talk about the discovery method 
of teaching are really talking about arranging a lesson or an experiment so 
that students discover what they are supposed to discover. That is not an 
exploration. The whole tradition of exploration is being lost for entire 
generations."

It's well worth hunting for the many old pearls of wisdom in Oppenheimer's 
writings. In attempting to 'improve' on his vision we have risked losing 
something very valuable. 
http://www.google.com/u/explo?q=oppenheimer&sa.x=11&sa.y=5

(And no apology for having posted more than once about EV/CRE/ID by the 
way. You can't just dismiss such a critical science-communication issue.)


[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
*
Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
*
Ian Russell  

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