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Hi Martin,

No, I don't know of evolution exhibitions targeted at the young.
I'm intrigued by your NSF Life Changes project and would like to know  
more (and help and contribute). Im convinced our museums and centers  
must play a pivotal role in fighting unscientific thinking and  
creationsim. All the more so if schools are neglecting and/or  
avoiding tackling evolution as a crucial pillar of science, and  
embedding it into the curriculum across disciplines!

> Date:    Wed, 30 May 2007 11:55:59 -0400
> From:    martin weiss <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Storytelling, creationism, evolution and museums  
> (longish)
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> ********************************************************************** 
> *******
>
> Diana;
>
> We have embarked on an NSF funded project, Life Changes, to
> understand how children learn and understand evolution and to apply
> this to an exhibition and other programs. There is a lot of research
> that suggest that children regardless of family religious back ground
> (except fundamentalist families) can be encouraged and nudged to a
> more naturalistic interpretation of the natural world than their
> innate creationism would allow. We are evaluating a narrative story
> which is sucessful in engaging children in understanding evolution.
> We are continuing research and evaluation on this narrative and I
> fully expect it to be integral to our final program.
>
> As part of the project we are also exploring ways of helping venues
> for the exhibition, and others,  train their docents, volunteers and
> Explainers to present evolution as science. (I wonder how the
> volunteers in Kentucky handle visitors who insist that they have the
> story wrong?) Many museums that have evolution exhibitions  have
> organized training sessions for their docents and these will serve as
> models for the training we are developing (eg Field Musuem, San Diego
> Musuem of Natural History, Denver, and others). The major difference
> between what they are doing and what we are developing is the age of
> the audience. There are no (?) exhibitions about evolution for
> specifically for children under 10-11-12 yo. If there are would you
> let me know?
>
> School decisions tend to be local, in many parts of the country, so
> we need to be involved with local school boards. Kansas is an example
> and Dover is another of what can happen.
>
> There are many roots causes and many solutions to the problem of
> science understanding and literacy. An interesting insight is
> http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge211.html#bloom2
>
> Martin

– –
Dr. Diana C. Issidorides
Senior Scientist & Exhibition Developer
Science Center NEMO
P.O. Box 421
1000 AK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T: +31205313201
[log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]
www.e-nemo.nl

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