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Hi Catherine,

We have had similar findings to Jonah, regarding excursion
administrative preparations deterring local school groups from visiting,
as well as costs (bus travel, entry fees and relief teacher costs where
relevant). 
Many years ago, we paid a local bus company for a set number of bus
trips, which a limited number of schools could use to come to our
Centre, but many of the offers went un-used, because it was too much
paperwork hassle for schools to come in. In surveying teachers many
years ago, they also expressed the perception that local kids visit with
their families on weekends/holidays anyway, so local museums (mostly
national institutions) weren't high on those particular teachers'
excursion destination list. 

On the other hand, we have been trialling free entry to local school
groups for one month each year when major maintenance/exhibition change
over occurs, and we've found that has worked fairly well in building
numbers during our quietest period of the year without interfering too
much with the exhibition work. Most importantly, our local face-to-face
in-school Outreach programs are greatly appreciated by teachers, and
they book out very quickly. Digital Outreach programs (through Skype)
are also an option if you can't afford to have travelling staff.

Cindy Chambers

Questacon Exhibition Services
Canberra, Australia

-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jonah Cohen
Sent: Thursday, 27 October 2011 3:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Declining attendance from school groups

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
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*****

Pardon my provincialism, but...

One way to cope with many of the issues that lead  to declining school
numbers: spend more resources pushing your outreach program.

Between bus costs, time spent booking the busses, time spent getting the
field trip permission slips, time spent traveling on the busses, plus
the cost per student of outreach vs in-house programs at the museum....
outreach starts looking pretty good.

Not that I'm biased or anything.

Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
The Children's Museum
Chair, National Education Outreach Network

"Burning garbage makes smoke, which floats up to the sky where it
becomes stars."
"That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about stars to
dispute it."

-----Original Message-----
Hi all,

Last spring we did some focus group research with teachers (a
combination of loyal and lapsed customers) to try to understand factors
that may be contributing to declining attendance from this important
stakeholder group.  Unfortunately, our findings showed that there were a
number of things that contributed to teachers not getting out of the
classroom as much (ie. no silver bullet - darn!), some of which are
quite outside of our control (cost of buses). 

I know a general decline in attendance is being seen at other
institutions, and maybe to science centres/museums as a whole.  I'm
interested in hearing from others regarding attendance trends from this
particular market.  Has anyone else done research to try to identify
specific issues/reasons for the decline/potential opportunities? Has
anyone introduced new programming or models of engagement that are
seeing positive results re student numbers? 

Thanks in advance for your responses. 
Catherine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Catherine Paisley
Vice-President, Science Education
Ontario Science Centre
416-696-3295
[log in to unmask]
www.ontariosciencecentre.ca

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