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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Howdy, y’all. 

 

In my new life as a Research Assistant on a science education reform
project in the DC area, I’ve been trying to find as many connections to
the informal science community as possible in the research that I am
encountering. 

 

One interesting aspect of the project on which I am working is student
engagement and motivation (in the classroom) when science is taught with
curricula designed to teach science through inquiry and hands-on
learning. The hope is to connect engagement and motivation to higher
levels of student content understanding. 

 

This element of the project reminded me of a presentation I saw at ASTC
or NSTA a few years back by Maureen Callanan, who is working with CILS
at the Exploratorium. The gist of the presentation, if I recall
correctly, was that when simple changes to specific exhibits were made,
girls spent an increased amount of time engaged with them. I remember
thinking at the time that an interesting next step might be to try to
assess the impact that engagement with an exhibit, per se, has on
long-term retention of the content addressed by the exhibit. 

 

This brings me back to the potential with the current study. If we were
able to show a positive relationship between engagement in hands-on
learning/the process of inquiry and increased content understanding,
would this information be useful when “making the case” to teachers or
to potential funders? Would a study that used a similar (or perhaps even
the same) assessments of engagement with exhibits in the science center
environment be useful? My thinking is that this might be a way to begin
to quantify the informal experience as one in which students become
engaged with a topic and perhaps even relate that engagement to content
understanding when they return to the classroom. 

 

Or is there already research that addresses these issues? 

 

I realize that this is a Pandora’s Box with the informal science
community – one that I believe I’ve opened before on this very
listserv. The debate over whether or not we should try to quantify
ourselves or even try to have an impact on the formal learning
experience is one that I’m sure raged long before I came on the scene
and will likely continue long after we’re all gone. This is just my
latest foray into it. I’d appreciate any musings, beratings, or other
such comments that anyone sees fit to provide. 

 

Ah, it’s nice to be back on the listserv, waxing philosophic on a
Friday afternoon. There’s still no better way to while away the
remaining hours of a work week. :-)

 

Bill

 

Bill Watson

Research Assistant, SCALE-uP

The George Washington University

Graduate School of Education and Human Development

Department of Teacher Preparation and Special Education

2134 G Street, NW

Washington, DC  20052

Phone: (202) 994-1171

Fax: (202) 994-0692

 

 


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