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Hi, Ian and all:

The "living collections" world of zoos, botanical gardens, and
arboreta, in which I worked for 15 years, have attitude change about
the environment as a core of their mission.   I think zoos, in
particular, have made this the intellectual linchpin of their public
activities.  I also think that living collections have a leg up on the
interactive science museum world in this goal, as there is a deeply
held affective response to landscapes, horticulture, and above all
animals.  EO Wilson's book Biophilia addresses this
(http://www.quinion.com/words/turnsofphrase/tp-bio2.htm).

The Bronx Zoo, which was a leader in affirming this as their public
goal, did a particularly good job starting in the early 1990's of
making every new exhibit about conservation.  While gardens and zoos do
impart knowledge about the natural world, they also aspire to change
peoples attitudes toward plants, animals, ecology, and conservation.
On the other hand, I don't know to what extent they have evaluated
their success.  I'm sure major NSF funded projects like the Children's
Adventure Garden at the NY Botanical Garden, and the Congo Forest at
the Bronx Zoo have evaluation data, but I don't know if they focused on
affective or "content" learning goals.

Beyond this affective change, I don't know of any science exhibit for
which evaluation was done to assess changes in behavior...whether
people were more likely to recycle, buy organic, or eat lower on the
food chain as a result of an informal learning experience.  It would be
interesting to hear about any such studies, either in informal or
formal education.

Eric Siegel
Director, Planning & Program Development
Connections Project Director
New York Hall of Science

On Dec 9, 2003, at 4:11 AM, Ian Russell wrote:



> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> ***********************************************************************
> ******
>
> I think this is a particularly interesting kind of question because it
> is
> so seldom asked. I am convinced that "inspiring behaviour change" is
> exactly the kind of way that informal science centre experiences
> balance
> formal classroom learning. It is part of the whole neglected package of
> "affective learning" (beliefs, values, attitudes, interest,
> self-confidence
> etc), yet seldom evaluated because measuring "cognitive learning"
> (knowledge and understanding) is so much easier and relates more
> directly
> to classroom values.
>
> Over the years I have seen many projects - whose real ultimate
> objective is
> to influence people's ATTITUDES - unthinkingly assume that the only
> way to
> achieve this is to improve their KNOWLEDGE.
>
> It would be great to persuade people to boycott purchases of dried
> sharks'
> jaws in tourist shops, or shark's-fin soup in restaurants, but there
> may be
> problems persuading said shops and restaurants to help with evaluation
> studies...
>
> Maybe a more healthily positive approach would be to promote a specific
> event, or book, or TV series. Meanwhile, you could monitor attendance,
> sales or viewing statistics.
>
> Changing the public's popular-lecture-attendance, or book-buying or
> documentary-TV-viewing behaviour, for example, seem to me pretty
> useful,
> measurable kinds of science education.
>
> I once wrote:
> "Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour. Awaken
> curiosity
> and they feed their own minds for a lifetime."
>
>
> [log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
> *
> People forget what you said, people forget what you did,
> but people will never forget how you made them feel.
> *
> Ian Russell
>
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