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

Bill,

You should definitely check out the Exploratorium's Prolonged Extended
Engagement initiative.  Not sure I have the name quite right but . . . Also
their Inquiry Institute website has loads of information that may be useful
to you.

Sara


‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹‹

Sara DeAngelis
Project Manager/Lead Exhibit Developer
Brooklyn Children's Museum
145 Brooklyn Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11213


p. 718 735-4400 x149
c. 718 578-8269
e. [log in to unmask]





On 8/6/04 4:53 PM, "Bill Watson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> Howdy, y¹all. 
> 
> 
> 
> In my new life as a Research Assistant on a science education reform
> project in the DC area, I¹ve 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 ³making the case² 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 Pandora¹s Box with the informal science
> community 

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