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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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At last fall's conference, I thought that some of the dioramas in the
Louisville Science Center's World Around Us exhibit did a nice job by
mixing in some kinesthetics + imagination; in other words, if they've
got a set-up of an ecosystem of a cave or a tree trunk, bygosh you gotta
crawl into that sucker.

I'm not sure if this applies, as it's on a much bigger scale than most
museums could manage - and with live specimens, but... the children's
zoo at the Baltimore Zoo does similar things - you walk into a big cave
to see the bat habitat, an underground tunnel leads to an underwater one
to view the otters etc. It's pretty cool.

Personally, I think just about all exhibits work better with a staffed
programming component to complement them. There are lots of quick n easy
observation programs that can be done. If you're looking for a
diorama/natural history kind of thing, you might include the classic owl
pellet dissection, then dare visitors to locate the owl in the exhibit.
Or break out skulls/bones/whatever, let visitors touch, chat about em...
and explain how said bones help animals adapt to their environment -
another good lead in to "look for the..." This helps because, Rule #1:
No one reads signage.

The ASTC website sells the Exploratorium's APE book (excellent, btw)
which includes a section on getting active prolonged engagement (I
suspect they chose that phrase just because of the cool acronym!) with
observation of exhibits, though not the diorama-style stuff you referred
to.

Speaking of apes...

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert L. Russell
 
3.  The National Zoo in DC designed the "think tank" to encourage
visitors 
to observe orangutans as they played in a space designed to encourage  
exploration.  Maybe some of these approaches could be applied to static
dioramas.
---------

Really? Do tell if you've got ideas on how! I've seen the Think Tank,
and it is pretty cool.

Rule #2, Don't talk about Fight Club,
Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
The Children's

"If you hear only one song this year, there's something terribly wrong
with you."
    -They Might Be Giants

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