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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Dale,
Your question is excellent, getting at the heart of what makes
science centers valuable to their communities. And I would be
interested to study also what children learn about their parents in
the course of a visit.
I have come to feel that Science Centers are wrong to style
themselves as institutions of informal education, where through
combinations of carefully designed programs and exhibits, a
mysterious something called "science content" is transfered from
overflowing reservoirs, into partly-empty, partly-full "containers" -
the visitors' minds. If we saw ourselves instead as institutions of
informal learning, where visitors and staff share experiences that
are valuable more for their context than their "content", the true
potential of our field might be more effectively advanced.
Very little is learned in a single try. Practice, repetition, trial
and error, and trial, trial again are the paths to understanding that
science centers provide. In giving children opportunities to show
their companions, parents, or teachers what they know and what they
want to learn, a science center strongly supports its mission.
all the best,
Tom Nielsen
The Exhibit Guys Inc.
On Apr 27, 2006, at 8:21 AM, Dale McCreedy wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> **********************************************************************
> *******
>
> We (The Franklin Institute and GSUSA) developed an NSF-funded
> national initiative to promote child-adult collaborative science
> learning called Girls At the Center (GAC). The Institute for
> Learning Innovation evaluated the program. The question I liked
> best - derived from a conversation at the time with someone at the
> Tucson Children's Museum - was used with adults and proved very
> informative. "What did you learn about the child you came with
> today." Responses were rich and really captured the socio-cultural
> nature of their experience.
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dale McCreedy, Ph.D. - [log in to unmask]
> Director, Gender and Family Learning Programs
> Franklin Institute Science Museum
> 222 N. 20th Street
> Philadelphia, PA 19103
> 215-448-1092 / 215-448-1219 (fax)
>
> http://www.fi.edu/tfi/programs/nsp.html
> http://www.fi.edu/tfi/programs/gac.html
> http://www.fi.edu/ppss/
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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