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Hi Marianne,

If you already have the main tanks/exhibits, touch tanks, and are  
planning the kiosks, what would be the advantage of the worksheet if  
you want to give the older kids MORE control over their visits? Most  
worksheets I've encountered, no matter how artfully designed, often  
seem to degenerate into a race for the kids to "fill in the blanks"  
and then say they're "finished" with their visit.

I've been doing some work with the NY Hall of Science and Columbia  
University on a project to develop more "open ended" formats to  
engage visitors at traditional kiosks/demo carts, and so far the  
results have been excellent.  Feel free to contact me off list for  
more info.

Good Luck!


On Jan 9, 2007, at 8:44 AM, Marianne Mortensen wrote, in part:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I am the education officer at Galaway Atlantaquaria, a medium-sized  
> aquarium with native Irish aquatic species. I am currently working  
> on a science programme for Irish secondary school, which is grades  
> 9-12. We have had a great success with our grades 1-8 science  
> programme, and now we are looking to the older kids.
>
> My idea is to let these older kids have more control over their  
> visit. I'd like to design a worksheet (I am a worksheet proponent!)  
> with a number of open-ended tasks for the kids to do in any order  
> they want to. These tasks would involve observations of the  
> aquarium animals, interactions with some of the animals (we've got  
> touch tanks available for this), and doing a number of science  
> experiments. The science experiments would be available at manned  
> kiosks throughout the aquarium, and the kiosk docent would be able  
> to guide students through the experiments and ask (hopefully)  
> insightful questions! I'm thinking of water-based experiments such  
> as the "blubber glove", make a thermomenter, and water salinity and  
> density, that can all contribute to an understanding of marine  
> science subjects.

----------------------------------------------------------

Paul Orselli, President and Chief Instigator

Paul Orselli Workshop (POW!)
1684 Victoria Street
Baldwin, NY  11510

www.orselli.net

(516) 223-1043  voice
(516) 238-2797  mobile

The Great Big List of Exhibit Resources:  http://www.orselli.net/ 
sources.htm




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