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Date: | Wed, 24 Aug 2005 16:01:19 +0100 |
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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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Bill Schmitt asked:
>- a bad physics learning experience that does not generate quality
>cognitive engagement and personal understanding can be a significant
>contributor to science illiteracy that can actually foster people who are
>the problem when it comes to EV /ID and any other science understanding.
>
>So my questions are: What are some specific criteria for any exhibit that
>seem to have the power to change a good exhibit into a great self learning
>science experience for a visitor?
Ed Sobey said:
>I suggest engaging people with a challenge ("Can you ...." ) sometimes
>followed by a record of what/how others did to meet that challenge. This
>can be amazingly effective and infectious.
>
>Floor people engage visitors. Explainers don't, but "engagers" do. The
>goal is to supply questions and opportunities and not to supply so many
>answers (answers leading to the end of discussion).
I've just spent almost a couple of weeks working as guest presenter of
science shows at the truly excellent Technorama science centre in
Switzerland. http://www.technorama.ch/ Between shows I had hours to watch
visitors and explore the exhibits. I fell in love with the place.
Technorama is one of the few places which remain closely faithful to the
original Frank Oppenheimer science centre philosophy, where the emphasis is
on experiencing phenomena. Its crowds of visitors also love it and even
teenagers seem to regard it as a cool place to hang out. The
visitor-experience here is genuinely exploratory.
I think it's all about the balance between explanation and exploration. Too
much of one, and less of the other remains. In the classroom, we need
explanation. But exploration is the life-blood of the science centre. An
'exploratory' science centre is a wonderful learning environment. Just the
subtlest over-emphasis on directed learning and explanation, and we flip it
over from learning environment to teaching environment, and the magic, and
the quality of the visitor-experience vanish like a fragile rainbow bubble.
Some influential people believe visitors cannot learn unless they are being
taught, by an 'explanatory exhibit' or by an 'explainer'. They are wrong,
and are a threat to the effectiveness and popularity of science centres.
Frank Oppenheimer wrote, "Many people who talk about the discovery method
of teaching are really talking about arranging a lesson or an experiment so
that students discover what they are supposed to discover. That is not an
exploration. The whole tradition of exploration is being lost for entire
generations."
It's well worth hunting for the many old pearls of wisdom in Oppenheimer's
writings. In attempting to 'improve' on his vision we have risked losing
something very valuable.
http://www.google.com/u/explo?q=oppenheimer&sa.x=11&sa.y=5
(And no apology for having posted more than once about EV/CRE/ID by the
way. You can't just dismiss such a critical science-communication issue.)
[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
*
Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
*
Ian Russell
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