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

Hello,
We have a large number of visiting students annually - up to 250,000. On peak days this means a daily attendance of 2,500 +. 

Our Provincial Ministry of Education has a stated "Code of Conduct" that we quote in our communications to teachers in our brochure and website.  "The Ontario School Code of Conduct applies to schools visiting the Ontario Science Centre"  to put a bit of the responsibility back on the teachers and to support the work the Ministry has already done in this regard. (ie. why reinvent the wheel?)   In
our brochure and on our website in the school group pages we refer to specific behaviour that is not acceptable at our Centre.  We also require a minimum number of supervisors for school groups but have found that groups coming with the right number of chaperones is generally not a concern. 

Once they are in our exhibit halls, we do sometimes experience behavioural problems. Often these are from our teen visitors, who are unlikely to be directly supervised by teachers at all times. These are dealt with by our security staff. If the issue is particularly notable, we follow up with the school principal. While in some circumstances we have removed a visitor(s) from the Centre, we have
never banned a school from a repeat visit. 

We have experienced behavioural concerns with our visiting day-camp groups in the summer, mostly in being too boisterous in the exhibit halls, negatively affecting other visitors.  Generally supervisors of these daycamp groups are young and not completely committed to really managing their charges. We are currently updating our visit expectations re day camp group behaviour and are in the process
of developing a Behaviour Policy that will help guide our floor staff in understanding the expectations we have of them in ensuring all visitors have an enjoyable time.  We are also going to experiment this year with really encouraging these day camp groups to take advantage of the programming we offer, which will take large groups of them (our auditorium can seat about 500) out of the exhibit
halls for a period of time. We believe it will be a real value-add to the camp groups while having a positive impact on the other visitors. 

Catherine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Catherine Paisley
Director, Science Education
Ontario Science Centre
416-696-3295
www.ontariosciencecentre.ca



Informal Science Education Network <[log in to unmask]> on June 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM -0400 wrote:
>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>Hello-
>
>Due to the relatively small size of our visitors area, we ask that  
>visiting groups of students/teachers schedule their visit in advance  
>so that we can have an optimal number of groups on any given day,  
>along with mandating a chaperone/student ratio.  This seemed to work  
>fine, and groups did a good job of self-policing behavior until  
>recently, when we've had a rash of lackadaisical chaperones/extremely  
>rambunctious kids.  My question is: does your institution provide a  
>set of guidelines or expectations to visiting groups before they visit  
>to try and have an accountable baseline to hold them to once they  
>arrive? If so, what are your guidelines or expectations?
>
>We're considering drafting something that focuses on personal  
>responsibility and behaving in a way that doesn't interfere with the  
>ability of other visitors to enjoy our institution, but I wondered  
>whether other folks had encountered a similar situation.  Thanks in  
>advance for the suggestions!
>
>
>charles.
>
>
>
>******************************************
>Charles Eldermire
>Public Education Outreach Associate
>Manager, Sapsucker Woods & Johnson Visitors' Center
>Cornell Lab of Ornithology
>159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
>Ithaca, NY 14850
>(607) 254-1131
>(607) 254-2111 [fax]
><http://www.birds.cornell.edu/>
>
>***********************************************************************
>For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
>
>Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
>
>The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
>http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.
>
>To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
>message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
>[log in to unmask]



***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]