Science Centers As Learning Laboratories - Research Paper Example

Science Centers As Learning Laboratories Introduction Whether and how museums promote and help to construct new knowledge remains a hot topic of scholarly discussion. Teachers and education professionals hold different views on the role which science museums and discovery centers play in the process of delivering knowledge to students. Some believe that museums and discovery centers are the critical sources of primary information about science. Others are confident that science museums and discovery centers are everything but science and can only serve a source of entertainment for children. It should be stated, that the problem of museums’ role in scientific education is not new, but only now have museums come to occupy a serious place in the current structure of curriculum approaches and solutions. The current state of literature proves museums and discovery centers to be an essential source of scientific knowledge for students and a valuable practical supplement to theoretical science curriculums. Museums and discovery centers present a unique source of knowledge for students, but to guarantee the construction of new knowledge, teachers and education professionals must have skills needed to transform available scientific information into learning and link this information to the learners’ prior experiences. Science museums and discovery centers: Background information That science museums and discovery centers are popular objects of pastime cannot be denied. In the UK alone, thousands of museums and discovery centers open their doors to millions of visitors annually. Museums and discovery centers develop a vast array of partnerships with universities, industries and schools, communities and scientific networks (UK Association for Science and Discovery Centers 2010). These science museums and discovery centers “constitute the only UK-wide network of publically accessible venues dedicated to inspiring and engaging people of all ages and all backgrounds with science; indeed, the vast majority of UK science and discovery centres have been created with this as their explicit mission and primary purpose” (UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres 2010). Not only do museums and discovery centres in the UK create and maintain close collaborative ties with universities and schools, but work closely with other museums and centres within the UK and abroad, to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and information between these objects (UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres 2010). Most museums and science centers in the UK offer a vast array of events and activities to their audiences, especially students. For example, museums play active role in celebrating National Science and Engineering Week (UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres 2010). Many others extend their activities to hold and increase public engagement in various city science festivals (UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres 2010). Science museums and discovery centres work collaboratively to run thousands of curriculum-based activities and extracurricular scientific events, including community programs, practical workshops, and training sessions (UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres 2010). They do not simply serve an important tourist attraction but contribute to the development of the complex scientific and knowledge delivery networks, which work for the benefit of student knowledge and help children and adolescents to learn more about science. How science museums and discovery centers combine science with entertainment exemplifies a new form of knowledge delivery, which lets individuals and groups develop a better comprehension of science in out-of-school contexts and environments. In this way, museums and discovery centers are expected to facilitate the process of knowledge delivery and enhance student successes in science classrooms. Despite the fact that science museums and discovery centers present the two different forms of knowledge delivery, they are equally valuable sources of scientific knowledge for visitors. Needless to say, the number of visitors in the UK museums and discovery centers grows every year, because society seeks to grasp the meaning of science in an easy-to-understand form. Because discovery centers seek to combine entertainment with science, they are often believed to be a relatively distant form of knowledge delivery and are not considered as a serious form of knowledge construction for students. Nevertheless, museums and discovery centers equally contribute to the development of more interesting curriculum-based solutions for science learners. They capture the value of what they do and establish themselves as a valuable instrument of knowledge construction for children, adolescents, and adults. Statistically, there are 81 science centers in the UK (Lloyd 2009). The first science center opened at Bristol in 1986 (Lloyd 2009). Every year, science and discovery centers in the UK attract more than 17 million visitors (Lloyd 2009). In 2007 alone, over 3 million school students visited discovery centers on a school visit (Lloyd 2009). Many of them attended special science workshops targeted specifically to inspire students with science, engineering, and maths (Lloyd 2009). Obviously, science centers do play an important role in how children choose to treat and interpret scientific knowledge. Science centers, as well as science museums, present a unique source of knowledge about science. The way the objects and knowledge are presented must be equally entertaining and easy to understand. The extent to which science museums and discovery centers are entertaining, however, does not prevent them from being a critical component of formal education and science in the UK (Lloyd 2009). They create valuable knowledge delivery parallels and allow children to grasp new knowledge in an easy-to-chew form. Why museums? The value of science The value of science museums in the construction of new knowledge has been widely documented in literature. The current state of research proves science museums and discovery centers to be a valuable source of science knowledge for visitors. More often than not, students who visit science museums as part of their school curriculum display better educational achievements and improved cognitive gain (Stanziola 2008). Children who attend museums on a regular basis reveal better commitment to learning in science and related disciplines and find it easier to meet the basic learning goals (West & Smith 2005). Students who visit science museums and discovery centers regularly express and have better motivation and more positive attitudes toward their studies in general and science disciplines, in particular (West & Smith 2005). Students believe science museums to add value to their knowledge and treat science museums as a valuable supplement to their studies (Salmi 2003). Unfortunately, not all researchers and scholars consider museums as an important source of knowledge for students – few studies found no significant improvements in learning prior and following a science museums visit – Kelly (2003) showed that museums did not play any significant role in the construction of new knowledge by students. However, it is imperative to understand that teachers play not the last role in how students link their museum knowledge to their curriculum knowledge and experience. Teachers themselves do not always understand how to integrate the knowledge children obtain in museums and discovery centers with the knowledge they obtain in the classroom. For example, Doering, Pekarik and Kindlon (1997) found out that teachers did not always know what goals and standards their students would have to meet upon visiting a science museum. Most teachers simply expected their students to entertain themselves and spend some time away from the pressuring classroom atmosphere (Doering, Pekarik & Kindlon, 1997). Only few teachers view science museums and discovery centers as a source of potential knowledge enrichment for students (Gray, 2008). More often than not, a visit to a science museum is just a means to let students change the pace of learning and expose themselves to new learning environments. Neither children nor teachers know how to treat and use the knowledge they obtain during their museum visit; and this is the basic reason why science museums do not always contribute to the construction of knowledge by children. It is interesting to note that the issue of educational value in science museums and discovery centers is not new. In 1983, The New Scientist presented its view on how museums had to work, to serve a valuable source of knowledge for visitors. In their article, Miles and Lewis (1983) discussed the reasons behind the low popularity of science museums among the public – the authors confirmed that the somber and sobering atmosphere in science museums scared off potential visitors. Obviously, boredom is not the best way to attract the public; rather, a combination of entertainment and easy-to-understand science knowledge is the best way for science museums to engage visitors in the process of constructing new knowledge about the world. For many years, museums “were the kinds of places in which learned authorities paraded such things as the wonders of nature, the relics of past ages, and the achievements of great people” (Miles & Lewis 1983). It was not before the beginning of the 1990s that science museums and discovery centers in the UK underwent a radical transformation – museums no longer talk down to visitors but try to reach the general public (Allen 2002). Museums do not want to concentrate on the solemnity of the historical objects but want to turn them into valuable educational experiences (Allen 2002). Museums abandon the traditionally “cold” atmosphere of science and come down to occupy their place in the line of informal educational facilities which include zoos, discovery centers, botanical gardens, libraries, and planetariums (Miles & Lewis 1983). Those who consider museums as merely entertaining do not realize the true value of entertainment in the construction of the new informal knowledge. Actually, this very entertaining atmosphere attracts millions of visitors and helps them to develop new knowledge of science in an easy-to-understand way. The easier the knowledge is to grasp, the more useful it will be to students. Actually, the discussed combination of science and entertainment reflects the basic principles of knowledge philosophy that governed the creation and maintenance of museums throughout the past centuries. In 1626, Francis Bacon presented his view on how science could become available to the public: his idea of Salomon’s House was, probably, the first description of an imaginary museum (Durant 1992). In Bacon’s view, Salomon’s House had to become a place for the people to visit, to enter the drama of learning new knowledge and share its benefits with others (Durant 1992). When the Museum of the History of Science was established in 1924, it marked a renewed interest in studying various historical artifacts and the new stage in the development of museum culture (Durant 1992). Sometimes, museums became the source and the driver of serious curriculum transformations – for example, the Science Museum in London and the Great Exhibition showed how Britain lagged behind the most scientifically advanced nations, leading to the dramatic changes in science education and curriculums in the UK (Durant 1992). All this information proves museums and discovery centers to be a valuable source of knowledge for visitors. In no way are museums merely a source of entertainment; rather, entertainment is just a convenient form of presenting and delivering knowledge and an effective tool of knowledge construction for children, adolescents, and adults. It would be fair to say that entertainment exemplifies a new representation ideology in museums, which must situate the visitor in relation to the subjects of representation and turn these subjects into the source of new knowledge for visitors (Duncam 2010). The entertaining aspect of museums and discovery centers successfully compensates for the lack of representation, which had been characteristic of British museums over the past decade. Entertainment aspects allow students linking their sensory responses to the goals and standards of the learning process. Through entertainment, visitors can prioritize the value of various objects and choose their way of interpreting visual information. Those, who claim museums to be solely entertaining and never educational, are deeply mistaken, because substantial body of evidence links visits to science museums and discovery centers to learning and knowledge construction that occur during excursions and participation in interactive exhibits. Outside of the classroom, museums are often the only form of learning available to students. Learning with artifacts or attending the “living history” sites is an excellent way to demonstrate the ways science works in daily life and how various industrial processes influence human lives. “Even the most modest local historical societies usually maintain some sort of small museum or historic site offering guided tours or static exhibits” (Schramm 2010). In their striving to transform into an effective educational site, some museums lose the grip of effective visual representation and turn into a combination of artifacts, which miss guidance, signs, labels, and other features that remind visitors of being in a museum (Rask 2010). Nevertheless, that museums are an effective form of learning and not only entertainment is difficult to deny. The positive effects of museums on learning and knowledge delivery in different groups of students have been widely documented in scholarly literature. Substantial body of literature confirms that serious amount of learning occurs while attending science museums and discovery centers. Museums aid students in their striving to understand the basic laws of science, including magnetism and electricity – following their visit to a science museum, children actively interpret and incorporate the new knowledge in their daily experiences and mental models (Anderson 2003; ECSITE 2005). These museum experiences children use later, while participating in various learning processes in the classroom (Anderson 2000). Some scientific evidence supports an assumption that science museums and discovery centers enhance student understanding of the basic laws of sound (Beiers 1992; Tunnicliff & Osborne 1997). Researchers confirm that the discussion of theoretical principles and models becomes more coherent and comprehensive whenever children visit science museums or discovery centers (Bloom 1992). Notably, museums and discovery centers do not simply add to the prior knowledge but lead to the development of better thinking, exploration, interpretation, analytical, and observation skills (Allen 2002; Dolby 1996; Einsiedel & Einsiedel 2004; Falk & Dierking 1992). The growing body of evidence supports the belief that science museums and discovery centers result in better affective learning for children. Positive emotions which children experience upon attending exhibitions and historic sites are responsible for the development of memorable experiences which later reflect in better learning results (Jarvis & Pell 2005). These emotions and children’s learning experiences create a cycle of positive learning events, when children feel better motivated to attend more exhibitions which, in their turn, contribute to the development of improved knowledge and learning results (Salmi 2003). Positive emotions from visiting science museums and discovery centers are more memorable and make it easier for children to recall the knowledge they gain while attending various exhibition events (Spock 2000). These emotions in children evoke more active sharing of thoughts and experiences during and after the museum event (Greenhill et al 2005). As a result, children who attend museums and discovery centers have better chances to meet their learning objectives and improve their learning outcomes in a variety of disciplines. Surprisingly or not, but science museums and discovery centers produce a wide range of social and personal impacts on children, from individual knowledge enrichment to improved and more objective self-assessment (Friedman 2000; Ellenbogen 2003). According to Scott (2003), museums and discovery centers are the direct sources of unique identity, shared social capital, and social cohesion. Museums and discovery centers lead to improved cohesion between children as well as between them and their teachers (Doering, Pekarik & Kindlon 1997). Obviously, museums serve an excellent source of positive social effects for children and adults. However, it appears that for museums to serve their learning purposes, a close link between visitors, their prior experiences, and teachers’ educational potential must be established. Education professionals are confident that museums cannot successfully utilize their learning potential, unless teachers can transform this potential into effective and comprehensive knowledge. One cannot but agree to Innella (2010) in that museums and discovery centers fit into the constructivist learning philosophy, when the success of all learning endeavors depends on how well children can build on their prior knowledge and experience and incorporate these in the set of new information. Jean Piaget was among the few who theorized regarding the role of the prior experiences in successful learning and treated learners as a kind of a “vessel” with prior knowledge, emotions, and skills (Innella 2010). The better new knowledge is connected to prior experiences the more information the learner will be able to retain and use (Innella 2010). Museums are not an exception: they possess and display a vast learning potential. However, using this potential requires extensive knowledge and skills. Whether children can transform visual information about the artifacts largely depends on how the teacher presents the information about them and whether children have a chance to engage in the discussion of prior experiences and the new knowledge at the exhibition site. Innella (2010) is correct in that “simply viewing art in a museum does not guarantee the construction of new knowledge for student visitors. Educators must link the art to the learner’s prior knowledge”. For example, the citizen science program at At-Bristol science museum engages visitors in the discussion of biomedical issues and allows people discovering the different facets of knowledge and discussing the new information, to make sense of it (Aldridge 2002). In this way, the museum does not simply present a range of artifacts and related information but helps visitors to link this information to their experiences and reconsider this information through the prism of the prior knowledge. Obviously, science museums are not merely the source of entertainment for visitors. Rather, they exemplify a complex form of knowledge delivery, which fits in the current educational philosophy and adds to curriculum-based learning solutions. What visitors learn in museums and discovery centers turns into an excellent source of knowledge, which they later interpret and use to meet their learning objectives. The more frequent the visits to museums are the more likely the visitors are to improve their knowledge and understanding of the most problematic issues. Museums and discovery centers have a potential to close knowledge gaps and help students develop a better understanding of the standard curriculum disciplines. That science museums and discovery centers present this information in an entertaining form adds value to this form of pedagogic experiences and makes it easier for children to comprehend and interpret new information. Certainly, museums alone cannot enhance the quality of learning in children and adults. Moreover, museums cannot deliver effective knowledge per se. The link between museums, teachers, education professionals, and their ability to integrate new knowledge into students’ prior experiences are the basic prerequisites for achieving learning success. Today, teachers must pay particular attention to how the process of learning through museums and discovery centers occurs and how it can be improved, to ensure that the process of visiting science exhibitions does not turn into a form of boring wasting of time. Conclusion Whether and how museums help to construct new knowledge is one of the frequent topics of scholarly discussion. The rapid development of complex science exhibitions and discovery centers results in an impression that museums are no longer the sources of primary scientific knowledge but are merely a form of entertainment for thousands of visitors who attend museums every year. However, a substantial body of literature proves museums to be an effective tool of knowledge construction for visitors. Museums and discovery centers result in significant learning improvements for children and enhance affective learning, interpretation, observation, and analytical skills. Children who attend museums and discovery centers have better opportunities to meet their learning objectives. It should be noted, however, that the success of these learning endeavors largely depends on how well teachers can build their strategies on the students’ prior knowledge. Museums cannot be the sources of effective knowledge and learning per se; rather, the information they provide must be effectively integrated with other curriculum-based knowledge. As a result, teachers face a challenging task to transform museums’ potential into effective source of primary knowledge, learning, and positive experiences and emotions for students. References Aldridge, C 2002, Citizen science program policy document, Buckingham: Open University Press. Allen, S 2002, ‘Looking for learning in visitor talk: A methodological exploration’, in G Leinhardt, K Crowley & K Knutson, Learning conversations in museums, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp259-303. 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