Leisure Visitor’s Responses to Natural History Dioramas

This chapter focuses on the responses of leisure visitors who had chosen to visit a museum with natural history dioramas. Different ‘voices’ are heard from different visitors and during a visit constituent members influence what each other says because constructing meaning about the world is a social activity but their a reflection on the experience is individual as they leave. The visitor’s prior knowledge and the visitor’s interest in the exhibit, all have the potential to influence the visitor’s attitudes and responses to the exhibits. Some adults were asked questions at the diorama whilst other responses were from written responses on the questionnaire provided at the exit. The opinions of visitors to the dioramas were elicited through a questionnaire. They were asked to describe the ‘story’ of the diorama. There was a variation in responses depending on the age of the visitors. Young people’s responses were very factual and short whereas pensioners talked of memories such as working in one of the countries portrayed. Many visitors also related to what they had seen in the media

Science in action in spontaneous preschool play – an essential foundation for future understanding

Children are born to play and are born as intuitive scientists and use numeracy and literacy in their play. Playing is an essential apprenticeship for developing scientific (STEM) literacy. Observing children spontaneously playing reveals that they are experiencing STEM in action. They are observing phenomena, asking questions, solving problems, design investigations and adapting what is available to use in their active investigations Nonspeaking children, until they acquire verbal language for themselves and communicating by gestures and actions about findings. Children have various modes of play, free choice, structured and structured. In imaginative play they replicate activities of adults, dressing up as an adult, cooking in a make-believe kitchen, composing and acting out a narrative. In all these activities children do compose their own narrative but listen to narratives particularly in Pictorial fiction books gradually being able to sort myth from reality as well as predicting outcomes and problem solving

DESCRIBING THE EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS: AN ANALYSIS TOOL FOR PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS

This study presents a tool for description and potential analysis of the educational role of the Science and Technology museum. This tool has been constructed from the point of view of formal education and it is proposed as a framework for the approach of the science/technology museum from the teachers and education administrators. More specifically, the tool is, at first, described in terms of structure, content and functionality and, afterwards, examples are provided for cases of international, national and local natural history museums (Natural History Museum in Paris, Goulandris Natural History Museum in Athens and University of Patras Zoology Museum accordingly). Finally, there is a discussion regarding the suitability of this tool to inform, instruct and train future and in-service teachers in aspects of museum education. Article visualizations

Physical Science learning opportunities at Natural History Dioramas

Traditional view of science museums is that they present a static image of science, a fixed body. Visitors to museums come with pre-existing knowledge and frequently interpret that which they see but particular through using their Owen understanding referring to the labels and other interpretative means not only through the information provided by get museums. Such understanding is based on everyday beliefs. Listening to visitors in natural history museums reveals that few comments are made about science in action but focus on identifying the specimens and commenting on the attributes of the animals. However, physical science is much in evident in these animals although not focused on by natural histoiry museums. I report here the effects of a hands on workshop provided for two 11 year old boys and separately to 8 year old primary children at natural history museums in the south of England. The specimens are displayed don an authentic context in natural history dioramas. The two dioramas focused upon was one of an African Savannah scene with a water hole and at the edge of a forest and a compilation exhibit of primates on rocks and trees. The children were asked to view the main diorama and point out any science that they could recognise. They participated in hands on workshop focusing on forces, balance and stability. The leaners returned to the dioramas and were asked to again any science concepts they could see illustrated by the animal. After the cue provided by the hands on workshop they recognised a number of physical science concepts illustrated by the position in which the animals had been posed. Science in school for them had not been taught in a context

Educational opportunities used by formal education of the Museum of Natural History 1st generation. The effect of educational activities that take place in the museum of Zoology of the University of Patras in building the concept of classification of animals from preschoolers.

Paper presented at the International doctoral course Museum Education Research: Contrasting the Anglo-American and Continental European Approaches, 13-15 March, Danish Centre for Museum Research, Odence, Denmark

Natural History Dioramas: An opportunity for children to observe physical Science in action in a moment of time

The nature of scientific research goes beyond the learning of concepts and basic manipulation to the key factors of engaging students in identifying relevant evidence and reflecting on its interpretation. It is argued that young children have the ability to acquire viable realistic concepts of the living world when involved in relevant activities (Tunnicliffe, 2000). Visiting a museum of natural history is an educational experience, which offers, children experiences that cannot be obtained within the classroom and research found that museums are excellent sources of cognitive experiences that complement and / or enrich the curriculum of formal education (Dillon et al., 2016). Dioramas have specific context, which give visitors the opportunity to be creative and have more learning opportunities when they engage with them (Achiam et al., 2014). This paper draws upon data that were gathered at a natural history museum. These data were the spontaneous conversations of child visitors and a workshop with structured educational activities with a pre- and post-test research design, which provided the opportunity for children to observe Science in action in a moment of time. These data focused on aspects of historical and experimental aspects of Science in action shown in the positions and environments of the animals featured which may be identified in natural history dioramas

Learning in Physical Science Opportunities at Natural History Dioramas

Observing natural history dioramas provides learners with opportunities to identify various aspects of biological science, captured in the moment of time portrayed in a given diorama, such as behaviour, taxonomy, adaptation to the habitat including anatomical specialisations and camouflage colouring. However, such observations also afford opportunities to observe other science phenomena, such as earth science in the geology of the habitat or the weather portrayed. This chapter focuses on aspects of physical science in action shown in the animals featured, and basic ideas such as shape, size, colours and patterns, as well as basic numeracy for earliest learners. Older primary children can explore flight, and floating and sinking principles, much featured in these natural history dioramas. Basic forces, balance and centre of mass are shown in most dioramas, especially those with terrestrial vertebrates, as well as sound and light. Effective learning strategies involve knowing the foundation knowledge that the children possess. This chapter focuses on the aspects of physical science which may be identified in natural history dioramas and the responses of some primary children to identifying such for themselves in a Natural History Museum in the south of England. The dioramas focus on African and Indian animals and their natural environments. Demographics of the schools, where applicable, were noted and relevant permissions obtained. Transcripts of the dialogues in workshops and at the dioramas were collected and analysed through a read-re-read iterative process through which categories of comments emerged. Simple counts were made of responses. These workshops led to children being able to identify the basic physics concepts in action

Teaching animal categorization in preschool-ers using typical -non typical educational en-viroments

The aim of this research study is to present the goals, the content and some evaluation elements of a teaching intervention for preschool children concerning animal categorization. The intervention combines typical and non typical educational characteristics and takes place both in the school class and in a zoological museum. More specifically, we will present the cognitive objectives of the intervention which are the following: (a) the familiarization of children with various samples of animals, (b) the movement of children’s ideas from using anthropomorphic or functional criteria to the use of morphological criteria for classification of animal samples, (c) the identification of new samples of animals with one of the constructed categories of animals and (d) the creation of a new class of animals in case of the animal sample does not fit in any of the constructed categories. In this study we will focus on the characteristics of teaching activities which take place during the visit to the zoological museum at the University of Patras. Some preliminary results which support the hypothesis that the museum educational activities have a positive impact on the fulfillment of the mentioned didactical objectives will be presented

Learning in Physical Science Opportunities at Natural History Dioramas

Observing natural history dioramas provides learners with opportunities to identify various aspects of biological science, captured in the moment of time portrayed in a given diorama, such as behaviour, taxonomy, adaptation to the habitat including anatomical specialisations and camouflage colouring. However, such observations also afford opportunities to observe other science phenomena, such as earth science in the geology of the habitat or the weather portrayed. This chapter focuses on aspects of physical science in action shown in the animals featured, and basic ideas such as shape, size, colours and patterns, as well as basic numeracy for earliest learners. Older primary children can explore flight, and floating and sinking principles, much featured in these natural history dioramas. Basic forces, balance and centre of mass are shown in most dioramas, especially those with terrestrial vertebrates, as well as sound and light. Effective learning strategies involve knowing the foundation knowledge that the children possess. This chapter focuses on the aspects of physical science which may be identified in natural history dioramas and the responses of some primary children to identifying such for themselves in a Natural History Museum in the south of England. The dioramas focus on African and Indian animals and their natural environments. Demographics of the schools, where applicable, were noted and relevant permissions obtained. Transcripts of the dialogues in workshops and at the dioramas were collected and analysed through a read-re-read iterative process through which categories of comments emerged. Simple counts were made of responses. These workshops led to children being able to identify the basic physics concepts in action

HSCi Physical Science Learning Opportunities at Natural History Dioramas

Traditional view of science museums is that they present a static image of science, a fixed body. Visitors to museums come with pre-existing knowledge and frequently interpret that which they see but particular through using their Owen understanding referring to the labels and other interpretative means not only through the information provided by get museums. Such understanding is based on everyday beliefs. Listening to visitors in natural history museums reveals that few comments are made about science in action but focus on identifying the specimens and commenting on the attributes of the animals. However, physical science is much in evident in these animals although not focused on by natural histoiry museums. I report here the effects of a hands on workshop provided for two 11 year old boys and separately to 8 year old primary children at natural history museums in the south of England. The specimens are displayed don an authentic context in natural history dioramas. The two dioramas focused upon was one of an African Savannah scene with a water hole and at the edge of a forest and a compilation exhibit of primates on rocks and trees. The children were asked to view the main diorama and point out any science that they could recognise. They participated in hands on workshop focusing on forces, balance and stability. The leaners returned to the dioramas and were aske d to again any science concepts they could see illustrated by the animal. After the cue provided by the hands on workshop they recognised a number of physical science concepts illustrated by the position in which the animals had been posed. Science in school for them had not been taught in a context