Virtual museums focus on a specific curriculum theme and showcase electronic museum-type collections such as artifacts, paintings, photographs, numerous databases, and Web links to resources around the world. Museums of all types include vital teaching tools that help students make discoveries and form connections with the past, present, and…

A natural history museum is a building where animals, plants, minerals, and other things in nature are kept and exhibited for study. This document is a curriculum guide to provide a variety of activities for educators and their students to use not only when visiting the International Wildlife Museum (Tuscon, Arizona), but also with natural history…

Describes the conversion of a school courtyard to a working outdoor classroom and its use in teaching students about different subjects, including agriculture, barnyard animals, ecology, biology, horticulture, archaeology, and astronomy. (JRH)

Describes the Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC) in Pennsylvania which seeks to develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes necessary to improve the relationship of man to nature and man and man. The facility is utilized for elementary student activities, teacher workshops, handicapped programs, and college university groups. (DS)

Activities in the ecology of New England's tidepools are provided in this field trip guide for elementary school teachers. Resources, curriculum materials, and services are identified that are available through the New England Aquarium's Department of Education. This packet contains: (1) pre-trip activities (offering a vocabulary list,…

Reviews a study which investigated children's predictions and explanations of the formation of images through pinholes by use of extended light sources. Interviews with 9- to 13-year-old children at a science center revealed that a prevalent model for image formation involved light that traveled from the sources as a whole. (ML)

Reviews the work of the Program Evaluation and Research Group (PERG) at Lesley College in evaluating informal, nonschool science programs for elementary students. Compares PERG's findings with other published literature about elementary school programs in extraschool science institutions and discusses issues that apply to all such programs from…

Provides a descriptive listing of museums and science exhibits that are essentially participatory and playful in nature for young children. Offerings in the areas of natural history, museums, science and technology centers and specifically children's museums are outlined. Educational benefits are discussed. (ML)

Intended for the staffs of museums, zoos, and other science related centers, this manual is a step by step guide to establishing a rural science outreach and education program. Based on the experiences of the New Mexico Rural Science Education Project (NMRSEP), this manual focuses on rural elementary schools and on earth and life sciences. Much of…

Reports on student attitudes toward science-technology-society (STS) after visiting a science-technology museum and considers what variable factors of the visitation impacted these attitudes. Results indicated that significant differences in attitudes were present between visiting and nonvisiting students and between grade levels. (TW)

This document reports on a doctoral-level practicum designed to train volunteers as docents to assist in the programs of the NOVA Children's Museum located on the Cedargrove School campus (Covina, California). Docents were found to be essential for more in-depth science learning to take place during hands-on museum experiences which promote the…