Research into teaching and learning in science museums has led to innovations in pedagogy, exhibits, and educational programming. Science museum facilitators play a critical role in advancing the educational missions of their institutions, yet the roles that these facilitators have in academic research projects aimed at understanding learning…

In this essay the author recalls the process of organizing and interpreting an exhibition of art and language made in response to a catastrophic fire that devastated California's Sonoma and Napa counties in late 2017. The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art invited a group of artists and writers to be part of its small exhibition planning team to help…

In this article, a teacher-curator pedagogy is taken to mean an assumption of the role of both educators and curators in the planning, creation, and implementation of teaching units and lesson activities within the context of an online exhibition. For their part, students are engaged in developing the exhibitions and self-directed learning…

The authors explored how art centers for people with disabilities -- a form of day program -- could collaborate with art museums to create inclusive and integrated programming with artists from the broader community. Museums are in a particularly salient period of a paradigm shift, becoming more socially responsive and considering audience…

In 2015 "Mimi's Family: Photographs by Matthew Clowney" opened to the public at Boston Children's Museum. The first of its kind, this groundbreaking exhibit told the story of a family with a transgender grandparent through a series of large, color photographs. This case study describes the process, challenges, and outcomes of creating…

This case study describes the process of designing and implementing a museum school program about race and suggests a number of recommendations for creating meaningful interactions with visitors about complex topics. Education staff at the San Diego Museum of Man set out to teach students about race as a social construct, sharing science that…

This paper describes the application of a "biosocial" approach to informal health and science education. As an engagement between biological and critical social sciences, biosocial theory has sought to re-articulate human bodies as fundamentally the product of interrelationships between the biological and social dimensions of human life.…

In the summer of 2016, the Staten Island Museum was challenged with developing an audience for its new building and location. With exhibitions that change infrequently, programs became the way guests accessed museum resources. Museum staff reinvented the personality of museum programming while putting its new location "on the map." The…

This paper calls for greater use of educational research in the development of science exhibitions. During the past few decades, museums and science centres throughout the world have placed increasing emphasis on their educational function. Although exhibitions are the primary means of promoting visitors' learning, educational research is not…

This publication is designed to provide comprehensive information on the development and operation of a variety of types of museums. The first part of the book describes museum collections; included are chapters on what to acquire, how to acquire, preparing specimens, caring for a collection, using collections, and disposal of specimens. The…

Both the development and evaluation of one of a set of computer programs designed for use by visitors as adjuncts to museum exhibits are described. Museum displays used were (1) a static, behind-glass exhibit on evolution; (2) a hands-on primitive stone age tools exhibit; and (3) a Foucault pendulum. A computer placed next to each exhibit served…

As part of their facilities, the Department of Art Education at the University of New Mexico created an exhibition gallery open to both the academic community and the general public. The formation and program of the university-based art gallery is described. (RM)

This 45-paper anthology presents an overall picture of 1973-1983 writings in Roundtable Reports, the quarterly journal of Museum Education Roundtable. Thirty-five of the articles appeared in previous Roundtable Reports, while some are new articles that reflect on original articles to provide context and historical perspective. Papers are grouped…

This handbook has evolved in response to the needs expressed by the museums for resources with which to interpret environmental problems and to initiate or to expand environmental exhibits and education programs. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 (Man and Environment, Population, and Environmental Problems) each contain background information and techniques…

A review of research about museum education and a description of a group of gifted elementary school students' museum-building activities (display techniques, collection of resources, classification and arrangement methods, and work with outside donors) indicate that museum-building is a stimulating activity which encourages independent study and…