There are relatively few studies examining cooperative learning during laboratory activities in a science museum. This study aims to explore such activities to better understand the nature of cooperative learning, if any, in that setting. The participants in this study were 60 fourth-grade students who visited a science museum lab as part of a…

Narratives, or stories, are used every day by people as a way of making sense of and communicating events in the world. Narratives can be highly useful as a learning tool in science education. Though research on narrative-based pedagogy in science education and communication is very common, most of that research was done in formal settings. Our…

This research examines the same 12 school-students making repeat visits over a three-year-period to a science museum. We used a qualitative approach, analysing video recordings of museum visit and interviews with students, focusing on the way students use their former engagement in a science museum using a retrospective view that can offer insight…

Mill City Museum and Wilder Research collaborated to facilitate focus groups with local elementary school educators to learn about their experiences with virtual in-school programs, what motivates them to consider and schedule a program, and what barriers prevent or deter them from pursuing these types of programming options. This report presents…

This article describes dance/STEAM-based educational workshops for 3rd and 4th graders at a local science museum led by the artistic director and members of a professional dance company and supported by a large university research community. The overarching pedagogical goal was to use dance to learn about science and science to learn about dance.…

This mixed-method research focuses on how school children visiting a science museum with their class perceive the overall experience of their visit to the science museum and which aspects of the science museum experience they recall as significant. The study participants were seventy two 4th grade students (age 9-10) who came to the museum with…

Traditional museums of culture and history are failing to develop or make effective use of augmented reality (AR) technology. To address this deficit, the present study sought to develop online and offline experiential AR learning tools that would enable children to more fully explore museum artefacts. The study approach was based on the Blended…

Children in the United States live in a land of many nations, with nearly 600 federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native sovereign tribal nations and hundreds more not recognized by the federal government. Although children often study U.S. colonial history in elementary school, many non-Indigenous children may grow up unaware of…

In this article, Harper B. Keenan investigates the treatment of violence in elementary history education through a case study of a fourth-grade unit on the colonial history of California featuring "the mission project," a long-standing tradition in California's elementary schools that has students construct a miniature model of a Spanish…

Access to community cultural institutions such as museums, zoos, and theaters has the potential to improve students' educational experiences. This article estimates the impact of School in the Park, a museum-based educational program for low-income students that takes place within the cultural institutions and museums of San Diego's Balboa Park.…

This research explores learning in science museums through the most common activity in a science museum--interaction with exhibits. The goal of this study was to characterize the learning behaviors exhibited by students as they engage with interactive exhibits in order to draw insight regarding the design of the exhibits. In order to do so, we…

This three-article dissertation specifically examines one challenging element of teaching history to young children: the representation of historical violence and adversity, using fourth grade curriculum and instruction surrounding the topic of Spanish colonization of California as a case study. This era, known as the Spanish mission period in…

The present study, aiming to develop nature culture in primary school students and to help them to become acquainted with their close environment, is a quasi-experimental study. Museum education activities were conducted with the study group which consisted of 128 fourth-grade primary school students. At the end of the study, the students gained…

We present results of an experimental study of an urban, museum-based science teacher PD programme. A total of 125 teachers and 1676 of their students in grades 4-8 were tested at the beginning and end of the school year in which the PD programme took place. Teachers and students were assessed on subject content knowledge and attitudes towards…

Imagine a classroom where students are actively engaged in seeking scientific knowledge from books and computers. Think of a classroom in which students fervently write to create PowerPoint presentations about their scientific topic and then enthusiastically practice their speaking roles to serve as docents in a classroom museum setting. Visualize…