Student-scientist-teacher interactions provide students with several advantages. They provide opportunities to interact with experts and professionals in the field, give students a chance at meeting a role model that may impact students' career choices, and increase awareness of available career options combined with an understanding of how their…

A nature center is defined as an organized and permanent nonprofit institution which is essentially educational, scientific, and cultural in purpose with professional staff, and open to the public on some regular schedule. A nature center manages and interprets its lands, native plants and animals and facilities to promote an understanding of…

This publication on science education programs is the second in a three-part series of reports that summarizes the results of the Association of Science-Technology Centers' (ASTC) Science Center Survey, conducted among nearly 200 science museums and science centers in 1987. Reports on exhibits and on administration and finance comprise the rest of…

Details the personal experiences, accumulated over a 25-year teaching career, of a physics teacher at a private boarding school in New England. (BT)

Describes the Science Teacher Education at Museums (STEAM) program and focuses on the approach taken at the St. Louis, Hartford, and San Francisco Centers. Includes examples of the types of workshops offered. Provides a listing of museums that have been awarded grants. (ML)

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)

Presented are the results of a survey of approximately 1300 centers across the United States and Canada. Discussed are management and ownership, setting, size, budget, staffing, annual use, acreage, and facilities. (CW)

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,…

Explanations of a marine mammal rescue program and information on seals and sea lions are presented in this curriculum package for intermediate grade teachers. Activities are highlighted which focus on the natural history of harbor seals. This unit contains: (1) pre-trip activities (including fact sheets and worksheets on the different types of…

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…

The New England Aquarium Education Department offers a series of curriculum units and field trip guides for teachers of all grade levels on aquatic biology and ecology topics. Fish characteristics and behaviors are explained in this packet for secondary science teachers. Pre-trip materials include factsheets and worksheets on fish: (1)…

This report, containing seven articles, summarizes a series of evaluation studies. The first article, "The Shell Science and Mathematics Resource Centre in 1987," provides an overview of the Centre's mode and reflections about the achievements of the Centre during the three years of its operation. The second article, "The Curriculum…

Discusses the role of education in a museum setting. Reviews the direction of thinking in museum education and the history of the museum movement in the United States. Highlights the preparation of viewers, the professional status of museum educators, and marketing museum programs as some problems in museum education. (CW)

Describes a program in which teenage students serve as the explainers of the displays in a museum. Reports on a study designed to determine whether such programs can significantly affect students' social development, their attitudes toward science, and their interest in science, teaching, and museums. (TW)