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…

One issue of interest to practitioners and researchers in science centres concerns what meanings visitors are making from their interactions with exhibits and how they make sense of these experiences. The research reported in this study is an exploratory attempt, therefore, to investigate this process by using video clips and still photographs of…

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…

Tucked into a hillside to conserve energy, Bluffton College's science center is an open plan laboratory designed for flexibility. (Author)

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)

This document describes the Exploratorium Framework project which is a model initiative demonstrating the vital role science museums play in science education reform. Contents include: (1) "The Four Thematic Exhibit Experiments (An Overview)"; (2) "Themes (Looking at the World through Theme-Colored Glasses)"; (3) "Creating…

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…

The 24,000 square foot Alaska State Museum is experiencing a space crisis which hinders its ability to effectively meet present demands. The museum's collection has more than tripled from 5,600 objects 17 years ago to 23,000 objects today. Available storage and exhibition space is filled and only 10% of the collection is on exhibit. The reason for…

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,…