To investigate how parents support children's learning at an exhibit on evolution, the conversations of 12 families were recorded, transcribed, and coded (6,263 utterances). Children (mean age 9.6 years) and parents visited Explore Evolution, which conveyed current research about the evolution of seven organisms. Families were engaged with the…

On February 26, 2009 the "Journal of Museum Education" hosted a telephone conversation among five senior museum educators. Leslie Bedford, Director of the Leadership in Museum Education Program at Bank Street College, facilitated the discussion with Mary Ellen Munley, Randy Roberts, Elsa Bailey, and Brigid Globensky. They shared their thinking on…

Lenka Clayton, a British artist and documentary filmmaker, did not leave London and cross the Atlantic Ocean intending to paint tiny, precise numbers on 7,000 loose stones--that idea didn't come to her until later. By the time she began numbering, she had already started a class of freshmen at Alfred University mapping hard-to-map things (like…

This study focused on how to enhance the interactivity and usefulness of augmented reality (AR) by integrating manipulative interactive tools with a real-world environment. A manipulative AR (MAR) system, which included 3D interactive models and manipulative aids, was designed and developed to teach the unit "Understanding Weather" in a…

When it comes to STEM education, the nation's K-12 public schools cannot do it all. The nature of 21st century proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is too complex for any single institution. The good news is that schools do not have to do it alone. Museums, zoos, nature centers, aquariums, and planetariums are among the…

This article deals with a pioneering project currently being developed, namely, the Exhibition on Testing and Measurement. This interactive traveling exhibition will be presented in science museums in Israel, the United States, and other countries. It has been conceived as an innovative means of familiarizing the public with educational…

Museums are competing with a vast variety of Internet-based information delivery sites to keep the public interested in their institutions. To keep pace Museums are increasingly turning to the use of Web 2.0 tools to draw in the public and maintain a standing as cultural and educational leaders. Several museums have started using Twitter. This…

On the third floor of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), in Washington, D.C., inside a glass case, lie thousands of shoes. Old and mismatched, moldering after sixty years, they are what remains of countless Jews who were told to disrobe and who were subsequently murdered at Majdanek, Poland, during the final years of the…

This article investigates the position of migrant languages in Northern Ireland's two largest cities, Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. The paper comments on how deliberations around public policy objectives in a post-conflict era have led to a broader understanding of cultural identity and consequently to an "opening-up" of urban spaces…

The majority of American educators are White, middle class, and female. Most textbooks and articles for pre-service teachers assume their readers reflect these characteristics. However, as the K-12 student population becomes increasingly diverse, so do the pre-service teacher candidates at our Southern California public university. This article…

This paper presents qualitative research recently undertaken by the Head of Learning at the Design Museum. The research explores how learning in the museum's workshop programme for schools is conceptualised by the museum educators who devise and teach on the programme. The study is framed by an epistemological stance of social constructionism, in…

Teachers are forced to use state-adopted texts, approved materials and methods in order to facilitate learning. The creativity of designing a lesson plan that meets the needs of each student, while fostering the imagination and creativity, can be all but lost when constrained by such parameters. So what can teachers do to enhance the learning…

Demonstrating the multiple features of the Cerulean Gallery in Second Life, this research report showcases several exemplar exhibits created by students, artists, and museums. Located in The Educational Media Center, a Second Life teaching and social space, the Cerulean Gallery exhibits functioned as case studies that tested its effectiveness as…

In this article, the authors juxtapose Allison Hedge Coke's poetry collection "Blood Run" (2006) with the larger context in which Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) operates in order to investigate how "Blood Run" exposes the limitations of repatriation legislation, most significantly, how NAGPRA's…

Research pertaining to science museum exhibit design tends to be articulated at a level of generality that makes it difficult to apply in practice. To address this issue, the present study used a design-based research approach to understand the educational potential of a biology exhibit. The exhibit was considered an educational environment which…