Community of practice provided the theoretical frame to study the Old Bedford Village crafts persons as they reproduced lifestyles of a Southern Alleghenies rural village from 200 to 300 years ago in early America. This study sought the "how" and "why" Old Bedford Village crafts persons engaged in learning processes as…

At the Smithsonian, big questions are the common denominators that unite their museums, research centers, and programs. And curiosity is contagious. Today's small child who looks in awe at the big dinosaurs that once roamed the earth and wonders, "What happened?" might just be tomorrow's paleontologist. Among this year's stories is a…

The urgent environmental issues of today require science-literate adults to engage in business and political decisions to create solutions. Despite the need, few adults have the knowledge and skills of science literacy. This doctoral dissertation is an analytical case study examining the science-learner identity development of Exploratorium Field…

Recent policy on inclusion has had an impact on the development of museum galleries and related educational provision. Museums are used as learning organisations and, as such, need to consider how to create an inclusive environment. However, inclusive provision for people with learning difficulties in museums tends to be isolated and small scale,…

The school field trip, once a supporting player in a well-rounded education, is slowly becoming endangered. Widespread budget cuts have made happily anticipated class trips to museums, zoos, and other cultural destinations increasingly scarce. A librarian may be able to rescue the field trip from extinction by transforming the school building into…

Clay is one of the oldest materials known to humanity and has been used for utilitarian purposes and creative expression since prehistoric times. As civilizations evolved, ceramic materials, techniques, purposes and design all became more sophisticated and expressive. With the addition of different minerals and firing methods, clay was used to…

Assessments of U.S. students typically reveal stronger performance in science than mathematics yet their science performance remains uninspiring at best. Whether the metric considered is an international benchmark from TIMSS or PISA or the nation's NAEP report card, the mediocre portrait of U.S. science achievement has remained virtually unchanged…

Experiences of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (Occaneechi) in constructing a heritage revitalization initiative known as the Homeland Preservation Project and organizing related educational programming were analyzed through an ethnographic case study. The purpose of the study was to understand the importance of the heritage museum as a…

How do internships and work experience, such as volunteering, give students a taste of the environment in which they hope to be employed? How do they provide pathways between educational institutions and the workplace? This paper reports on a qualitative research study about the initial professional learning experiences of individuals newly…

It is well known that the spatial environment has an impact on people's learning. The author takes her language classes to an art museum to use the exhibits as stimulants for target language communication. This article provides a theoretical exploration of some of the underlying concepts that are affected by spatial shifts. It is argued that space…

In this article, the author argues that if the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) wishes to make a communicable assertion of cultural sovereignty that avoids speaking something not intended to its audiences, then the very act of communication--the rhetorical frame itself--must be examined. This is not to argue for pandering to…

This paper reports on a study, "MUSE", which involved Secondary (Grade 7) students in designing and constructing a virtual museum. It presents a description and evaluation of the design and implementation of the technologically-mediated intervention within a language curriculum that emphasizes multimodal meaning-making and expression.…

More than 200,000 people worked in the museum industry in May 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A museum hires workers in a variety of occupations to help share its treasures with the public. BLS data also show that workers in the museum industry had a median annual wage of $27,456 in May 2008, less than the annual…

The idea of sending students and the general public on a walk through a scale model of the solar system in an attempt to instill an appreciation of the relative scales of the sizes of the objects compared to the immense distances between them is certainly not new. A good number of such models exist, including one on the National Mall in…

As cultural institutions begin to share physical and human resources, and as new technologies reshape approaches to access and preservation, educational programs must respond in kind. However, it is important to ask in what ways the current convergence of libraries, archives, and museums marks a return to tradition rather than a departure from it.…