Aiming for experiences that are both culturally responsible and personally meaningful, the author offers guidelines to help museum educators and art teachers negotiate contextual information within group investigations of works of art. In people's encounters with art, dialogue exists on several levels. There is dialogue between a viewer and a…

In response to the need for Holocaust curricula in Latvia, Latvians and Americans worked collaboratively to overcome the historical silence surrounding this event. During their project, Latvian curriculum writers worked with teachers and scholars at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This descriptive analysis of the Latvians' experience…

This study analyzes the short-term consequences of visitors' use of different types of exhibits (i.e., "exemplars of phenomena" and "analogy based") together with the factors affecting visitors' understanding of and their evaluation of the use of such exhibits. One hundred and twenty five visitors (either alone or in groups) were observed …

The MathPacks program at the Science Museum of Minnesota provides students with in-depth understanding of real-world applications of mathematics and science. Students measure museum specimens and investigate ratios, patterns, and mapping while simulating the work of scientists.

The main goal of this research study is to explore the interconnection between museum learning and theatre learning. We will begin this exploratory process by analyzing the functions of role-playing and improvisation as teaching and learning strategies, and we will then expand this analysis to the idea of storytelling as a link between learning in…

Field trips are well recognized by researchers as an educational approach with the potential to complement and enhance classroom science teaching by exposing students to unique activities, resources, and content in informal settings. The following investigation addresses teachers' field trip practices in three related manuscripts: (1) A study…

Since it was coined by Tim O'Reilly in formulating the first Web 2.0 Conference in 2004, the term "Web 2.0" has definitely caught on as a designation of a second generation of Web design and experience that emphasizes a high degree of interaction with, and among, users. Rather than simply consulting and reading Web pages, the Web 2.0 generation is…

This paper presents a description and evaluation of Myartspace, a service on mobile phones for inquiry-led learning that allows students to gather information during a school field trip which is automatically sent to a website where they can view, share and present it, back in the classroom or at home. The evaluation focused on three levels: a…

This article presents a model for increasing science literacy of P-16 students as well as community members by engaging university students in the design and development of university museum exhibits. While the design of this project was in large part motivated by time and budget constraints faced by the faculty members involved, the positive…

Background: The Arizona State Museum, Tucson, received a grant for the school year 2007-08 from the Institute of Museums and Library Services, Museum for America Programs. The goals of this grant were (1) to continue a vibrant, monthly offering of family programs at the Arizona State Museum (ASM) around the topic of museum exhibitions, (2) to…

The "Learning Lab: The Cell" exhibit was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Museum and the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS). Specially designed for middle and high school students, the Learning Lab provides museum visitors of all ages with fascinating insights into how our living cells work. The…

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American…

According to van der Pluijm (2006), an ecological community occurs when interacting groups, living in the same area, are joined together by the set of connections. This definition implies a symbiotic relationship and the acknowledgment that what affects one member or part of the community also affects the others. When the interconnections are…

Museum education. Aesthetic education. How are they similar? How do they differ? How do they relate to each other? What are their goals? As museum educators working with classroom and art teachers, they are often asked these questions, and they ask them themselves. "What do they DO?" is probably the most frequently asked question of all,…

This article features an arts education curriculum project that was designed to use the oeuvre of Rembrandt van Rijn--seventeenth-century Dutch painter, etcher, and draftsman extraordinaire--as a teaching resource. A partnership of scholars, university professors, museum educators, and classroom teachers designed the project, which uses Rembrandt…