Describes the world's first interpretive complex devoted entirely to solid waste. Focuses on its mission to encourage people to be aware of resources and to recycle. (DDR)

Condemns the removal of evolution from subjects to be tested in Kansas at the state level. Outlines strategies being used by creationists to confound contemporary science, the breadth of creationist/fundamentalist attacks on modern science, and educators' and politicians' responses to creationist attacks. Reviews the role of museums in providing…

In this paper, the author describes the reactions and review of two reporters who attended the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in 2004. One reporter, Marc Fisher, said "The museum feels like a trade show in which each group of Indians gets space to sell its founding myth and favorite anecdotes of survival." Another,…

There has been some controversy brewing around the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). A bit of it is due to the dismay over the exclusion of so many tribes, which in time will be remedied, given that the exhibits are supposed to rotate every couple of years. But more fundamental is the debate over the museum's deliberate…

This article is the author's reflective analysis of an extended, interdisciplinary unit, which culminated with fifty or so middle school students installing a history museum in their local town hall. He describes the unit, focusing primarily on its planning and implementation and also offer a series of general reflections about the nature of…

For thousands of years, the three perfections--painting, poetry, and calligraphy--have been considered the mark of an enlightened person throughout Asian cultures. Fifth-grade students learned about these three hallmarks by studying three works from the Detroit Institute of Art's Asian collection: a nineteenth-century Japanese hand scroll, a…

This paper surveys research over the past decade on school group visits to museums. By shifting attention to students' views about field trips, to their socially negotiated learning behaviors during field trips and the interaction between learning in the classroom and in the museum, this research has afforded a deeper understanding of the nature…

A new but costly approach to providing visitors of zoos with information on conservation is the presentation of small exhibits by zoo professionals or volunteers. At these "touch tables" visitors can find out about the biology, ecology, and conservation of animals kept in the zoo. We studied the effect of a touch table on visitors'…

Trimis and Savva detail the in-depth studio approach, which enables students to explore materials and techniques in-depth and to progress in developmental stages, as part of a larger study of museum education in Cyprus. Their aim was to introduce preservice teachers to ways of implementing programs that link museum education with art activities in…

The way in which economic and cultural trends have led cultural institutions to go away from grassroots constituencies toward better ones and multiple debates within the world of U.S. Latino/a culture and the arts is described. The debate over the El Museo, which in the larger context affected the categorization, promotion and exhibition of Latin…

Presents background information on the artist Ginny Ruffner who was a "flameworker." Includes information on the exhibition entitled "Creativity: The Flowering Tornado, Art by Ginny Ruffner" and the accompanying art pop-up book. Provides photographs of some of her artwork. (CMK)

"Eureka!" is an interactive museum for children situated in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which opened in 1992. It has over 400 hands-on exhibits in four gallery spaces: (1) "SoundSpace"; (2) "Living and working together"; (3) "Our global garden"; and (4) "Me and my body". It aims to inspire children about themselves and the world around them through…

Visits to science museums can provide a complement to the science learning carried out in schools. However, science museums are informal learning environments where teachers usually have very little control over the ideas being implicated or the experiments that the students carry out. It is necessary to design educational materials for the visit…

What draws practitioners into the field of museum education? Why do many remain in the field long-term and how do they grow professionally? What challenges reinvigorate the practice or persuade educators to leave the field? Using examples from the course of my career and anecdotes from colleagues, this article identifies common experiences that…

In this article, the author describes the learning her students gained from their field trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago. On their trip to MCA, her fourth-grade students discovered new and surprising ways to approach the work of artist Dan Flavin.