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March 15, 2001
Return to Museum-School Connections in the Digital Age
Informal Learning
Discovery decidedly has its place in museums, as students are freed from the physical constraints of learning-desks, workgroups, and bells. Free to wander and look, their minds engage in new and different ways.
Perhaps science centers best exemplify this spirit, as exhibits in these places are usually designed to be touched, manipulated, and pondered. There are to date well over 200 such centers around the country, but perhaps the granddaddy of them all is San Francisco's Exploratorium. What began as a place to investigate the basics of human perception-sight, sound, and touch-has grown into a groundbreaking institution where the underlying science of these essential experiences is mined for all the fun it can yield.
Inquiry is at the heart of the Exploratorium experience. The exhibits are designed to pique curiosity and to engage visitors in direct encounters with scientific phenomena. How does light bend? Manipulate a huge prism and watch the results. What elements create a tornado? Study the in-house twister to find out. Trained "explainers," primarily local high school students, are on hand to answer-and ask-questions along the way. In this way, the Exploratorium models constructivist learning theory.
The Internet has been an important tool in helping the Exploratorium reach its constituency, and visitors will find the same hands-on spirit that characterizes the physical institution also permeates the museum's Web site. Go to www.exploratorium.edu and you'll be rewarded with a host of materials, including science "snacks": scaled down, teachable versions of the museum's inquiry-based exhibits that you can make with inexpensive items. Or if you have some time, check out the archived Webcasts of Iron Science Teacher. Modeled after the popular Japanese cooking show Iron Chef, Iron Science Teacher has contestants cook up science and math activities using a "secret ingredient" such as Marshmallow Peeps, soap, or other items. Not designed to stand alone as classroom activities, the Webcasts nevertheless do a good job of modeling best practices in instruction, serving up a range of practical ideas, inspiration, and fun.
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