Museums Fit Teaching Strategy
JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Three or four times a day, a banana shows up at the Liberty Science Center and complains about a pain in its side. And that means it’s time for some visiting kids to dress up like surgeons and scrub nurses, take a scalpel and go to work.
That’s the cover story, anyway.
What’s really happening is that kids are learning about science and enjoying it. Whether there is a long-lasting payoff in future scientists won’t be known for a long time. But science educator Lisa Silverman is doing her best with her underage team and the young audience watching them.
“Can everybody say the word ‘autoclave?’” Ms. Silverman asked the other day while holding up some surgical instruments. “That’s a fancy word for an oven-dishwasher that goes at a very high temperature and actually kills the germs.”
As she guided the children through the operation, she wove in lessons about infections, surgery, the roles of operating room staff and the kinds of schooling her young audience would need to get those jobs. To education experts, this is “informal” science learning, which means it’s happening outside of school.
This summer the National Academies, a congressionally chartered nonprofit group that advises the federal government, will release a report on what’s known about the learning of science in such informal settings. That includes not only museums but also such places as zoos and aquariums.
The report comes as experts bemoan a lack of scientific education and literacy among Americans. They warn of a shortfall in homegrown engineers and scientists to keep the nation competitive, a general work force ill-equipped to function in an increasingly high-tech workplace, and a citizenry struggling to grasp complex public issues like stem cell research.
While that has led to calls for changes in schools, science museums – broadly defined to include a range of science-oriented places to visit – can also play a big role in teaching and promoting science to both children and adults, expert say.
Studies are showing that such institutions stimulate interest, awareness, knowledge and understanding, said David Ucko, an expert on informal learning at the National Science Foundation, which requested this summer’s study.
“They’re very useful,” said Gerry Wheeler, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. “They’re a valuable resource for making nature real to the young, hungry mind.”
Museums “have an enormous role to play” in teaching children because they can offer experiences that are tough for schools to present, says George Hein, a professor emeritus at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and author of the book Learning in the Museum.
“You can actually do science. You can take prisms and mirrors and see what happens when you move light around,” he said. Like music or sports, science has to be experienced firsthand to truly be understood, Mr. Hein said.
People don’t necessarily gain a new insight every time they visit a museum, but the same can be said about time in most schools, Mr. Hein said. Comparing the two settings on learning-per-minute, he said, “I think museums might be quite efficient.”
Originally published by Associated Press.
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