Recently, I have been traveling a lot, even more than usual. In just under two weeks, I visited museums in 4 states from coast to coast. Along the way, I spent time in 7 museums in different roles, attended a national project advisors' meeting, and walked New York City's High Line, something I have long wanted to do. I was headed for three more
museums and a planning meeting before deciding to make a quick exit ahead of last week’s East coast storm. I sure am glad I did.
Observing the vitality and listening to what’s happening in so many museums–large and small, in towns and
cities, across the country–and in quick succession is quite amazing. The
variety and intensity alone require many deep breaths, time to thumb through
notes and photos, and moments to recall, reflect, and share. Before too much fades away and with a reminder or two about where to explore more, here are some notes from the road.
Partners
in Play
Three Seattle area
children’s museums have been conducting exploratory research to look at how parents
and caregivers see their children’s activities as play and their own role in extending
and supporting it. Last fall, Lorrie Beaumont of Evergreene Research and Evaluation,
and I interviewed caregivers and trained interviewers at the Children’s Museum of Tacoma,
Imagine Children’s Museum, and KidsQuest Children’s Museum
to conduct interviews. I wrote about some of my early impressions on
an earlier post, Parent Voices, New Insights.
Now, using the results of nearly 100 interviews, the three museums are
beginning a new round of research. Three action research
projects are ramping up and exploring questions that emerged from the exploratory
study. Action research is an iterative, reflective process looking for
improvements, or action, around everyday, real situations. More often used in
school settings, it is well suited for museums and other informal learning environments. It's a great approach for exploring questions related to practice or emerging
from research and is an excellent professional development tool. Look for a future post on action research as well as for dissemination of
this work by the museums at conferences and on-line.
Museum
of History and Industry (MOHAI), Seattle
When I hear someone propose
developing a scavenger hunt for a museum, I am drawn to the idea. I like
to imagine pairs of children or family groups combing through a gallery, alert for possible clues, furrowing brows about another way to read this clue, and exchanging ideas. I also tuck
it away, wondering how well it will actually work in the bustling museum setting and for whom. I was pleasantly surprised on my visit to MOHAI to be paralleling
the trail of two 8-ish year old boys enthusiastically scavengering their way through the museum with a set of cards. I noticed their
intensity, listened to their conversation, and rejoiced in their sense of
accomplishment when they yipped, “Yay! We built a railroad” after pounding in
spikes. A few exhibits later, I heard one say to the other, “We have to ask
questions.” The other replied, “Yeah! Gotta have questions.” The imperative captured my
attention and that of others around us. This is precisely the enthusiasm
and immersion we hope for and, in this case, in somewhat older children. While only a sample of 1 (or maybe 2), their enthusiasm reassures me of the potential for
children to be actively engaged and excited in searching and discovering.
Children’s
Museum of Boston
It’s been more than 30
years since my fist visit to Boston Children’s Museum and I have been many
times since. On this visit, I was impressed by how much the Museum has stayed
the same even as it has changed. Approaching on foot from the T’s South
Station, I navigated the streets by feel and was delighted to see the big white
“Hood” Milk Bottle from across the channel, welcoming and guiding me. Changes
in the neighborhood and on the Museum’s plaza made the milk bottle seem different and the same, a
dynamic that persisted throughout my visit. A new entry experience flows into a
familiar hive of activity around the four-story climber. Legacy exhibits including
Construction Zone, Japanese House, PlaySpace connected by a wide corridor of
activities for Chinese New Year. Bubbles and
Raceways enjoy a new context in Science Playground. One thing that had not changed
was the number of highly engaged parents in PlaySpace, including dads, many
comfortably occupying the resource room; I noticed they do seem younger than 30 years ago. This mix of
enduring and new BCM experiences is fitting for a museum celebrating its 100 birthday.
Math
Core
As an advisor for Math Core for Museums, an NSF-funded
project of the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), I participated in the project
meeting at the Museum of Science (Boston). This project has an interesting
focus and structure. Its four museums (SMM, Museum of Science, North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Durham, and
Explora, Albuquerque) have been developing a set
of interactive exhibits that engage learners, especially middle school
students, in experiencing and understanding ratio and proportion physically as
well as cognitively. The project has an interest in long-term math
environments and repeat visits. Selinda Research Associates is
conducting a longitudinal evaluation of the project and at the meeting, Deborah
Perry provided an overview of the evaluation that is underway.
Like past advisors’ meetings,
this gathering of evaluators, exhibit developers, researchers, and advisors generated lively discussion, valuable observations, and questions about the project and about museum practice and learning experiences more generally. Why, for instance, has
repeat visitation been studied so little? Children’s tendency to build towers
and houses with blocks before and often instead of focusing on the intended math activity was noted several times. The thoughtful, succinct, and quotable Paul Tatter observed that, “Learning
is not an event,” yet we plan and evaluate learning as if it were. The idea
of designing for persistence was
thrown out inviting thoughts about what that might look like. Conversations
from the advisors’ meeting are continuing.
Children’s
Museum of the Arts
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| New York Historical Society/Jon Wallen |
New
York Historical Society
This was my first visit to
the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library (NYHS) across the street
from the American Museum of Natural History and Central Park. The set of interactive
touchscreens in the newly designed Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery
of American History were fascinating and as elegant as the gallery itself.
Fortunately I had been alerted to the new DiMenna Children’s History Museum in
the Jan-Feb 2013 issue of Museum. History exhibits for children are
challenging and, until recently, there have been few, if any child-centered,
interactive exhibits. As this recent NYHS exhibit, Chicago History Museum’s
Sensing Chicago,
and Minnesota Historical Society’s Then, Now, Wow!
seem to indicate, the moment for children’s history exhibits has arrived. Since
I plan to write soon on history exhibits for children that I have seen, I’ll
leave that until later.
Loving the
High Line
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