Museums: They're Not Just for Field Trips Anymore
Debra Ingram, CAREI, University of Minnesota
 The
national science standards and Minnesota's own Graduation Standards
recommend dramatic changes in both how teachers instruct students
and in the content of what students need to learn. Instead of the
traditional focus on science as a dry collection of facts to memorize,
and specialized activities with little relevance to the daily lives
of students, the standards emphasize the need for students to understand
the process and relevance of science and learn how to think critically.
Based on research about how students learn best, the new standards
also emphasize the need for teachers to provide students with more
hands-on, real world experiences related to science topics and to
act as a facilitator of student learning rather than a dispenser
of knowledge.
Given the depth of change required by the standards, implementing
them is a challenge for most schools. Often schools lack the materials
needed to provide students with hands-on activities. Teachers educated
in more traditional methods that emphasize factual knowledge have
difficulty making their instruction more inquiry-based and authentic.
The new standards also require teachers to possess a greater level
of content knowledge, a situation that is especially challenging
for schools whose faculty have low levels of science background
or schools where there may not be any faculty with a science background.
As the science education field was defining new standards and
schools were wondering how to implement them, the museum world was
experiencing a simultaneous wave of reform. Traditionally, museums
focused primarily on research, collection, and display; education,
in contrast, was a low priority to which very few resources were
dedicated. Working with schools was always a part of what museums
did, but the work was peripheral to their missions and the relationships
were passive.
In the 1980s, museum priorities began to shift as words such
as accountability and customer service caught the attention of institutions
that were experiencing dwindling audiences and an aging donor base.
As a response, in part, to the need for an increased focus on customers,
many institutions created, or expanded, their education departments.
Museum educators, many of whom came from teaching, became an important
part of exhibit development teams that were searching for better
ways to help audiences interpret their displays. Increasing museum
outreach to schools came naturally to many museum educators who
saw the potential for a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship:
schools could enhance science instruction and museums could learn
how to make their collections and research more accessible. As one
museum administrator remarked, "Our school partnerships provide
a unique window into schools that allows us to stay current, test
our ideas, and detect trends while they're still developing."
This article will describe the potential value in museum school
partnerships, some local examples, and the challenges inherent in
working together.
Why are museums a good partner for reforming science education?
Although both museums and schools are learning environments,
their strategies for reaching learners are very different. It is
these differences that can be valuable for schools trying to implement
science standards and improve their overall level of science instruction.
Constructivist learning. A museum provides an informal, constructivist
environment for learning; an approach popularized by Howard Gardner
in his book, "The Unschooled Mind." Unlike the classroom where often
a teacher guides a group of students through a standardized set
of activities, in a museum, visitors are free to explore what interests
them. The visitor's curiosity drives learning, not assignments and
tests. In museums, visitors develop their own narratives based on
what they see and experience and how this interacts with their own
lives. This means that as teachers try to develop instructional
plans where students are to discover rather than be taught, museums
can be helpful in showing how to do this. As a museum educator turned
charter school principal recently stated, "We in museums are familiar
with questioning strategies that help learners reflect on their
learning from a different point of view. We recognize and respect
the power and outcome of constructed understanding, so we patiently
respect the nonlinear, unpredictable path it can take" (Krapfel,
p. 12).
Addressing diverse needs. Although good museum exhibits are designed
to allow all visitors to construct their own experience, they must
be mindful of what is needed to attract the curiosity of visitors
who vary in age, learning styles, life experiences, and interests.
Curators' knowledge and experience in designing exhibits that appeal
to a broad range of visitors can be useful to educators who are
increasingly challenged to hold the interest of a diverse student
body.
Primary sources in an authentic, multidisciplinary context. Museums
also differ from most classrooms because they are filled with primary
source materials placed in their real world context. This rich environment
may stimulate student curiosity in a way that the classroom environment
can not. If structured correctly, this curiosity translates back
to the classroom and can motivate further student learning. Museums
can also give students an opportunity to learn how to interpret
real world phenomena and objects by gathering information from primary
source materials.
Good museum exhibits are inherently multidisciplinary because
they don't treat science as an isolated topic; instead, they illustrate
how science is a part of our everyday lives. This perspective can
help teachers who are struggling to integrate science education
with other content areas by providing a better understanding of
how science relates to these subjects.
Depth of content knowledge. Schools can also benefit from the
high level of science content knowledge in museum staff. Unlike
teachers whose training is more generalized, museum scientists and
curators spend years researching a narrowly defined topic. By working
together, museum staff and teachers can develop instructional activities
based on their complementary areas of expertise. For example, classification
is a subject area in the National Science Standards and it uses
the following foundation science skills: organizing, observing,
making inferences, predicting, and reasoning. Scientists at a natural
history museum who study evolutionary relationships and classify
living things can help teach students to classify objects, which
also trains them to think logically and critically.
The manner in which curators and scientists learn is also a resource
for teachers who are trying to redesign their instruction. Scientists
learn through experiences with objects and phenomena1,
the exact type of learning the standards emphasize.
The challenges of science education reform and the increased
educational emphasis by museums have combined to create many new
forms of museum school interactions. The next section describes
the variety of forms these alliances can take.
Variations in Working Together
Once limited primarily to isolated field trips, since the late
80s museums and schools have established new ways of working together
for their mutual benefit. The possibilities for these alliances
are limited only by the creativity of museum and school staff, and
the students they are trying to reach. In recognition of the growing
interest in this area, the Federal Institute of Museums and Library
Services recently funded its second symposium on museum schools.
In late September 1998, representatives from eight different partnerships
convened in Washington, D.C to learn from each other's experiences
and to explore new paradigms of evaluation for assessing the impact
of museum school programs on student success. Other examples of
the interest and activity in this area are a recent special issue
of The Journal of Museum Education that is focused on museum
school alliances, and an issue of Museum News focused on charter
schools and museums. Both publications are targeted at museum and
education audiences interested in exploring the potential for these
partnerships.
Two institutions that are among the pioneers in museum school
partnerships are located in Minnesota:
The James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History. The James Ford
Bell Museum of Natural History is located on the east bank of the
University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus. In addition to its
mission to educate the public about natural history and preserving
collections, since 1989 the education department has been active
in outreach to K-12 schools.
CAREI's first involvement with the museum began in 1994 when
museum staff asked us to evaluate the "Experiences in Informal Learning"
project that was funded by the Medtronic Foundation. The purpose
of the project was to develop a model for collaboration that joined
the resources and expertise of the museum in informal science education
with the discipline and structure of two local alternative secondary
schools for students at risk. Throughout the project, a museum educator
worked intensively with three classroom science teachers to develop
and deliver instructional activities in which students would experience
every aspect of developing a science exhibit. By designing exhibits
on a topic of their choosing, the museum educator hoped that students
would learn important skills: researching topics, creating outlines
and scripts, building models that illustrate scientific principals,
making presentations, and creating and installing a final exhibit.
In addition, the exhibits would be an excellent assessment tool
because they demonstrated students' knowledge of science content.
Working with museum staff, CAREI designed a formative evaluation
to assess the success of collaboration between museum and school
staff and make recommendations for future work in this area. The
major findings were as follows:
- All of the teachers who participated in the project continue
to use activities introduced or developed during the project.
- Teachers reported better attendance and follow-through by
students, with a significantly increased rate of students completing
and passing the course.
- A majority of the students who participated in the program
were able to demonstrate improvements in areas such as research
skills and communication skills through their successful production
of a museum exhibit.
Since this initial experience, the museum has expanded its work
in this area. Typically, the museum has worked with alternative
schools, which they have found are more open to exploring new ways
to reach students for whom the traditional school curriculum was
not working. Alternative school teachers seem to value the museum
resources and expertise in developing instruction that reaches their
students who have hands-on, active learning styles.
Currently, CAREI is evaluating another project of the Bell Museum,
"Inquiring Minds: Adaptations in Urban Habitats," that is designed
to help local teachers implement the new science standards and Minnesota's
profile of learning. The project, which is funded by a grant from
the Eisenhower Professional Development Program, began last summer
when 20 teachers participated in a two-week workshop taught by four
University scientists, lead teachers from each of the schools involved,
and museum educators.
The goals of the workshop were:
- to increase teachers' understanding of science content in
the areas of mammals, plants, birds, and insects;
- to demonstrate hands-on and object-based activities based
on this content that can be conducted in classrooms and surrounding
neighborhoods; and
- to develop a relationship with participating teachers and
to provide them with museum staff expertise and access to museum
objects and other museum resources throughout the year.
The program continues throughout the year with site-visits and
roundtables in order to support teachers in implementing what they
learned in the workshop. Participation at the roundtables has been
about 80%, a rate higher than in similar programs known to museum
staff. The project was recently funded for a second year based on
its success to date.
In addition to the two projects that CAREI has evaluated, the
Bell museum also works with schools through the following programs:
- Curator and a local elementary teacher regularly co-teach
a continuing education workshop at the University for K-12 teachers
on building exhibits with students, developing hands-on activities,
using museum kit program and other resources in these activities.
- Focused field trips, which include a facilitated experience
for students in the exhibit halls and pre-and post-visit materials
sent to the teacher to help develop corresponding classroom
activities.
- Bell Museum Learning Resource kit lending program provides
self-contained natural history units that introduce science
through hands-on activities for fourth through sixth grade classrooms.
- Bell Live!-a distance learning program seen by students
throughout the country by satellite - provides students with
the opportunity to interact with science and scientists without
leaving their classrooms.
- JASON-an annual, two week international tele-broadcast program
of scientific exploration.
- In the fall of 2000, the museum will open an alternative
high school that is part of the Minneapolis Public School system.
The Science Museum of Minnesota. St. Paul, Minnesota is home
to the longest running museum-school partnership in the county.
In 1991, the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Saint Paul Public
Schools opened the Museum Magnet Elementary School (MMS), a K-6
building located about one mile from the museum. The MMS mission
is to nurture creative thinkers who can work cooperatively to solve
problems. Through several years of collaboration, the school developed
the exhibit development learning model, which integrates the process
museums use to develop exhibits with the district's learner outcomes
in academic content areas. The core curriculum is based on the premise
that the exhibit development process used by museums can stimulate
students' creativity and critical thinking skills and provide an
interdisciplinary framework for instruction.
Two years ago, CAREI worked with teachers and museum staff to
develop a process to assess what their students learn when they
develop exhibits. The staff have conceptualized the exhibit development
process as having four basic steps:
Explore-students investigate a topic by making observations,
researching, and demonstrating a willingness to see things in new
ways.
Experiment-students pose questions of "why" and "what if" and
conduct tests to answer questions.
Explain-students describe the results of their explorations and
experimenting by working collaboratively to identify patterns and
make new connections.
Exhibit-new understandings are presented to the school community
in a variety of formats, using multiple communication media and
tools.
Although not every exhibit topic at the MMS is science-related,
the skills students develop and the teaching strategies used in
the model are consistent with the science standards.
After a year of intensive work with two fourth grade teachers
and the museum's program coordinator for the school, the result
was a rubric that defines skills students are expected to develop
during the four stages of the museum process and levels of competence
for each. In the year following the project, staff teaching in the
other grade levels modified the fourth grade rubric for use with
their students.
In addition to the MMS, the Science Museum also works with educators
in the following programs:
- Teacher and pre-service workshops.
- Providing resources for schools, such as theme trunks of
authentic artifacts and printed materials.
- Scientists in residence and school assemblies.
- Focused field-trips, which include an hour-long facilitated
experience in the exhibit halls for 30-student subgroups from
a larger K-6 school group, pre and post-visit materials sent
to the teacher, including post-visit materials to help teachers
plan follow-up activities in the classroom.
Challenges
By working together, museums and schools have found numerous
ways to benefit from each other's expertise in teaching and learning.
As is typical anytime someone breaks new ground, the pioneers in
museum school partnerships have faced, and continue to face, significant
challenges in their attempts to work together. Some typical challenges
are as follows:
Cultural differences. Schools and museums have very different
cultures, including different time frames, languages, and funding
sources. In museums, the time frame and standards for building exhibits
emphasize quality and accuracy regardless of the time and amount
of resources needed. In contrast, teachers work on a daily schedule
with limited time and resources. Looking back on the development
of the Museum Magnet Elementary School, staff note the large amount
of time needed to build common ground by learning about each other's
language and assumptions before they could create something new
and useful to each partner.
Scientists and curators may not know how to or may not be comfortable
in working with K-12 teachers and students. Scientists accustomed
to teaching college courses may need to modify their teaching strategies
when working with teachers and adapting their expertise to what
is possible in the classroom.
Fit with district and school curriculum requirements. The work
of the partners must be aligned with school and district requirements
for what teachers should teach. Museums are starting to recognize
that useful science kits are those that are directly tied to the
Profile of Learning standards, and fit district peculiarities. For
example, one district might teach the ecology standard in 4th grade,
another district in 6th grade. National standards have been in place
for several years but state and districts continue to make major
shifts as they implement graduation standards. Museum partners need
to keep up with this so they can help teachers fit in the resources.
Skepticism about new learning models. Some parents, students,
and educators are skeptical about the value of learning activities
that are more informal than traditional science courses. Parents
remark, "What does my child learn when they build an exhibit? I
want them to learn reading and math and writing skills."
Despite these challenges, more and more people in both schools
and museums are exploring ways to develop mutually beneficial symbiotic
relationships.
References:
Krapfel, P. (1998). How museums can shape public education: Chrysalis
Charter School. Journal of Museum Education, 23, 11-13.
1 Finnerty, K.O., Ingram, D., Huffman,
D., Thimmesch, K., and Gilman, W. (1998) Finding a common language
for museum process. Journal of Museum Education, 23, 3-5.
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