From Theory to Practice The following case studies were conducted at an interactive science museum, the Discovery Center of Springfield, located in southwestern Missouri. The Discovery Center is a hands-on museum that regularly serves around 100,000 visitors annually in addition to offering distance learning opportunities and outreach to the surrounding communities. The facility represents one of the only educational spaces of its kind serving the region. The museum comprises around 60,000 square feet of exhibit spaces and houses over 200 hands-on exhibits that incorporate a broad range of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and cultural topics.
“Exploratory Lab” Case Study On a monthly basis the Discovery Center creates new …show more content…
In August of 2016, the center participated in a popular local event- the Ozark Empire Fair. As part of the organization’s participation, 12 traveling exhibits, ranging from small tabletop activities to large-scale exhibits, were collected and assembled on the fairgrounds (Figure 3). One new tabletop exhibit, a miniature “Dino Dig,” was created specifically for the event and for use in other Discovery Center traveling functions (Figure 4). The exhibit consisted of a life-size clay replica of a Compsognathus longipes fossil, which participants could use small brushes to “excavate” from a container. The choice of exhibit reflected a consideration for the importance of promoting curiosity and motivation. The miniature Dino Dig was based off of a larger exhibit within the Discovery Center, which is a visitor favorite. Staff desired to create a travel size version because of the success and interest that had been generated from the full-size exhibit on the topic of paleontology. As with the Exploratory Lab project, images, content, and materials were chosen to promote curiosity and participation. The nature of the activity also allowed for easy support of visitor identification with science. The activity called for participants to actively work together to excavate the dinosaur, in a way that …show more content…
In order to effectively keep up with the future of the museum profession, we must turn our attentions towards the visitor. The ability of the visitor to learn has become crucial to running a successful museum, which has, in turn, made educational theory a necessity. There are many aspects, from content concerns to practical matters of safety and durability, which can affect the ability of the modern museum to appropriately reach their science learning goals. But the bottom line is this- for every museum element, from text to props, there must be a thoughtful consideration of the
“Exploratory Lab” Case Study On a monthly basis the Discovery Center creates new …show more content…
In August of 2016, the center participated in a popular local event- the Ozark Empire Fair. As part of the organization’s participation, 12 traveling exhibits, ranging from small tabletop activities to large-scale exhibits, were collected and assembled on the fairgrounds (Figure 3). One new tabletop exhibit, a miniature “Dino Dig,” was created specifically for the event and for use in other Discovery Center traveling functions (Figure 4). The exhibit consisted of a life-size clay replica of a Compsognathus longipes fossil, which participants could use small brushes to “excavate” from a container. The choice of exhibit reflected a consideration for the importance of promoting curiosity and motivation. The miniature Dino Dig was based off of a larger exhibit within the Discovery Center, which is a visitor favorite. Staff desired to create a travel size version because of the success and interest that had been generated from the full-size exhibit on the topic of paleontology. As with the Exploratory Lab project, images, content, and materials were chosen to promote curiosity and participation. The nature of the activity also allowed for easy support of visitor identification with science. The activity called for participants to actively work together to excavate the dinosaur, in a way that …show more content…
In order to effectively keep up with the future of the museum profession, we must turn our attentions towards the visitor. The ability of the visitor to learn has become crucial to running a successful museum, which has, in turn, made educational theory a necessity. There are many aspects, from content concerns to practical matters of safety and durability, which can affect the ability of the modern museum to appropriately reach their science learning goals. But the bottom line is this- for every museum element, from text to props, there must be a thoughtful consideration of the