This study, at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, examines how families use questions to support their understanding of biology content in informal settings. Under the assumption that questions can be used as resources to participate in science talk, this study seeks to move beyond simple categorical coding, an exploration of the kinds questions that visitors (both traditional and nontraditional) bring to museums and how these questions function in family conversations has implications for museum practice as well as for the study of questioning in schools and other learning environments.

This research explores how families appropriate scientific discourse as they make meaning of exhibits in a marine science museum. The study follows children and their parents as they read exhibit text and talk with each other or to museum educators about marine organisms and scientific concepts, to explore how people gain familiarity with and begin to use scientific language.

This study, at the London Science Museum, is framed by an exploration of students’ agendas and expectations of their visit to the Museum. The research is based on a visitor studies perspective and involves the use of personal meaning mapping methods. The particular focus for the study is the way in which school groups experience the glass bridge exhibit in the Challenge of Materials Gallery. The nature of students’ discourse and meaning-making of the bridge will be examined from a cognitive perspective. A socio-cultural perspective informs an analysis of the students’ interaction with the bridge and the mediation of this interaction by the students themselves, exhibits, and signage.

This study examines cross-curricular methodologies for mediating ISI-based workshops to encourage scientific discourse. Methods used will have extensions to classrooms as well as to classroom uses (e.g., field trips) of ISIs.

This study examines the role of narrative in communicating science to the public within museum settings and investigates student engagement into viable pedagogical practices with the use of narrative-based materials.

This study analyzes talk in ISIs and school science lessons to determine the extent to which dialogue is taking place, the quality of the dialogue, as well as examining aspects that could be further supported within these contexts.  The focus is based on current understandings that dialogue promotes thinking and reasoning skills, more effective group work, and an effective means for student assessment and teacher intervention.

This study examines the role of different forms of mediation, specifically by objects and people, and their influences on science understanding. Through a group’s dialogue particular patterns of artifact usage unique to each organization emerge, with implications for science education as an activity which diverges and converges with the modes of professional science practice.

This project explores the relationship between different adult roles and the characteristics of children's collaborations in an innovative public elementary school.

This study at the London Science Museum examines the nature of children’s activity, participation, and collaboration engendered by interactive exhibits, and how these behaviors enhance science learning. The study will have implications for design of exhibits that effectively support student learning.

This study at the Exploratorium examines differences among visitors with different cultural and educational backgrounds in terms of how they engage with exhibits and interact with one another.

Exploring connections between parents’ attitudes and beliefs about science, their background in science, and how they use science and scientific reasoning to discuss explanations of everyday events with their children in a homesetting. Work takes place in homes and at the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum.

This study compares the collaboration and participation of children from families with differing levels of education in a social learning activity in informal settings. Findings of this study would have implications for enhancing classroom participation.

This project explores how young Latina women’s emergent informal science activities affect their attitude toward science, their identity as science learners, and their participation as leaders.  Specifically, this research focuses on middle school girls participating in an all-girls summer science and leadership camp at a large aquarium.

This study investigates ways in which secondary school Black Caribbean male pupils form their attitudes towards science and the connection to their selecting careers in the areas of physical science, technology and engineering.  The political and sociocultural context of informal and formal science education institutions and practices will be explored.

The research project aims to explore the ways in which UK informal science education institutions are working towards making themselves more socially and culturally inclusive Information is drawn from four case-study institutions as well as from two representative organisations in the UK.

At San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum science exhibits, studying interactions between children and their Mexican descent parents with different levels of education in different contexts to investigate varying interaction styles at home versus in a museum setting. Understanding ways in which equity and inclusion are effectively addressed in the informal setting can be applied to situations in formal education settings.

The influence of family interactions on children’s thoughts about and motivation to learn life sciences in an informal science setting. Based at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center

Conversations between parents and children are potentially rich contexts in which children come to understand the world around them. This project aims at understanding which areas of physics parents and children engage in conversation about, and to delineate a developmental progression of talk about physics topics- ie; does the talk become more complex as the children get older?

This study examines the understanding of symbolic representations through looking at the role parents play in their children’s learning experiences at mathematics exhibits at the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum.

This study, based at the London Natural History Museum, examines the Explainer-student interaction and the support Explainers provide for reflective discourse and scientific inquiry in a hands-on setting. The study aims to develop theoretical perspectives to inform Explainer interaction with school groups.

This study examines communities of practice of museums and schools and how these are mediated by individuals (museum educators) acting as brokers; it also investigates teacher learning through museum-based professional development.

This study examines the role of museums in supporting teachers through professional development. The study focuses on describing museum-based professional development and its relationship to teacher beliefs about science teaching and learning.

This study examines how outdoor science educators’ (OSEs) teaching identities influence their pedagogical choices, and the implications for natural science center-based OSEs ability to elicit conceptual change in their students, helping them come to new understandings about their world.

This investigation explores the professional community and identity of ISI educators; explicating current impressions of an education culture and professionalism in ISIs, and transferring practice from schools to ISIs. Interviews with explainers and managers are used to understand how educators’ conceptions of their professional community and identity are developed and travel across communities of practice.

This study, based at the Exploratorium, examines effective ways to make online digital materials (photos, activities, videos, etc.) available and accessible to teachers for classroom use and lesson design.

This study takes place within school classrooms and at the London Zoo and examines the ways in which a Web-based environment (Zoo-Wise) focused on animal conservation supports science learning, learning about the nature of science, and the work of scientists.

This research consists of a series of case studies that examine the use of technology, in a variety of contexts, on the museum floor. As technology has become more and more pervasive in modern culture, museum staff must consider how technology is, can and will be used in ISIs.

This project seeks to understand how social and political forces shape contexts for science learning in "organized" settings like schools and museums. Using two complimentary theoretical perspectives, an institutional theory of organizations and a cultural, historical, activity theory of learning, this study explores the way that science discourse is enacted and reproduced in science education settings. Specifically, it will  explore the institutional history of "science talk" at the Exploratorium to understand what is valued as science discourse and learning in the Exploratorium today.

A survey of over 3,000 informal science institutions around the country to determine the extent and nature of their collaborations with schools and districts. Updates the 1995 IRA study.

This study examines the founding and design principles of museum schools from around the country and how these principles play out in day-to-day school and student activities.

Interviews with teachers in four cities to determine how they perceive the role of museums in relationship to their own needs in the classroom.

This study investigates the extent to which ISI-based PD incorporates features shown to produce measurable effects on teachers’ instructional practice and what factors influence districts’ decisions when selecting PD programs.

This study at the London Science Museum and the New York Hall of Science is developing and testing a framework to facilitate teacher implementation of better field trip practices and, in turn, to support student learning.   The study is focusing on the creation of pre-, during, and post-visit resources to enable teachers and students to make the most of the learning opportunities offered by field trips.

This three-year study, done in collaboration with colleagues from Harvard University, Lawrence Hall of Science, and Reginald Clark & Associates, investigates the nature of informal learning in afterschool settings.  Through surveys, interviews, and case studies, the project explores theoretical connections between youth development and inquiry-based science, and seeks to document the infrastructure requird to support informal science in typical (non-science specific) afterschool programs.