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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 382 399 PS 023 308 AUTHOR Cleaver, Joanne TITLE Doing Children's Museums: A Guide to 265 Hands-On Museums. Revised and Expanded. REPORT NO ISBN-0-913589-63-2 PUB DATE 92 NOTE 235p. AVAILABLE FROM Williamson Publishing Company, Church Hill Road, P.O. Box 185, Charlotte, VT 05445 ($13.95 plus $2.50 postage and handling). PUB TYPE Reference Materials Directories/Catalogs (132) Books (010) Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Childhood Interests; Children; Cognitive Style; Learning Activities; *Manipulative Materials; *Museums IDENTIFIERS *Childrens Museums; *Hands On Experience; Hands on Science; Science Museums ABSTRACT Noting the increase in interactive museums and science centers and children's exuberant reaction to hands-on . exhibits, this guide provides tips for parents on how to prepare for a museum visit and how to encourage the learning process during the visit. The first part of the guide discusses the shift in museum policy from "hands off" to "please touch," and how this interactive format enhances children's learning processes. The second part of the guide contains museum listings, by state. Each listing includes detailed discussion of what the museum offers; age-appropriate guidelines to exhibits; information on available workshops, infant-toddler play spaces, planetariums; and information on nearby child-appropriate attractions such as zoos, parks, restaurants, and picnic areas. (HTH) ******************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * *********************************************************************** WILLIAMSON *0*N9 ...11MM. Mar U.S. DEPARTME NT OP EDUCATION onceamermom ammo aim momerfam EDUCNI101ML RESOURCES INPORMATTON NKR* documentCENTERnes boon impmduold ae romemd from Me perm et organization edgmating 0 Minot changes have been Nada le Hymn tereiluelisn *Rag Points el Hew et cOMMIN NNW in Ohio deowneM le net nomeame, nimrsomt atada10011 Kelm et mew "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS SEEN GRANTED SY 2;GZ n.-rev"L. nc\carS0ti TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IIINFORMATION CENTER IERIC)." 1 cfGuideto,26b74amde- On711wi.euumo JOANNE CLEAVERBEST COPY AVAILABLE I I 1 all Guide &o .9,6 514ancIti-On7Thaehum..°) JOANNE CLEAVER W IWILLIAMSON PUBLISHING CHARLOTTE, VERMONT 05445 -1 Copyright 0 1992 by Joanne Cleaver Ail rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced mechanically, electronically, or by an other means including photocopying without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data Cleaver, Joanne, 1958 - Doing Children's Museums: A Guide to 265 Hands-On Museums/Joanne Cleaver. Expanded and rev. ed. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references & index ISBN 0. 913589.63 -2: 1. Children's museums United States Directories. 2. Children's museums Canada Directories. I. Title. AM11. C56 1992 069'.05402573 dc20 92-8280 OP Cover and interior design: Trezzo-Braren Studio Printing: Capital City Press Williamson Publishing Co. Box 185 Charlotte, Vermont 05445 (800) 2344791 Manufactured In the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Notice: The information contained in this book is true, complete and accurate to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations and suggestions are made without any guarantees on the part of the author or Williamson Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim all liability Incurred in connection with the use of this Information. .1 CHILDREN'S MUSEUMS Content' PART ONE CHAPTER ONE From "Hands-Off" to "Please Touch" 5 CHAPTER TWO Hands-On Means Minds-On, Too 12 CHAPTER THREE It's Not Over till It's Over 26 CHAPTER FOUR Doing It Right 30 THE MUSEUMS 37 INDEX 224 C- DEDICATION This book is a celebration of the truths and mysteries of the real world and the people who inhabit it. It is dedicated to the God of the Universe, whose limitless imagination gave us all the world to enjoy. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Iowe a deep debt of gratitude to Jack and Susan Williamson for their enthusiasm for this project and faith in its marketability and my ability. I hope that they are amply rewarded in short order. Without the museum staff members who pleasantly, promptly, and patiently answered questions about their institutions, this book could never have been written. Informa- tion for each museum entry has been checked by that museum for clarity and correctness. May attendance at their museums increase and all their proposals be granted. Thanks are also due to my faithful friends Tina Rohde, Darcy Carlton, and Angie Packer for their good cheer and help in fact- checking. Finally, to my husband, Mark (who became a computer wid- ower), and my three daughters, Samantha, Stephanie, and Elizabeth (who, to my chagrin, discovered the joys of frozen pizza and Chef Boyardee lunches on an alarmingly regular basis), my appreciation and love always. ot PART ONE CHILDREN'S MUSEUMS from liandS-Off itiPlosseTouch' CHAPTER ONE What could be more fun than going to a hands-on museum? Fortunately for families today, many museums are radically different from the museums even of fifteen or twenty years ago. A whole generation of children's museums, interactive science centers, nature centers, and hands-on discovery rooms has sprung up. Their mission is to bring things out from behind the red velvet ropes and the glass cases to be touched, handled, felt, explored, and experimented with. Instead of being quiet places where learning happens in whispers, hands-on museums are boisterous places, bursting with exuberance. Sheer delight is released when young visitors touch a moose antler, employ a principle of physics at an exhibit and understand why it works! see themselves in a real pioneer's bonnet, or stroke a sculpture. These mus- eums clearly aren't hushed, hallowed, dusty halls where only the old and dead are venerated. They take the exact opposite approach, reveling in the discoveries and joys of the world and what we know of it. Essentially, children's museums are learning playgrounds, full of choices that encourage visitors to pursue thei' own interests as far as they want. In the children's discovery rooms of natural history museums, kids can stroke stuffed animals or play with fragile shells and fossils. At hands-on rooms in art museums, they can see in detail how an impressionist painting creates the illusion of shimmering light. Children's museums feature exhibits geared toward the developmental needs of different-aged kids, with bubble-making activities, miniature "stores" and "television stations" for role-playing, and "sensory tunnels" that toddlers can crawl through, exploring the real meanings of words like "fuzzy" and "shiny." Science and technology centers encourage visitors to perform their own experiments FROM "HANDS-OFF" TO "PLEASE TOUCH" S 11 4. with simple machines, electrical gadgets, and other participatory displays. Kids and adults understand why things happen by making them happen. These are different kinds of learning experiences from the traditional hands-off approach, to be sure, but they are typical of the variety em- braced by hands-on museums and discovery rooms today. Once experiments themselves, children's rooms are increasing in importance in fact, in many major museums, they are literally moving up from obscure basement cubbyholes to prominent locations on the first floor. The immense popularity of discovery rooms and children's museums is forcing the curators of all types of museums to re-examine their goals and educational philosophies. But as radical as contemporary hands-on museums might seem, the ideas they embody really aren't so new after all. TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY TREND-SETTERS Children's museums have been evolving for nearly a century. Many of the creative exhibits and displays as well as open-mindedness on the part of curators and museum education departments that we take for granted today were unheard of even two decades ago. At the same time, the underpinnings of the working philosophy of children's museums and discovery centers have changed little since they were first introduced. The idea that kids learn by doing isn't new to today's parents, but it was revolutionary in the early 1900s. At that time, the concept that children's minds operated differently from adults' had finally been accepted. Educa- tors began to "think about learning as an activity a child had to participate in, instead of being stuffed full of knowledge," says Nina Jensen, director of museum education at the Bank Street College of Education. One of the leading educators of the time, John Dewey, was making waves with his theories that emphasized the importance of personal experience in learning. In Dewey's opinion, the key to an education based upon experience was "to select the kind of present experiences that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences" (Barbara Newsom and Adele Silver, editors, The Art Museum as Educator, p.267). Consequently, Dewey pushed for more material things, more fodder for experiments, to be integrated into children's learning, and for children to have the freedom to experiment on their own, in their own ways, with the stuff of real life. The theories of Maria Montessori also influenced the early development of children's museums. Having adults assume the role of facilitator or .guide, instead of strictly teaching, is essentially a Montessori concept. She also emphasized the importance of cultivating independence in children and of sharing activities

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