Touch-tanks could provide ready-made labs for research into how people engage with science at aquariums and science centers.
Related outreach
Accomplishments
National
Sea Grant aquatic science literacy page
Research:
Marine Science Literacy
Current projects
Sea Grant Professorship (E/UEd-03)
Robert Malouf
Oregon Sea Grant
Oregon State University
322 Kerr Administration Bldg.
Corvallis, OR 97331-2131
Phone: 541-737-2714
Fax: 541-737-7958
E-mail:
robert.malouf@oregonstate.edu
Oregon Sea Grant has dedicated special funding over a five-year period to establish a Sea Grant professorship at Oregon State University. Shared jointly by Lynn Dierking and John Falk, the professorship uses the theme of ocean and coastal science to focus on research and pedagogy in free-choice learning. Most of what we know we learn outside the classroom, and we continue to learn throughout our lives by free choice. As a nation, we have made and continue to make an enormous investment in providing learning opportunities for the public in a wide variety of venues such as museums, aquaria, and interpretive centers. At the same time, an enormous quantity of printed material, videos, films, and other media is produced and distributed annually for the purpose of public education. Yet there is relatively little effort underway to advance the art and science of public education through research and teaching in such free-choice learning. This professorship augments that effort.
Deepening Engagement at Live Animal Exhibits (R/IEd-10)
Shawn Rowe
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Oregon State University
2030 SE Marine Science Dr
Newport, OR 97365-5294
Phone: 541-867-0190
Fax: 541-867-0369
E-mail:
shawn.rowe@oregonstate.edu
Touch tanks, or pools containing marine and aquatic animals, are a pervasive component of public aquariums, zoos, and science centers. Research has demonstrated that touch tank exhibits may be among the most popular and memorable exhibits in aquariums. Behind their popularity as teaching tools seems to be a general belief that the emotional experience of touching an animal will help create conservation awareness. Public aquariums of almost every size employ touch tanks in both formal and informal educational efforts and spend significant amounts of financial and person-hour effort to maintain and staff these extremely popular exhibits and program elements.
Despite the ubiquitous nature of touch tanks, their educational value has not been well documented. With the well-being of live animal specimens as an ongoing concern in aquariums and similar institutions, educators and exhibit designers need to assess the extent to which the learning benefits of touch tanks and similar exhibits outweigh the potential harm to the animals within the exhibit.
Dr. Rowe's study will strive to better understand visitor experiences at aquarium touch tanks and more closely examine variables that may influence those experiences. The findings from this research may help shape best practices in live-animal exhibit design and the interpretation and educational value of interaction with live animals, and will enhance our understanding of how informal experiences can mediate public science learning.
Former Sea Grant researchers: What they're doing now
- Bruce Mate (marine mammals)
- Scott and Selina Heppell (resource management education)