Family Talk at Live Animal Exhibits: From Biological to Ecological to Conservation Talk
This is a book chapter in Zoos and Aquariums in the Public Mind. Psychology and Our Planet. Springer, Cham. Fraser, J., Heimlich, J.E., Riedinger, K. (eds).
This chapter reports on findings from studies of family talk at touch tank exhibits containing marine vertebrate and invertebrate animals located on the West Coast of the United States and at a diorama-based exhibit of marine animals on the East Coast of Brazil. We first report on families’ (N = 23) video-recorded activities at touch tanks that were divided into one-minute segments (N = 397) and coded for types of activity occurring in each segment and correlated to self-reported learning outcomes for the experience taken from post-visit interviews. We then report on findings related to families (N = 10) and environmental professionals (N = 10) who were asked to create concept maps about conservation. The maps were coded for conservation themes. These were used to create a conservation talk rubric that was applied to a larger video corpus of family (N = 53) interactions at touch tanks and dioramas divided into one-minute increments and coded for types of talk and the presence of conservation-related themes and topics. The resulting dataset of one-minute segments of video (N = 815) demonstrates that about 18% of all talk at both touch tanks and marine animal dioramas was conservation-focused and that about 85% of that talk occurred when staff were present. The findings suggest that families are ready and able to talk about conservation at live animal exhibits, but that staff presence and explicit guidance may be necessary to shift conversations from basic biological talk to more complex conservation themes.
Chapter Authors: Rowe, S., Kisiel, J., Rowe, S. R. M., Massarani, L., Velloso, R., Reznik, G., Galvan, T.