Using real objects to teach about climate change: an ethnographic perspective
Abstract
Informal educators frequently use real objects to connect visitors with science content that can otherwise seem abstract. Our NSF-funded project, "Hot Times in Cold Places," leverages this premise to teach about climate change through real objects associated with the nation's only permafrost tunnel, located in Fox, Alaska. We posit that touching real ice, holding Pleistocene bones, and seeing ice wedges in context allows learners to understand climate change in a direct and visceral manner. We are conducting ethnographic research to understand visitor experience at both the tunnel itself and at a permafrost museum exhibit that we are creating as part of the project. Research questions include: 1) What is the nature of visitor talk with respect to explanations about permafrost, tipping points, climate change, and geological time? 2) How do attributes of "realness" (scale, resolution, uniqueness, history and adherence to an original) affect visitor's experience of objects, as perceived through the senses and emotions? We use naturalistic observation, interviews, and videotaping to answer these questions. Analysis focuses on child-to-child talk, reciprocal talk between educator and child, and reciprocal talk between parent and child. Our results elucidate the value of real, vs. replicated and virtual objects, in informal learning, especially in the context of climate change education. An understanding of these factors can help informal learning educators make informed choices about program and exhibit design.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMED41C..05C
- Keywords:
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- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- EDUCATION;
- 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATION;
- 0825 Teaching methods;
- EDUCATION;
- 0845 Instructional tools;
- EDUCATION