The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis: A history of leveraging field expeditions and lab work to enhance public engagement (2018)
Any child that has been to a museum, gone stomping through a creek, or gazed at the stars knows that science learning isn't confined to a classroom. Children are eager to explore the wonders of the natural world, and parents and teachers value the importance of science education--thus, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (TCMI) has collected science objects and conducted fieldwork since it was first established. During the 1930s, museum staff members drove equipment-laden Model T cars on expeditions known as Prairie Treks. Indianapolis schoolchildren were given the chance to venture to the western United States and investigate the plants and wildlife of the region. Campers learned to identify birds and animals, pan for gold, make plaster casts of dinosaur footprints, and collect fossils and rocks to add to the museum's collection. The natural science collection at TCMI is composed of more than 10,000 unique objects that help foster both curiosity and enthusiasm for the sciences. Science is an intensely hands-on and investigative endeavor, and this is reflected in the scope and the use of the objects in the collection. Items related to zoology, botany, and geology provide core materials that are utilized throughout the museum in exhibits, programs, and interpretation. TCMI is closing in on its 100-year history. Its unique mission, as the world's largest children's museum, helps it to provide public engagement with the geosciences. Today each year more than 1.2 million visitors can experience programs ranging from self-guided discovery to active participation with scientists and their current research. Thousands have joined dinosaur excavations in the rocks of the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota, prepped fossil materials in the Paleo Prep Lab, and even assisted in collection-based research.
...MoreBook Gary D. Rosenberg; Renee M. Clary (2018) Museums at the Forefront of the History and Philosophy of Geology: History Made, History in the Making.
Similar Citations
Chapter
Alan E. Leviton;
Michele L. Aldrich;
(2018)
Geology and paleontology at the California Academy of Sciences, 1895-2016: A brief overview
(/isis/citation/CBB744201777/)
Chapter
Patricia Coorough Burke;
Peter M. Sheehan;
(2018)
Museums at the intersection of science and citizen: An example from a Silurian reef
(/isis/citation/CBB571400487/)
Chapter
J.C. Aubele;
L.S. Crumpler;
(2018)
Twenty-first-century natural history: Planetary geology in natural history museums
(/isis/citation/CBB197122498/)
Chapter
Renee M. Clary;
Amy Moe-Hoffman;
(2018)
The role of the Dunn-Seiler Museum, Mississippi State University, in promoting public geoliteracy
(/isis/citation/CBB257602494/)
Chapter
Lauren Neitzke-Adamo;
A.J. Blandford;
Julia Criscione;
Richard K. Olsson;
Erika Gorder;
(2018)
The Rutgers Geology Museum: America’s first geology museum and the past 200 years of geoscience education
(/isis/citation/CBB701025048/)
Chapter
Claudine Cohen;
(2018)
Exhibiting life history at the Paris Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle (nineteenth–twenty-first centuries)
(/isis/citation/CBB437163939/)
Book
Gary D. Rosenberg;
Renee M. Clary;
(2018)
Museums at the Forefront of the History and Philosophy of Geology: History Made, History in the Making
(/isis/citation/CBB681993207/)
Chapter
Christian Koeberl;
Franz Brandstätter;
Mathias Harzhauser;
Christa Riedl-Dorn;
(2018)
History and importance of the geoscience collections at the Natural History Museum Vienna
(/isis/citation/CBB624678361/)
Chapter
Gary D. Rosenberg;
(2018)
Carl Akeley’s revolution in exhibit design at the Milwaukee Public Museum
(/isis/citation/CBB960142008/)
Chapter
Gary D. Rosenberg;
Renee M. Clary;
(2018)
Something to be said for natural history museums
(/isis/citation/CBB572800194/)
Chapter
Jere H. Lipps;
(2018)
Natural history museums: Facilitating science literacy across the globe
(/isis/citation/CBB596989597/)
Chapter
Sally Newcomb;
(2018)
The museums of Philadelphia
(/isis/citation/CBB566891630/)
Chapter
Stefano Dominici;
Elisabetta Cioppi;
(2018)
All is not lost: History from fossils and catalogues at the Museum of Natural History, University of Florence
(/isis/citation/CBB784047995/)
Chapter
Lisbet Tarp;
(2018)
Museum Wormianum: Collecting and learning in seventeenth-century Denmark
(/isis/citation/CBB781872205/)
Chapter
John A. Diemer;
(2018)
Fossil collections and mapping the Silurian: An example from Scandinavia
(/isis/citation/CBB847383821/)
Chapter
Marianne Klemun;
(2018)
Different functions of learning and knowledge—Geology takes form: Museums in the Habsburg Empire, 1815–1848
(/isis/citation/CBB818188106/)
Chapter
John Hankla;
Samantha Sands;
Megan Sims;
Jeremy Wyman;
(2018)
Live science in the Valley of the Last Dinosaurs: A public window into the world of paleontology
(/isis/citation/CBB769182501/)
Chapter
Gregory A. Liggett;
S. Terry Childs;
Nicholas A. Famoso;
H. Gregory McDonald;
Alan L. Titus;
Elizabeth Varner;
Cameron L. Liggett;
(2018)
From public lands to museums: The foundation of U.S. paleontology, the early history of federal public lands and museums, and the developing role of the U.S. Department of the Interior
(/isis/citation/CBB608011914/)
Book
Andrea Tenca;
(2020)
Dinosauri, demoni, operai. Una storia culturale del sottosuolo tra scienza e letteratura
(/isis/citation/CBB116328239/)
Chapter
Warren D. Allmon;
Gregory P. Dietl;
Jonathan R. Hendricks;
Robert M. Ross;
(2018)
Bridging the two fossil records: Paleontology’s “big data” future resides in museum collections
(/isis/citation/CBB301778497/)
Be the first to comment!