School groups visit science centres and museums because they offer a fantastic opportunity for students to learn outside the classroom – the museum learning experience aims to be memorable, inspiring, and engaging. The experience is delivered through vast collections, exploration, interactive exhibits, stories of science and society, and skilled facilitators. Teachers can also use museum resources to support their teaching of science content in the classroom, for example downloadable experiments, or loaned boxes of materials linked to programs at the science centre.
That said, science centres and museums have an important role to play in the evolution of classroom teaching. Many organizations offer teacher training as an avenue to reach students of all ages, with courses focusing on topic areas and science content. While this is important, it is not necessarily new.
Our focus in working with teachers is to transfer museum learning practice into the classroom, so that innovative techniques in ‘informal’ learning can be applied outside the museum, and be a tool to improve interest and performance in science subjects in schools.
As science communicators, we can foster innovation in the classroom by giving teachers the tools, skills and confidence to try something new. This session will explore different avenues to promote innovation in the classroom, by helping teachers empower themselves. It will also offer participants the chance to discuss ideas such as sharing best practices, and avoiding ‘schoolification’ of the science centre/museum experience.
Teachers play such a fundamental role in the lives of students, that working with them is a major avenue toward making generations of informed, aware and engaged young people.Teachers are in a unique position to lay the groundwork for a lifetime of science learning and enjoyment. So, as science and technology advance and innovate, so too must the teaching practice that helps communicate these fields. Supporting teachers is the best way to bring hands-on, brains-on learning philosophy of museums and science centres into the classroom.
