jennifer,
the national museum of american history has a discovery room, i believe...
and i don't think it's a sciece-based exhibit.

hopefully you've come across judith white's book "snakes, snails, and
history tales," published in 1991 by smithsonian.  in it, she talks about
discovery rooms at the smithsonian.  in it, she defines the concept
of a discovery room to be an area "usually within the context of a
larger institution, specifically designmated for interactive,
self-paced, and self-directed hands-on activities."  this definition
is very broad and can be interpreted in different ways, which is
perhaps why you are finding differences in discovery rooms in the various
institutions you've been researching.

wendy pollack wrote an article about discovery rooms "recently" - i'm
assuming the dated articles you found were by carol marsh and others in
1987.  citations for these if you're interested:

pollack, w. 1999. discovery rooms: an alternative experience of the
museum.  ASTC Dimensions (nov/dec) - this one might be available on ASTC's
website.
Marsh, C. 1987. the discovery room: how it all began.  journal of museum
education 12(2):3-5. - there were other articles on discovery rooms in
this volume, but it's old.  she wrote other articles about visitor
experiences in museums, which i think are on the ASTC website as well.

i've voluteered at the discovery room at smithsonian's natural history
museum, and i'm currently volunteering at the discovery room at the
hands-on museum in ann arbor, developing discovery boxes.  i think that
some of the differences have been these two have been the amount of space
devoted to the discovery room, the availability of volunteer staffing, and the
types of activities that the room provides.  perhaps these differences could
be attributed to resources, staff involvement, and priorities within the
museum.

i'd be very much interested in hearing about your research findings, etc.
please let me know what you end up presenting.


*******************************************
Grace Manubay
M.S. Candidate
School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan
Dana Building
430 E. University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
[log in to unmask]
*******************************************

On Thu, 24 Jan 2002, Rothman, Jennifer wrote:

> I'm going to be giving a presentation about current practices in discovery
> rooms.  In doing my research, I have noticed two things that stand out to
> me.  First, there is not necessarily an accepted definition of what a
> discovery room is and what it should be used for.  Second, discovery rooms
> seem to be limited primarily to science museums, zoos or natural history
> museums.  I would love to hear what you think about these two findings, what
> you consider to be the definition of a discovery room, and if you have a
> discovery room at your museum--what have been the struggles/successes.
> Finally, is there any recent literature that you have seen on the topic.  I
> have found some, however, much of it is dated.
>
> Thank you in advance for your input.
>
> Jennifer
>
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