I have been away from the list for awhile and missed the totality of this thread so I hope I don't repeat what others have written. Since i have just taken over the Hands On Science Room here at the National museum of American History the thread interests me greatly.

To start, while I think that Discovery Rooms are probably more prevalent at Science Museums and Centers, I think they are definitly on the rise in other types of museums. Of course as museums in general become more interactive, hands-on, and inquiry based we may see less or an evolution of Discovery Rooms in the future as they sometimes become redundant in their traditional form.   I for one revel in the lack of precise definitions for a Discovery Room, as it allows more freedom for a museum considering a Discovery Room to find their own style and structure (or lack thereof) and not feel constricted by what others say they should or must be. If a museum is considering a discovery room-like experience they would be much better served visiting a diverse series of existing models than reading about Discovery Rooms in books or listen to presentations at conferences. (Nothing personal Jennifer. These presentations still are wonderful to encourage discussion, but there is no substitute for seeing a few real examples. Discovery is not just for children in a museum after all : )

That having been said, I think Discovery rooms should share some basic attributes:

1: They should be discrete areas within a museum for contained activity.

2: They should contain visitor controlled learning activities. (Call it what you will free choice, inquiry based, etc.) Classrooms set aside for lessons are not Discovery Rooms although a well designed physical space could serve double duty.

3: I could only come up with two but it strikes me a third characteristic could be that they are designed with a specific population in mind that is either different or more specific than the entire museum or exhibit. Hence the need for a seperate room. While most Discovery Rooms I have seen claim to be for the whole family, lets face it, most are designed for the kids judging from the size of the furniture, the level of the activity and content, etc. This is not a bad thing, but I think there is room for expanding our view a bit. In a children's museum, for example a children's discovery room would be fairly redundant, but what about a toddler room (a nice area I saw once at Boston Children's museum) or a room for adults? (containing learning materials on various topics including learning, education materials, reading suggestions, etc.) Could they not also be termed "Discovery Rooms"

4: Also I was thinking about some sort of definition that encourages us to think about the activity level in the room, but I couldn't think of how to put it. It should be different than in the museum as a whole. What does that mean? I am not sure. In the Baltimore Children's museum there is a branch of the public library which allows for more quiet contemplation in a museum full of boisterous activity. At the B&O Railroad Museum we had a Kid's sized area in a dining car for intimate activities in a museum defined by its gargantuan artifacts and buiding. In a quieter museum such as NMAH or NMNH we have more boisterous activity rooms and art museums have rooms where (mostly kids) can get loud and messy within a larger setting which encourages spotless contemplation.

As you can see I have few answers for Jennifer but lots of questions and an urge to discover. As I mentioned at the outset I have just taken over the Hands-On Science Center at the National Museum of American History. We are a Discovery Roomin the sense that we offer a discrete area for visitor centered learning about science in a historic context. But then we also offer staff led activities in another area. There is another area of the Museum called the Hands On History Room, which would be more completely meet a strict definition of Discovery Room.

I hope some of my fectless meandering has helped. It sure helped me to conceptualize hte issue. I look forward to following the leads provided by Grace and I also look forward to hearing how Jennifer's presentation goes and if she would be so kind as share, either on list or off, the text or outline of the chat for those of us who cannot be there to hear it.

I hope we continue this discussion in the future.

Matthew White
Director
Hands On Science Center
National Museum of American History
Behring Center



-----Original Message-----
From: Grace D Manubay <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 14:17:20 -0500
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: discovery rooms


> 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
> >
> > =========================================================
> > Important Subscriber Information:
> >
> > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
> >
> > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
> >
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

--


Matthew White
Director, Hands-On Science Center
Smithsonian
National Museum of American History
Behring Center
14th Street and Constition Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20560-0646
202/786-2307
FAX:202/357-3328
[log in to unmask]

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).