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Notes from the first meeting for Education/Programming Managers
26/27 September 2005 World Museum Liverpool

The first meeting of education and programming managers provided The Association for Science and Discovery Centres members with a forum to discuss related learning issues, share experiences and facilitated the further development of strong relationships within the network.

These notes summarise the discussions during the meeting, and include suggestions for future events, and areas that may require more research and the collation of case studies.

1. Schools

The focus of the two day meeting tended to be towards working with school audiences, although other audiences were touched upon.

Many science centres and museums work closely with teachers to try and develop suitable programmes for students of all ages and abilities. This is a way of asking your audience for information about what they actually need and want from a visit. The programmes are aimed at increasing their school visitor numbers, whilst also proving a fun experience for students that enhances and enriches the teaching of science outside of the classroom.

Science centres and museums may develop such programmes in-house using their own staff, buying them in from external learning providers, or by using teacher placement schemes (where teachers will work for a period at the venue to develop a new schools based activity). For any of these programmes to be successful, teachers’ expectations must be managed carefully and the real benefits of how a visit to a science centre and museum can be both a fun an educational experience.

A number of issues relating to working with schools were discussed, and experiences and suggests associated with these shared.

1.1 Visits

Suggested methods used to help increase school visits

There can be a number of barriers that prevent schools from visiting science centres and museums eg:

• problems with distance (local schools want to travel further to justify coach costs)
• cost (coach hire in addition to entrance costs, teacher supply cover etc.)
• limited number of visits schools are able to go on each year
• competition from other venues.

Current methods science centres and museums use to try and encourage greater numbers of school visits include:

• sourcing local funding to help pay the travel costs for underprivileged schools. Techniquest@NEWI in Wrexham has been working with the Thomas Howells Fund (Welsh charitable Trust) to set up travel funds. They pay for transport for underprivileged schools (based on number of free school meals, distance schools have to travel) to be able to visit them. Schools are responsible for booking their own coaches and then claiming the costs back from the fund.

Other organisations also have systems that will book coaches on behalf of schools. These sorts of schemes require support from charitable trusts, regular sponsorship from local companies, or local authority free bus services. It is recognised, however, that there can be problems with certain schools not visiting science centres and museums even when you offer free transport, or even free entry.

Eureka! in Halifax did a deal with a local coach company so that they would give schools a discount of 1/3 off the normal coach hire price when they were booked for visits to the museum.

• Developing exhibitions and programmes that have clear links to the different science and other subject curricula. Curricula often change and there are also many different age ranges and schemes of work to consider eg KS1-KS4, AS & A Levels, BTECs, Scottish Highers etc. This is why it is often more practical to develop programmes linked to curricula rather than just the exhibition space.

Many science centres and museums try and tackle the variations in curricula by providing a ‘core’ set of programmes that have been developed using elements of different schemes of work, and linking in with things like QCA. These require clear ‘packaging’ so that teachers are able to pick out immediately activities that are suitable for their timetables and subject areas from the marketing material they receive. This also goes for activities that are cross-curricula. Ultimately want teachers to write the visit into their scheme of work.

• Building in special programmes to fit in with events eg National Science Week, Einstein Year, Chemistry Week etc.
• Ofsted encourages school visits. This can be used to support visits to science centres and museums.
• Linking visits to award schemes. This is already done by some arts and historical museums by linking in with awards schemes such as ASDAN. Some science centres already link to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (The BA) awards schemes eg Young Investigators, Science Communicators (The BA currently have over 30,000 primary schools and 26,000 CREST students registered). Many current workshops and activities could qualify to get credits towards such awards. Links between venues can also be developed by use of websites eg Science Communicators award has links to the At Bristol website. This can help provide ideas for projects and activities.

Working with awards schemes can provide added value to a school visit as they not only experience activities that complement the curricula, but are also able to gain credits towards awards (these are often highly valued by schools, as they can be used to evidence high standards and opportunities for pupils during school inspections, and in promotional literature to parents of prospective pupils).

Specialist schools also have to demonstrate that they are running extra schemes and after school clubs. It may not be a science teacher who is running these however. This is something that needs to be considered when marketing materials are sent out.

During day two the group discussions led to further suggestions for ways to encourage more school visits, and help facilitate the bookings process for teachers.

Marketing & bookings systems

How do you get the message out there to schools about what science centres and museums can offer schools?

• Marketing goes hand in hand with the learning programmes. Clear information about links to the curricula also enables teachers to demonstrate to senior management the benefits of a visit to their pupils. Some venues send out a matrix that shows how their activities link to the curriculum eg on one side of an A4 page. Many centres use also include a letter that highlights what is new, and what has been adapted due to teachers’ comments/feedback.
• Many science centres and museums have changed the names of their themes to reflect more clearly the links of activities to the different curricula. This has made a huge difference for many centres, as it is much clearer to teachers how they will complement their schemes of work.
• Providing termly/yearly/biannually newsletters to demonstrate the calendar of events (themes, curricula links, special activities etc.)
• The transparency and ease of booking a visit is a key way to help support teachers when they are arranging school visits.
• Costs for school visits should be kept as low and constant as possible as schools have the added expense of coach charges etc. (these prices are often cheaper than those charged for general visits and families).
• Bookings teams vary from one person to a team so this must be considered whenever investigating new systems for working with schools. Some venues have also looked at using booking agents eg Ticketmaster, but this can prove to be expensive due to additional booking fees being charged to visitors.
• Actively encouraging the use of a centre by other organisations eg mission rates for people like Local Education Authorities (LEAs), the Association for Science Education (ASE), The BA, Royal Society of Chemistry Sections, Head Teachers meetings etc. This would help raise the profile of the centre.

Pre and post visit support and materials

• Offering preview visits and free visits for teachers gives them an opportunity to explore a venue and gain valuable information about their programmes. The frequency and time of day these sorts of events are run vary from centre to centre. Some centres have also experienced problems with numbers of teachers attending, even when the times and days were varied. It would be useful to gather more case studies to help others plan and run similar events.
• Teachers’ packs containing general visit information, examples of exhibition based activities, photocopiable resources, posters etc. These could be in the form of a CD sent out prior to the visit rather than a hard copy.
• Try and consider non-teaching assistants who might attend with a school on a visit. This may mean looking more carefully at any materials used on a visit, and providing clear group leaders’ notes.
• Having a loan scheme of props (physical things) that teachers could use pre or post visit to support their learning activities.
• Could use e-mail or text alerts that contained questions about a theme or suggestions for pre or post activities eg Scottish Schools Digital Network.
• Some science centres and museums try and have conversations with teachers before they come on their visit. This offers the opportunity to provide extra information about a programme and the visit.
• Working with LEAs, SETPOINTS, Education Business Partnerships (EBPs) etc. to send out programme mailings, newsletters, and information about INSET.
• Making more use of science centre and museum websites. The National Marine Aquarium (NMA) in Plymouth includes additional activities, animations, games etc. linked to the marine environment on their website to help with pre visit preparations. The numbers of people accessing these areas of the website are slowly increasing. Could also add downloadable trails and portals to other games, curricula links and activities.
• Continuing Personal Development training. Building continuing professional development for teachers in with a visit. At the British Museum in London, teachers would work with museum educators (almost like shadowing). They would then be invited back to twilight sessions to review their experiences. After this they received a certificate to say they could handle particular objects themselves during a visit with their school.

Audiences Yorkshire was mentioned as an organisation that was involved in investigating the barriers and motivators for school visits. King’s College, London was also referred to for their research into pre and post visit materials (Jennifer Dewitt).

In Scotland there has also been a funding application made to develop science posters for schools. It would be useful to know if other schemes like this had been used in other areas across the UK.

1.2 Education vs. fun

Another question raised during the discussions was ‘what was the percentage of visitors that come at the end of term/year compared to the rest of the term/year?’ Some science centres and museums have noted that there is a tendency for some schools to come to their venue for ‘an end of term/year jolly’ rather than for specific curricula linked activities.

How teachers perceive science centres and museums is of interest to many. It can appear, in the instance of having end of term visits, that many teachers regard these venues as places of fun, rather than places that provide educational opportunities for their pupils. They are separating ‘education’ from ‘fun’.

Eureka! has been doing research into attitudes of teachers in this area. Many teachers have so far said that learning should come first before fun, in terms of the importance of what the visit would provide for their pupils. Results from the Natural History Museum’s consultation with secondary schools, however, showed that top of their agenda for a visit was that it ‘must be fun’. It would be useful to receive further findings in this area from other science centres and museums and other organisations researching this area.

1.3 Need for learning programmes

It is important to be able to evidence the benefits of visiting and taking part in learning programmes at science centres and museums. The need for learning programmes at science centres of museums is currently being evaluated through a number of different research programmes. Eureka! are working with academic institutions to evaluate their activities, in order to look at the deeper impact of learning. The National Space Centre is also carrying out educational research using their Challenger unit.

Science centres and museums are able to make children excited about science. Some evidence suggests that visits and learning programme activities can help improve and develop learning retention. Other research is also being carried out to look at the impact on visitors to science centres and museums versus the impact from outreach programmes.

This sort of meeting provides a useful forum to discuss this kind of research and facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practice.

1.4 Outreach

Outreach can be a powerful tool to help build relationships with schools who might not have previously visited a science centre or museum. Examples of outreach activities/methods included:

• outreach staff sometimes stay on after their sessions at a school to talk to teachers about what their venue can offer. This can also help provide valuable feedback from teachers. MAGNA in Rotherham found, from their outreach programmes, that ¾ of the schools booking these sessions had never visited MAGNA. Some research is now being carried out to look at the impact of outreach programmes on schools, and if they lead to schools then making a visit to the venue, or if they just continue to book outreach programmes.
• Some venues, like W5 in Belfast, offer discount vouchers for visits to the science centre through their outreach programmes.
• Another potential market for outreach programmes is after school clubs. There are a growing number of these types of clubs, and many are looking for new activities for them. Sensation’s (Dundee) outreach team have been paid by these sorts of clubs to deliver science-based activities at their club sessions. They have also worked in this way with youth groups eg Brownie Units.
• Some learning activities have been developed to be more adaptable. This enables science centres and museums to use them both in our out of the venue.
• Leisure and tourism presentations in schools are another way of increasing the number of outreach visits to schools. This expands the provision that science centres and museums can offer schools outside of the science curricula.
• It can provide schools with the chance for a half or full day visit, and enable a larger number of students to be reached.

There is a broad spectrum of types of outreach activities offered by UK science centres and museums eg:

• loan boxes/kits schemes
• travelling exhibitions
• partnership projects eg Royal Institution – lectures/workshops
• teachers centres
• science shows
• activities with schools at science festivals
• conferences/seminars
• StarLab presentations.

There are issues associated with offering outreach programmes. Running activities at a venue and through an outreach can put a significant strain on staff resourcing. This can lead to large amounts of time off in lieu being taken; therefore, it needs careful planning in terms of staff time.

In order for outreach to be sustainable a more ‘business minded’ approach may be required. Although science centres and museums would not want to dissuade schools from booking outreach programmes, by making a significant profit from such activities, the core costs of running such schemes must be met.

Outreach is, however, often seen as an attractive learning package for potential sponsors. Some science centres and museums already work in partnership with LEAs, EBPs and SETPOINTs to help source funding for running outreach programmes locally. Other centres have also directly approached industry and local companies for sponsorship. Case studies for these sorts of sponsorship and funding for outreach would be extremely beneficial for education and programming managers.

1.5 Partnerships

Examples of organisations that science centres and museums could/do work with to help support their learning activities included:

• Science Learning Centres (teacher CPD)
• SETPOINTS and SEAs programme
• Education Business Partnerships (EBPs)
• Local Education Authorities (LEAs)
• School’s Science Learning Hubs (currently being developed)
• Creative Partnerships – facilitating learning through creativity (Arts Council)
• Academic institutions (community outreach officers and academic staff)
• Industry/local businesses (both science and non-science based)
• Learned societies eg the Institute of Physics
• Educational charities
• Association for Science Education (ASE)
• The British Association for the Advancement of Science (The BA)
• Researchers in Residence/teacher scientist networks (TSN).

Such partnerships already exist in some areas of the UK, but it would be useful to build a profile of case studies to help support other science centres and museums develop similar partnerships.

1.6 Continuing Personal Development (CPD)

Continuing personal development activities offered by science centres and museums for teachers varied quite considerably, as did the charge made to teachers.

CPD was carried out by science centres and museums in a number of different ways:

• bought people/organisations in to run sessions at their venues
• offered INSET sessions that allowed teachers to test out activities and demonstrate clearly the curricula links prior to bringing a school group
• ran sessions about the exhibition space and the curricula links prior to a school visit
• formats for sessions ranged from twilight events to full days
• linked INSET training in with that carried out at other centres
• subject areas not only covered science but also maths, technology, citizenship, music etc. (cross curricula)
• aimed at teaching a broad range of ages (early years through to 18 yrs+).

Science centres and museums are also working in partnership with the science learning centres to deliver CPD courses for teachers. This regional focus enables particular needs of teachers in that area to be addressed, whilst also offering nationally run programmes.

2. Programmes

The types of programmes offered by science centres and museums vary from venue to venue. Activity formats also vary eg, science theatre shows.

These are often developed in house as they can be too expensive to buy in. The IMTAlliance were suggested as a source for buying scripts and resources.

• Demonstrations on the exhibition floor,
• science busking,
• Meet the Scientist project.

Experts are supported by science centres and museums to give talks and /or run activities for visitors to their venue. This provides science centres and museums with support in dealing with cutting edge science and technology, and the issues relating to them. It also supports experts in these fields to communicate their work to a wider audience.

• Workshops,
• backpacks,
• exhibition trails and challenges.

A number of people at the meeting asked if it was possible to share ideas and potentially scripts and kit lists for workshops. This would help prevent the replication of particular themes/topics eg forensics workshop activities. It was also recognised that science centres and museums have many different strengths in areas of science communication, subject areas and working with different types of audiences. The potential benefits for sharing this knowledge and experience within The Association for Science and Discovery Centres network is therefore huge.

It was highlighted that there is already an area of The Association for Science and Discovery Centres website where members are able to post activity ideas. Some members have already done so eg Life Science Centre in Newcastle has posted up a show about the science of chocolate. The Association for Science and Discovery Centres encouraged members of the meeting to take full advantage of this area, and to send in any materials and activity ideas they would like to share with the rest of the network.

3. Staffing

Problems associated with running programmes included dealing with staff fatigue. This might be a result of the number of times during a day activities were run, or the length of time a programme was run for during a term/year. This raised questions about how different venues timetable activities. The frequency often varied depending on the size of the venue, and the number of trained staff available to a venue for the delivery. Some venues encouraged their presenter staff to sort out their own shifts for a show as a way of dealing with this.

Learning programmes require staff with particular skill sets. These are developed through training programmes. Members of the meeting were interested to compare and contrast the different methods for staff training. Although many science centres and museums already have training structures in place, there are investment issues due to the high turnover of explainer and presenter staff.

It was also noted that there is an article published by the British Interactive Group about the training needs of Explainer staff.

4. Exhibitions

A number of questions and issues were raised about how exhibitions at science centres and museums are developed, and how learning programmes are linked to them.

4.1 Development of exhibitions

• Generic Learning Objectives recommended through Inspiring Learning for All (MLA Guidelines) – are they built into plans for exhibition?
• Sometimes an exhibition is designed without working with learning programme.
• Are exhibitions led by school curricula? And if so how does this fit in with the provision for public visitors to a venue?

4.2 Learning linked to exhibitions

Different learning styles are used for exhibition activities. Examples of materials and activities that science centres have developed for use in their exhibition space are:

• gallery trails/worksheets – some are free, some charged a small fee per trail. These are often popular with family visitors. If you ask teachers if they want worksheets they often say no, but when they are asked what the most important part of a visit was they say the worksheets!
• Challenge cards with questions. W5 received funding from their local council to develop these sorts of materials.
• Flash cards – MAGNA have used with their exhibition areas.
• Discovery guides/booklets – used round particular galleries by the Natural History Museum.
• Gallery guides for teachers – help introduce discussion into visit.
• On gallery activities to complement exhibition.
• Can’t always use written materials on galleries eg lighting in particular areas of an exhibition might not be bright enough.

4.3 Temporary exhibitions

Some science centres and museums are hosts for temporary exhibitions. Such exhibitions also led to further questions and issues:

• Staffing issues for temporary exhibitions. How do people fund them and who pays eg exhibitions teams or education teams? Or do you look for volunteers to staff them eg students.
• Temporary exhibitions. Do people develop workshops/activities to go with these? Or do people use materials that come with them?
• How do visitor numbers vary when venues host these sorts of new exhibitions?
• How can science centres and museums work together to develop exhibitions? There are examples of travelling exhibitions that have been developed by science centre and museum consortiums eg eTEC project.

5. Other issues raised

A number of other areas were also raised for consideration and potential discussions for future meetings.

• Use of new technologies in exhibitions eg animation.
• Linking to other areas of curricula eg citizenship.
• Hosting and running debate activities.
• Meet the Scientist events.
• Video conferencing and chat rooms (often used by conferences but not by learning). There are examples of learning projects that have used this sort of technology eg the JASON project that the National Museums of Liverpool were involved with.
• Virtual field trips – Dundee University have been using these (can help build links to other worldwide centres).
• Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) and Inspiring Learning for All (MLA guidelines). How can this be used by science centres when developing programmes and exhibitions? The National Museums of Liverpool (NML) have been involved in a research to look at how GLOs can be used within institutions and a report was being written at the time of the meeting summarising their findings. NML arranged for a short talk about this research to help answer a number of questions and introduce some participants to the GLO tools.

6. Conclusions and suggestions for future specialist meetings

Participants felt that this meeting provided a good starting point for discussions relating science centre and museum education and programming issues. They were keen for similar future meetings to be organised by The Association for Science and Discovery Centres and held at a similar time of year. It was suggested that for future meetings that there be a particular focus rather than a general discussion.

Other areas where education and programming managers felt they would benefit from further discussions, and potentially additional specialist seminars were:

• use of new technologies in education and programming eg video conferencing, web casting, pod casts etc.
• a longer session looking at Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs)
• possibly arranging a 10 minute hot seat discussion in advance of any future meetings to help decide topics for discussion.

It was also suggested that it would be useful to have background information about participants before events in order to see what their different specialisms are.

NB: We would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Museums of Liverpool for all of their support with the organisation and hosting of the first meeting for education and programming managers.