conference :: Sanford, C. (2009, April). Family knowledge building: How designed learning environments can support conversations around complex topics like manufacturing. Poster session presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Designed learning environments like museums have the potential to change the way that families think and talk about scientific topics together in everyday contexts like the home. The current study examines the affect of a visit to a museum exhibit highlighting the processes of manufacturing on the ability of parents and children to talk about h...

Tags: Museum, family, conversation, home, process, ILER SIG poster, ILER SIG

conference :: Sanford, C. (2006, April). Web and museum: Intergenerational learning in two informal settings. Poster session presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.

The current study compared 90 older adult-child pairs in three different informal settings that focused on the topic of heart health: a museum, the web, and an educational workshop. Pre/post interviews showed that learning in the museum and web was more similar than learning in the workshop condition. Participants learned more about prevention ...

Tags: Intergenerational learning, museums, roles, grandparents, conversation

conference :: Sanford, C. (2007, April). How grandparents and their grandchildren think about and use informal spaces. Poster session presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

This study compared grandparent-grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums ...

Tags: Grandparent, intergenerational learning, conversation, roles, interaction

conference :: Sanford, C. (2009, April). Facilitating museum to classroom connections: How the creation of classroom activities to supplement a museum visit transformed teachers' ideas about informal educational resources. Poster session presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Many teachers are unsure about how to best utilize museum educational resources. They do not think that approaches and strategies from informal learning environments apply to classroom settings (Melber & Cox-Peterson, 2005). Yet studies have shown that simple solutions such as exhibit orientation and conducting pre and post-visit activities to s...

Tags: Field trip, teacher, professional development, museum, informal learning research