July 1st, 1993 - December 31st, 1997 | PROJECT
The Brooklyn Children's Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden aim to cooperatively and cost-effectively develop, evaluate, and produce three permanent exhibits (2600 sf at BCM, 1200 sf at BBG, and a 3600 sf outdoor Discovery Garden at BBG) and two copies of an 800 sf traveling exhibit in a project called Breaking Ground: Plants and People. When complete in 1996, these exhibits will teach 1.5 million annual public visitors about basics in botany, ethnobotany, and urban to ecology, promote an understanding of plants' importance to human life, and foster positive environmental ethics among children 6-12 years old. This project is important because collaboration with professional botanists will teach a leading children's museum how to effectively present in-depth science content, and allow a major public garden to experiment with interactive exhibits in a natural setting. Joint promotions using NSF-funded program materials will encourage children in culturally and economically diverse areas around New York City to return again and again to two important community resources for informal science education. This strategy will reinforce learning and promote lifelong appreciation for experiential exhibits in botanical gardens and for a meaningful depth of science in children's museums.
Project Website(s)
(no project website provided)
Project Products
A Summative Evaluation of Breaking Ground
Team Members
Carol Enseki, Principal Investigator, Brooklyn Children's MuseumRobert Hyland, Co-Principal Investigator, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Funders
Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 9254614
Funding Amount: 1028083
Tags
Audience: Elementary School Children (6-10) | General Public | Middle School Children (11-13) | Museum | ISE Professionals
Discipline: Ecology | forestry | agriculture | Life science
Resource Type: Project Descriptions
Environment Type: Exhibitions | Museum and Science Center Exhibits | Parks | Outdoor | Garden Exhibits