Informal Science Education.

The article focuses on the studies in the area of informal science education. Four of the five studies dealt with museums and one with zoos. The cognitive and affective outcomes of a class visit to a participatory science museum were examined by researchers. The study did not demonstrate conclusively a cognitive advantage of having the exhibit experience prior to the lesson. Another group of researchers investigated factors involved in attention and curiosity in museums. The findings were consistent with curiosity research, indicating that both children and adults are attracted to novel as well as complex stimuli which can be manipulated in both formal and free-choice environments. To test the concept that education is one important role of zoos, one researcher reported on the works of teams of graduate students who conducted six different research projects using non-reactive methods to investigate selected behaviors of recreational visitors at the Los Angeles Zoo.