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The Museum of Science, Boston, has recently expanded its focus to encompass a new model of technology learning, mirroring the processes taking place in the education world. In a sense, technology has always been part of our mission; understanding science also involves consideration of its application. But, like the formal education community, we at the Museum have reconsidered our goals and methods, developing new standards--reflective of ITEA's Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology but reinterpreted for the museum environment. The result is a new curriculum that encompasses exhibits and programs at the Museum, programs and activities we conduct in schools and other locations, and Internet-based activities. While the most extensive technology education in the past has occurred in secondary schools and college level engineering programs, the new vision for schools includes technology education at all grade levels. In May of 2001, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education added a Technology/ Engineering strand to its 1995 Science Curriculum Framework, recognizing the need and the capacity for technology education to begin even in pre-kindergarten education. Even with technology education spanning grades K-12, the new efforts in formal education are not enough to address fully the nation's need for technological literacy. Dr. A. Thomas Young, Chairman of the Committee on Technological Literacy of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), stated in his keynote address to ITEA in March 2002, that 150 million Americans who need to know more about technology are not likely to be reached through formal educational activities. Indeed, Technically Speaking, the NAE report issued earlier this year, calls specifically on museums and science centers to contribute to this newly defined educational need. Science Centers and Schools are Different As science centers develop ways to complement and support reform efforts in formal education, it is important to recognize that simply applying the detailed learning objectives developed for schools will not create successful informal learning experiences. About 250,000 of the Museum of Science's approximately 1.7 million visitors per year are students in organized school groups. The largest part of our audience is comprised of children and adults visiting together in family groups and adults visiting without children. The Museum's audience is heterogeneous in a variety of ways. Visitors are all different ages, from toddlers to great-grandparents. They come with a wide range of past experience, knowledge, and ability. The learning environment is different in other ways. Participants come during recreational time and expect fun learning experiences. The environment is chaotic, and the learning process is non-linear, as visitors chart their own course through a wide variety of experiences in no predictable order. The primary focus is on experiences that may lead to insight rather than on learning concepts. The challenge for science centers then, is to provide experiences that support the core ideas of the standards, enhancing formal educational efforts with experiences that are adapted for the special needs of our audience and the nature of the informal learning environment. Reinterpreting the Standards for the Museum Setting In the domain of science, our institution has adopted an educational strategy that gives visitors the opportunity to become interested in and learn about science by exercising the thinking skills used by scientists--observation, classification, modeling and theory-building, testing, and analysis. What are the analogs in the domain of technology--the core thinking skills, kinds of knowledge, and capabilities that will interest people in and help them cope with whatever new technologies come along? …
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