What Counts as Science? Families’ Perceptions of Science in a Natural History Museum

ABSTRACT

Natural history museums open their doors to millions of family visitors each year and are considered to have a valuable role to play in engaging these families with science. Yet little is known about whether or in what way families perceive such institutions to be connected with science. The current study set out to explore such perceptions via interviews with family visitors to a large natural history museum. Analyses reflected that families’ perceptions of the museum and of their own engagement with science were intertwined with their definitions and impressions of science. For these families, perceptions of the museum as fun, interesting, and educational at times counteracted impressions of it as a science-y institution. Moreover, some families also did not consider natural history to count as science, which further contributed to a reluctance to categorize the museum as science-y. Although such perceptions may challenge how natural history museums would like to portray themselves, they also represent an opportunity to broaden visitors’ definitions and images of science.

APPENDIX: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

• Why did you visit the museum today? (Prompt: Is there anything in particular you wanted to see? If so, what?)

  • What appeals to you generally about the museum?

• Whose idea was it to come today?

• Have you been to the museum before? (When?)

• Who have you come with?

• Why did you decide to do X (try this activity, visit Investigate)?

  • Probe (depending on response): Is this something that you were interested in before? Something you knew about already?

• Did you find out anything new or not? (If so, what?)

• What about X [“the person you were talking with”]? (Volunteer or educator they interacted with)

  • Probe: Would you describe them as a “science person” or not? Why/in what way?

• Overall, what would you say is the most interesting part of your visit to the museum today?

  • What was the least interesting part?

• Is there anything that you’d like to find out more about after you leave today? How do you think you might go about that?

• Thinking about the museum generally, would you say it's a science-y place or not? Why/why not? (In what way? Probe to see what they understand by science-y)

• What about X (activity they just participated in)? Was that science-y? What about it was science-y? (Where was the science in it?)

• Are you generally interested in science?

  • Compared to your friends (or family members), do you think you’re more or less interested in science? (Any areas in particular?) What about compared to the general public?

  • Would you consider yourself to be a “science person”? What would friends/family say?

• What other kinds of science activities do you participate in? (Or activities related to what they've found interesting?) (Prompt: Can you tell me about an area of science that you know at least as much, if not more, about than your neighbor? Can prompt with “what about things like gardening, collecting rocks, car mechanics and so forth that have an aspect of science to them?”)

Family members:

Gender & ages:

(for adults: 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–59, 60–74, 75+)

Occupation:

Notes

¹Because the types of visitor interactions volunteers and education staff engage in are similar, the two groups will be referred to as “staff” for the sake of simplicity.

²To keep the scope of the interviews manageable, we focused on families visiting from the United Kingdom, rather than international tourists.

³One group interviewed consisted of two families who were visiting together.

⁴This study (DeWitt et al., 2013) formed part of a longitudinal research project investigating attitudes and aspirations in science. In interviews with 92 children (age 11) and 78 of their parents, we found that science-y was the term they used to refer to individuals (or institutions, activities, programs, and so forth) who were strongly connected to, affiliated with, or highly engaged with science (similar to “science person” or “science place”). Individuals who were science-y could be scientists but did not necessarily work in science (and could be children). We acknowledge that the term may only serve this role in the United Kingdom, where both studies were conducted.

⁵The total is greater than 20 because in a few families, members offered contrasting views as to whether or not the museum is science-y, and these were counted in whichever categories were appropriate.

⁶These topics and subject areas were all mentioned specifically by families in the interviews, although certain topics (e.g., nature) were considered to be “not science” by members of some families.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer DeWitt

Jennifer DeWitt is a Research Fellow at King's College London, working on projects in the formal and informal sector. Her research interests include identity, learning, and engagement among families and school groups in informal science environments. Address correspondence to Department of Education and Professional Studies, King's College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building (Waterloo Bridge Wing), Waterloo Road, London SE1 9NH, UK. E-mail: [email protected].

Emma Pegram

Emma Pegram manages evaluations and research of public engagement activities at the Natural History Museum, London. She is interested in understanding visitors’ learning in the museum and the impact different types of museum experiences can have.