From the Classroom to the Floor: Applying Language Supports Across Museum Contexts

ABSTRACT

The Lawrence Hall of Science implemented a two-phase project, Building Understanding in Language Diverse Students, to modify school group workshops and drop-in public programs to better support linguistically diverse students and visitors. As we applied language support strategies developed for the school group workshops to additional areas of the science center, we encountered emergent complexities related to understanding our audience, designing program-specific modifications, and implementing professional learning opportunities for part-time facilitators and volunteers. While we weren’t able to directly apply everything we did in our school workshops to our public drop-in programs, our experience showed us the importance of engaging in an iterative process of design and testing, along with a comprehensive, organization-wide approach that includes researching audiences, engaging community partners, and providing professional development for all staff who interact with visitors.

KEYWORDS:

• English language learners
• public programs
• school programs
• museum
• science center

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

About the authors

Ellen Blinderman is a professor in the Child Development Department at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA. A key focus of her work is the integration of language and literacy with early science learning. She previously directed early childhood programs at the Lawrence Hall of Science for over 25 years. Ellen has a master’s degree in Language and Literacy from UC Berkeley and served as Project Director on the BUILDS project (Phases 1 and 2).

Valeria Romero is Research Group Deputy Director at the Lawrence Hall of Science, where she leads research and evaluation projects that focus on engaging traditionally underrepresented minority learners in science, technology, engineering, and math. A key focus of her work is understanding how to design equitable, inclusive and culturally relevant science-learning experiences to foster positive outcomes among youth in both formal and informal settings. Valeria has a master's degree in Educational Leadership from Mills College and served as an evaluator on the BUILDS project (Phases 1 and 2).

Lisa Trahan supports student retention and success at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering as Director of Strategic Initiatives & Assessment for the IDEA Engineering Student Center. Previously, Lisa was Audience Insights Specialist at the Lawrence Hall of Science where she conducted program evaluations and audience studies. Key goals of her work are to support educational equity and create inclusive educational experiences. Lisa has a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University and served as an evaluator on the BUILDS project (Phase 2).

Notes

1 “Bay Area Census.”

2 Farrell and Medvedeva, “Demographic Transformations.”

3 “kidsdata.org.”

4 Fathman and Crowther, Science for English Language Learners.

5 Stein et al., “Engaging Immigrant Audiences in Museums,” 179–96.

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under Grants MA-06-12-0179-12 and MA-10-15-0445-15.