After reading Chapter 7 of Surrounded by Science, which focused on promoting equity in science learning, especially in informal settings, I found myself thinking about how I’ve seen museums doing their best to appeal to all audiences, regardless of their culture, socioeconomic background, or disability. For example, the American Museum of Natural History has a suggested admission fee (meaning that you can pay whatever you want, even just one dollar), which definitely makes it more accessible to people of all different kinds of socioeconomic backgrounds. However, I feel like not a lot of people are aware that this museum has a suggested admissions fee, so I always try to spread the word about this amazing opportunity. I’ve also noticed that most exhibits are accessible to people with different disabilities, which makes me extremely happy that any problems with inaccessibility are being addressed and that everyone has a chance to completely experience an exhibit. This chapter made me think of the ramp in the dinosaur exhibit in the Museum of Natural History, which allows those in wheelchairs to see the room from the same angle as those without a physical disability.
I really liked that the educators and designers whose job it was to address the problems of inequality in science learning turned to the people who knew how it felt like to be excluded from programs, activities, and exhibits that may have been geared toward middle-class whites. Instead of trying to solve the problem on their own, they went directly to the source, like the Children’s Discovery Museum’s Vietnamese Audience Development Initiative team did when they worked with the Vietnamese community. It was a symbiotic relationship between the two communities since the Vietnamese Audience Development Initiative team was working hard to appeal to the Vietnamese community while the Vietnamese community was providing the team with both positive and negative feedback so that the exhibit could ultimately improve. The same applies to the both the Museum of Science in Boston working with people who had disabilities and the Native Science Field Center working with Blackfeet tribal communities.
Overall, I think that taking steps in order to include nondominant groups in science learning is a top priority in the science education field. If everyone is to have an equal learning experience, then there need to be no obstacles at all for any member of any audience. Science is universal, so why can’t science learning be universal as well?
