This chapter begins by discussing the in role of the media in informal learning and the ways in which exhibits are involving to meet these changing times and keep up with the technological advances in society. Many exhibits spark interest that can lead to a child seeking more information through the media as presented by the example in the beginning of the chapter. This correlates to the trend we noticed in our classes when conducting the interviews. Many of us noted that many of our interviewees learn science through the use of the internet, social media, and technological devices. For this reason, museum exhibits are evolving to keep up with these changes. Some museum exhibits have allowed people to text a number to find more information about the exhibit. Other museums, such as the Smithsonian, are using Facebook and Twitter as ways of engaging the public and getting people interested in museum exhibits. Furthermore, blogging has become a very common thing, and many museums now have blogs that relay information about the exhibits as well.

The chapter also mentions the link between informal learning and formal learning. This link is very important to be established and the way most schools establish this link is through field trips. Many times field trips end after Elementary/Middle school, however, at the high school I attended, there was a special program known as Talented and Gifted which took 15 students on two field trips a year. These field trips included visiting art museums, historical sites, game shows, etc. In addition, before each field trip we were required to write about what we hoped to learn from the trip and what we hoped to get out of it. After the the trip, we had an assignment that asked us to reflect on what we had learned and what were some of the things we found interesting. According to the article, the more engaged the teachers are during the trip, the more likely the students are to learn. I believe this is true in early childhood, however from my experience in high school, our chaperones (teachers), let us wander the museum/place to our liking and for that reason I believe we learned more. With teacher engagement it would feel like a classroom setting and forced learning which would only discourage us. When given the freedom to do as we pleased, I believe many of us gained more from the experience.

As the articles mention, science is not all about research and finding new things. A large part of the process is presenting the findings to the public. However, as the Scientist Citizens article  mentions many people overlook this part and some scientists are not properly trained to present to the public. As a result, the public becomes less interested in science since they are not able to understand the concept or relate to it in some form or another. Capably Communicating Science states that communicating to the public is an important skill especially when trying persuade Congress or the general public in voting in favor of science. However, if scientists are not able to communicate their ideas and finding properly, people will easily become discouraged and tend not to promote the sciences. The article gives an example using stem research. The article states that according to studies, people support studies that correlate with their culture or religion.For this reason, stem cell research has been getting a lot of backlash from the public. The article states that instead of informing the public about stem cell research using hard facts, scientists should try to relate the topic to them in order to gain more support and in turn making scientists seem more amiable and “humane” contrary to some viewpoints.

I agree with these three articles. As mentioned in the textbook, people tend to enjoy learning about things that relate to them. For example, the older generation like learning about health and trying to stay healthy while their health slowly deteriorates. Also, people will be more willing to learn about the environment and the climate when it addresses how the changes will affect their lives. These are some points that scientists need to take into consideration when doing their deliverable.  Public speaking, as we see, is a skill needed in all fields of study not only the liberal arts. And although, I fear public speaking, since I aspire to do research I know that the skill will become in handy when I wish to present my research in terms of how I present. Furthermore, the points brought up in these articles are also something that we will consider when doing our final project.

Chapter 5 discusses the importance of having an interest in the topic in order for learning to be effective. Interest in the topic can be sparked by presenting flexibility and presenting the learners a chance to explore. This can be done in informal learning settings in which allow the learner to freely choose the exhibit they visit as well as what activities they wish to participate in. Therefore, more learning can occur through this method since the learners in these settings will have a interest in the subject being presented. This chapter is accurate, in that we can relate this to school and how students perform in school. Students who enjoy the subject as well have interest in it tend to perform better. This is seen with the students currently taking Organic Chemistry. This class tends to be very difficult for many students yet, those who have interest in the subject tend to perform well despite the difficulty.

Chapter  8 of Surrounded by Science discusses how age factors into learning. The textbook states “Most adults become interested in a science topic because it has immediate relevance to their lives…. The most obvious example is in the area of health. If an adult or a person close to him or her is diagnosed with an illness, such as cancer, that individual often goes to the library to take out books on the subject or goes online to find out as much as possible.” I find this to be very true in that many adults tend to read up on illnesses they have to better deal with it. For this reason, their knowledge of the topic is very extensive. Furthermore, this reminded me of my visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Most of the visitors were adults, and the reason for their interests was because they gardened at home and came to the garden looking for ideas and to learn more about the plants they wish to cultivate as well as the plants that are back home in their own garden.

Chapter 7 of the textbook brought up a very crucial point that needs to be addressed when studying the effectiveness of informal learning settings. Chapter 7 discusses the obstacles that culture proposes in the field of informal science. Museum exhibits sometimes tend to isolate those of different cultures and those who are first generation immigrants as they are not able to relate to exhibit nor can understand the text that is associated with the exhibit. Therefore a case study was conducted in which an exhibit was created that used symbols of Vietnamese culture and included text translated into Vietnamese in order to attract the people of that culture. Results showed that the Vietnamese visitors no longer felt isolated from the exhibit and felt more welcomed which increased their interest in learning.

In addition to making the exhibits more accessible to people from various cultural background, museum exhibits are also trying to make it more accessible to people with disabilities such as amputees and those that are vision impaired. However this case study had less of a success. Although, the amputees found it easier to move around the exhibit they thought that it needed more places to sit. Whereas the vision impaired visitors had trouble listening to the audio and was frustrated by the inability to touch the objects.

I agree that museum exhibits do need to be improved in order to connect with a variety of people. I have visited few exhibits in which I was not able to understand the concept behind the exhibit since the idea was foreign to me and I could not relate to anything in the exhibit. Furthermore, exhibits which require less interaction and activity, in which the learning is mostly visual, tend to be more daunting and less interesting to those who have no connection to information being displayed.

The Jamaica Bay plays a major role in the lives of New Yorkers, with its rich resources, its large biodiversity and, surprisingly, its spiritual significance to different religious groups.  I was surprised to learn that the Jamaica Bay serves a place of religious congregations for many groups, such as Jew and Hindus. Being a practicing Hindu, I was never aware of the significance the Bay had to the Hindu community and was surprised to find that many rituals are performed at this Bay. Furthermore, though I am aware of the rituals and the significance of water in Hinduism as mentioned in the paper, I always had the notion that these rituals would be performed in a temple or a place that was deemed “holy.” For this reason, I find the use of the Bay as place of worship to be very surprising.

The use of the Jamaica Bay as a religious hotspot is of great cultural significance and presents the diversity of the region as well. The use of the waters in Jamaica Bay provides insight into the Hindu Indo-Caribbean culture that has populated the area around the Bay. With ancestors originally from India, the Indo-Caribbean culture resembles Asian Indian culture in many ways but with the passing of years many changes have been made. The Indo-Caribbean belief is that the Jamaica Bay is similar to the Ganges in India and by submerging the ashes of their deceased ones into the Bay it will eventually reach Mother Ganga. This is different from Asian Hindu practices, which only considers the Ganges as holy water and stresses the importance of submerging the ashes into the Ganges. Similarly, the Jewish community use the water on certain holidays in which they cleanse themselves of their sins by throwing breadcrumbs into the water.  The land also has a cultural significance as the willows by the Bay and bonfires are lit for certain holidays.

While to Jews and Hindus, these religious practices are part of culture and the scriptures, some community members see this as pollution of the water as debris from the rituals tend to wash up on shore. Pollution can affect the wildlife in the waters and well as the ones on land. However, I find this ironic to a certain sense in that from my knowledge of Hindu customs, many of the puja items are organic as well as biodegradable. This is because Hindus stress the importance of nature and preserving wildlife, therefore many of the items come from nature, aside from the vessels and possibly the wrappings used to hold these items.

These practices and uses of Jamaica Bay stem from using one’s own culture knowledge to adapt to the new environment and community and congregate with his/her community to make decisions about how one should proceed to live their life in a new land. The new populations in Jamaica Bay have combined in collaboration to accommodate the needs of certain communities and make decisions that protect the Bay. Jamaica Bay and its resources are integral to the success of the surrounding communities and we need the see for compromise and combined effort to protect these resources.

The readings discuss the similarities between Art and Science. The article,  Art as a Way of Knowing states that “art is a fundamental part of being human and that learning in and through the arts is a serious form of interacting with the world by engaging with its questions, formulating ideas, and deepening knowledge.” Similarly science can be defined as a method in which people try to explain the phenomena of the natural world through “engaging with [the] questions” that the world proposes, “formulating ideas” or theories to explain these questions which in turn deepen our knowledge. Art is meant to be viewed and thought about and aims to open the viewer’s mind to a new idea or perception of the world around us. Similarly scientific discoveries do the same as it causes one to think and ponder about the certain phenomena and maybe change our perception on how we view the world.

The second article, The Art of the Brain presents how scientific data can be viewed as art. Brainbow is a piece of artwork that is made by mapping the neurons of a mouse and genetically engineering them to fluoresce. The article states that many artists use scientific equipment such as microscopes and create art from bacteria colonies that can be seen from a slide. There are exhibits, which show the beauty of nature and living things through art. I found this very interesting because many people separate these two fields and categorize them to be completely different from the other. But the article proves that scientists can also be artists through the data that they portray and the visuals that they present. It also shows that artists can be scientists as artists use observations and present their view of the world around them through colors or figures, which are similar to scientists who also use figures to present the data they have received from observing the world around them.