“Why Zoos & Aquariums Matter” (WZ&AM)
National Science Foundation Grant Awarded
Proposal Leads: Paul Boyle, Ph.D., Bruce Carr, Ph.D.
Co-Investigators: Cynthia Vernon, John Falk, Ph.D., and numerous other collaborators nationwide.
Partial List of the MIRP Research Team:
Johns Falk, PhD
Cynthia Vernon
Joe Heimlich, PhD
Paul Boyle, PhD
John Fraser, PhD
Jessica Sickler, MS
Eric Reinhard
Kerry Bronnenkant
Nora Deans
Bruce Carr, PhD
and a host of educators at zoos, aquariums, and museums nationwide.
A nationwide collaboration of museums, supported by NSF and IMLS in partnership with the Association of Zoo & Aquariums, conducted research to clarify the knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes visitors possess upon entering a museum and how visiting changes them.
Called MIRP (Multi-Institutional Research Project), the team collected precise data about visitor experiences and created a new understanding of how the informal experiences of museum visitors builds understanding of science and nature.
This work led to a fundamental change in the professional understanding of informal science education, which was previously viewed as serendipitous at best.
Over three years, MIRP built a systematic database involving diverse institutions. The data showed that substantive learning occurs in informal settings, and yielded tools for museums to enhance visitor experiences that increase learning.
Earlier research by Howard Gardiner, Neil Fleming, and John Falk on intelligence, learning, and informal education, provided the science that drove the MIRP study.
This research and MIRP’s findings induced the National Academies to declare that "most of the science that Americans know is learned outside of classrooms."