Museum Personalized : The impact of floor staff on an exhibition - A holistic approach

The current paper presents a study conducted at The National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm to investigate the exhibition “Antarctica – that’s cool” from its first concept to the first workshop that is held in the exhibition. The focus is on the influence of floor staff on an exhibition and workshops as learning facilities in museums. Findings, based on visitor observation and the exhibition building process, go into the characteristics of low-budget productions and discuss the importance of staff on the exhibition floor for museums as life-long learning facilities. The holistic approach of the study provides deep insights into the complex interplay of visitors, staff and exhibitions. The results can be used for future exhibition building processes and educational programs in museums and should strengthen the museum’s position as life-long learning facility in nowadays society.

Profiling visitors to Dalarna Museum : What are the motivational factors that influence visitors' frequency of visits

Prior studies on museum visitors are extensively centred on national museums, the studies on regional museums are scarce. To fill in the academic gap, a research is proposed concerning the visitors of Dalarna Museum, a regional museum in Sweden. With an aim to profile visitors’ demographic characteristics and investigate the motivational factors that influence visitors’ frequency of visits, a face-to-face questionnaire survey was implemented at Dalarna Museum. To get visitors’ demographic characteristics, a few closed and open questions are devised to profile visitors’ gender, age, occupation, income, education, number of children and residence place. To investigate the motivational factors that influence visitors’ frequency of visits, a seven-point Likert questionnaire is employed with 17 motivational factors included. During a 12-day data collection, 372 visitors were invited to participate in the questionnaire survey, whereof 357 had filled in the questionnaire, generating a response rate that is as high as 96 percent. After data cleansing, there are 355 completed and valid responses in total. According to the results, some of visitors’ demographic characteristics are similar including gender, age, occupation, income, and number of children. However, the characteristics regarding visitors’ residence places and educational attainments are different comparing the frequent visitors to occasional visitors. Through running a multiple regression analysis, 13 out of the 17 motivational factors are detected having significant influences on visitors’ frequency of visits to Dalarna Museum, of which the most influential one is visitors’ day-outs with their friends and relatives.

Important Parameters in Designing and Presenting Exhibits and Planetarium Programs in Science Centers : A Visitor-Based Framework

This dissertation proposes an initial framework for designing and presenting exhibits in science centers and to recommend methods for improving the educational role of planetariums in science centers.

An Evaluation of”Middle Ages Dead or Live?”The first interactive exhibition at the National Museum of History

This is a study conducted at, and for, the National Museum of History in Stockholm. The aim of the study was to confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis that visitors in a traditional museum environment might not take part in interactivity in an interactive exhibition. And if they do the visitors might skip the texts and objects on display. To answer this and other questions a multiple method was used. Both non participant observations and exit interviews were conducted. After a description of the interactive exhibits, theory of knowledge and learning is presented before the gathered data is presented. All together 443 visitors were observed. In the observations the visitors were timed on how much time they spent in the room, the time spent on the interactivity, texts and objects. In the 40 interviews information about visitors’ participation in the interactivity was gathered. What interactivity the visitor found easiest, hardest, funniest and most boring.The result did not confirm the hypothesis. All kinds of visitors, children and adults, participated in the interactivities. The visitors took part in the texts and objects and the interactive exhibits.

"She was a Bitch" : A Socio-Educational Perspective on Motivation for Learning English.

AbstractThis degree project focuses motivation for learning English among a group of Swedish uppersecondary school students. By employing a socio-educational perspective, some vital factorsbehind a strong motivation for learning English in school are investigated through individualinterviews. Components in the past, heralding either a high level of motivation for English or a low such, are primarily focused. Moreover, essential socio-educational factors behind managing to achieve grades in English despite a low level of motivation and various impediments, such as severe socio-psychological adversities, are looked into. While motivation for English is emphasized as a critical factor, in accordance with socio-educational motivation theory, the study also stresses the importance of a positive first encounter with the English language, a satisfying English teacher-student relationship, and a sense of success in the English classroom. But above all, the study stresses a need for early tests among young students for reading disabilities, which according to this study often go undetected and thus severely impede any kind of second language learning and motivation.

Electricity Supply Solutions for an Educational Center in Tanzania

The aim of this study was to investigate electricity supply solutions for an educationalcenter that is being built in Chonyonyo Tanzania. Off-grid power generation solutions andfurther optimization possibilities were studied for the case.The study was done for Engineers Without Borders in Sweden. Who are working withMavuno Project on the educational center. The school is set to start operating in year 2015with 40 girl students in the beginning. The educational center will help to improve genderequality by offering high quality education in a safe environment for girls in rural area.It is important for the system to be economically and environmentally sustainable. Thearea has great potential for photovoltaic power generation. Thus PV was considered as theprimary power generation and a diesel generator as a reliable backup. The system sizeoptimization was done with HOMER. For the simulations HOMER required componentdata, weather data and load data. Common components were chose with standardproperties, the loads were based on load estimations from year 2011 and the weather datawas acquired from NASA database. The system size optimization result for this base casewas a system with 26 kW PW; 5.5 kW diesel generator, 15 kW converter and 112 T-105batteries. The initial cost of the system was 55 875 €, the total net present cost 92 121 €and the levelized cost of electricity 0.264 €/kWh.In addition three optimization possibilities were studied. First it was studied how thesystem should be designed and how it would affect the system size to have night loads(security lights) use DC and could the system then be extended in blocks. As a result it wasfound out that the system size could be decreased as the inverter losses would be avoided.Also the system extension in blocks was found to be possible. The second study was aboutinverter stacking where multiple inverters can work as one unit. This type of connectionallows only the required number of inverters to run while shutting down the excess ones.This would allow the converter-unit to run with higher efficiency and lower powerconsumption could be achieved. In future with higher loads the system could be easilyextendable by connecting more inverters either in parallel or series depending on what isneeded. Multiple inverters would also offer higher reliability than using one centralizedinverter. The third study examined how the choice of location for a centralized powergeneration affects the cable sizing for the system. As a result it was found that centralizedpower generation should be located close to high loads in order to avoid long runs of thickcables. Future loads should also be considered when choosing the location. For theeducational center the potential locations for centralized power generation were found outto be close to the school buildings and close to the dormitories.

Historical Consciousness and Historical Media : A History Didactical Approach to Educational Media

This paper presents a theoretical approach to analysing educational media using the concept of historical consciousness. The concept of historical consciousness is defined and operationalised and its relevance for analysis of historical media discussed. One aspect of the theoretical framework proposed is then applied in an analysis of a history textbook account. The analysis finds that while the framework may be applied in analysis of textbooks, its results regarding historical consciousness are tentative and in need of further investigation from the perspective of how its users perceive and appropriate the textbook account. Still, it is argued that the framework proposed may be useful since it specifies how a historical consciousness may be manifested and what methodological approaches that can be used when analysing it.

The Philosophy of Dissonant Children : Stanley Cavell's Wittgensteinian Philosophical Therapies as an Educational Conversation

Education is often understood as a process whereby children come to conform to the norms teachers believe should govern our practices. This picture problematically presumes that educators know in advance what it means for children to go on the way that is expected of them. In this essay Viktor Johansson suggests a revision of education, through the philosophy of Stanley Cavell, that can account for both the attunement in our practices and the possible dissonance that follows when the teacher and child do not go on together. There is an anxiety generated by the threat of disharmony in our educational undertakings that may drive teachers toward philosophy in educational contexts. Here Johansson offers a philosophical treatment of this intellectual anxiety that teachers may experience when they, upon meeting dissonant children, search for epistemic justifications of their practices—a treatment whereby dissonant children can support teachers in dissolving their intellectual frustrations.

Dichlorvos exposure impedes extraction and amplification of DNA from insects in museum collections

Background: The insecticides dichlorvos, paradichlorobenzene and naphthalene have been commonly used to eradicate pest insects from natural history collections. However, it is not known how these chemicals affect the DNA of the specimens in the collections. We thus tested the effect of dichlorvos, paradichlorobenzene and naphthalene on DNA of insects (Musca domestica) by extracting and amplifying DNA from specimens exposed to insecticides in two different concentrations over increasing time intervals. Results: The results clearly show that dichlorvos impedes both extraction and amplification of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA after relatively short time, whereas paradichlorobenzene and naphthalene do not. Conclusion: Collections treated with paradichlorobenzene and naphthalene, are better preserved concerning DNA, than those treated with dichlorvos. Non toxic pest control methods should, however, be preferred due to physical damage of specimens and putative health risks by chemicals.

Capability outcomes from educational and ICT capability inputs : an analysis of ICT use in informal education in Kenya

In the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) ICT use in education is well studied. Education is often seen as a pre-requisite for development and ICTs are believed to aid in education, e.g. to make it more accessible and to increase its quality. In this paper we study the access and use of ICT in a study circle (SC) education program in the south coast of Kenya. The study is qualitative reporting results based on interviews and observations with SC participants, government officers and SC coordinators and teachers. The study builds on the capability approach perspective of development where individuals’ opportunities and ability to live a life that they value are focused. The aim of the study is to investigate the capability outcomes enabled through the capability inputs access and use of ICT in education as well as the factors that enabled and/or restricted the outcomes. Findings show that many opportunities have been enabled such as an increase in the ability to generate an income, learning benefits, community development and basic human development (e.g. literacy and self-confidence). However, conversion factors such as a poorly developed infrastructure and poor IT literacy prevent many of the individuals from taking full advantage of the ICT and the opportunities it enables. 

Nurses' research utilization two years after graduation : a national survey ofassociated individual, organizational, and educational factors

Background. Nurses' research utilization (RU) as part of evidence-based practice is strongly emphasized in today's nursing education and clinical practice. The primary aim of RU is to provide high-quality nursing care to patients. Data on newly graduated nurses' RU are scarce, but a predominance of low use has been reported in recent studies. Factors associated with nurses' RU have previously been identified among individual and organizational/contextual factors, but there is a lack of knowledge about how these factors, including educational ones, interact with each other and with RU, particularly in nurses during the first years after graduation. The purpose of this study was therefore to identify factors that predict the probability for low RU among registered nurses two years after graduation. Methods. Data were collected as part of the LANE study (Longitudinal Analysis of Nursing Education), a Swedish national survey of nursing students and registered nurses. Data on nurses' instrumental, conceptual, and persuasive RU were collected two years after graduation (2007, n = 845), together with data on work contextual factors. Data on individual and educational factors were collected in the first year (2002) and last term of education (2004). Guided by an analytic schedule, bivariate analyses, followed by logistic regression modeling, were applied. Results. Of the variables associated with RU in the bivariate analyses, six were found to be significantly related to low RU in the final logistic regression model: work in the psychiatric setting, role ambiguity, sufficient staffing, low work challenge, being male, and low student activity. Conclusions. A number of factors associated with nurses' low extent of RU two years postgraduation were found, most of them potentially modifiable. These findings illustrate the multitude of factors related to low RU extent and take their interrelationships into account. This knowledge might serve as useful input in planning future studies aiming to improve nurses', specifically newly graduated nurses', RU.