Informal Science Centers provide educational experiences for people across the country daily. While the terminology is often similar, there are differences between institutions, often determined by mission, organizational structure, and experience. The purpose of this study was to identify shared experiences and unique characteristics of eight…

This study aims to answer the question of how pupils' participation is acted within the context of Swedish leisure time centres (LTCs) through the analysis of ethnographic material from five different LTCs. The analysis took a grounded theory approach, and the results show that pupils' participation in LTCs can be seen as an ongoing negotiation…

Compared to traditional athletes and PE students, self-organized lifestyle sport practitioners usually have no podiums to reach or grades to earn. They have no authorized instructor available, but seem to treat this apparent deficiency as an opportunity to facilitate their own learning processes. However, from a traditional learning perspective,…

The Learning Team at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa received funding in 2014 to create and conduct a long-term outdoor learning experience for Hillsborough County, Florida, fifth-grade students. The program was designed with four parts to optimize students' experiences in their local watershed, including both classroom and field activities. This…

Partnerships between schools and out-of-school organizations (museums, zoos, nature centers, etc.) have been shown to improve the educational experiences for both students and teachers. In this article, we report on the experiences we have documented as a nature center through our active involvement in school partnerships. Our partnerships with…

This article analyzes "McGarry v. Philly Rock Corp." On March 16, 2011, Rebecca McGarry and her husband went to the Philly Rock Corp. (PRC) indoor climbing gym where they had twice climbed previously. The couple decided to try bouldering, a style of climbing lower to the ground in which the climber uses bouldering pads instead of ropes,…

Over the last 100 years since the planetarium was invented and began to spread across the planet, discipline-based planetarium education researchers have worked diligently to catalog what concepts are taught in the planetarium and what audiences learn when attending a planetarium show. What is not clearly known is precisely 'who' it is that are…

Purpose: The System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) is a valid, reliable method for understanding how people engage in physical activity (PA) in various permanent settings (e.g., parks) and contexts. However, its utility, reliability, and validity in temporary spaces has not been examined. Temporary spaces can provide PA…

Given that conservation education is a primary goal for zoos, it is important to study how changes in exhibit design in the same facility (with the same animals and visitor base) can impact short- and long-term conservation knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (KAB) amongst visitors. However, there is very limited research on this topic. Our goal…

Out-of-class learning environments are important learning environments because they improve students' mental and physical health as well as providing them with cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills. However, it is necessary to make a plan, implement and evaluate the teaching processes appropriately to efficient benefit from out-of-class…

Of the 3.5 million first-time in college, full time students who began college in fall 2017, 74% returned for fall 2018, with 61.7% retained at their starting institution. Covid-19 has negatively impacted retention; in addition to normal attrition, one of every five students did not return to campus in fall 2020. Researchers have gauged both…

There is increasing evidence that zoos and aquariums do, as intended, educate their visitors. However, even though most zoos offer a wide array of educational experiences, few studies have considered if the duration of an educational experience affects learning or whether learning lasts beyond the immediate visit. The current study used…

This article describes "Dark Ride: Disneyland" - a mobile game that encourages Disneyland guests to critically consider Disney's representations of history, culture, and technology. The game was the creation of a group of faculty, students and professionals associated with Brigham Young University. The article contextualizes the game and…

The National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) has long recognized that collaboration among institutions is important to honors education. In addition to its annual NCHC conferences, which offer a large forum for sharing ideas, NCHC has fostered and supported a variety of collaborative programs such as Honors Semesters and Faculty Institutes, the…

Public parks and gardens are gaining numerous outdoor fitness equipment (OFE), easily accessed by the public. Most people use this equipment without any guidance and thus there is a need for basic guidelines on how to use the equipment. This study offers a practical guideline for exercising on one of the most widely used pieces of OFE, the outdoor…