In 1997 the Monterey Bay Aquarium refined its mission to one concise statement: The mission of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is to inspire conservation of the oceans. This has led to increased conservation content in exhibitions and more evaluation studies focused on visitors' conservation knowledge, understanding, attitudes and behavior. This article reviews conservation-related findings from the aquarium's exhibition evaluation efforts over the last 14 years, summarizing the major themes that emerge from this body of work. Findings suggest that visitors to the Monterey Bay Aquarium are interested in and receptive to conservation content and learn new conservation information from exhibitions. Visitors' interest is most influenced by their personal involvement with conservation issues and previous visitation to the aquarium. After leaving the aquarium, there is evidence that visitors retain specific conservation information and maintain levels of concern about conservation topics for weeks, and even months, after their visit. Additionally, some visitors use the Seafood Watch pocket guide to choose sustainable seafood months after visiting the aquarium.
Eight studies assessed the motive for sensory pleasure (MSP) involving a general disposition to enjoy and pursue pleasant nature-related experiences and avoid unpleasant nature-related experiences. The stated enjoyment of pleasant sights, smells, sounds, and tactile sensations formed a unitary construct that was distinct from sensation seeking, novelty preference, and need for cognition. MSP was found to be related to (a) enjoyment of pleasant nature scenes and music of high but not low clarity; (b) enjoyment of writings that portrayed highly detailed nature scenes; (c) enjoyment of pleasantly themed paintings and dislike of unpleasant paintings, as distinct from findings with Openness to Experience; (d) choice of pleasant nature scenes over exciting or intellectually stimulating scenes; (e) view duration and memory of artistically rendered quilts; (f) interest in detailed information about nature scenes; and (g) frequency of sensory-type suggestions for improvement of a museum exhibit.
The Bilingual Exhibits Research Initiative examined the extent to which Spanish-speaking groups (defined as intergenerational groups who speak Spanish most or all of the time at home) engage in and use Spanish-English bilingual interpretation in informal science education institutions. Thirty-two bilingual Spanish-speaking groups were observed and interviewed about their visit to a bilingual exhibition. Groups were observed to read and talk in both Spanish and English. Adults were more likely to use Spanish compared to children, who used English more often. The groups often engaged in code switching, going back and forth seamlessly between the two languages. The findings confirmed that access to content is an important affordance of including bilingual interpretation, since ability to read in English often varied in intergenerational Spanish-speaking groups. Further research is needed to expand on this exploratory study to determine how institutions can most effectively employ bilingual interpretation for Spanish-speaking visitor groups, given that the use of bilingual interpretation was more complex than originally envisioned.
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