Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rain Forest Exhibits and Public Understanding of Science

9320248莱温斯坦为了让民主国家的公民对科学和技术政策做出明智的决定，他们必须对科学和技术是如何运作的有一定的基本了解。提供这样的理解是交给国家科学基金会的任务之一。本论文旨在研究科学家试图向公众传达他们的研究成果的一种方式：在科学和自然历史博物馆展出。史蒂文·艾利森在莱温斯坦博士的指导下，正在探索科学研究和自然知识的公共表现之间的关系。他正在调查四个不同博物馆的科学家如何试图向公众传达他们对热带雨林生态的理解。艾利森研究的主要案例是史密森研究所。他正在追踪1960年开始的热带雨林展览，最初的计划是建立植物馆，然后在20世纪60年代末将S改造成生态系统展厅，最后在1974年作为环保运动推动的临时展览。他的初步研究表明，生态定义的变化、展览开发过程的专业化以及环保运动的兴起，都塑造了展览形式和内容的变化。大英博物馆(自然历史)的两个展览提供了与史密森案例进行比较的机会。1961年的植物学展厅提供了一个例子，比史密森植物学家为他们的展厅计划的展览提供了更多的说教展品，而1989年的展览《生态学》的视觉和语言演示非常类似于1970年的S展览。他还对纽约美国自然历史博物馆、丹佛自然历史博物馆的展览实践和1992年在L公园举行的国家动物博物馆的展览实践进行了不太详细的比较。这些个案承诺不仅对自然历史研究的历史作出重大贡献，而且对公众对科学的理解所关注的更广泛的问题做出重大贡献。历史展览和当代展览之间的相似之处引发了人们对博物馆在科学公共传播中的作用的质疑，特别是环境问题。***

9320248 Lewenstein In order for citizens in a democracy to make informed decisions about science and technology policy, they must have a certain basic understanding of how science and technology work. Providing such an understanding is one of the tasks given to the National Science Foundation. This dissertation aims to study one way that scientists attempt to communicate to the general public the results of their research: i.e. exhibits in science and natural history museums. Steven Allison, under the direction of Dr. Lewenstein, is exploring the relationships between scientific research and the public representation of natural knowledge. He is investigating how scientists in four different museums have attempted to communicate to the public their understanding of the ecology of tropical rain forests. The major case for Mr. Allison's study is at the Smithsonian. He is following how a tropical rain forest exhibit which began in 1960 with plans for a Hall of Botany was transformed in the late 1960's into an exhibit hall on ecosystems and was finally built in 1974 as a temporary exhibit motivated by the environmental movement. His preliminary research has shown that changes in the definition of "ecology," professionalization of the exhibit development process, and the rise of the environmentalist movement all shaped the changing form and content of the exhibit. Two exhibitions at the British Museum (Natural History) offer the opportunity for comparison to the Smithsonian case. The 1961 botany hall provides an example of more didactic exhibits than the Smithsonian botanists planned for their hall, while the 1989 exhibition "Ecology" deploys visual and verbal presentations that are very similar to the final Smithsonian exhibit in the 1970's. He is also making less detailed comparisons of exhibition practice at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the 1992 "Amazonia" exhibit at the National Zoologica l Park. These individual cases promise to make significant contributions not only to the history of natural history research but to broader issues of concern for public understanding of science. Parallels between the historical and contemporary exhibitions raise questions about the role of museums in the public communication of science, especially environmental issues. ***