SGER: Investigating Map Understanding and Learning in the Context of a Family Museum Exhibit

地图是用来记录和系统化数据、生成和检验关于现象和过程的假设的有力工具。地图是一系列科学的核心，包括地理学、地质学、流行病学、公共卫生、人类学、生态学和区域规划。它们用于支持地球内外的探索;它们用于课堂和日常生活。但这两个轶事（“我看不懂地图！“）和科学研究（例如，参见2006年美国国家科学院的报告《空间思维》（Thinking Spatially）表明，并非所有人都能成功地理解和使用地图。发展心理学的研究表明，许多儿童和成人对地图和地图功能的看法非常有限（例如，认为它们专门用于寻路），难以理解地图中包含的空间信息如何与真实的世界相联系（例如，误解比例），并且可能难以解释地图的象征意义（例如，错误地认为红线代表红色道路）。一个潜在的重要途径，儿童可能会发展他们的地图理解是通过父母的指导下，在非正式的学习环境。本研究项目探讨了鼓励儿童在非正式学习环境中发展与地图有关的技能的过程。具体来说，这项研究将在印第安纳波利斯儿童博物馆进行。 儿童博物馆开发了一个新的展览，地图：探险工具。该展览旨在向参观者介绍各种地图类型、地图技能、地图用途和与地图有关的探索。在这项研究中，将邀请有6至12岁儿童的家庭（N=80）成为“展览探索者”。“从家庭收集人口信息后，家庭成员将完成入学评估，衡量空间技能、地图经验和地图概念。当参与者退出时，他们将完成地图定位任务并重复地图概念任务。而在展览本身，家庭将在五个具体的展览，涵盖各种实质性的主题录像。数据将允许定性描述的教学和参与策略和定量分析的儿童的反应地图任务的父母的策略，性别，年龄和空间技能。本研究将有助于认知发展，家庭互动，以及儿童，父母和环境变量之间的相互作用的基础知识。此外，该项目还将确定一系列教学策略，这些策略以后可能适用于家长教育和正式课堂教学。这项工作对于地理教学很重要，并且可能对其他依赖空间分布数据表示的学科中的科学概念教学产生影响（例如，公共卫生、生态学）。最后，这项工作将有助于游客研究领域，为博物馆研究提供一种新的模式，在这种模式中，数据是在单个家庭单位内收集和协调的，并将协助博物馆馆长建立新的面向家庭的、方便使用的展览。

Maps are powerful tools used to record and to systematize data, to generate and test hypotheses about phenomena and processes. Maps are central to a wide range of sciences, including-among many others-geography, geology, epidemiology, public health, anthropology, ecology, and regional planning. They are used to support exploration both on and beyond Earth; they are used in classrooms and in daily life. But both anecdotes ("I can't read a map!") and scientific research (e.g., see 2006 National Academy of Sciences report, Thinking Spatially) shows that not all people succeed in understanding and using maps. Work in developmental psychology has shown that many children and adults have very restricted views of maps and map functions (e.g., thinking that they are used exclusively for wayfinding), have difficulty understanding how spatial information contained in maps is linked to the real world (e.g., misunderstanding scale), and may have difficulty in interpreting the symbolic meaning of maps (e.g., mistakenly assuming that a red line stands for a red road). One potentially important path by which children may develop their map understanding is through parental guidance in informal learning environments. This research project examines the processes by which children are encouraged to develop map-related skills in informal learning settings. Specifically, the research will take place at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The Children's Musuem has developed a new exhibition, MAPS: Tools for Adventure. The exhibition is designed to introduce visitors to varied map types, map skills, map uses, and map-related exploration. For this research, families (N=80) with children between ages of 6 to 12 years will be invited to be "Exhibition Explorers." After demographic information has been collected from families, family members will complete entry assessments that measure spatial skills, map experience, and map concepts. As participants exit, they will complete a map location task and repeat the map concept task. While in the exhibition itself, families will be videotaped at five specific exhibits which cover a variety of substantive topics. Data will allow qualitative descriptions of teaching and engagement strategies and quantitative analyses of children's responses to the map tasks in relation to parent strategies, gender, age, and spatial skills. This research will contribute to basic knowledge in cognitive-development, family interaction, and the interplay among child, parent, and contextual variables. In addition, the project will identify a range of teaching strategies that may later be adapted for programs in both parent education and formal classroom instruction. Such work is important for teaching geography and likely implications for teaching scientific concepts in other disciplines that rely on representations of spatially distributed data (e.g., public health, ecology). Finally, this work will contribute to the field of visitor studies by providing a new model for museum research in which data are collected and coordinated within single family units and will assist musuem directors interested in establishing new family-oriented, use-friendly exhibitions.