Elizabeth (Elee) Wood
Assistant Professor and Public ScholarMuseum Studies
Teacher Education
Center for Urban and Multicultural Education (CUME)
Urban Center for STEM Education (UCASE)
ude[dot]iupui[at]doowjle
Family Learning in Museums and Schools
Building on my work as public scholar of museums, families and learning, I am currently working on a variety of projects using family learning research in museums. These include a service learning project with graduate students in MSTD 518 Museums and Audiences in the Spring of 2006. My students and I worked with the IMA family programs staff to research, design, and develop evaluation plans for IMA programs. In my work with The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, I am currently working on a research agenda that will examine the role of field trip chaperones. Using the results of the research, I will help the museum redesign their field trip materials and suggest better ways to engaged and involve chaperones in the museum experience. A third aspect of this broad category of research is to translate key ideas of family learning in museum settings for the benefit of elementary school educators. Using my work from the children's museum family learning initiative, I have been developing a series of materials for use in teaching, and articles for the education field to help promote better use of museums for learning activities.