Record Details
An exploration of visitors’ conservation attitudes, expectations, and motivations at three informal education institutions in Newport, Oregon
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | An exploration of visitors’ conservation attitudes, expectations, and motivations at three informal education institutions in Newport, Oregon |
| Names |
Nickels, Abby L.
(creator) Rowe, Shawn (advisor) |
| Date Issued | 2008-06-16 (iso8601) |
| Note | Graduation date: 2009 |
| Abstract | Due to the overwhelming concern for the current state of our oceans, The Pew Ocean Commission (2003) and the U.S. Commission on Ocean policy (2004), have both strongly recommended an increase in our society’s ocean literacy. An increase in ocean literacy can be achieved through informal education institutions such as zoos, aquarium and science centers. Informal science education institutions are places where visitors engage in free-choice learning on their own terms; having varying amounts of choice over when, how, and with whom they learn. In order to understand whether or not aquarium, zoos, and science centers have an impact on visitors in terms of learning researchers need to be able to document the learning that occurs there. The goal of this study was to explore some newly published tools for understanding what visitors bring with them when visiting informal education institutions. This study looked at visitor motivations, conservation attitudes, and perceptions of a visit to three informal education institutions in Newport, Oregon. It also investigated the effectiveness of using these newly published tools outside of the realm from which they were created. Results of the three administered surveys at each institution revealed that the motivations of visitors to informal education institutions change seasonally. In addition visitor’s conservation attitudes significantly increased from pre to post visit. The findings also revealed that the motivations tool, which was created specifically to measure visitor motivations in zoo and aquariums, was able to successfully measure visitor motivations in such places as a science center and boat excursion company. |
| Genre | Thesis |
| Topic | informal education |
| Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/9100 |
