The Topical Museum of Natural History: A Walking Paper

Abstract As museums enter a new century, they are challenged to demonstrate their relevance to society. Increasingly, institutions have recognized that in order to thrive, they must ensure that mission‐related activities—exhibits and programs, collections and research—are meaningful to the public they rely on for support. Numerous deeply‐ingrained habits of practice and of thought have prevented object‐based exhibits from responding effectively to visitor interests. For museums to be truly relevant to their audiences, this paper argues for a fundamental shift in how they think about and organize exhibits. Exhibits need to become more topical and issue‐oriented, rather than generalized and systematic. Furthermore, a successful topical exhibit program needs to operate on two separate, yet integrated, levels: long‐term exhibits providing context on broadly relevant, interdisciplinary themes shorter‐term exhibits on specific, current issues embedded within the longterm exhibits, linking that broad content to visitors' lives Beyond the crucial role of increasing the museum's relevance to its audience, such an exhibits program would have numerous ancillary benefits, including more evenly distributed costs, greater creativity, lessened job burnout, and new funding opportunities. Though specifically addressing natural history museums, aspects of this paper should be relevant to museums of all kinds.     

Developmental assessment: lifting literacy through professional learning teams

Outcomes and findings from an evidence‐based approach to targeting primary school students’ developmental reading comprehension levels for effective learning are described. Nineteen schools participated in a literacy assessment project designed to monitor and improve the reading comprehension achievement levels of their students. The project integrated a developmental approach to learning and teaching, information derived from standardised reading comprehension assessments, and professional development for teachers. Reading comprehension achievement across the schools increased at a higher rate than typically expected. Teacher discourse about teaching and learning changed from discrete skill and resource focused, to developmentally focused. The centrality of a professional learning team approach to change for the student, teacher and school is discussed.     

From the science of science to Scientometrics visualizing the history of science with HistCite software

While ISSI was founded in 1993, Scientometrics and Bibliometrics are now at least half a century old. Indeed, the field can be traced to early quantitative studies in the early 20th century. In the 1930s, it evolved to the “science of science.” The publication of J.D. Bernal's Social Function of Science in 1939 was a key transition point but the field lay dormant until after World War II, when D.J.D. Price's books Science Since Babylon and Little Science, Big Science were published in 1961 and 1963. His role as the “Father of Scientometrics” is clearly evident by using the HistCite software to visualize his impact as well as the subsequent impact of the journal Scientometrics on the growth of the field. Scientometrics owes its name to V.V. Nalimov, the author of Naukometriya, and to Tibor Braun who adapted the neologism for the journal. The primordial paper on citation indexing by Garfield which appeared in Science 1955 became a bridge between Bernal and Price. The timeline for the evolution of Scientometrics is demonstrated by a HistCite tabulation of the ranked citation index of the 100,000 references cited in the 3000 papers citing Price.     

Cross-cultural homestays: An analysis of college students' responses after living in an unfamiliar culture

The purpose of the present exploratory study was to Jnvestigate the effects of the Johnston College cross-cultural homestay program upon student attitudes and health. During the four years of the program. 59 students lived fora period of one month in unfamiliar cultures in the Southwest and Mexico. Subjects for this study were 45 undergraduate students with a median age of 19 who came from relatively affluent family backgrounds. A one-group protest, posttest design was used employing five instruments. Participating students resembled, in most respects, other Johnston College students. It was concluded that the experience was more unsettling for the men students than it was for the women students. Future research was recommended to determine the extent to which there are sex differences in cross-cultural adaption.     

NAGPRA: Effective Repatriation Programs and Cultural Change in Museums

A survey of museums in the United States sought to identify evidence of broad impact on the organisational culture and practices of museums in their relatioships with indiginous peoples as a result of the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 1990 (NAGPRA). NAGPRA establishes a process for the repatriation of human remains and other specified items held in museum collections to Native Americans who can prove they are lineal descendants or members of tribes which are culturally affiliated with identified items covered by the legislation. Effective repatriation programs are characterised by: * a genuine belief in the primary rights of indigenous people in the management of their cultural material presently held in museum collections; * a commitment to greater collaboration between the museum and indigenous people in the management of scientific research and public programs pertaining to items of indigenous cultural heritage; * practices which are indicative of an organisational culture which acts in ways which go beyond the minimum requirements of the legislation. Our research shows that museums are engaging in consultation with indigenous people in the management of collections of indigenous cultural heritage, and that this engagement is influencing conservation strategies. Museums espouse goals which promote external consultation, the involvement of indigenous people in their activities, respect for the cultural goals of indigenous people and a commitment to increasing public awareness of indigenous cultural heritage and social issues. However, only in the areas where NAGPRA has mandated it should happen—collections of human remains and secret/sacred material—is there evidence of communication and consultation, commitment of resources and sharing of authority with indigenous people consistent with the outcomes intended under NAGPRA.     

Experiential archaeology: Is virtual time travel possible?

Advances in computing hardware coupled with its software counterparts have, for the past decades, influenced to a greater extent both the workflow of archaeologists and their interpretation of archaeological data. On the leisurely periphery, the synergy that arises between entertainment demands and commercial driven developments of interactive 3D (i3D) computer games has pushed these technologies beyond the expectations of the Virtual Reality (VR) community. This phenomenal growth in useable technology and its proportionate decrease in price have benefited the applicability of VR which in turn, have made it more accessible for researchers wishing to harness its benefits. The last 10 years have seen a steady increase in the use of VR technology to restore, preserve, reconstruct, recreate, and visualise ancient sites, monuments and artefacts. But, is technology ready for virtual time travel (VTT)? This article examines the possibility of experiential archaeology in voltage and silicon with the aim of formulating a strategy for VTT.     

Influence of cold-water immersion on indices of muscle damage following prolonged intermittent shuttle running

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of cold-water immersion (cryotherapy) on indices of muscle damage following a bout of prolonged intermittent exercise. Twenty males (mean age 22.3 years, s = 3.3; height 1.80 m, s = 0.05; body mass 83.7 kg, s = 11.9) completed a 90-min intermittent shuttle run previously shown to result in marked muscle damage and soreness. After exercise, participants were randomly assigned to either 10 min cold-water immersion (mean 10 degrees C, s = 0.5) or a non-immersion control group. Ratings of perceived soreness, changes in muscular function and efflux of intracellular proteins were monitored before exercise, during treatment, and at regular intervals up to 7 days post-exercise. Exercise resulted in severe muscle soreness, temporary muscular dysfunction, and elevated serum markers of muscle damage, all peaking within 48 h after exercise. Cryotherapy administered immediately after exercise reduced muscle soreness at 1, 24, and 48 h (P < 0.05). Decrements in isometric maximal voluntary contraction of the knee flexors were reduced after cryotherapy treatment at 24 (mean 12%, s(x) = 4) and 48 h (mean 3%, s(x) = 3) compared with the control group (mean 21%, s(x) = 5 and mean 14%, s(x) = 5 respectively; P < 0.05). Exercise-induced increases in serum myoglobin concentration and creatine kinase activity peaked at 1 and 24 h, respectively (P < 0.05). Cryotherapy had no effect on the creatine kinase response, but reduced myoglobin 1 h after exercise (P < 0.05). The results suggest that cold-water immersion immediately after prolonged intermittent shuttle running reduces some indices of exercise-induced muscle damage.     

The prediction of drought: a meteorological perspective

Prospects for drought prediction up to a few seasons in advance seem a bit brighter than a decade ago. This is due in part to advances in the numerical modelling of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface system, and is particularly true for the tropics, where a better understanding of the relationship between sea surface temperature anomalies and interannual climate variability has emerged. On longer time-scales, efforts to predict runs of predominantly dry years or multi-year trends in precipitation will continue to be hazardous and highly controversial until the controlling processes are better understood.