The Louisiana State Museum and Tulane University/Xavier University Center for Bioenvironmental Research and the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, along with several other research collaborators, designers, evaluators, and the Times-Picayune newspaper are partnering to develop a multi-pronged approach on educating the general public, school children, teachers and public officials on the STEM-related aspects of Hurricane Katrina and its implications for the future of New Orleans and other parts of the country. The major products will be an 8,500 square-foot semi-permanent exhibit, smaller exhibits for Louisiana regional libraries, a comprehensive Web site on hurricanes, a set of studies on informal learning, a case study for public officials about the relevance of science research to policy and planning, teacher workshops, and a workshop for interested exhibit designers from around the country. This project advances the field of informal science education by exploring how museums, universities, and their communities can work together to provide meaningful learning experiences on STEM topics that are critical to solving important community and national issues.

Project Report

The Louisiana State Museum (LSM) collaborated with the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO), the Tulane University/Xavier University Center for Bioenvironmental Research (CBR), and others to develop an interdisciplinary long-term interactive exhibition about the science and history of hurricanes and the consequences of Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans. The exhibition, Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, is accompanied by a substantive interactive web site, important visitor research, and education and outreach programs. The goal was to help the general public understand how and why the Hurricane Katrina disaster occurred, explore local and national issues the disaster raises, and encourage citizen participation in local and national decision-making. The project's centerpiece is the 6,700-square-foot exhibition Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, which opened in LSM’s historic Presbytere in New Orleans in October 2010. The total number of visitors through July 31, 2014, was 284,867; schoolchildren, teachers, and chaperones numbered 34,832. The exhibition will remain open to the public for several more years, and we anticipate renewed attention during August 2015 as the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the fiftieth anniversary of Hurricane Betsy approach. Public programming complements the exhibition’s themes. The Coastal Conversations series aims to draw new visitors to the exhibit and foster community discussion about hurricane preparedness and protection, coastal restoration, and related issues. Since its inception, the series has consisted on 19 panels or presentations on such topics as climate change and international deltas, regional watershed planning, levee improvements, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In 2013 and 2014, the museum sponsored free Hurricane Prepare Fairs, a one-day event for families featuring presentations and representatives from government agencies, nonprofits, and other organizations involved with hurricane preparedness and response and recovery resources. In 2009 the museum sponsored a K-12 teachers’ institute, which offered a preview of the exhibition and structured interactions with coastal scientists, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and emergency managers. Since the exhibit opening, school groups have benefited from a special teacher’s guide for the exhibit and guidance from museum educators. Tours for special visitors, including college-class visits from around the country as well as international disaster specialists, use Hurricane Katrina to examine the complexities of resilience, engineering failures and solutions, climate change, and environmental sustainability. Ten audience/visitor studies were conducted by People, Places and Design Research over a seven-year period, with a front-end study and storyline testing preceding the grant award. Those two studies as well as three formative evaluations informed the planning process. The remaining studies were conducted after the exhibition opened to investigate the experiences of visitors and community audience. Visitors reported learning a great deal about STEM topics during their visit. Three-quarters of the visitors interviewed said they understood something better having seen the exhibition, compared to what they understood before. About half of all visitors said the exhibition increased their interest in learning about the science of natural disasters. A post-visit study conducted with visitors from the greater New Orleans area and Gulf Coast states showed that people recalled their visit to the exhibit as emotionally powerful and as beneficial for them in their own lives. They were also more likely to better understand two out of three STEM topics they were asked about—wetlands and levee engineering. The summative and post-visit evaluations as well as an overview of the evaluation process are available at InformalScience.org. The issues raised in the evaluations formed the basis of a dissemination workshop that the museum and People, Places and Design Research sponsored for an experienced group of museum professionals from around the country. The website, Hurricanes: Science and Society (HSS, at www.hurricanescience.org), developed by our collaborative partners, the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, is a comprehensive, content-rich, multidisciplinary educational website. Since the launch of HSS in October 2010, the site has seen more than 1 million visits. Traffic to the site tends to be episodic with large traffic spikes when tropical cyclones threaten landfall in the U.S. In addition, there is higher traffic at the beginning of the fall semester and the end of the spring semester. Visitors to the site are primarily from the U.S. and Canada (74%) while Europe (11%) and Asia (6%) make up most of the rest of the traffic. The History section is the most popular (33% of visits), followed by the Science section (27%) and the Society section (17%).

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL)
Application #
0813558
Program Officer
Alphonse T. DeSena
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2008-08-15
Budget End
2014-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$1,478,320
Indirect Cost
Name
Louisiana Museum Foundation
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
New Orleans
State
LA
Country
United States
Zip Code
70116