[[alternative]]A study of the effectiveness of exhibits in the nature center---Gandau Nature Park

[[abstract]]The purpose of this research is to evaluate the exhibitions in the nature center, with methods such as examination of the scene, data collecting, questionnaires, and observation and recording of visitor behavior, in order to find out how exhibitions in the nature center influence visitors, in terms of such aspects as awareness, knowledge, attitude, interest and learning emphasized in the objectives of environmental education, and the possible causes of such influences. The research also aims to provide the behavioral characteristics of visitors who use the exhibition facilities in the nature center, and their ideas and suggestions after using the facilities, which can be referred to when the nature center organize future exhibitions. After analyzing the data, the following results are found: 1.exhibition, evaluation, and influences: a.The constant exhibitions in the nature center do not show a satisfactory result in terms of the effectiveness of conveying exhibition content messages. b.Visitors’ three visiting experience contexts---personal, societal, and environmental---all have influence on the exhibitions’ effectiveness of conveying exhibition content messages. c.The exhibitions in the nature center are more likely to enable visitors to appreciate the beauty of wetlands, and more unlikely to make them understand the importance of wetlands and its relationship with human beings. d.How much visitors learn from the exhibitions on the levels of awareness, knowledge, and attitude, largely depends on the environment context among the three visiting experience contexts. e.The exhibitions do not have too much impact on visitors’ environmental attitudes. f.Real objects, models, mimic situations, and dynamic media attract more attention from visitors than static pictures and words. 2.visitor characteristics and feedback: a.Visitors are mostly middle class young families with high education level from Taipei. b.Generally visitors come to the nature center for nature, recreation, and learning. They are especially interested in birds, and they often read information on environmental education. c.Among all visitors, lovers and friends are more willing to spend time viewing the exhibits, and they spend more time on the second floor than on the first. d.Generally, visitors prefer visual and dynamic presentations. e.Exhibitions that attract more visitors have the following successful qualities: ‘subject related to everyday life,’ ‘messages conveyed quickly,’ ‘sense of involvement,’ ‘visual attraction,’ ‘live plants and animals,’ ‘containing comprehensible objects and (or) samples,’ and ‘being educational.’ f.Organizers must increase the variety, vividness and interaction of the exhibits. Also, they must be aware of the different learning conditions of visitors of all ages, and enhance the quality and quantity of explanations. Suggestions that come from research results are as follows: 1.suggestions for research conclusions: a.The needs of visitors of a younger age and those of foreign and handicapped visitors should be taken into consideration. b.Organizers should increase educational interpretations, and adjust the proportions of environmental education objectives. c.Organizers should improve explanatory documents related to the exhibition of ‘the Telecope and the French Window Wetland Scene,’ which can be accompanied by better interpretation service and agendas on environmental education activities. d.When organizers renew or improve exhibitions in the future, they can increase the variety, dynamics, and interaction of exhibitions and the use of real objects. e.Organizers must also consider visitors’ societal and environmental contexts in their visiting experiences, in order to improve the effectiveness of visitors learning from the exhibition content messages. f.The environmental context, among all three visiting experience contexts, must be focused upon and intensified, in order to enhance visitors’ learning from the contents of wetland environmental education. 2.suggestions for further research: a.profound evaluation of individual exhibitions b.research of basic qualities of different visitors c.research of exhibition content framework of wetland environmental education d.role orientation and display features of exhibitions