The Status of Science Teaching Facilities in Iowa Museums

Only a very few of Iowa\u27s museums offer valuable resources for science teaching. Of the museums recognized in this survey as having a high degree of value in terms of science education, the scope of their potential use as teaching aids is limited to the natural sciences embracing such subjects as geology, astronomy, biology, zoology and the field of anthropology. No Iowa museum reviewed in this survey seems to be of any notable value in the teaching of the hard sciences such as chemistry or physics, i.e., there are virtually no permanent or semi-permanent science and industry type exhibits in Iowa museums. Despite this, concerning the teaching of many of the natural sciences, a number of Iowa museums constitute gigantic and costly visual aids. Five of these institutions alone cost a total of over five hundred thousand dollars a year to operate and maintain. As educational devices they are taken very little advantage of by the schools. To date, Iowa museums are practically uniform in their lack of coordination with the schools. To realize the potential value of these museums, the schools should attempt to integrate museum exhibits into the class curriculum, and make provision for trained museum teachers to interpret exhibits