Peer-reviewed article
HANDS-ON AND MINDS-ON LEARNING OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN ZOOLOGY MUSEUM
Geetanjali Nagaraj, Mrs. AISHA SULTANA, A. SUKUMAR ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how 4th class students learned during a guided visit to a Zoology museum in India. Students observed animal specimens, submitted written reports, and completed a test one week later. Children showed enthusiasm and actively engaged with exhibits through touch and questioning, developing understanding of adaptation and structure-function relationships. Girls and boys showed similar average test performance despite slightly different score ranges.
Key points
- Children were highly enthusiastic and actively participated through touching, holding specimens, and asking questions
- Boys' average test score was 8.25 (range 6-10) and girls' was 6.73 (range 3-9), with no significant difference (t = 0.047)
- Kinesthetic learning experiences developed multiple skills and motivated active participation in learning processes
- Students understood concepts of adaptation and structure-function relationships but struggled to comprehend biodiversity
- Museum visits can help popularize science and bridge school and community engagement
Limitations
The study measures immediate learning outcomes one week after the visit but does not track retention over time. Without a comparison group that did not visit the museum, we cannot determine whether observed learning gains were caused by the museum visit or would have occurred through standard classroom teaching.
Abstract
Abstract: Present study aimed to find out the IVth class students’ learning experience and achievement levels after they visited a Zoology museum. The students were guided to observe museum exhibits with explanation. Every student submitted a museum visit report and attended a posttest after a week time. Their reports and posttest marks were analyzed and results were discussed. It is observed that the children were much enthusiastic on seeing varieties of animals in one place, posed many questions and actively involved in touching and holding the specimens (birds, starfish, etc.). Further, achievement test score of girls ranged from 3 to 9 with the average value of 6.73 and that of boys from 6 to 10 with average of 8.25, but their averages were not significantly different (t = 0.047).The kinesthetic learning experiences were found associated with developing many skills and motivating them to participate actively in various learning processes and accomplish better learning outcomes. They understood the concepts of adaptation, structure and function relation. Though they expressed concern and kindness towards animals, they could not comprehend ‘biodiversity’. In addition, museum visit can help in popularizing science and bridging the school and community. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that museum visit may be considered as an essential part of beyond school activity for hands-on and minds-on learning. Keywords: Kinesthetic learning, active participation, science popularization, animal museum visit. Title: HANDS-ON AND MINDS-ON LEARNING OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN ZOOLOGY MUSEUM Author: Dr. G. NAGARAJ, Mrs. AISHA SULTANA, Dr. A. SUKUMAR International Journal of Recent Research in Life Sciences (IJRRLS) ISSN 2349-7823 Vol. 9, Issue 2, April 2022 - June 2022 Page No: 28-34 Paper Publications Website: www.paperpublications.org Published date: 03-May-2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6514827 Paper download link (Source): https://www.paperpublications.org/upload/book/HANDS-ON%20AND%20MINDS-03052022-4.pdf
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Guided visit to Zoology museum with explanation of exhibits, followed by written museum visit report submission and posttest assessment
- Population
- 4th class school students in India (gender-mixed group)
Key finding
Children demonstrated high enthusiasm and active engagement with specimens through tactile interaction
Nagaraj et al. · OpenAlex · 3 May 2022