Promoting wildlife education through exhibits

Abstract

This study measured the educational value of exhibitry as a method of transferring wildlife information to high school students. Two schools with similar student body profiles were selected and randomly assigned control and experimental group statuses. Pretests measured students' identification and natural history knowledge of 16 mammals. Eight animals were exhibited as a consequence of having low-knowledge scores among students. ANOVA comparisons were conducted among three groups: control (N = 203), experimental viewers (N = 172), and experimental nonviewers (N = 96) of the exhibit. Test results indicated that the passive exhibitry technique produced significant increases in the wildlife knowledge of students who viewed the exhibit. However, no significant change was detected in the test scores of the control group and those experimental students who did not view the exhibit. Several recommendations are provided on classroom teacher opportunities to promote wildlife education through in-school exhibits developed in cooperation with wildlife-related agencies.