Science centers, museums, zoos, aquaria, botanic gardens - all centers for informally learning about the natural world around us - offer visitors exciting opportunities to explore scientific ideas and ways of thinking. With increasing pressure on institutional budgets, educators, researchers and funders alike are looking for evidence that visitors to these attractions are not just exploring these ideas and approaches, but are actively learning from them.

has been described as "changing through experience.... acquiring relatively permanent change in understanding, attitude, knowledge, information, ability and skill through experience" (Wittrock, 1977).

In order to better understand the nature of learning and begin to recognize it when it is happening, a recent study was undertaken at both Techniquest, in the UK, and Science North in Canada (The Science Center Learning Experience: A visitor-based approach, Chantal Barriault, research conducted in preparation for M.Sc. thesis, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff). This study investigated the behavior of visitors as they interacted with exhibits to determine if there were consistent patterns of behaviors that occur which indicate learning is taking place. The investigations were carried out through detailed observation and interviews.

What was discovered is that there seems to be eight discrete learning behaviors that occur as part of this interaction, and that these behaviors can be grouped into three categories that reflect increased interaction and depth of involvement.

1. Initiation behaviors:

1. Testing out the activity
2. Spending time watching others engaging in the activity
3. Information and assistance offered by staff or other visitors
   

Above all else, visitors need to "feel safe" about committing themselves to engagement with an activity, especially in a public setting. Initiation behaviors enable them to "test the waters" with minimum personal risk and can be seen as the first step in learning.


2. Transition behaviors:

1. Repeating the activity
2. Expressing positive emotional responses in reaction to engaging in the activity
   

Smiles and outbursts of enjoyment along with repetition indicate that a level of comfort has been achieved and that visitors are comfortable ... and even eager ... to engage themselves more thoroughly in the activity. Regardless of whether the activity is repeated in order to better understand it, to master the functions or to observe different outcomes, the net outcome is a more committed and motivated learning behavior.


3. Breakthrough behaviors:

1. Referring to past experiences while engaging in the activity
   
2. Seeking and sharing information
   
3. Engaged and involved: testing variables, making comparisons and using information gained from the activity
   

Each of these behaviors acknowledges the relevance of the activity, and the learning gained from the activity, to the individual's everyday life. A personal level of comfort has been established that encourages a free flow of ideas and exchanges, and enables real learning to occur.

The Learning Behaviors in the Nature Exchange
An analysis of the visitor experience in the Nature Exchange indicates that visitors rapidly pass through the first two behavior categories and that high levels of "Breakthrough Behaviors" occur on a regular basis.

• Visitors involved in trading commonly refer to past experiences when presenting an item for trade, either by mentioning where it had been found or how they discovered its identity. For example, children describing their items to the staff person explain it this way: "I found a beaver stick when we were camping in French River..." or "I found this in a raspberry patch near my house".
  
• Seeking and sharing information are behaviors that permeate the entire experience, both before and during the visit. Visitors seek information about their items for trade before coming to the Nature Exchange and are eager to share this information with the staff person. Information shared ranges from "this rock has a lot of colors" to "this is fluorite...when we scratch it with a metal nail, the hardness test says it's fluorite".
  
• Engaged and involved is exemplified most profoundly when visitors describe their items, discuss the observations of their item and draw conclusions about their item with the staff person. For example, a young boy pointed out beaver teeth marks on the stick he brought in, while another visitor, trading clam shells explains, "I know that starfish eat them and sea gulls too. They open them and eat them". The trading activity is very involved, lasting from five to forty minutes. This level of engagement and motivation indicates a rich learning experience about the natural items brought in by the traders and encourages a commitment to learning outside the science center and into the home environment.