Field Trip - Stephanie

Location: Santa Barbara Natural History Museum Sea Center

Most of the exhibits at the sea center are either non-interactive or require a staff member to be present. This makes sense because they are mostly live animals… Of course, I loved the touch tank, specifically the sea anemone! With the sea anemone, the facilitator made sure to tell everyone that the center is the stomach and mouth and to only touch the tentacles otherwise we could hurt the animal. I thought this was a great learning opportunity for little ones in sensitivity to animals as well as how different anatomy can be between animals! This exhibit (along with the rest of the touch tanks) can have as much or as little stay time as the guests want so I think the depth of learning depends on how much they want to learn.

The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable which I found very welcoming. I was able to ask questions about things I only have surface knowledge of and get simple and concise information in response. In some instances, the staff would start giving information as soon as I walked up which, while helpful, felt a little abrupt. Personally, as a guest, I prefer to approach the staff about content/information. On the other hand, at one exhibit (which was very similar to our program carts!) I was prompted to pick a marine mammal from a picture and then the tablet played the animal sounds. In this situation, being approached provided me with an experience I otherwise would not have had.

The main difference I noticed between the sea center and MOXI is that the staff at the sea center have specific stations where they are handling very specific content. Each staff member is in their one area and generally did not leave that area. Within their area, when guests arrived, they immediately started to interact. Rather than simply facilitating learning with open ended questioning like we do at MOXI, I felt like each station was a mini lecture and I was being taught in a more traditional way. 

All-in-all it was an interesting experience! I have been to the sea center many times in the past, but I felt like I was looking at it through different lenses. Having read the prompts ahead of time and worked at MOXI all summer, I noticed things I would not have noticed previously, similar to the robber and home-buyer activity we did in class.