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A three-year nationwide study found that a visit to a zoo or aquarium in North America had a measurable impact on the conservation attitudes and understanding of adult visitors. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (DRL-0205843) and developed through partnerships with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, provides additional evidence for a growing body of research that shows that informal science education experiences support the public’s science understanding and, at least in the case of zoos and aquariums, enhance the public’s appreciation for and commitment to animal conservation.

Based on several phases of data collection, including questionnaires, interviews, and follow-up interviews as much as a year later, ILI found that visitors arrive with prior knowledge, experience, interest, and motivations for their visit and that these factors influence their learning. Overall results, which include data collected from more than 5,500 visitors at 12 AZA-accredited institutions, showed that:

• A majority of visitors (55%) arrived at zoos and aquariums with specific, measurable identity-related motivations. These motivations directly impacted how visitors conducted their visits and what meaning they made from the experience.
• Overall, visitors brought with them higher-than-expected knowledge about basic ecological concepts. Some groups of visitors showed significant changes in their conservation-related knowledge. However, because of the higher-than-expected entering knowledge of most visitors, many did not show significant changes in predefined, key areas of conservation-related knowledge.
• Most visitors (61%) found that their zoo and aquarium experience supported and reinforced their values and attitudes toward conservation.
• Visits to accredited zoos and aquariums prompted many individuals (54%) to reconsider their role in environmental problems and conservation action, and to see themselves as part of the solution.
• Roughly half (42%) of all visitors believed that zoos and aquariums play an important role in conservation education and animal care.
• A majority (57%) of visitors said that their experience at a zoo or aquarium strengthened their connection to nature.
• Nearly a year after their zoo or aquarium visit, virtually all participants surveyed (87%) could talk about their visit and remember a number of details about the experience. Despite there being no change in short-term conservation knowledge, over half of visitors (61%) could talk about what they learned—either prior understandings that were reinforced or new knowledge that was gained—from their zoo or aquarium visit.

There are a number of take-home messages from this study. The list included here provides findings and implications that address: a) visitor learning, b) feelings about conservation, and c) motivations to attend zoos and aquariums.

What do visitors learn?

Finding: Visitors already know a lot about basic biological concepts.

Implications: Zoos and aquariums should spend more time on specific conservation and natural history messages. Most visitors are ready to be more engaged in advocacy efforts.

How do visitors feel about conservation?

Finding: A visit increases visitors’ feelings that they are part of conservation. They leave with a stronger idea of their role in environmental problems: “I’m the solution.” The largest gains in the questionnaire items were related to individual action: “There’s a lot I can do for conservation.”

Implications: Zoos and aquariums should continue to emphasize conservation action in educational programming and exhibitions at zoos and aquariums. Visitors want to be involved in conservation; they look to these institutions to find out how.

Finding: Zoos and aquariums convey to visitors that they, as institutions, care about animals.

Implication: Zoos and aquariums should continue to explain animal welfare standards and demonstrate how they care for animals in captivity and in the wild.

Finding: Visitors may see their visit as a nature experience; zoos and aquariums can successfully encourage visitors to explore and value nature.

Implication: Other research has shown that spending time in nature is critical for the development of an environmental ethic and in promoting healthy children. For urban dwellers, zoos and aquariums may be their best “nature experience”—a strong marketing point.

Why do visitors visit?

Finding: Most visitors come for multiple reasons, but the majority of visitors have a single dominant identity-related motivation. Specifically, we found that categorizing visitors by their identity-related visit-motivations provided the best way to understand what they did during their visit as well as the short- and long-term meanings visitors made from their experience.

Implications: Zoos and aquariums should offer multiple layers of experiences to appeal to the broad array of visitor motivations, goals, and learning outcomes. They should design experiences for each of the five identity-related motivation categories identified by Falk (2006) in order to match visitors’ desired outcomes more effectively:

• Facilitators desire a social experience aimed at the satisfaction of someone else. Zoos and aquariums need to offer them opportunities for social interaction at exhibits and during programs, such as opportunities to talk with staff, and to provide places for regrouping and processing their visit. Zoos and aquariums also need to ensure that parents, in particular, have the tools to support their children’s learning.
• Explorers, those who visit based on personal interest, are one of the two groups who showed neither significant changes in cognition nor in affect. An Explorer’s satisfaction with a visit is tied to the quality of the learning experience, including the ability to see animals and interpretation. Zoos and aquariums need to provide Explorers with new or surprising offerings, such as temporary exhibits or in-depth programs, and create more challenging experiences than seem to exist currently in some zoos and aquariums.
• Experience Seekers either visit as tourists or value the zoo or aquarium as part of the community. A unique program or offering that surpasses other local attractions will draw these kinds of visitors. Experience Seekers possess the least knowledge and the lowest expectations for their visit. Although they represented a small number of visitors in the study sample (roughly 8%), this was the only identity-related motivation category that showed significant positive change both in cognition and in affect based on their visit.
• Professionals/Hobbyists feel a close tie between the institution’s content and their professional or hobbyist passions. They are a small group (roughly 10%) of zoo and aquarium visitors. They are likely interested in premium programs—photo tours, dive trips, how-to workshops, and theme nights. They are also a great source of volunteers, members, and donors.
• Spiritual Pilgrims are the smallest group overall (4%). They have very different needs from the other groups of visitors: Spiritual Pilgrims go to zoos and aquariums for reflective purposes—to get away from the hubbub of the city or to enjoy the peacefulness of the setting. They tend to be more common in aquariums. Like Professional/Hobbyists, Spiritual Pilgrims represent a great source of volunteers, members, and donors. As such, zoos and aquariums need to balance the needs of Spiritual Pilgrims with those of other visitors, e.g., the very social Facilitators. To do so, zoos and aquariums could create areas for reflection and offer programs at quieter times of the day or year.

Next Steps

As a follow up to this study, AZA plans to offer visitor studies workshops at their regional and national meetings. These workshops will focus on using the instruments from this study to conduct additional investigations at zoos and aquariums. Look for more information on the AZA website in the upcoming months.

References

Falk, J. H. (2006). The impact of visit motivation on learning: Using identity as a construct to understand the visitor experience. Curator, 49(2), 151–166.

The full study, Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter: Assessing the Impact of a Visit to a Zoo or Aquarium by John Falk, Eric Reinhard, Cynthia Vernon, Kerry Bronnenkant, Nora Deans, and Joe Heimlich, is available for download. For additional information contact Dr. John Falk, Oregon State University, falkj@science.oregonstate.edu.

John Falk is a Co-PI of CAISE and a member of the faculty in Oregon State University’s Department of Science and Mathematics Education.

“Impact Sightings” is an ongoing series in briefCAISE that is designed to support the ISE community by disseminating evidence—research, case studies, evaluation, and anecdotes—about the impact ISE is having on individuals, communities, and/or society. Please consider contributing to this series by contacting emccallie@caise.insci.org.