| Summary: | Educators in zoo sand a quaria today present general information in an attempt to
educate visitors about animals and conservation issues. This presentation of
biological information is isolated from the any observable animal activity in the exhibit.
The Vancouver Aquarium has a different approach to visitor learning. This thesis
examines one of its innovative approaches to visitor education designed to initiate
visitor involvement with animals in the exhibits. This innovative approach uses
changeable , handwritten whiteboards to highlight new animal events in the
Vancouver Aquarium. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to investigate
the effect of these whiteboards on the behaviour of groups of visitors at an exhibit
through observations and short group interviews. Sixty-two percent of the visitors
observed in the study used the whiteboard. The average time whiteboard users spent
viewing the exhibit (57.06 seconds) was significantly greater (t = 36.65, df = 129, p <
0.001) than the time non-whiteboard users spent viewing the exhibit (25.94 seconds).
Whiteboard users also exhibited a significantly higher level of interactivity (the number
of behaviours , pointing, peering , conversing and rereading the whiteboard an
individual demonstrates while at an exhibit) than the non-whiteboard users (X2 =
237.16, p < 0.01). Interview comments revealed that whiteboard users understood the
Vancouver Aquarium's intent to convey real, relevant, current and changing
information about animals within the exhibits using whiteboards. === Education, Faculty of === Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of === Graduate
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