Touch Tank Scientists: Diving Deeper with Inquiry

As marine science educators, we know the value of inspiring, connecting, and using inquiry to drive and deepen a visitor’s learning. Conversations like the one above, peppered with wonder questions and scientific inquiry practices and skills, represent the new norm at this touch tank. Its evolution from a platform that excites, inspires, and informs, to one that promotes scientific inquiry and self-paced discovery required in-house assessment, iterative design, and an innovative and comprehensive approach to exhibit planning. The practices of thoughtful exhibit assessment, design, and interpretation can be applied at other institutions and learning environments to facilitate fun, novel hands-on inquiry investigations, and discussions. INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION CENTERS AND THE STEM ECOSYSTEM STEM Ecosystem is a phrase that has been gaining in popularity (Traphagen and Traill 2014; Falk et al. 2016; Tapprich et al. 2016), but what does it really mean and what is its value in practice? One may consider this concept as the combined relational effects of informal learning environments, classrooms, and home efforts working together to provide a range of experiences that help develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Ideally these efforts coalesce to build a student’s confidence practicing and understanding STEM (Raju and Clayson 2010). A national urgency to improve STEM skills and practices illuminates the need for a varied and robust STEM Ecosystem to support and strengthen