Peer Review

Peabody Museum of Natural History

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jan 27, 2017 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: The Yale Peabody Museum houses more than 11 million specimens and objects in anthropology, botany, zoology, paleontology, entomology, ornithology, and historical scientific instruments in its collections. It is also home to Rudolph F. Zallingerï¿½s murals The Age of Reptiles and The Age of Mammals. Permanent exhibitions include the Hall of Minerals, Earth and Space, the Peabody Dioramas, and the Great Hall of Dinosaurs featuring skeletons from the Museumï¿½s paleontology collections. A number of online exhibits are available, including Chinaï¿½s Feathered Dinosaurs, and In Search of Giant Squid. Professional development is available through the Museum, as well as PDF versions of some curricula. Web pages for the various exhibits have information pages on individual species, collection artifacts, and history of the Museum, and there is a searchable online database for the Peabody collections.
Type of Material:: Collection
Recommended Uses:: This site can be used for browsing, investigating, research, and reference both in person and online. It could be used for in-class, individual work, homework, self-paced learning.
Technical Requirements:: Any device with Internet connection to access online collection materials. Devices to view/hear video and podcasts.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Beyond serving Yale University, the Peabody Museum of Natural History maintains is stewardship of the Museum’s rich collections, which provide a remarkable record of the history of the earth, its life, and its cultures. Conservation, augmentation and use of these collections become increasingly urgent as modern threats to the diversity of life and culture continue to intensify. There are actual and online exhibits to visit about cultural, scientific, and historical topics.
Target Student Population:: K-20 students and educators and the general public
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Basic computer skills for online collection access

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The Peabody Museum of Natural History site is organized and thorough providing for both visitors to the actual museum and those who visit online. The online exhibits offer images, well written content, virtual walking and driving tours (via maps and sequenced images), and specific images of the artifacts along with text. There are currently 34 online exhibits available for viewing. There is an Education tab on the Museum website as well with information supporting K-12 teachers, school visits, and programs for adults. Besides online exhibits, the site also has video and podcasts, a search for all the collections, blogs and other social media connections, and six online presentations exploring Connecticut. Teachers could use access to work to supplement school's/student's/ow personal collections to expand reading/viewing choices to integrate into introductions to topics of science, culture, and history.
Concerns:: None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The site has organized the learning content in a systematic and meaningful way for educators and learners. The information provided for educators visiting the actual museum or the online exhbits allows for advance planning and development of assignments, research, and investigations. The images, podcasts, video clips and exhibits found at this site be easily integrated into curriculum, especially in the areas of history and science. This material could be used to introduce topics, lessons, or units. Or, it could be used as educational content that students research, use, and explore to complete assigned tasks. Student teachers, especially in history and science, could make good use of this site in developing curriculum content.
Concerns:: Link for kids is currently under construction. (January 2017)

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: The site has a clean, organized, and intuitive layout for its extensive content. Tabs for finding what is needed are displayed at the top of the site pages. The layout allows a great deal of flexibility in how the site may be used by educators and learners. The use of color and images on the site is appealing and furthers the content to be discovered. The site makes good use of social media using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, tumblr, Pinterest, and foursquare. There is a search slot for the entire site found on every page.
Concerns:: None.

Other Issues and Comments:: Good resource to help with materials for teaching and/or learning about history, science, and cultures whether planning for actual site visit or using the online collections.
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