MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY - CHILD OBSERVATION**

The first thing that I noticed when I walked into the Museum of Natural History on a weekday afternoon, was that the whole building felt like it was filled with young students. The younger the students are the more close the group is in physical proximity. The youngest children have partners with whom they hold hands with while walking in a line, usually guided by two or three adults, one in the back and one in the front. The older elementary school children still form a double line, walking around the museum, but it seems a little looser. A few girls stopped to look at some animals as one said, "Eww! It looks real!" and then an adult in the back of the line reminded them they needed to keep moving. The teenagers seem to form their own smaller and are even more loosely organized. They're conversations are louder and there were even a few girls skipping in a line through the photography exhibit depicting Aztec culture in Peru. The adults that escort the older students are not always easily found.

The youngest children seemed to be most easily amused and the older children seemed to notice that some things caught there attention more than others. All the students seemed happy to be there and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I observed the children in the photography exibit as well as in various animal exhibits. There was a group of children waiting to see the butterfly exhibit, but I did not go inside.

There were almost no groups of children going to the Silk Road exhibit. This exhibit told the story of the history of silk and showed how it is made. There were even live silkworms on display. A group of girls with burkas escorted by a few adults were outside this exhibit, but none inside. Inside I was able to observe three girls with their mother. They were of different ages ranging from about 5 or 6 to about 13 or 14. They were all very interested to learn and read about the exhibition. They discussed what they saw as they walked through it and asked their mother questions. It seemed as thought the individual attention of the small group and the family connections inspired an interest to gain deeper knowledge of what they were looking at. It made me think of how important context is. I would love to have taken a group to visit this exhibit during a study on textile design and thought about ways to build up context and relate it to studio skills. I also thought about how important the relationship between people involved in studying is.