Jennifer Taylor. 2006.

Effectiveness of Hands-On Learning in a Children’s Interpretive Program.

The use of hands-on activities is commonly believed to be among the best ways to teach children about their environment. However, research supporting this belief has never been conducted in the field of interpretation. This study assessed the effectiveness of a hands-on activity at changing knowledge and attitudes of children participating in a school-based interpretive program. The experiment revealed that the program with a hands-on activity did not increase knowledge significantly more than the same program without the hands-on activity. However, a significant change in attitudes was found among children participating in the hands-on program. Children participating in the hands-on program were also more likely to correctly state the theme of the program as the main message than children participating in the control group. These findings support the conclusions that hands-on learning affects attitudes more than knowledge, and that a hands-on activity inspires a deeper level of understanding in children.