PORT ANGELES — The executive director of the Feiro Marine Life Center will talk about the value of aquariums and other venues to lifelong learning about science Thursday.
Melissa Williams will be featured during Peninsula College’s free Studium Generale program at 12:35 p.m. in the Little Theater on the Port Angeles campus, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Her talk is titled “The Other 95 Percent: Learning Science in Out-of-School Time.”
‘Less attention’
“Although we make much of the classroom and its opportunity, or challenge, in preparing students for the future, we have paid somewhat less attention to the other places where people learn science throughout their lives,” Williams said.
“Aquariums, museums, television and YouTube are primary contributors to our scientific attitudes, skills and knowledge, and need to be considered as part of a ‘learning ecosystem,’” she added.
Williams, who began work at the nonprofit Feiro Marine Life Center on City Pier in May, was vice president of learning at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
A lifelong informal science education professional, Williams also has held positions at the University of Arizona’s Flandrau Science Center in Tucson and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
Her academic background includes an undergraduate degree in psychology from New College, Florida, focused on animal cognition and behavior, and a master’s degree in instructional leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Educational expertise
She co-edited the September 2013 issue of the Journal of Museum Education, focused on how to engage visitors in nonformal education spaces to actively contribute to a positive future, and was an invited speaker to the Bank Street College of Education Museum Leadership program.
For information on other upcoming events at Peninsula College, visit www.pencol.edu or www.facebook.com/PeninsulaCollege.
