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Tools, Frameworks, and Case Studies

Building Connections: Strategies to Address Rurality and Accessibility Challenges

Pages 288-303
Published online: 23 Sep 2015

Abstract

Operating a museum in a high poverty, underserved area creates many challenges related to accessibility, programming, and funding. Over the course of nearly a decade, the Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery (OVMoD) has identified several organizational practices that help mitigate these challenges. Located in the southeastern corner of Appalachian Ohio, the museum provides exploratory, multidisciplinary experiences for children, youth and families. Creating a multilayered approach with interdisciplinary exhibits that appeal to a broad range of ages and visitor interests helps to mitigate monetary constraints inherent in a small museum. Fostering collaborative relationships engages the community, which helps the museum be viewed as an educational resource and a valued site for service-learning and volunteer opportunities. Building these connections across the disciplines and throughout the community has enabled OVMoD to address many of the challenges of access and rurality. These foundational systems help OVMoD facilitate a sustainable model for future growth and are useful for museums in both rural and nonrural settings.

The Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery (OVMoD) is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven hands-on museum with a commitment to creating open-ended, multidisciplinary learning experiences for children, youth and their families in rural, southeastern Ohio. Over the course of nearly a decade, OVMoD has identified several organizational practices that help mitigate the challenges associated with operating a museum in a rural, underserved region. Foundational systems that build connections across the disciplines and throughout the community help OVMoD facilitate a sustainable model for future growth. The ideas presented in this case study describe a dynamic museum model that is useful for museum educators in both rural and nonrural settings.

The museum is uniquely positioned in the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in the rural southeastern corner of Ohio. An area known for its stunning physical beauty and natural resources, it is also recognized as the poorest region in the state, with over 20 percent of the region's residents living at or below the poverty line.11. U.S. Census Bureau, “State and County Quick Facts,” 2014, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39/39127.html.View all notes With the nearest discovery/science museums 70 miles away, OVMoD fills an educational void created by the region's multigenerational poverty and rural isolation. The museum is committed to providing hands-on exhibits, frequent live programming, and activities to complement and supplement state-based education standards. As a founding tenet, OVMoD pursues collaborative partnerships with local professionals and faculty from nearby Ohio University and Hocking College and creates a multilayered approach to exhibit design. All exhibits are interdisciplinary in nature and are designed to appeal to a wide age range. In this way, we strive to provide a needed educational resource for Athens, Southeastern Ohio, and the surrounding Appalachian region.

Currently, OVMoD has a working board of seven members, two senior staff members, and three assistant staff members, all of whom are part time. Despite an annual budget of under $50,000 and approximately 2,500 sq. ft. of public space, the museum has developed a sustainable model that continues to grow and expand in both educational programming and community outreach. The authors’ involvement with OVMoD began in 2005 after answering a community call to attend an organizational meeting for those interested in starting a local children's or science museum. Through a collaborative, grassroots effort to create an entity that provided educational content for a wider age range than a typical children's museum and a more interdisciplinary focus than a typical science museum, OVMoD was born. The museum's founders were motivated to provide an educational resource that was lacking in the underserved region. The museum strives to inspire children, youth, and families to explore and discover the world we live in through interactive exhibits and creative experiences.

Accessibility Challenges that Inform Practice, Programming, and Outreach Efforts

Due to its rural location and high levels of poverty in the region, OVMoD is impacted by accessibility challenges that inform OVMoD's operating practices, educational programming, and outreach efforts.

Rurality's Impact

Tom Gjelten, a rural settings educational researcher, identified five possible typologies that describe rural areas, two of which describe the region that OVMoD serves in southeastern Ohio. The first, “depressed rural,” describes communities in which the number of people leaving the area may be high and economic hardship is common; the second, “isolated rural,” describes places that are far from metropolitan areas and commonly have underdeveloped means of reaching them.22. Tom Gjelten, A Typology of Rural School Settings (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1982), 6.View all notes Though Ohio is the seventh most populous state in the nation, only 2 percent of its residents live in southeastern Ohio.33. U.S. Census Bureau, “State and County Quick Facts.”View all notes Approximately 30 percent of children in the region are food insecure, and nearly 18 percent do not finish high school.44. Kevin Pollard and Linda A. Jacobsen, The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2008–2012 American Community Survey (Washington, DC: Appalachian Regional Commission, 2014), http://www.arc.gov/assets/research_reports/DataOverviewfrom2008-2012ACS.pdf.View all notes Only 13.4 percent of the region's adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, as opposed to nearly 30 percent of those living in the nation's nonrural locations.55. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Educational Attainment in Rural America (Washington, DC: USDA Economic Research Service, 2012), http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/employment-education/rural-education.aspx; Pollard and Jacobsen, The Appalachian Region.View all notes These sobering statistics illuminate the need for OVMoD's existence, but also create considerable challenges in reaching the residents who would most benefit from increased educational opportunities.

Outsider Distrust

Despite improvements in transportation (and communication technologies) the geographic “friction of distance” is still an important factor in determining how far people will travel from home.66. Kajsa Ellegård and Bertil Vilhelmson, “Home as a Pocket of Local Order: Everyday Activities and the Friction of Distance,” Geografiska Annaler, Human Geography 4 (2004): 281–286.View all notes Not only do many of southeastern Ohio's rural residents rarely travel far from their home communities, creating the most basic of accessibility needs, the museum also struggles with a pervasive negative view of educational institutions. The economic depression experienced in rural Appalachia is frequently stereotyped in a way that portrays unflattering images of the region's people and culture.77. Esther E. Gottlieb, “Appalachian Self-Fashioning: Regional Identities and Cultural Models,” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 22, no. 3 (2001): 341–359.View all notes While wildly unfair, these negative stereotypes have a lasting effect on the identity of Appalachian inhabitants and natives. Given their perception of the rest of the world's view of them, the residents and teachers who work throughout rural Appalachia are often suspicious of outside agencies.88. Christopher Cooper, Gibbs Knotts, and Don Livingston, “Appalachian Identity and Policy Opinions,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 16, no. 1/2 (2010): 26–41; Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, and Ricky L. Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006); Kenna R. Seal and Hobart L. Harmon, “Realities of Rural School Reform,” Phi Delta Kappan 77, no. 2 (1995): 119.View all notes Historically, the perception was that outsiders came to Appalachia to make them more like the rest of the world, to improve them, which created resentment and mistrust.99. Cooper, Knotts, and Livingston, “Appalachian Identity”; Edwards, Asbury, and Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia.View all notes

Richard Sandell, a museum researcher, more specifically situated the phenomenon in relation to museums, calling it “social exclusion.” Described as a breakdown in the links between individuals and their connections to the community, state services, and institutions, social exclusion is also closely linked to poverty.1010. Richard Sandell, “Museums as Agents of Social Inclusion,” Museum Management & Curatorship 17, no. 4 (1998): 401–418.View all notes Although OVMoD's board is composed of both longtime, local residents and those new to the area, overcoming issues created by the Appalachian cultural view of outsiders and the theory of social exclusion present ongoing challenges for OVMoD. The museum regularly struggles to attract visitors from the region's most rural and impoverished areas, and scheduling field trips with teachers from these areas, who also often distrust outsiders, is a challenge.1111. Seal and Harmon, “Realities of Rural School Reform.”View all notes

University-Community Tension

Universities have the ability to make a positive impact on community endeavors, service-learning projects, and local nonprofits.1212. Elizabeth A. Mulroy, “University Civic Engagement with Community-Based Organizations: Dispersed or Coordinated Models?” Journal of Community Practice 12, no. 3/4 (2004): 35–52.View all notes Ohio University, located in the same small town as OVMoD, undeniably contributes positively in many economic ways to the region. However, the university sometimes makes decisions that are unpopular with local residents, such as the 2013 demolition of a historic community building located on university property.1313. Sara Brumfield, “Ridges TB Ward to be Razed Next Month Despite Historical Society Efforts to Save It,” The Athens Messenger, February 7, 2013, http://www.athensohiotoday.com/news/ridges-tb-ward-to-be-razed-next-month despite-historical/article_27bd8949-e3a6–5546-bd43-a4df9ecec78b.html.View all notes Byron White, a community engagement expert, documents the parity of power and privilege that a university holds over a community, noting that even in the best of circumstances, distrust is inevitable.1414. Byron P. White, “Power, Privilege, and the Public: The Dynamics of Community University Collaboration,” New Directions For Higher Education 152 (2010): 67–74.View all notes The distrust that local residents feel toward Ohio University creates a challenging situation for OVMoD. This distrust does not extend to local community colleges that are commuter-based (e.g., Hocking College). While collaborations with Ohio University are an extremely important component of OVMoD's success and are in part what allow the museum to deliver a unique museum model, making sure that the museum maintains its own identity is an important accessibility consideration.

Funding

With over 20 percent of southeastern Ohio's residents living at or below the poverty line and many more barely over, money for educational activities is scarce.1515. U.S. Census Bureau, “State and County Quick Facts.”View all notes Although the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the state's educational funding system was unconstitutional, property taxes continue to be a major source of school funding in Ohio.1616. DeRolph v. State, 91 Ohio St.3d 1274 (2001); Ohio Department of Education, “Overview of School Funding,” accessed November 25, 2014, http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/Overview-of-Funding.View all notes With a low property tax base, southeastern Ohio districts face financial limitations not experienced by larger, more affluent schools. OVMoD regularly hears that even though the museum is regionally accessible, schools are not able to pay for even a short bus ride. Charging admission fees in such an impoverished region also presents serious accessibility issues, as many families and school districts are unable to afford even a modest admission fee. Unsurprisingly, raising funds for exhibit development and operating costs is also difficult.

Recommendations for a Sustainable Educational Model

Despite the ongoing challenges that OVMoD faces, the museum has identified six operational practices that enable the museum to sustain educational programming and outreach efforts. These practices offer an inside view of what enables a rurally located discovery museum in a high poverty region to be sustainable. For the purposes of this conversation, we use the term “visitors” for simplicity's sake; however, we view each person who attends OVMoD as an active participant contributing to a collaborative learning experience analogous with twenty-first century recommended best museum practices.1717. IMLS Task Force, Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills (Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2009).View all notes

Find Creative Ways to Overcome Monetary Constraints

Essential to OVMoD's success is offering exhibits and programming that are of interest to the public while still being financially feasible. The interdisciplinary focus of the museum is a key component for sustainability in a rural area. A more narrow thematic focus to the museum, or a more focused target age-range would not be able to attract sufficient numbers of visitors in a sparsely populated rural area. This in turn would make it challenging for the museum to raise funds through admissions or even through fundraising since fewer people would be interested in the museum. The interdisciplinary nature of OVMoD serves to attract a larger age range than a typical children's museum and a broader range of interests than a typical science museum.

Careful choice of traveling exhibits, hand-built exhibits (figure 1) from professional exhibit design resources,1818. Raymond Bruman (vol. I) and Ron Hipschman (vols. II and III), The Exploratorium Cookbook: A Construction Manual for Exploratorium Exhibits (San Francisco: The Exploratorium, 1983).View all notes a reading area with relevant books from the local library, and/or centers with activities based on K-12 educational resources provide the framework of the exhibit space. The optimal choices are open-ended, investigative exhibits that foster creative exploration and can be experienced many times in different ways to engage repeat visitors. In a rural setting, fostering repeat visits is vital for financial sustainability. With a small population of prospective visitors, admissions income would not be a sustainable source of funding if visitors were not interested in coming back repeatedly over short time spans (weekly, monthly). In addition, the repeat visitors are vital advocates for the need and relevance of the museum, which helps in fundraising efforts. For each new exhibit installation, OVMoD reconfigures the entire exhibit space and/or repurposes exhibit items to complement the new exhibit theme. This episodic approach is essential to mitigate the museum's financial and space limitations, refresh the educational experience, and encourage visitors to return to the museum anew.

Figure 1. Young visitors experiment with a handmade Bernouli Cone, one of OVMoD's earliest exhibits.

Create a Multilayered Approach

Interweaving the arts and humanities with traditional STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) creates a STEAM (i.e., STEM + Arts/Humanities) educational approach that facilitates a holistic understanding of the world (figure 2).1919. Suzanne Bonamici and Aaron Schock, “STEAM on Capitol Hill,” The STEAM Journal 1, no. 2 (2014): 6.View all notes Complementing the exhibit with new demonstrations and other programming over the course of an exhibit installation helps OVMoD attract repeat visitors and can be tailored to attract an age range that might not be otherwise attracted to the exhibit alone. Illustrating this practice is OVMoD's fall 2014 exhibit installation, The Science of Music. The museum's youngest visitors enjoyed a musical petting zoo, music from around the world, and participating in musical theater, while older visitors also enjoyed exhibits and demonstrations about the physics of musical instruments and the artistry of making music. Engaging knowledgeable volunteer community professionals and educators for demonstrations has the added benefit of building connections throughout the region. This approach also enables the educational content of an exhibit to be delivered in an experiential manner rather than via signage.

The overall result is an interdisciplinary, immersive, exploratory experience for multi-age audiences delivered in a cost-effective manner, which recognizes that “audiences are not passive receivers of information but active creators of meaning.”2020. Sheila Grinell, A Place for Learning Science: Starting a Science Center and Keeping It Running (Washington, DC: Association of Science and Technology Centers Inc., 2003), 19.View all notes It is an experience that incorporates many aspects of the 21st Century Skills Framework recommended for museums and libraries.2121. IMLS Task Force, Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills.View all notes

Figure 2. A family collaborates on a STEAM exhibit.

Become an Agent of Social Inclusion

In order to mitigate social exclusion, museums must become agents of social inclusion. Museums have the ability to reintegrate citizens who feel excluded back into the community.2222. Sandell, “Museums as Agents of Social Inclusion.”View all notes In a region with well-documented distrust of institutions of learning, this theoretical ideology is at the heart of OVMoD's operational model.2323. Cooper, Knotts, and Livingston, “Appalachian Identity”; Edwards, Asbury, and Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia; Seal and Harmon, “Realities of Rural School Reform.”View all notes In order to bridge the gap caused by many accessibility challenges, the museum regularly reaches out in a variety of ways. As a rule, admission costs to the museum are low, with a special affordable rate for families of four or more. For at least one day per exhibit cycle, the museum offers free admission, which shows an increase in attendance by approximately 25 percent. The museum also works consistently to cultivate and maintain positive relationships with area schools and teachers. When monetary issues are a concern for schools, the museum provides reduced or waived admission fees. Providing free or reduced admission requires that OVMoD finds creative ways to make up the monetary loss. These include soliciting admission sponsorships from local businesses or individuals and pursuing mini-grants from local charitable organizations such as Rotary and Kiwanis. If a school cannot find the funding for buses, the museum's educators go on the road, utilizing a “Museum Without Walls” model. OVMoD takes programming to public libraries, local nonprofits, and summer programs throughout the region. Adopting this hands-on model of accessibility allows the museum to include additional visitors, many who have never visited a discovery museum and allows the museum to reach some of the most rural and impoverished parts of the region while being viewed as a member of the community instead of as an outsider.

Figure 3. An OVMoD board member delivers programming at a county library.

Foster Collaborative Relationships

Eric Malm, a researcher of community partnerships, highlights the importance of balancing organizational and individual motivations of participants in a collaborative endeavor to realize the full synergistic potential of a well-connected community.2424. Eric Malm et al., “The Art of Partnership: Engaging Individuals to Empower a Community,” Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement 3, no. 2 (2012): 78–98.View all notes Fostering collaborations throughout the community is an essential founding organizational principle of OVMoD. Engaged board members from education, business, government, and community activism sectors help in building these collaborations, as does the museum's reputation as it grows. These partnerships are important for fundraising and also, more importantly, for forming truly collaborative, transformative partnerships that enhance the museum's public outreach content and activities while also enriching the collaborating partner. The collaborations can involve other community education groups, nonprofits (e.g., libraries) (figure 3), environmental groups, community professionals (e.g., artisans, farmers, business owners), and local higher education institutions (Figure 4). Several examples include a local computer club/maker group collaborating with the museum to host a workshop; OVMoD collaborating on local library summer book camps; local watershed protection groups and Wayne National Forest staff giving environmentally themed presentations at the museum. Starting as a “pop-up” museum (demonstration exhibits and programming at special events throughout the region) and continuing to function as a museum “without walls” also helps to foster collaborations throughout the entire rural region and sustains regional support for the museum. For example, OVMoD often collaborates with other organizations in the design and delivery of summer programming events. Providing programming that is embedded within natural community gathering environments and locations builds collaborations that allow the museum to be viewed as a part of the community, as opposed to a separate educational institution.

Figure 4. A local university professor presents a demonstration on Carnivorous Plants.

Be a Relevant Educational Resource

OVMoD welcomes hundreds of regional students a year for educational field trips. Ben Garcia, a museum expert, says, “Museum learning is unique, multi-faceted and inspires higher-ordered affective and cognitive development.” Teachers are much more likely to visit if they see a curricular connection.2525. Ben Garcia, “What We Do Best: Making the Case for Museum Learning in its Own Right,” Journal of Museum Education 37, no. 2 (2012): 47–56.View all notes When Ohio adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in 2013, the museum quickly adapted. As a result, all field trips are integrally tied to the CCSS, something that teachers and administrators say gives legitimacy to their field trip decisions. Unlike some museums, OVMoD's education outreach programs are developed, coordinated, and delivered by individuals with advanced degrees in education and, of particular importance, K-12 educational experience as a classroom teacher (figure 5). This practice gives credibility to the museum's educational programming and builds trust with local schoolteachers and families.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 required many museums to become more accessible, attendance by students with disabilities has traditionally been low.2626. Gabrielle Rappolt-Schlichtmann and Samantha G. Daley, “Providing Access to Engagement in Learning: The Potential of Universal Design for Learning in Museum Design,” Curator: The Museum Journal, no. 3 (2013): 307.View all notes OVMoD not only provides an environment that is physically inclusive but also works closely with schools and teachers to layer educational experiences so that they are engaging and meaningful for all students, no matter their cognitive or physical abilities. This inclusive practice has resulted in regional teachers of students with special needs scheduling field trips for several consecutive years.

Part of the field trip experience at OVMoD involves a hands-on lesson developed and led by a museum educator, who has K-12 classroom teaching experience. This enables the museum to bridge the gap between school learning and the informal learning created by the museum's exhibit space. Informal learning is enhanced when formal educators introduce concepts beforehand.2727. Amy Voss, “Cross-contextual Learning: Redesigning the Interactions of Informal and Formal Contexts for Conceptual Change,” Teaching and Learning Capstone Projects (Vanderbilt University: Peabody College Department of Teaching and Learning, 2011): 1–30.View all notes Field trip content is tuned to find the connections between CCSS and the museum's current exhibit to provide a customized educational experience. Providing relevant, standards-based educational opportunities for all students increases field trip participation at OVMoD.

Figure 5. An OVMoD staff member engages a student visiting the museum as part of a school field trip.

Become a Service-Learning and Volunteer Destination

Despite an active, hands-on board and a handful of dedicated part-time employees, OVMoD is a volunteer-driven museum. Building and maintaining excellent volunteer relationships is an essential component of the museum's operational model. In a large study of American volunteers, researchers found that although volunteer rates were high, nonprofits had a difficult time getting repeat volunteers.2828. Marty Michaels, “Charities Face Trouble Keeping Volunteers and Attracting New Ones, Study Finds,” Chronicle of Philanthropy 19, no. 14 (May 3, 2007).View all notes After years of cultivating relationships with university student groups, retired teachers, and speaking several times a year on a local radio show about volunteering, OVMoD is now experiencing an increase in repeat volunteers. Though OVMoD does have some repeat volunteers who are local residents, many of OVMoD's repeat volunteers are college students who are located in the area only for the duration of their college studies. Interestingly, a majority of the museum's repeat volunteers are not individuals, but rather are university student organizations. For example, though the individual students may be different from week to week, Ohio University's Student Early Childhood Organization and Chemistry Club are frequent and dependable volunteers. Typically, volunteers sign up for a two-hour shift, though they have the option of staying for a four-hour time slot. Volunteers report feeling good about themselves after spending time at OVMoD, which motivates them to volunteer again. This situation, known as a psychological contract, describes a volunteer's expectation to receive a nonfinancial gain.2929. Christine Stirling, Sue Kilpatrick, and Peter Orpin, “A Psychological Contract Perspective to the Link Between Nonprofit Organizations’ Management Practices and Volunteer Sustainability,” Human Resource Development International 14, no. 3 (2011): 321–336.View all notes The museum continues to cultivate these relationships by engaging actively with volunteers, matching their skills to appropriate projects, and by frequently expressing appreciation for their work. In addition, the episodic nature of the museum's exhibits and programming that encourages repeat visitors also serves to keep the experience fresh and exciting for the volunteers. As a result, we often have more volunteers than we need.

In addition, the museum works hard to be a destination for service-learning projects. Service-learning supports curricular learning while engaging in community service endeavors.3030. Nancy Basinger and Keith Bartholomew, “Service-Learning in Nonprofit Organizations: Motivations, Expectations, and Outcomes,” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 12, no. 2 (2006): 15–26.View all notes Recently, the museum hosted local high school students for a “Make a Difference Day,” the museum is currently partnering with another high school's industrial technology class to build a custom-made light table, and the museum is a popular site for first year osteopathic medical students’ service learning requirements. Also, as their volunteer efforts provide authentic experiential learning, preservice teachers find meaningful service learning within the museum (figure 6). Since OVMoD's founding mission is to provide interactive, hands-on experiences, the engagement of students and community members in service-learning opportunities creates shared goals, a model unlike traditional service-learning experiences, which focus on individual organizational goals.3131. Robert E. Brown et al., “The Transformative Engagement Process: Foundations and Supports for University Community Partnerships,” Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement 11, no. 1 (2006): 9–23.View all notes This enriches the service-learning experience and encourages more groups to seek OVMoD as a destination for both volunteering and service-learning experiences.

Figure 6. Ohio University education majors participate in a “Puppet Hospital” service-learning project.

Final Thoughts

Sustaining a museum in rural southeastern Ohio provides challenging issues that impact accessibility, funding, and programming. Despite this, the Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery developed a dynamic delivery model that allows it to capitalize on the resources of the surrounding community in a manner that fosters sustainability. Its success suggests that other museums will also benefit by looking for creative ways to overcome monetary constraints, creating a multilayered approach to exhibit development and delivery, becoming an agent of social inclusion, fostering collaborative relationships, being educationally relevant, and becoming a destination for volunteers and service-learning opportunities. Building connections across disciplines and throughout the community enables OVMoD to accomplish more with less. While operating a museum in a rural, underserved area presents ongoing challenges, adopting these practices may help to mitigate geographic and cultural constraints and lead to greater sustainability.

About the Authors

Dr. Sara Hartman co-founded OVMoD and is the current Board President. Dr. Hartman has a Ph.D. in Teaching, Curriculum & Learning from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Ohio University. She brings nearly 18 years of experience in curriculum design, implementation, and knowledge of best teaching practices to OVMoD's board.

Dr. Jennifer Hines-Bergmeier co-founded OVMoD, served as its first Board President and continues to serve as a board member. She has a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Michigan, is a Professor of Chemistry at Ohio University and brings over 15 years of experience in hands-on museum exhibit design, construction, educational programming, and museum operations to OVMoD's board.

Notes

1. U.S. Census Bureau, “State and County Quick Facts,” 2014, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39/39127.html.

2. Tom Gjelten, A Typology of Rural School Settings (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1982), 6.

3. U.S. Census Bureau, “State and County Quick Facts.”

4. Kevin Pollard and Linda A. Jacobsen, The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2008–2012 American Community Survey (Washington, DC: Appalachian Regional Commission, 2014), http://www.arc.gov/assets/research_reports/DataOverviewfrom2008-2012ACS.pdf.

5. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Educational Attainment in Rural America (Washington, DC: USDA Economic Research Service, 2012), http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/employment-education/rural-education.aspx; Pollard and Jacobsen, The Appalachian Region.

6. Kajsa Ellegård and Bertil Vilhelmson, “Home as a Pocket of Local Order: Everyday Activities and the Friction of Distance,” Geografiska Annaler, Human Geography 4 (2004): 281–286.

7. Esther E. Gottlieb, “Appalachian Self-Fashioning: Regional Identities and Cultural Models,” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 22, no. 3 (2001): 341–359.

8. Christopher Cooper, Gibbs Knotts, and Don Livingston, “Appalachian Identity and Policy Opinions,” Journal of Appalachian Studies 16, no. 1/2 (2010): 26–41; Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, and Ricky L. Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006); Kenna R. Seal and Hobart L. Harmon, “Realities of Rural School Reform,” Phi Delta Kappan 77, no. 2 (1995): 119.

9. Cooper, Knotts, and Livingston, “Appalachian Identity”; Edwards, Asbury, and Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia.

10. Richard Sandell, “Museums as Agents of Social Inclusion,” Museum Management & Curatorship 17, no. 4 (1998): 401–418.

11. Seal and Harmon, “Realities of Rural School Reform.”

12. Elizabeth A. Mulroy, “University Civic Engagement with Community-Based Organizations: Dispersed or Coordinated Models?” Journal of Community Practice 12, no. 3/4 (2004): 35–52.

13. Sara Brumfield, “Ridges TB Ward to be Razed Next Month Despite Historical Society Efforts to Save It,” The Athens Messenger, February 7, 2013, http://www.athensohiotoday.com/news/ridges-tb-ward-to-be-razed-next-month despite-historical/article_27bd8949-e3a6–5546-bd43-a4df9ecec78b.html.

14. Byron P. White, “Power, Privilege, and the Public: The Dynamics of Community University Collaboration,” New Directions For Higher Education 152 (2010): 67–74.

15. U.S. Census Bureau, “State and County Quick Facts.”

16. DeRolph v. State, 91 Ohio St.3d 1274 (2001); Ohio Department of Education, “Overview of School Funding,” accessed November 25, 2014, http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/Overview-of-Funding.

17. IMLS Task Force, Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills (Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2009).

18. Raymond Bruman (vol. I) and Ron Hipschman (vols. II and III), The Exploratorium Cookbook: A Construction Manual for Exploratorium Exhibits (San Francisco: The Exploratorium, 1983).

19. Suzanne Bonamici and Aaron Schock, “STEAM on Capitol Hill,” The STEAM Journal 1, no. 2 (2014): 6.

20. Sheila Grinell, A Place for Learning Science: Starting a Science Center and Keeping It Running (Washington, DC: Association of Science and Technology Centers Inc., 2003), 19.

21. IMLS Task Force, Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills.

22. Sandell, “Museums as Agents of Social Inclusion.”

23. Cooper, Knotts, and Livingston, “Appalachian Identity”; Edwards, Asbury, and Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia; Seal and Harmon, “Realities of Rural School Reform.”

24. Eric Malm et al., “The Art of Partnership: Engaging Individuals to Empower a Community,” Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement 3, no. 2 (2012): 78–98.

25. Ben Garcia, “What We Do Best: Making the Case for Museum Learning in its Own Right,” Journal of Museum Education 37, no. 2 (2012): 47–56.

26. Gabrielle Rappolt-Schlichtmann and Samantha G. Daley, “Providing Access to Engagement in Learning: The Potential of Universal Design for Learning in Museum Design,” Curator: The Museum Journal, no. 3 (2013): 307.

27. Amy Voss, “Cross-contextual Learning: Redesigning the Interactions of Informal and Formal Contexts for Conceptual Change,” Teaching and Learning Capstone Projects (Vanderbilt University: Peabody College Department of Teaching and Learning, 2011): 1–30.

28. Marty Michaels, “Charities Face Trouble Keeping Volunteers and Attracting New Ones, Study Finds,” Chronicle of Philanthropy 19, no. 14 (May 3, 2007).

29. Christine Stirling, Sue Kilpatrick, and Peter Orpin, “A Psychological Contract Perspective to the Link Between Nonprofit Organizations’ Management Practices and Volunteer Sustainability,” Human Resource Development International 14, no. 3 (2011): 321–336.

30. Nancy Basinger and Keith Bartholomew, “Service-Learning in Nonprofit Organizations: Motivations, Expectations, and Outcomes,” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 12, no. 2 (2006): 15–26.

31. Robert E. Brown et al., “The Transformative Engagement Process: Foundations and Supports for University Community Partnerships,” Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement 11, no. 1 (2006): 9–23.

     

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