Director & Assistant Curator, Museum Education
Phone: 352-273-2006
Email: mennes@floridamuseum.ufl.edu
Dr. Megan Ennes is TESI’s Director and the assistant curator (professor) of museum education in the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. She is the author of more than two dozen peer-reviewed publications and teaches several classes at UF related to science education and communication.
Dr. Ennes is also the head of the Museum Education Research Group. In this role, she studies how people learn about science in informal settings, like museums. This includes research on professional development for museum educators, online learning in museums, environmental civic engagement for K-12 students and undergraduates, and scientist-led museum outreach. One of her overarching goals for the work she does is to develop strategies for how museums can broaden participation in science. Ennes has also served as the science director for the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation, an organization that trains informal educators on how to communicate about climate change using research-backed methods.
Ennes received her Ph.D. in science education with a focus on informal science education at North Carolina State University. She completed her undergraduate degree in marine biology and her master’s degree in environmental studies at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Dr. Ennes leads research on museum education. If you are looking for information on educational programs within the Florida Museum of Natural History, please visit the Visit page or the For Educators page.
Projects:
- TESI Environmental Leaders Fellowship
- Community Action Projects for the Environment
- Online Learning in Museums
- Museum Educators’ Levels of Self-Efficacy
- Research Infrastructure: Moving and Improving the Florida Museum of Natural History Fish Collection: Dr. Ennes will be leading the broader impacts and outreach components of an NSF grant intended to update and innovate the museum’s ichthyology collection. Dr. Ennes will be facilitating science communication training for the scientists involved in the project. Along with the Scientist in Every Florida School Project, she will facilitate two summer teacher workshops to engage educators in the fishes collection to develop new lesson plans related to taxonomy. Dr. Ennes will also be examining scientists’ perceptions of engaging the public in their collections as part of their Broader Impacts activities.
- Ennes, M., Jones, M. G., Cian, H., Dou, R., Abramowitz, B.*, Bordewieck, K.*, Ideus, K.* (2023). Family Influence and STEM Career Aspirations. In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi and K. Ercikan (Eds). International Encyclopedia of Education 4e. Elsevier.
- Ennes, M. (2021). Museum-based distance learning programs: Current practices and future research opportunities. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. 22(2). 242-260. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v22i2.5225 (open access)
- Jones, M. G., Chesnutt, K., Ennes, M., Macher, D., Paechter, M. (2022). Measuring science capital, science attitudes, and science experiences in elementary and middle school students. Studies in Educational Evaluation. 74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2022.101180