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The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh received the Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Business Practice last night in Richmond, Va.

Jane Werner, the museum's executive director, accepted the national award, which was given for the first time during a convention of the Association of Science and Technology Centers. The organization of museums has 540 members in 40 countries and includes science museums, nature centers, aquariums, natural history and children's museums.

"To have been selected as the first recipient of this national award was gratifying, in a field of candidates that included many of the nation's largest science centers and children's museums," Werner said.

The recently renovated and expanded Children's Museum of Pittsburgh received the award for its fruitful, eight-year collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh and Pitt's Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments, better known as UPCLOSE. The initiative is led by Kevin Crowley, an associate professor of education and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and 18 graduate students who work with museum staff members to see how parents and children respond to exhibits and how they learn and use the building's facilities.

Last summer, the partnership staff used observation, conversations with visitors and videotaping to study each exhibit area in the museum.

Nominees for the award were judged on their unique application of promising practices, furthering the museum's mission by achieving a tangible impact on community collaboration and potential to serve as a model of best practices in the field.

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Correction/Clarification: (Published Oct. 18, 2005) A story in Oct. 17, 2005 editions about the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh receiving an award for its collaborative research efforts assigned an incorrect name to the partnership between the museum and the University of Pittsburgh. The partnership has no formal name, but the research initiative is led by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments, better known as UPCLOSE.