This study looks at the types of awe guests feel when they leave art and science cultural institutions of various sizes and context, and how it may be related to what they remember learning. We surveyed 899 guests at the end of their visit and 550 of them again about one week later. Measures included a scale of awe-related perceptions (both positive and negative) along with questions about memories guests have about what they learned during their visit. Results show awe-related perceptions were consistent across institutions with only one significant difference, even when grouped by context
Exhibit Design for Girls’ Engagement (EDGE) began as an NSF-funded research project led by the Exploratorium to learn how science museums can better engage girls aged 8–13 with STEM exhibits. Over the course of the research, we identified nine design attributes that were consistently positively related to girls’ engagement with these exhibits. The Exploratorium then went on a three-year journey funded by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation to explore ways to fold the EDGE design attributes into our exhibits, with a focus on existing exhibits. This was an exciting opportunity to put the EDGE
What does it mean for a museum, science center, or other informal science organization to commit to being a more racially equitable institution by treating equity as seriously as something like budgeting--part of every project, and necessary to the functioning of the organization? This project document shares the organizational change processes, tools, and approaches we developed during the RACE Forward project - an action research project designed to empower cross-organizational groups to spark sustainable change in practices, policies, and dispositions across the organization.
This case
Accessible Design for Multitouch Tables, Large Displays, and Interactive Experiences focuses primarily on access for individuals in wheelchairs or those of short stature who may have reach, roll-up, or related mobility limitations. Building upon existing standards, this paper presents both “broad” and “strict” interpretations for accessible design on multitouch tables and describes a range of approaches for incorporating them into new experiences.
As part of an NSF-funded project, Guidelines for Designing Challenging and Rewarding Interactive Science Exhibits (DRL-1612577), the Museum of Science, Boston, CAST, EdTogether, and the University of Rochester held a four-part webinar series on “productive struggle,” a mixed emotional experience during which learners persist through negative feelings like confusion and frustration to achieve a satisfying resolution. In this webinar series, members of the team talk through their thinking and methods in designing productive struggle exhibits and also highlight how designing for emotions can
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Beth MalandainSunewan PanetoKatharina Marino
As part of an NSF-funded project, Guidelines for Designing Challenging and Rewarding Interactive Science Exhibits (DRL-1612577), the Museum of Science, Boston, CAST, EdTogether, and the University of Rochester held a four-part webinar series on “productive struggle,” a mixed emotional experience during which learners persist through negative feelings like confusion and frustration to achieve a satisfying resolution. In this webinar series, members of the team talk through their thinking and methods in designing productive struggle exhibits and also highlight how designing for emotions can
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sunewan PanetoBeth MalandainKatharina Marino
As part of an NSF-funded project, Guidelines for Designing Challenging and Rewarding Interactive Science Exhibits (DRL-1612577), the Museum of Science, Boston, CAST, EdTogether, and the University of Rochester held a four-part webinar series on “productive struggle,” a mixed emotional experience during which learners persist through negative feelings like confusion and frustration to achieve a satisfying resolution. In this webinar series, members of the team talk through their thinking and methods in designing productive struggle exhibits and also highlight how designing for emotions can
As part of an NSF-funded project, Guidelines for Designing Challenging and Rewarding Interactive Science Exhibits (DRL-1612577), the Museum of Science, Boston, CAST, EdTogether, and the University of Rochester held a four-part webinar series on “productive struggle,” a mixed emotional experience during which learners persist through negative feelings like confusion and frustration to achieve a satisfying resolution. In this webinar series, members of the team talk through their thinking and methods in designing productive struggle exhibits and also highlight how designing for emotions can
How can we begin to chart a course toward a future for science museums in which we maintain our status as sources of trusted information, while also fulfilling our potential as sites of genuine participation and social interaction? In 2019, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the New York Hall of Science hosted a three day conference to discuss new and equitable approaches to exhibit design. With leading exhibit designers, educators, researchers, and community engagement specialists, we began to rethink the exhibit design process, toward a goal of helping our museums become more
There is a vein of democratic idealism in the work of science museums. It is less about political democracy than epistemological democracy. As a one-time museum educator and a researcher who studies science museums, I have always thought of it in terms of an unspoken two-part motto: “see for yourself–know for yourself.” Although this strain of idealism has remained constant throughout the history of science museums, it has been interpreted differently in different eras, responding (in part) to the social upheavals of the day. In the late 1960s, for example, a new generation of self-described
Science learning occurs throughout people's lives, inside and outside of school, in formal, informal, and nonformal settings. While museums have long played a role in science education, learning in this and other informal settings has not been studied nor understood as deeply as in formal settings (i.e., schools and classrooms). This position paper, written by learning researchers in a science museum engaged in equity and access work, notes that while the researchers consider the ethics of their work regularly and deeply, little formal guidance exists for the ethical challenges they routinely
Museums and similar informal learning settings offer opportunities for children and families to learn together in an engaging way. Current exhibits rely mainly on parents, teachers, signage, and staff in science museums to provide support and guidance. Since it is not always feasible to have knowledgeable staff on hand and not all parents have the same knowledge and background, children receive varied support and people often miss the point of the learning experience or activity. This project will develop and research a new genre of Smart Science Exhibits that use artificial intelligence (AI) in an adaptive system to support children in learning science by doing science. The aim of the project is to incorporate AI adaptivity and personalization to maximize inquiry-based STEM learning and engagement in informal learning settings. This research builds on the project team's first Smart Science Exhibit (EarthShake), which uses AI vision to give interactive feedback to visitors based on their actions and guides them through scientific inquiry. In the project's preliminary work, the first smart exhibit demonstrated higher engagement and more learning gains than resulted from a traditional museum exhibit addressing the same scientific content. Smart exhibits can extend and enhance the limited support that staff and parents can provide. This project will develop and investigate adaptive approaches to mixing exploration and AI guidance, which will personalize feedback during constructive exploration. The project will build on learning science techniques and technology, proven in intelligent tutoring systems in formal settings, and apply this to different informal learning contexts. The goal is to provide just-in-time learning support, which will extend the time visitors spend with exhibits, thereby deepening inquiry-based science learning. The project is partnering with science museums and afterschool programs, which will enable thousands of children and families from a wide variety of backgrounds to use the project's smart exhibits each year. Smart Science Exhibits is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources as part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments.
Many informal learning settings are considering mixed-reality (MR) technologies to increase engagement and understanding of science. Using Smart Science Exhibits, the project will investigate how design choices in mixed-reality systems impact users' engagement and learning of STEM concepts. (Mixed reality is the blending of the physical world and the digital world, enabling interaction between human and artificial intelligence.) Project research will extend current research, which is largely descriptive, by investigating empirical results on learner outcomes. Key research questions are: What types of adaptivity and personalization can improve Smart Science Exhibits and MR systems generally? What balance of exploration and AI guidance is best to maximize enjoyment, engagement and learning? Do findings about the effective features of Smart Science Exhibits generalize to different content areas and informal learning settings? The project will employ user-centered design research, formative evaluation, and controlled experimentation to discover how mixed-reality systems should be designed to best meet visitor and staff needs in informal learning settings including multiple museums and afterschool providers. Data on learner behaviors in mixed-reality experiences in a variety of informal settings will inform the design of Smart Science Exhibits. The project will investigate whether adaptive approaches generalize across content and context to achieve better STEM learning, engagement, collaboration, and productive dialogue. The project will incorporate the team's prior technical research, which developed both vision techniques to track children's physical interactions and interactive pedagogical techniques to provide scaffolds for and reactive feedback on children's inquiry and construction behaviors. New technical research will develop AI techniques for adaptive task selection and personalized feedback that draws on a visitor's history of interaction. Project research and design resources will be widely shared with the science museum educators and designers through presentations at annual conferences and with researchers, developers and others through peer-reviewed journal publications and professional publications.
This Innovations in Development award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Nesra YannierScott HudsonKen Koedinger