Reflections from a researcher and caregiver on the process of working together on a study examining strategies to communicate the relevance of engineering practices at exhibits.
In collaboration with TERC and informal learning organizations across the United States, COSI’s Center for Research and Evaluation (CRE) is part of an NSF-funded project, Research to Understand and Inform the Impacts of Ambient and Designed Sound on Informal STEM Learning.
In Spring 2022, Monterey Bay Aquarium opened its new exhibition, Into the Deep (En lo Profundo). The 7,000+ square-foot exhibition showcases characteristics of the deep sea and the animals that live there.
Middle Ground, funded by the National Science Foundation, was an outdoor public installation developed by the Exploratorium and located in San Francisco’s Civic Center. This installation focused on the social science of how people think about others, particularly the cognitive basis for biases, judgements, and stereotypes, as well as more pro-social behavior and ways of connecting with others. Garibay Group conducted a summative evaluation to assess project outcomes.
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
This poster describes a newly funded collaborative project (9/2021) to engage Planet Word visitors in language science research.
Engage visitors in domain of science often overlooked in the public imagination (language arts -> language science enthusiasts!)
Diversify participants who contribute data to studies
Provide training in research & science communication to a diverse group of students across a range of institutions, including MSIs, broadening participation in STEM
Lower barrier to entry for other language
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Charlotte VaughnDeanna GagnePatrick PlummerYi Ting Huang
Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion (DEAI) work in museums is multifaceted, but typically approached from the perspective of external audiences and outcomes rather than a change in internal organizational culture. This article discusses findings from a research study examining what happened in five US science museums that were making a concerted, officially recognized effort towards internal change, and explores what those findings reveal about field-wide barriers to appreciable systemic change along with the impacts of the current status quo on marginalized staff. This study focused
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
The project's goals are to:
Create “data-catcher” exhibits that provide exciting learning experiences about cooperation while allowing visitors to contribute to research in social science.
Build public awareness of the methods of social science.
Generate valid data for academic research.
Assess the impact of public participation in scientific research (PPSR) on visitors’ interest, engagement, and understanding.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Josh GutwillHeike WinterheldLee CronkAthena Aktipis
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
Middle Ground Expanded (MGE), an interactive public placemaking project, showcases social-science concepts and transforms underutilized places into informal learning platforms. This broad implementation project is a collaboration between the Exploratorium, Urban Alchemy, San Francisco Recreation and Parks, and the San Francisco Public Library. Sixteen columns housing interactive, multilingual exhibits will help visitors explore how we think, feel, and interact with other people all within an immersive outdoor experience in the
This award is funded with support from NSF's program for Advancing Informal STEM Education.
This project develops a partnership between language researchers and Planet Word, a new museum devoted to language in Washington D.C., to engage museum visitors in scientific research and outreach. Interested museum visitors from all ages and backgrounds are invited to participate in behavioral research studies on a range of language-related topics. This "living language laboratory" of interactive studies includes accompanying educational demonstrations. These activities will lead to the development of infrastructure and best practices that will allow future language researchers to engage with the public at Planet Word and other similar sites.
The project enhances scientific understanding by engaging visitors in activities that expose them to active science about language as a part of their visit to the museum. For example, the research examines topics from understanding what makes certain American Sign Language signs more learnable, to why it is easier to understand people we know rather than strangers, to whether we think differently when we are reading a text message compared to reading more formal writing. In doing so, the project raises the profile of linguistics among the general public and promotes scientifically informed attitudes about language. The project also provides key opportunities to disseminate research findings of interest to the public and to promote greater interest in STEM topics among museum visitors, as well as student trainees and museum staff. The project creates educational and research opportunities for students, who will be trained in a hands-on course, and will gain first-hand experience with research and outreach in a museum setting. Through the collaborative partnership of researchers from University of Maryland, Howard University, and Gallaudet University, the project broadens participation of underrepresented minority students in the language sciences, seeking to diversify the pipeline of scholars continuing in careers in the language sciences and related STEM fields.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Charlotte VaughnYi Ting HuangDeanna GagnePatrick Plummer
This project investigates long-term human-robot interaction outside of controlled laboratory settings to better understand how the introduction of robots and the development of socially-aware behaviors work to transform the spaces of everyday life, including how spaces are planned and managed, used, and experienced. Focusing on tour-guiding robots in two museums, the research will produce nuanced insights into the challenges and opportunities that arise as social robots are integrated into new spaces to better inform future design, planning, and decision-making. It brings together researchers from human geography, robotics, and art to think beyond disciplinary boundaries about the possible futures of human-robot co-existence, sociality, and collaboration. Broader impacts of the project will include increased accessibility and engagement at two partner museums, interdisciplinary research opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students, a short video series about the current state of robotic technology to be offered as a free educational resource, and public art exhibitions reflecting on human-robot interactions. This project will be of interest to scholars of Science and Technology Studies, Human Robotics Interaction (HRI), and human geography as well as museum administrators, educators and the general public.
This interdisciplinary project brings together Science and Technology Studies, Human Robotics Interaction (HRI), and human geography to explore the production of social space through emerging forms of HRI. The project broadly asks: How does the deployment of social robots influence the production of social space—including the functions, meanings, practices, and experiences of particular spaces? The project is based on long-term ethnographic observation of the development and deployment of tour-guiding robots in an art museum and an earth science museum. A social roboticist will develop a socially-aware navigation system to add nuance to the robots’ socio-spatial behavior. A digital artist will produce digital representations of the interactions that take place in the museum, using the robot’s own sensor data and other forms of motion capture. A human geographer will conduct interviews with museum visitors and staff as well as ethnographic observation of the tour-guiding robots and of the roboticists as they develop the navigation system. They will produce an ethnographic analysis of the robots’ roles in the organization of the museums, everyday practices of museum staff and visitors, and the differential experiences of the museum space. The intellectual merits of the project consist of contributions at the intersections of STS, robotics, and human geography examining the value of ethnographic research for HRI, the development of socially-aware navigation systems, the value of a socio-spatial analytic for understanding emerging forms of robotics, and the role of robots within evolving digital geographies.
This project is jointly funded by the Science and Technology Studies program in SBE and Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program in EHR.