In this paper, Jeff Bonner of the St. Louis Science Center discusses the merits of formal versus naturalistic evaluation within the museum context. Bonner also presents the approach and findings of a two-part study designed to compare the results of these two evaluation approaches. They compared the the results of a formal analysis of the holding power, ease of use, readability of text, and overall enjoyability of nine exhibits with a naturalistic study focused on how one volunteer, two part-time employees and a staff supervisor viewed the same exhibits.
The Exploding Optic Incredible was an experiment in expanding the boundaries of art and music with science and technology. Ostensibly a multi-media rock concert as a fund raiser for Marshall Barnes' drug free creativity efforts, it took Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable concept of the 1960s into unchartered territory driven by Marshall's inspiration through discussions with Omni magazine's Dick Teresi and Pamela Weintraub and Gene Youngblood's book, Expanded Cinema. Marshall incorporated 1970s era slide and film projection light show effects, with dance lights, massive strobes, spotlights, and big screen video projection that showed customized and original video special effects while bands performed, and music videos in-between accompanied by lighting effects. The first multi-media rock concert of the 1990s, the January 18, 1990 event at the Newport Music Hall was also a test for the public's reaction to over stimulation through sight and sound, the results leading to exploration and ultimate creation of psychoactive entertainment technology later that year and the formation of new technological architectures for entertainment and learning that have yet to be presented but exist in design form.
Produce an exhibition that will lead visitors, particularly 140,000 school children each year, to explore and understand modern audio technology. The exhibition capitalizes on the great popularity of recorded music (every student seems to carry a Walkman tape or disc player), to encourage hands-on exploration of audio technologies from microphones to compact disc players. Further visitor inquiry, using a computer-based system developed by the Hall of Science, will encourage an understanding of the underlying principles. The prototype of this "Science Link" system, now in use, has already drawn replication inquiries from 84 science-technology centers, educational institutions, and advertising agencies. Develop additional exhibit techniques that will allow the hands-on investigation of phenomena that cannot be directly observed. Techniques linking computer simulations directly to the physical exhibits will encourage investigation of phenomena that cannot be directly observed. While contemporary electronic technology has become more and more pervasive, its inner workings have become less and less accessible to the layman. In addressing audio technology as typical of this challenge, the project will have applications to many fundamental and applied topics, and will find wide use in science centers and other settings.
The National Science Outreach Network will provide school children, teachers, and the general public with highly accessible interactive exhibits dealing with popular topics in science and technology. The network, initiated as a partnership between regional science centers and public libraries, will be modeled after the highly successful statewide Oregon Library Exhibits Network established in 1987. Through this smaller network, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, a nationally recognized pioneer in science exhibitry and outreach programming, circulates small hands-on exhibits to rural population centers through installations in public libraries, where school groups and families have free and convenient access. This national dissemination project will be initiated in five regional sites across the country (Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee, and Oregon) to further establish the model in rural, inner-urban, economically disadvantaged, and culturally diverse regions. With support from both the NSF and the regional networks, The National Science Outreach Network will design and duplicate six exhibits for circulation to dozens of local communities in each designated region. Over the next seven years, over six million individuals, many of whom do not currently frequent a local science center, will be introduced to popular science in a non-threatening, resource- rich setting. This will encourage further exploration and possible future visits to an accessible science center, and ultimately establish an ever-expanding network of museum and non-museum partners providing science and technology learning opportunities to millions of individuals each year.
The Computer Museum proposes to initiate a Computer Exhibits Kits Program whose goal will be to foster a better understanding of computer science and technology among the general public. The program proposes to develop and disseminate nine different kits, each consisting of a computer program, documentation, educational materials and, in some cases, specialized hardware. Other museums and science centers will be able to purchase these well tested kits at modest cost and implement them on personal computers to create exhibits for visitors ten years old and older. Strong support from other institutions suggests that the program will reach twenty million visitors a year.
The Lawrence Hall of Science proposes to develop a major public education program, including a traveling exhibition, two planetarium programs, a play, and a kit for schools entitled "Columbus' Great Experiment." Emphasizing science and technology, Columbus' first voyage is portrayed as an experiment aimed at testing the hypothesis (based on doubtful evidence) that sailing to the west was a more practical way of reaching the Indies than by sailing east around the Horn of Africa. As with many scientific experiments, the results were quite different from what the experimenter had in mind: instead of finding a sea route to the Indies, Columbus vastly expanded knowledge about our planet and spurred developments in science and technology. These events occurred within a social and cultural context that were critical to the development of modern science, and resulted in far-reaching changes in the population and ecology of the world which continue today. The National Endowment for the Humanities has recently awarded a grant for the development of the exhibits. The present proposal requests that NSF join with NEH to complete and expand the project, by funding: a) components of three additional copies of the exhibition to be constructed by other museums, thus expanding the public audience to 19 million visitors; b) two participatory planetarium programs; c) a play about the scientific aspects of Columbus' voyage; and d) school kits that will enable teachers to present the most important ideas embodied in the exhibition to students who are unable to view the exhibition at a science center. Interest in these programs will peak around Columbus Day, 1992, we anticipate that the materials will be sufficiently interesting, informative, and entertaining to be used for many years to come.
This project at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Durham, North Carolina, will create a 2000 square foot permanent exhibition, "The Science Behind Medicine", using recent advances in medical science and technology to illustrate basic science concepts. It will engage visitors through their strong interest in health and medicine, present valuable information about medical subjects, and use their interest to present underlying scientific concepts they would otherwise avoid. The exhibition will be organized around four topics: organ structure and function and organ replacement and transplantation; advances in medical imaging, including infrared, ultrasound and x-ray technologies; pharmaceutical pharmacology, biological receptors and molecular design; and sickle cell anemia and its molecular biology. Over five years, more than one million people will use the exhibit, including both highly educated residents of the Research Triangle area, and a Durham population that is disadvantaged and 50% black. Extensive subject area consultation and formative evaluation will be used in exhibition design. A close consulting relationship is planned with two museums with similar exhibit interests, and exhibit research and plans will be offered to other interested museums to encourage wider use of the project's results. A strong regional health sciences focus will benefit the project through academic, business, community and industry membership on a project planning committee, and from 50% local matching funding. Two corporate planning grants have been awarded to the project, and a major facilities expansion funded in part by a recent bond issue.
The Science Museum of Minnesota will develop a series of "experiment benches" that are to be an unique feature of "labworks," a major new hall of physical science and technology. The small bench-top laboratory exhibits will allow visitors to create their own experiments and to become informally but directly involved in the experimental process. The target audience is junior highschool students, especially those who come as individuals and who are repeat visitors. Selected students will be trained as interns and will be paid to act as mentors for visitors. The project will include a published report, "a recipe book" for dissemination, and a subsequent conference of exhibit developers from other science museums.
The St. Louis Science Center plans to design and develop a 2400-square-foot permanent exhibit dealing with the fields of cellular and molecular biology, including biotechnology and genetic engineering. The primary goal of the exhibit is to affect the attitudes of millions of visitors, with the secondary goal being to serve as a model for other science museums and science centers.
The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, with partial support from NSF, will develop science, mathematics, and technology components for a new, permanent 17,000 square foot exhibition on the Pacific. Broad in scope and dramatic in its impact, this exhibition will cut across many fields and disciplines in presenting a coherent, integrated view of the Pacific regions. Topics from anthropology, geology, biology and geography will be combined using collections, reconstructed objects, large scale models, and interactive components in this landmark exhibition. The project will make extensive use of leading researchers, educators, and an evaluation consultant, and will utilize a variety of prototyping and formative exhibit development techniques. The science, mathematics and technology portion will cost $ 1.9 million, of which approximately one third is requested from NSF. The complete 17,000 square foot exhibition will cost $ 3.3 million and will be seen by at least 10 million adults and children over its 20 year life.