The Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts is one of the world’s largest science centers and the most visited cultural institution in New England. Located in Science Park, a piece of land that spans the Charles River, the museum is conveniently situated close to Boston and Cambridge. The museum has more than 700 interactive exhibits and a number of live presentations offered daily. One of these daily shows include live animal presentations, where museum visitors can learn more about some of the many animals that the museum cares for in its live animal center. An evaluation of these live
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah RosenthalKristina OhlSadia Sehrish IslamMaría José Brito Páez
This practitioner guide summarizes lessons learned from a three-year design-based research project focused on using elements of narrative (such as characters, settings, and problem frames) to evoke empathy and support girls' engagement in engineering design practices. The guide includes a summary of the driving concepts and key research findings from this work, as well as design principles for creating narrative-based engineering activities. Six activity case studies illustrate the design principles in action, and facilitation tips and observation tools offer practical guidance in developing
In 2006, the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) decided to conduct an institution-wide study of their visitors—why they come to the Botanic Garden, how they utilize the space, their level of satisfaction with the experience, and overall effectiveness of the USBG’s exhibitions and interpretation—in order to provide input to a strategic planning process that will align its living collections with its educational mission. To date, the only existing data characterizing USBG visitors was gathered in the early 1990s. Since then, the USBG has undergone a major transformation, including complete renovation of
“Not a place for me” is often one of the main reasons people choose not to visit art museums.
Such perceptions of art museums call for institutions to create wider and more diverse entry points for visitors. At the Art Institute of Chicago—envisioned by our first president as a “museum of living thought”—we seek to continually expand art historical narratives by bringing together a plurality of perspectives and voices to processes of research, scientific and creative inquiry, and to increasingly varied modes of public engagement with art. To achieve these goals we developed a multifaceted
Providence Children’s Museum was tasked with examining how children demonstrate their learning and thinking through their play at the museum, and how exhibit activities and resources can be designed to build awareness of these learning processes among children’s caregivers and museum educators. The project team created a set of resources, including an exhibit space called Mind Lab, a Circuit Block activity, and an Observation Tool for caregivers that highlighted different types of behaviors associated with learning that happens naturally while children play. Rockman et al conducted a summative
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded funding to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon to support a “Connecting Researchers and Public Audiences” (CRPA) project titled ResearchLink: Spotlight on Solar Technologies. The primary goals of CRPA projects are to communicate to the public about specific NSF research projects. This ResearchLink project promoted public awareness of two NSF-funded projects led by Dr. Carl Wamser at PSU, Integrating Green Roofs and Photovoltaic Arrays for Energy Management and Optimization of
The Gallery of California Natural Sciences hosted four preview events before officially opening all sections. The target audiences for the evaluation of developing exhibits were Members and the general public with a focus on families. Researchers collected qualitative data in response to prototypes and developing exhibits for the Introduction and Oakland Sections, as well as for the developing Now and Then and Coastal Issues Lounges, and for the prototyping of live gallery animations. An exit survey was also administered to capture narrative, qualitative responses to visitors’ experience of
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Oakland Museum of CaliforniaMary T. Faria
These are samples of observation/interview testing instruments that were used in front end studies with recruited visitors to experience habitat case "interventions" such as guide cards and question prompts; and understanding concepts for a digital interactive.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Oakland Museum of CaliforniaMary T. Faria
The evaluation examined the overall visitor experience (time spent, main message comprehension, response to exhibition look and feel) in the 1,100-square-foot Animal Attraction as well as the exhibition's multimedia content delivered via 18 iPads. Specifically, researchers explored iPad usability and visitors’ reactions to the iPad content, especially compared to static labels found in other areas of Animal Attraction. Findings indicate that the iPads appealed to all visitors segments and that iPad users spent more time in the exhibition than visitors who did not use the iPads. However, many
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
California Academy of SciencesJon DeuelJessica Brainard
In this article, researchers for the University of North Carolina at Asheville describe findings from their study that assessed the impact of two interactive, hands-on, informal science-learning programs on elementary and middle school children's (1) general interest in science learning and (2) short-term science learning. They used a separate-sample pretest-posttest research design to evaluate the impact of two informal science-learning programs--a robotics program and an electricity program at the Health Adventure at Pack Place. The appendix of this report includes the survey, observation
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark L. Harvey, Ph.D.Brandon HudsonBri Tureff
This report describes the findings of an evaluation of the Gallery Guide program at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. It aimed to determine if and how 6 identified public tour goals are being met and examined how visitors are generally engaging during public tours at the museum. List of Key Findings: Overall all Gallery Guide goals were met to varying degrees. The majority of surveyed visitors reported they would feel comfortable leading a friend through the Frye after their tour experience. Gallery Guides provided a high number of informative statements (47%). Visitors appear more
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Peder NelsonMark RosenRose Paquet KinsleyThe Frye Art Museum
Bio Med Tech: Engineering for Your Health was a 2,750 square foot exhibition at the Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) that dealt with issues related to biomedical technology. Partially funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Awards program (NIH/SEPA), the project was developed through a partnership between GLSC and Case Western Reserve University. The SEPA grant also funded a variety of programming activities, including informal Exploration Cart activities in the exhibition, presentations in the exhibition's theater space, and teacher training