Kera Collective evaluated the response of youth ages 10-14 to prototypes of a new paleontology exhibition being developed by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Overview
In 2022, Kera Collective partnered with NCMNS to evaluate two exhibit prototypes–DinoLab Tools and Meet the Team–for the museum’s new Dueling Dinosaurs exhibition.
The exhibition aims to spark youth’s interest in paleontology by exploring the questions and mysteries surrounding the Dueling Dinosaur fossils–Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex–that are among the most complete skeletons ever discovered of their
Life on the Edge is a traveling exhibition focused on educating children ages 8-14 and their families about how understanding Earth’s extreme environments helps us search for life in space. Created by Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY, the big idea of the exhibition is: “our exploration of extreme environments expands our understanding of life on Earth and the possibilities for life in our solar system and beyond.” Through five unique exhibit sections, the exhibition offers visitors information, activities, and questions focused on scientific exploration and discovery, life in space, and the origins
With input from its community and benchmarking against other natural history museums across the nation, the Delaware Museum of Natural History will transform its exhibits from static, taxonomy-based dioramas to interactive, ecosystem-driven engagement areas with more relevant STEM content and stories. The museum will work with an exhibit design firm to develop interpretive content, exhibit design, and related elements. Project activities will also include testing of exhibit prototypes and workshops for museum staff on best practices in evaluation. A final design development package will be presented to the Board of Trustees for approval and the museum will change its name to the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science.
The Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo will create the California Dinosaur Garden exhibition, an inclusive environment for children ages 3 to 11 that promotes science learning. The museum will employ sensory-rich storytelling and interactive experiences to engage children and their caregivers. Project activities will include the completion of initial concept designs and evaluation to inform exhibit development; design development, prototyping, and formative evaluation; and engaging external contractors to fabricate and install the exhibit. The exhibition will include prehistoric plants within a seasonal marsh landscape, interactive interpretive exhibits, a fossil dig, and life-size dinosaur sculptures. The project will also address the need for science learning experiences for children with disabilities by applying universal design principals such as wheelchair access to the garden experience, braille labels, and tactile, sensory-rich elements.
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 poster presents findings from a study comparing the engagement, learning, and value between virtual and physical versions of the Mystery Skulls exhibit, which were designed to elicit productive struggle. Findings showed that there were no significant differences between the two versions in terms of what participants learned and valued from the exhibit, but participants who used the virtual version had longer use times than those engaged in the physical exhibit. This poster was presented to museum professionals at the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) at a virtual
This front-end evaluation study is part of Designing Our Tomorrow: Mobilizing the Next Generation of Engineers, a five-year project (2018–2023) led by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF, DRL-1811617) and project partners: Adelante Mujeres, the Biomimicry Institute, and the Fleet Science Center. The Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT) project seeks to promote and strengthen family engagement and engineering learning via compelling exhibit-based design challenges, presented through the lens of sustainable design exemplified by
The project will develop and research how an emerging technology, immersive virtual reality (IVR) using head mounted displays (HMDs), can enhance ocean literacy and generate empathy towards environmental issues. Recent advances in design have resulted in HMDs that provide viscerally realistic and immersive experiences that situate participants in underwater or other remote environments. IVR can provide many people with virtual access to these environments, including persons with disabilities, people living away from coastal areas, or those who lack access for other reasons (e.g., low-income families, underserved/underrepresented communities, persons untrained in diving). The project will develop a high quality 360-degree underwater film that includes live action footage, animation, and interactive elements. The IVR experience will take the participant through an immersive underwater journey of a Pacific reef, using realistic visualizations, narrative, and a compelling story to engage participants in learning the ecology and biology of coral reefs, as well as the impacts of climate change and human disturbances on ocean ecosystems. In addition to the IVR ocean journey, the project will integrate interactive functionality of being on a reef during mass coral spawning, an annual natural phenomenon through which coral reefs replenish their populations. With hand-held controllers, participants will be able to "swim" through the water, watch the degraded reef recover and grow and will have the ability to change the rate of coral recovery and learn how increases in temperature impede coral recovery. While research has been conducted on early, desk-top versions of IVR, the potential impact of IVR on learning is still unclear. The research findings will help guide the development of IVR for use in informal STEM environments such as aquariums, zoos, science museums, and others. The IVR experience will be shared on online platforms for home viewing, at film festivals and conferences, and in informal learning environments.
The project addresses the need for research on the impacts of IVR devices as it become more affordable and more widely used at home and in other informal and formal environments. Few studies have investigated how design elements impact the user in IVR, in which the increased immersion affects the stimuli perception and cognitive processing. The research will assess the learning affordances and impacts of the IVR experience on participant ocean literacy (adapting items from an existing ocean literacy survey), environmental empathy/feelings of presence (naturalistic observations and post-experience interviews), and perceived self-efficacy (pre-post survey, post-interview interviews). In addition, the project will research how segmentation (i.e., a continuous experience vs. an experience with breaks), generative learning tasks (hands-on experiences and interactive during IVR), and gender of the narrator in an IVR experience supports learning about ocean environments. Researchers will collect data from students attending high schools with predominantly minority student enrollments. Research findings will be widely shared through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and publications for educators and designers.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
The Field Museum contracted RK&A to conduct a summative evaluation of the Grainger Science Hub and the Discovery Squad Carts, two museum experiences facilitated by educators or trained volunteers. The goals of the study are to explore the extent to which visitors interact with programming in the Science Hub and at Discovery Squad Carts and the nature of those interactions, as well as visitor motivations and takeaways.
How did we approach this study?
RK&A conducted observations in the Science Hub and at Discovery Squad Carts to understand the nature of experiences at each. The
It’s a great job when you get to do stuff just for fun. For the last few days, I’ve been at the Science Museum of Minnesota, consulting on their new exhibit? Theatrical performance? Interactive game? called Infestation: The Evolution Begins. It’s a 3-part project funded by NSF to help teach key concepts of evolution to kids, and it’s looking pretty amazing.The first part is done, and it’s a theatrical event where the concepts are explained entertainingly, and the audience are introduced to little imaginary creatures called VISTAs. If you go to SMM today, you can watch the whole show yourself
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. This Research in Service to Practice project will study how visual immersion and interactivity in augmented reality (AR) affects visitors' engagement and understanding of science. The research involves creating different versions of an AR exhibit to communicate paleontology research from the La Brea Tar Pits to the general public. Different versions of the exhibit will be compared to learn how design choices for immersion and interactivity impact visitors' engagement and understanding of science. The result of this study should be a model to follow for similar public exhibits, as well as design principles that generalize to AR experiences for a broader range of informal learning environments. This project will also demonstrate and report on specific AR mechanisms that help visitors understand the scientific process and increase knowledge about paleontology research.
The study includes a user-centered design and evaluation process with both formative and comparative studies. This project investigates two high-level design factors for mobile AR: visual immersion and interactivity. These impact the learning experience and the development so extensively that multiple versions are seldom compared. These factors also have unique considerations for informal settings, such as how to balance immersion against situational awareness (e.g., 3D viewers reduce field of view). One goal of this project is to systematically compare qualitatively different AR designs that convey equivalent science content and study these tradeoffs empirically. The second goal is to leverage these findings to publicly release an AR experience that promotes engagement, increases understanding of science, and reduces scientific misconceptions. This research will also contribute to understanding usability and logistical issues for different AR designs for public, outdoor, informal settings.
This 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:
Emily LindseyBenjamin NyeGale SinatraWilliam Swartout
resourceevaluationMuseum and Science Center Programs
The Museum of Science, Boston’s Research and Evaluation Department conducted a summative evaluation of The Hall of Human Life (HHL) exhibition. This 9,700 square foot exhibition is geared towards older children and adults. It is focused on human biology and human health with the main message, “Human beings are changing in a changing environment.” Visitors are able to use their own bodies and behaviors to understand biological mechanisms. Unique to this exhibition, visitors are able to use scannable wristbands to record and compare personal data with other Museum visitors to learn about their