The Luce Foundation Center (LFC) of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (hereafter, American Art or the Museum) ran an alternate reality game (ARG) titled PHEON (http://pheon.org/, http://apps.facebook.com/playpheon/register/) from September 2010 through August 2011. The game built upon the success of the Museum's previous ARG, Ghosts of a Chance (GOAC; http://ghostsofachance.com/; Goodlander, 2009), and was intended to increase familiarity with the Museum's collections, programs, and resources; highlight connections between the Museum and its collections with peoples' lives; and attract new
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jes KoepflerSmithsonian American Art Museum
The Luce Foundation Center (LFC) of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (hearafter, American Art or the Museum) ran an alternate reality game (ARG) titled PHEON as an online game application on Facebook from October 2010 through September 2011. The game built upon the success of the Museum's previous ARG, Ghosts of a Chance (GOAC; Goodlander, 2009). In the Facebook game, players accepted missions inspired by the Museum's collections, completed them in the real world, and uploaded evidence in order to win points and progress through the game. Despite an established audience of GOAC players
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jes A. KoepflerSmithsonian American Art Museum
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) received a NOAA-ELG grant for a three-year project, entitled Exploring Earth Systems: Expanding Data Visualizations Experiences for Museum Learners (or Data Visualizations). The project focuses on the development, testing, and distribution of Visualizations for the Earth and Bio content strands of the AMNH's Science Bulletins program. The Visualizations are short media pieces that use satellite data to tell the story of Earth processes on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere, with the larger goals of helping viewers to understand the dynamic
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Susan FoutzAmerican Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) received a NOAA-ELG grant for a three-year project, entitled Exploring Earth Systems: Expanding Data Visualizations Experiences for Museum Learners (or Data Visualizations). The project focuses on the development, testing, and distribution of Visualizations for the Earth and Bio content strands of the AMNH's Science Bulletins program. The Visualizations are short media pieces that use satellite data to tell the story of Earth processes on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere, with the larger goals of helping viewers to understand the dynamic
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Susan FoutzAmerican Museum of Natural History
This formative evaluation gathered feedback from after-school group leaders and their 3rd-5th grade youth in response to two activities included in the Cyberchase Workshops-In-A-Box. The user-based feedback will assist with the design of new after-school materials. The general goals for the research were:To explore reactions to the workshop guide generally To assess appeal of the two activities To pinpoint difficulties in the implementation of the two activities To estimate comprehension of the activity content.To evaluate leader interest in further activities.Cyberchase is the Emmy Award
This formative evaluation gathered feedback from a small sample of third graders in response to a paper design concept of an online, immersive financial literacy game for Cyberchase. The general goals for the research were to assess appeal and clarity of the game structure at an early on-paper stage. Additionally, a larger sample of third graders was surveyed about their money habits. Cyberchase is the Emmy Award-winning mathematics series and website on PBS KIDS GO! using broadcast, web, new media and educational outreach to impact millions nationwide. Designed for children ages 8 to 11 and
During two independent half-hour sessions, eight third graders from a Long Island elementary school were observed individually while playing a prototype of the Cyberchase immersive online game, The Quest. Cyberchase is the Emmy Award-winning mathematics series and website on PBS KIDS GO! using broadcast, web, new media and educational outreach to impact millions nationwide. Designed for children ages 8 to 11 and packed with mystery, humor, and action, Cyberchase's mission is to improve kids' problem-solving and math skills, and inspire them with confidence and enthusiasm toward math. The TV
During half-hour sessions, four third grade girls and four third grade boys from a Long Island elementary school were observed individually while playing an early prototype of a computer game called 'Inventors' Workshop. The procedure involved assessment of student interpretation of the part visuals and renaming of parts once the game had been experienced; suggestions for additional parts; comprehension of the connection of parts; understanding of rotation feature; ability to respond to three different and successively more difficult challenges; ability to invent their own challenge for
This document outlines front-end and formative evaluation findings including baseline use; improving attraction and holding power and interactions; and improving interfaces. While we found that people like the globe and will stay and interact especially with the redesigned kiosk, there is still room for improvement in support for information transfer and meaning generation, as well as opportunities for retaining user choice and control while adding usability features such as narration.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Shawn RoweKatie StoferCéleste BarthelNancee HunterHatfield Marine Science Center
The Builders Math game on the Cyberchase website provides an integrated, goal-oriented problem that combines math skills in measurement, geometry, and visualization. The formative procedure focused on: ability to read the game text; interpretation of the terminology and suggestions for alternative terminology; transparency and usability of features; and comprehension of the four rounds of play. Cyberchase is the Emmy Award-winning mathematics series and website on PBS KIDS GO! using broadcast, web, new media and educational outreach to impact millions nationwide. Designed for children ages 8
Media MashUp (MMU) was an IMLS funded project (LG-07-08-0113 ) designed to help libraries build capacity for offering computer-based programs for youth. These programs were designed to help foster 21st Century literacy skills. The program focused on the Scratch programming language (http://scratch.mit.edu/), but also used other creative freeware programs (i.e., Audacity, Picasa, SAM animation, ArtRage). MMU was a partnership among six library systems from around the country and The Science Museum of Minnesota. Three staff members from each library participated in the program: two librarians or
The Media MashUp project is funded by the IMLS (Grant LG-07-08-0113 ) to build capacity at libraries for computer-based programs for youth that help build 21st Century literacy skills. Twenty first Century literacy skills include interactive engagement with technology, collaboration and team problem solving, taking initiative and managing time and the use of higher level processing skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org/). This project uses the Scratch programming platform (http://scratch.mit.edu/) developed at MIT to help foster youth's 21st Century literacy skills. The professional audience