Finding Significance

探索博物馆将进行一项为期两年的受控研究项目，名为“寻找意义”，研究不同的展品展示技术如何影响参观者创造意义或发现意义的能力，以及这些技术如何影响学习。这些技术将应用于科学和儿童博物馆中常见的五个展品的不同样本。展品设计技巧包括a)分享科学家和展品开发人员的故事，b)分享参观者的故事，c)建模查询。尽管每一种技术在激发个人意义方面都表现出了希望，但它们还没有经过严格的测试，并应用于同一组展品，以比较相对的优势和劣势。五个基线展品，加上每个展品的四个变体，将在参观者群体中进行测试，包括成人、儿童和两者的混合群体。

0072917ALLENThe Exploratorium will conduct a controlled, two-year research project, titled "Finding Significance," to study how different exhibit presentation techniques affect visitors' abilities to make meaning -- or find significance -- and how such techniques impact learning. The techniques will be applied to a varied sample of five exhibits commonly found in science and children's museums. The exhibit design techniques include a) sharing scientist and exhibit developer stories, b) sharing visitor stories, and c) modeling inquiry. Although each technique shows promise at eliciting personal significance, they have yet to be rigorously tested and applied to the same set of exhibits to compare relative strengths and weaknesses. Five baseline exhibits, plus four variations of each, will be tested on groups of visitors, including adults, children and mixed groups of both.