Session Goals
There are two main goals for this session:
- Participants recognize that there are a range of types of exhibits and experiences in informal education settings. Some of these exhibits are designed so that there are a variety of ways of interacting with them. Each of these exhibits presents different opportunities for facilitation.
- Participants recognize that visitors to an informal education setting will be diverse, not only in age, language, race, socioeconomic status, accessibility needs, but also in their reasons for being in the space and their background experiences. Each visitor has different facilitation needs.
Notes to Instructor
This session will be organized into five segments: an improv warm-up, an introduction, an activity focused on exhibits, an activity focused on visitors, and a debrief discussion:
- Improv warm-up
- Introduction. Informal learning
- Activity - Exhibits
Break - Activity - Visitors
- Debrief
Session 1
Activity Slides (link)
Improv Warm-up
If the participants have completed at least one session of improv, ask them to select and play an improv game that they have learned in the applied improvisation training as a fun warm-up activity.
Introduction
Welcome participants and introduce Practice Based Facilitation as a framework for educators in informal settings to engage learners in the knowledge-making practices of specific disciplines. Tell them that while the curriculum in this first module is focused on engaging visitors to interactive science centers in the disciplinary practices of science, the second and third modules will broaden the practices to include all of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) disciplines and expand on the strategies for interactive science centers to include a wide range of informal learning environments. Give a brief outline of the four sessions and explain that today they will begin by focusing on the exhibits and visitor experience in an example interactive science center.
Quick Write: Have students respond to the prompt: "How do you think people learn best in informal settings?" Share ideas.
Activity 1: Exhibits - Card Sort
Participants in pairs or small groups examine a set of images of museum exhibits and sort them according to the number of ways in which visitors might interact with each exhibit. This can be done in person by printing out the images and having the groups physically sort them into categories. Or the groups can use the "slide sorter" view in google slides and move the slides around. If you opt to have groups use the slide sorter function, each groups should make (or be provided with) a copy of the file rather than using a shared file.
Slide Deck of exhibit images only (link)
Debrief: Have each group share their top three exhibits with the greatest number of ways in which visitors might interact. Discuss similarities and differences among groups and how they characterized "ways in which visitors might interact". Define open-ended exhibits as having multiple entry points, multiple ways of interacting, and multiple possible outcomes. Without passing judgement on any of the other types of exhibits, state that we will be focusing on open-ended exhibits as they provide the widest opportunity for visitors to engage in knowledge-making practices.
Define science phenomena. Most exhibits are a physical representation of a phenomena. Phenomena are at the center of informal and formal STEM learning.
Break
Activity 2: Visitors
Prior to activity: Print out enough copies of the visitor descriptions and cut into pieces so that each participant can have one persona.
Tell the participants that we are now going to turn our attention to the people that come into the museum. Provide each participant with a "persona" they are to take on. They are to explore an interactive science museum (either live or through a video) from the perspective of that persona. What do they notice? What do they find interesting?
Personas Activity (link)
MOXI Interactive Tour (link)
MOXI video (link)
Debrief: Have participants state their persona and share their observations. Discuss as a group the similarities and differences between the different personas. How would their perspective change if they were a Preschool teacher, a non-English speaker, a germaphobe, a physicist, a person who hates science, a person on the Autism spectrum? What can they conclude from this exercise about visitors in informal learning environments?
Final Debrief
1. Ask participants to consider exhibits that have a variety of different ways they can be explored (open-ended exhibits) and the diversity of goals visitors might have? What strategies do they already have for facilitating such complex interactions? What questions do they have about facilitating such interactions?
2. If the participants have completed at least one session of improv, ask them to think about how what they have learned during Applied Improv Training relates to the topics discussed in today's session.
Homework Activity
Between Sessions 1 and 2 spend time interacting with exhibits and observing visitors in your home institution. Record your observations and thoughts in a journal reflecting on the following prompts:
- Using the language from the exhibits Quick Read, how would you characterize the exhibits at your home institution?
- Using your own observations, how would you characterize the identities and motivations of the visitors you observed? Do they align with those in the visitor identity Quick Read? Or are they different?
- Why would knowing visitor motivation be useful information for facilitating learning in an informal setting? How might this type of information be used to maximize visitors' experiences?
- Choose one exhibit at your home institution that you consider "open ended." Brainstorm all the different ways someone might interact with that exhibit. Think about how the different personas might interact with the exhibit. Bring to Session 2 a written description of 5-10 ways visitors might interact with the exhibit.
- How (if at all) did your view of your home institution change after observing guests interact with exhibits?