Conference Paper

Roll It Wall: Developing a Framework for Evaluating Practices of Learning

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Abstract

We1 introduce a framework to describe visitor engagement at an interactive museum exhibit where visitors build and test ball roller coasters. Our framework consists of two dimensions. The first is levels of engagement, which describe what visitors are doing and how they are interacting with the exhibit. The second dimension is practices of learning, which are derived from other research and policy documents such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Our matrix links those practices of learning with observed types of engagement.

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... Video and inperson observations were the central data source used to develop engagement types for the focal exhibits. Teams categorized the observed engagement types, which were then analyzed for evidence of STEM practices [2,17]. The STEM practices that the four teams identified were: 1) observing, 2) asking questions, 3) defining problems, 4) planning investigations, 5) carrying out investigations, 6) analyzing and interpreting data, 7) designing solutions, 8) testing solutions, 9) developing models, 10) using models, 11) mathematical and computational thinking, 12) constructing explanations, 13) argue from evidence, 14) obtaining and evaluating information, 15) cause and effect, 16) scale, proportion, and quantity, 17) perseverance to achieve a goal, and 18) patterns. ...
... Behaviors were coded according to four engagement types and analyzed for evidence of STEM practices (See Table IV). Choosing specific colored pegs to make a picture (e.g., red pegs to make a heart) 1, [15][16][17][18] Peg and Wall Play with inserting pegs into wall 1,2,3,14-18 Interaction Peg Play ...
... In museums, guests may interact with the exhibits for as little or long as they want. These four studies whose finding are summarized in Table V and others [17] describe the complex ways that visitors engage with exhibits which lead to powerful learning experiences. The work presented here focuses attention on how to design exhibits to engage guests in NGSS-aligned learning experiences. ...
... or "What do you think the arrow block does?". Depending on the setting, facilitators such as teachers, parents, or museum staff can also be equipped with discussion points to prompt conversation [38]. However, it is important that facilitators offer probing questions or thought provoking comments (e.g. ...
... Maybe you could find a way to connect them into one composition?") as opposed to trying to explain how the table components work to participants, which may lead to reduced exploration, as children often assume adult's explanations are "correct" and do not question them [1], [38]. ...
Article
Museum visitors often come into the museum space receptive to exploring new ideas, and this may encourage members of visitor groups to be supportive and cooperative when engaging together with exhibits. However, as participant groups explore the concepts of the exhibit, interruptions, conflicts, or disagreements may result. We collectively label this social tension as discord. This paper studies discord among family groups interacting with TuneTable, a museum exhibit designed to promote middle school students' interest in and learning of basic computing concepts (e.g. loops, conditionals) through music programming. We analyzed video recordings of each participant group and found that discord often appears alongside three markers of high engagement: a) complex physical manipulation of exhibit components; b) conversation demonstrating an in-depth understanding of how the exhibit works; and c) instances of collaboration between group members. Our findings suggest that certain types of discord could potentially be indicators of productive learning experiences at museum exhibits related to computing. In addition, when designing informal learning experiences for computing education, our findings suggest that discord is a potential trigger for deeper engagement that warrants further exploration.
... The goal of the project is to develop suites of coordinated STEM activities. Each suite focuses on an engineering task completed at MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation (e.g., Harlow, Skinner & O'Brien, 2017 ). Activities done in classrooms prior to the fi eld trip exhibit develop physical science and engineering ideas that the students will use in their fi eld trip program and require students to use mathematics skills being developed in their classrooms. ...
... Our research on practice-based learning began by investigating visitors' experiences. Initially, we sought to understand the ways visitors engaged with open-ended exhibits [23][24][25] and how these aligned with our STEM practice goals. Our second focus of practice-based facilitation guided our analysis of the visitor experience to inform strategies for making facilitation decisions that would support visitors in engaging in STEM practices [17]. ...
... During the full time of the study, the instructor was collaborating on the design of the exhibits at a new museum, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation (MOXI), and that work on informal science education influenced her perspectives and course activities. MOXI's exhibits were being planned as the NGSS were authored, providing an opportunity to design a museum fully informed by the NGSS and a place for pre-service teachers to observe children learning NGSS-aligned content in an informal science space (Harlow et al. 2017). In the pre-service teacher education course studied here, teacher candidates read and discussed the documents about facilitating learning in these informal spaces, highlighting strategies they found particularly helpful or promising for their own future instruction and then visited MOXI to observe children's interactions in informal spaces. ...
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