Learning in Museums

Project for Carnegie Mellon University course about the design of mediated learning experiences through research and project-based design inquiry processes. Working closely with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA, my team and I developed prototypes exploring the concept of “human control over nature” and our effect on ecosystems.

THE PROBLEM

Spiders are found in all kinds of homes. Despite their reputation as “pests,” spiders are crucial for a healthy ecosystem, and it is entirely possible for them to live in harmony with humans. The challenge is a disconnect between the human perception of spiders and the positive role they play.

EXPERIENCE OBJECTIVES

1. Make visitors aware of the presence of spiders in their homes.
2. Help visitors develop a positive view of spiders.
3. Encourage visitors to act in a way that benefits spiders.

Our exhibit was designed to follow the CUSP theory of action:

Relevance: The exhibit provided information about common Pennsylvania spiders and explained how spiders positively affect our lives.
Participatory: Visitors could turn illustrated panels to see a word with and without spiders and download a species identification app, iNaturalist, on their phone. After, guests were invited to take part in the international City Nature Challenge, a competition that encourages participants to document nearby wildlife.
Systems-Solution Oriented: Visitors were asked to imagine spiders in larger contexts and consider how they can benefit spiders. The iNaturalist app is particularly community-based since it collects data from hundreds of users and allows them to collaborate and discuss their findings.

Above, visitors vote on how they would react to spider species in Pennsylvania. Would you kill the spider, leave it alone, move it outside, or get someone else?

EVALUATION

To evaluate our exhibit, we employed Barriault’s Visitor Engagement Framework (VEF). VEF consists of three behaviors:

Initiation: The initial interaction with the exhibit.
Transition: Visitors are emotionally expressive and show an increased engagement, often through repetition and testing of different exhibit outcomes.
Breakthrough: In the words of Barriault, “by referring to past experiences, seeking and sharing information, and becoming engaged and involved, a visitor’s interaction with an exhibit becomes a meaningful learning experience that takes full advantage of the exhibit’s learning opportunities.” 

While Barriault’s descriptions provided a great foundation, we modified the framework to fit our specific exhibit’s needs.

We created a revised codebook that broke down the three general behaviors into specific behaviors we could observe. For example, initiation behaviors included reading text, turning a panel, voting without speaking, or watching others engage in those activities. Transition behaviors included returning to previous panels, voting while verbally expressing emotion, or making other surface level statements. Finally, breakthrough behaviors included the discussion of personal experiences, debating voting choices, posing questions, seeking further information, and downloading the iNaturalist app.

FINDINGS

Most visitor groups moved from initiation to transition behaviors. Once they began reading or interacting with the exhibit, they often discussed with their group. That said, it was rarer to see them move from transition to breakthrough behaviors.

The most common type of breakthrough was the discussion of past experiences—we recorded seven instances. Seeking information, high engagement, and future action only had two instances each. Future iterations should encourage breakthrough behaviors, especially the less common types, through explicit text and questions.

Additionally, we believe there should have been a clearer order of operations. When the three activities were placed on the table, visitors didn’t know where to start, which ultimately affected their learning and the exhibit’s impact. We suggest adding scaffolding to guide visitors through the experience.

FUTURE ITERATIONS

If we were to develop our concept further, we would integrate all of the revisions we discussed in the above section, especially comments made by our reviewers. This would include bringing in physical objects for visitors to interact with, exploring the topic more deeply, improving the order, presenting the iNaturalist app, adding a section where people could discuss their personal spider stories, and making the kit more specific to Pittsburgh. These modifications would result in easier and more meaningful learning.

We would also recommend to the museum that an exhibit about spiders should be built with the knowledge that many people fear them. It must be created with this in mind so that the museum can meet people at their level and be approachable, rather than overly scientific or inaccessible to visitors.

In regards to the CUSP Theory of Action, we focused on relevance. The majority of people have had some experience with spiders, especially in their homes. We were also able to add more participation by introducing the iNaturalist app to visitors, whereas in past prototypes visitors were not given a tangible objective after the experience. Granted, we would have fully succeeded had we shown the app on a phone and explained how it worked.

Last, we were able to scratch the surface on how spiders are interconnected in larger systems and presented hypothetical scenarios to show visitors what a world without spiders would look like, focusing on areas such as medicine and health. However, because these situations were hypothetical, it may have been difficult for visitors to connect to them.

In order to be more locally relevant, we could have focused on Pittsburgh-specific spiders. Having a real spider present would be an interesting way to test how much visitors’ opinions of spiders changed after learning about their role in the ecosystem. In addition, it would have been beneficial to create an exhibit large enough for multiple visitors. This would promote conversation among individuals of different backgrounds, as opposed to an experience where visitors only talk among their own group. The exhibit should also have a clear order so visitors know where to start.

We believe these recommendations could help the museum could produce an impactful and meaningful learning experience.