A world wide knowned best practice example : the Exploratorium

History :

The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology and arts in San Francisco.  

The Exploratorium was founded by the physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer and opened in 1969 at the Palace of Fine Arts its home until January 2, 2013. On April 17, 2013, the Exploratorium reopened at Piers 15 and 17 on San Francisco bay. The historic interior and exterior of Pier 15 was renovated extensively prior to the move, and is divided into several galleries mainly separated by content, including the physics of seeing and listening (Light and Sound), Human Behavior, Living Systems, Tinkering (including electricity and magnetism), the Outdoor Gallery, and the Bay Observatory Gallery, which focuses on local environment, weather, and landscape.

Frank Oppenheimer

Since the museum’s founding, over 1,000 participatory exhibits have been created, approximately 600 of which are on the floor at any given time. The exhibit-building workshop space is contained within the museum and is open to view. In addition to the public exhibition space, the Exploratorium has been engaged in the professional development of teachers, science education reform, and the promotion of museums as informal education centers since its founding. Since Oppenheimer’s death in 1985, the Exploratorium has expanded into other domains, including its 50,000-page website and iPad app. It has also inspired an international network of participatory museums working to engage the public with general science education. The new Exploratorium building is also working to showcase environmental sustainability efforts as part of its goal to become the largest net-zero museum in the country. He has a major solar pannel to furnish its energy [1].

View of the Eploratorium on the bay

Field trip with explainers :

Dr Oppenheimer, the founder of the exploratorium had a special conviction about learning science. For him, having a real experience out of school was really important to learn. But he also knowed how it could be frustrated for someone not trained to understand it. That’s why he created this explainer program. Since 20 years, the explainers, special employees help the visitors to go through the museum. They are group of educators which help the visitor during the arrival : they guides the group to the check-in entry and help the teacher when they have classes. They will then guide the visitors through the museum and can help them when they have questions. There’s also some parts of the exhibitions where visitors can go through freely; but in case of need they always can find explainers at some special points inside the museum [2].

An explainer in action. They have a special uniform to be recognized.

Plan and journey of the visitor :

Exhibits in the Exploratorium cover a range of subjects areas including human perception (vision, hearing, learning, cognition), the life sciences, physical phenomena (light, motion, electricity, waves, resonance, magnetism), local environment (water, wind, fig, rain, sun..) and the human bevior (cooperation, competition, sharing) [3].

Exploring a few examples of interaction of the exploratorium

Human perception : the Black Box Space of the exploratorium

A place for presenting artwork that inspires and astounds in mysterious and wondrous ways, the Black Box is a darkened 800-square-foot space that provides an ideal environment for media art installations. A commonly used metaphor in science and engineering, a black box describes something that has observable inputs and outputs and unseen inner workings. Something goes in and something comes out, but the process by which transformation occurs is “black” or unknown to the observer.

Drawing on the Exploratorium’s unique province as a hybrid museum presenting and developing artworks at the juncture of art, science, and technology, the Black Box features dynamic, innovative multimedia exhibitions to prompt curiosity and transformation.

Experience a landscape of astonishing visual effects. Constructed as an 8-foot-square light box, artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski’s Kaleidoscope invites you to push and press on its surface to reveal an infinite pattern of vibrant colors. Each touch generates hyperdynamic images that visualize motion energy [4].

Living systems : See the plankton populations that multiply or die in response to changing ocean conditions

This interactive display presents microscopic marine organisms called phytoplankton. Visitors use special lenses to see what the plankton look like and to find out which live in different parts of the ocean at various times of year.

Child playing with the device. By zooming on a specific area of the map, you can see the proportion of phytoplankton present in this zone in relation to the climate change [5].

“We adapted a scientific model created at MIT” says Associate Curator Jennifer Frazier. ”Because the exhibit is based on real data, if you were able to look in the ocean with a microscope, this is what you’d be likely to see. I’m excited about this exhibit because it continues the Exploratorium’s tradition of engaging people with amazing phenomena of the natural world—but with new scientific data, visitors can explore worlds at a scale they normally can’t see.”

Human behavior : cooperation through the survival game

Players struggle to keep their livestock herds alive and thriving—despite disease, drought, and other dangers. When your neighbor suffers a major loss, the question arises: Can you afford to share? But the real question may be, can you afford not to?

Two players playing the survival game. This game is based on the lives of the Masaai in Africa. They live with milk and meat. But sometimes the cows they have got sick so the Masaai have to help each other in order to survive. This game is showing the cooperation process [6].

Tinkering

The Tinkering Studio is the heart of this gallery. In this immersive space, visitors use tools and materials to explore the intersection of science, art, and technology. They try experiments for the first time, or play along with other makers and artists. Whether expert of novice, they’re all learning together by making something that is personally meaningful.

Adjacent to the gallery is the museum’s exhibit-building workshop, where most of the exhibits are made. Open to public view, you’ll see our staff working with a variety of materials—woodworking tools, drills, and lathes, for example—and some of our exhibits in various stages of development [7].

Here you can see a project to work with electricity. https://www.exploratorium.edu/tinkering/projects/circuit-boards

After dark Tuedays : the museum is not only for kids !

Experience life After Dark, an evening series exclusively for adults that mixes cocktails, conversation, and playful, innovative science and art events.

Not a theater, cabaret, or gallery, After Dark contains aspects of all three. Each evening showcases a different topic—from music to sex to electricity—but all include a cash bar and an opportunity to play with our hundreds of hands-on exhibits.

This exhibition remains activ by distance during corona times with explainations about a different topic every thursday night on the american hour at 7 pm[8].

https://www.exploratorium.edu/video/electrified-plants?autoplay=true

And what about outside the museum ?

The exploratorium science snacks activities :

These Science Snack videos from the Teacher Institute should do just that, offering hands-on science activities you can do at home or in the classroom using easily-accessible materials [9].

https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks

https://www.exploratorium.edu/video

The exploratorium application :

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/total-solar-eclipse/id1230195450

In this first application showed in live stream the solar eclipse that happened the 2 of July 2019.

[10]

Conclusion and opening about the exploratorium :

By analysing the different means of communication and interaction, I think I have found what makes the exploratorium a magical and particularly attractive place. Firstly, the interactions play on the multi-sensory appeal of touch, vision and sound. Visitors are fully active and can visualise scientific concepts in a simple way by manipulating objects. I have the impression that this museum makes particular use of the kinesthetic sense, and is very much focused on these hands on approaches. What I also find very impressive is the ability that this museum developped on all fronts: both in physics in the exhibitions with the galleries, but also with all the virtual content that can be found with the tickering, science snacks, applications and thursday evenings. I would really like to have the opportunity to visit this museum to learn more about these experiences.

With all that we have seen so far about science centres, I wonder what are the most effective ways to learn science and whether in the long run science centres will not revolutionise the way science is taught in schools.

Sources :

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploratorium

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=789BkLDm_2o

[3] https://www.exploratorium.edu/

[4] https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/kaleidoscope

[5] https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/gallery-4

[6] https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/gallery-4

[7] https://www.exploratorium.edu/tinkering

[8]https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/after-dark

[9] https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks

[10] https://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/apps

Specifications about Science Centers

After explaining the basics of exhibition design, I’ll go through a little of history with science centers and define a few of their characteristics. In the next article, I will present a world reknowned science center, the Exploratorium.

Science, society and science centers

Nowadays, the relation between individuals and science is quite complexe and paradoxal. In the 90’s scientists and engineers had some image problem, public having in mind the image of the mad scientist. George Gerbner studied the perception of scintists among 1500 television watchers and it appears that the more likely the person watches TV, the more likely she is to think scientist are odd and peculiar. A lot of progresses have been made through the years, but the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of some shadows around the scientific world. Every year, studies are made showing indicators of public attitudes towards science and technology. Here are a few of them released by the Pew Research Center about 2020 Worldwide opinion on science and technology. As you can see underneath, the majority of people in 2020 say they have some trust in scientists to do what is right, but in the same way they feel that they doesn’t know enough about science to really understand the topics around it. The image of scientists depend a lot of the level of education of population, and the way media depict and explain science can really get the population confused.

[1]

As you can see, talking about science implies a broad range of implication : not only the knowledge but legal, ethical, environmental, economic, political and sometimes religious issues. The populations usually are not well informed about science and technology, which create both a challenge and an opportunity for science centers.

Science centers

Science centers are educational facilities using methods to teach science and technology. Those methods include the use of interactive displays, events and activities, web-based education programs and remote teaching and learning techniques [2]. The range of exhibits may be oriented towards natural history, earth sciences, pure science, science and technology or industry. Aerospace, underwater exploration, nanotechnology, digitization, artificial intelligence and genetics are just a few of the subjects that may be encountered. Exhibitions based on pure science focus more specifically on demonstrating phenomena, the scientific method and the process of experimentation. The focus is on discovering learning with strong hands on emphasis.

Different thematics of the coSA center fpr activities in Graz

The audience for the science center usually includes children of school age, teenargers and adults altough science discovery rooms for preschoolers may also be found in some science centers. But children are not the only people in our society who need to understand science. And by over emphasizing fun, we run the risk of literally losing the science in science centers. Interpreting science and technology for a broad and diverse audience is at the heart of the mission of most science centers, it should include both children and adults.

Science centers are community ressources that empower parents as advocates for their children’s learning. Through content-rich exhibitions and programs, parents and children can learn together. Science centers partners with schools and expand the learning resources for families. Through after school programs, vacation and summer classes, parents are able to expand the experience base for their children, this enhances the educational infrastructure for the entire community [3].

Presentation of a chemie experiment in the Palais de la découverte in Paris [7]. Through this show, people can have a direct access to chemists and discuss with them.

Sciences Centers evolved with interactivity

20 years ago, science centers virtually owned interactivity. Video games were in their infancy, most children’s museums were small, the children’s museum file had not experienced the dramatic growth of recent years and few other interactive options existed. The competitive universe of children based centers changed this. Children’s museums look very much like science centers. Natural History Museums, zoos and art museum now reach out to families and provides hands on experiences. Even themes parks which previously used passive dark rides incorporate hands-on exhibits because they have learned that hands on increases dwell time (the time spend by visitors in an exhibition). So hands on pays.

In the 1970 only 16 museums centers existed worldwide. Today, Science centers and science museums are present on all continents and welcome 300 million visitors [4]. Large science centers exist in smaller cities, and more are in the planning stages. The proliferation of science centers provides multiple opportunities for informal science education.

Nowadays, there is an explosion of interaction in all the entertainment sectors, and in medias. It’s a challenge for science center to keep showing entertaining and educational content. Indeed who wants to see something in a science center that you can see on the TV or somewhere else ? The approach used by science centers against this is to integrate what can be seen as meaningful interactive experiences with authentic objects and concepts that can’t be replicated out of the space of the science center because every object used is unique. In this way, space and material is way more important than in every other exhibition [3].

The challenge of children education

Although aimed generally at children from preschool age through to about age 12, experience has demonstrated the value of having separate areas designed to serve the developmental requirement of toddlers (aged 18 monthts to 3 years), preschool and kindergarten children (aged 4-6) and primary and middle school children (aged 6-8 and 9-12). In addition, children’s spaces must accomodate accompanying adults and family groups including parents, grandparents, and both younger and older children.

The range of exhibits that may be conceived for a children’s exhibition space is very wide, but in virtually every instance there will be an interactive element. Interactivity in the children’s gallery can be :

  • Low tech : relying on such activities as storytelling, role playing ,dress-up ; directed seeing, and puzzle solving ; facility demands might include low dividing walls surrounding a play area or special floor surfaces, but these are generally manageable within most building types
Example of a low tech activity by the “Mazes & Brain Games” of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
  • Medium tech :  which might involve working with clay, printmaking, such activites may demand water supply and drainage, food storage, animal care, and clean up facilities
example of medium tech experiment
  • High tech : using technology such as scientific apparatus or multimedia that may be as demanding of smart exhibition space as any sophisticated black box exhibition
example of high tech experiment from International Spy Museum of Washington, DC [6]

Intercreative exhibition spaces

More and more museums of all types are creating spaces and exhibits that offer different generations and market segments opportunities to interact creatively through diverse means such as performance problem solving hands on experience, experiment, creative writing, filmmaking, and many other activities. We may call the intercreative exhibition spaces.

Intercreative centers require specialized types of supports, storage and workshop space. They may feature living collections, moving water or wind tunnels, or industrial, transportation, medical, or military technology. Part of the ethos of these exhibitions is that visitors are invited not only to look at exhibits, but to learn by doing, so facilities must be designed for visitor participation, either right in the exhibition spaces or in immediately adjacent areas [3].

Science club in the fleet Science center of San Diego [6]

 Planning and design of intercreative spaces may require the participation of specialists in the art, science or performance activity intended, or in the design of art studios, laboratories, workshops, rehearsal or performance venues, multimedia production facilities, TV or recording studios, or other specialized environments.

Most science centers resquires flexibiliy in their galleries so that the space can be completely reconfigured for each exhibition. Intercreative exhibition spaces require smart technologyu capability and flexbility of the location, setup ; and replacement of stand alone exhibit modules which are likely to change anywhere from every 2 months to every 3 to 5 years. For intercreative spaces incorporated within an exhibition space, the following requirements may apply and be specified in the design requirement for individual exhibits :

  • Access to power and data grids extended accross floors, majors walls, and ceilings
  • Level changes or the ability to build in structures provinding new levels and enclosures
  • Ability to create equipment pits in selected areas
  • Capacity for at least one school class (30 children) at one time
  • Storage for supplies and props, housekeeping and installation equipment nearby
  • Good service access via loading docks freight elevators, or hydraulic ligts
  • Public access for all age groups
  • Water supply and drainage
  • Air compressors
  • Sturdy washable surfaces
  • Specialized sound and light systems
  • Suspension capability for exhibit elements including electronics
  • Special acoustic treatments [3]
Intercreative space of the coSA center

An overview of Science Centers and institutions around the world

As we previously said before science center are getting more and more present worldwide. A few institutions are trying to promote their visibility such as the international science center. It is a yearly global event illustrating the impact and reach of all the world’s science centers and science museums. The last event was last year, because of COVID.

Cover of the website [8]

An other institution is the Association of science and technology centers, you can see their goals underneath.

Strategies of the association [9]

If you want to get an overview of the different Science Centers around the world you can go visit those links :

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/sci.html

https://www.astc.org/find-a-science-center/

Sources :

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/09/29/science-and-scientists-held-in-high-esteem-across-global-publics/

[2] https://www.ctsc.org.za/about/what-is-a-science-centre/

[3] http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-59702005000400013

[4] http://www.iscsmd.org/about/

[5] https://www.spymuseum.org/education-programs/educators/interactive-virtual-field-trip/

[6] https://www.fleetscience.org/events/science-clubs

[7] https://kalstein.eu/a154/Palais-de-decouverte-presente-des-salles-de-chimie/article_info.html

[8] http://www.iscsmd.org/about/

[9] https://www.astc.org/about/strategy/