MAPS2022

I wanted to focus my Exhibit Exploration on the various ways to engage guests with magnets at the museum. While I initially planned to look only at Magnetic Islands, it occurred to me this week that Ring Launch, Ferrofluid, and the magnetic blocks in the play area of the IWS tie in logically to this discussion. I am not including the magnetic tiles at the Light Fountain, to limit my exploration to one floor only.  Most guests are familiar with magnets when they come to the museum. I think they are an effective exhibit choice from a constructivist perspective, since they are something nearly everyone can connect to a real-life experience, whether that is with a magnetic toy, refrigerator magnets, or something covered in science class at school. What MOXI offers is an opportunity to explore the core idea of magnetism in multiple contexts, and in ways likely unavailable at home.  Magnetic Islands: Magnetic Islands offer several different options for engagement. I’ve observed gue...

It's been a while since the last reflection. These have been a very busy few weeks, but hopefully ones that will positively impact my own experience and expertise with museums. Since the last reflection, we've had a number of busy days, namely Veteran's Day and Black Friday. I've also been interviewing for the Weekend Supervisor position and am excited to say that I plan to accept the offer when it comes. However, the experience that is most memorable as far as facilitation and education is the experience of running the Thanksgiving Superhero Camp. It's not my first time running a camp or field trip, but it is my first time running a camp with the context of this course. I could definitely see the influence of modern science standards and practices in the curriculum. It feels like the most important readings for contextualizing the camp were actually the ones we did with Danielle Harlow in the first section. The curriculum felt very MOXI-esque, designed to hopefull...

Introduction and Methodology.  In general, I am not happy with my visitor survey. I don't think I was able to get a good variety of responses and I wasn't overly pleased with how I conducted my oral interviews during the first portion of the survey. I did include a multiple choice section. I think people were generally accurate, with a potential source of error being that some of the respondents answering the question from the perspective of their children.  The front page was conducted as a verbal interview, while the second was handed to the recipient after the interview was completed. I'd like to interview more people, improve my survey format, survey guests over a greater variety of times and days, and find a way to collect more data about the motivations of the children and family members of those who I interviewed. Results.  Guest Types Respondents Interview Based Estimation Explorer 1 + 1* 1 Professional 0 1 Facilitator 2 2 Experience Seeker 4 + 1* 4 Recharger 0 0 ...

How do this week's readings relate to visitors at MOXI? What have you observed that is supported by the reading? Anything that conflicts? First off, I want to briefly comment on the very human need to categorize. Based on my own experience at MOXI, I think there is a nuance that Falk is having difficulty communicating, as I'm not entirely satisfied with some of the distinctions made: for example, the recharger and experience seeker both have similar needs to reflect on the overall ambience of the space. The categorization of museum visitors emphasized in this week's readings and the assignment is useful though, both in terms of communicating and educating museum scientists and analyzing data.  At MOXI, based on my experience, we have patterns of visitors. Weekends receive crowds of tourists while weekdays are a trickle of field trip groups, members, and people with the odd day off from distant towns and communities. I can definitely identify some of the types of guests we r...

The survey I gave out for this assignment was very short: there was one multiple choice question that asked visitors to select the statement that was closest to their primary reason for visiting the museum, and one free-response question where I asked them to state their reason for visiting the museum in their own words. The multiple choice question was worded as follows: Which option best describes your PRIMARY reason for visiting MOXI today? -I was interested to see what I personally could learn here at the museum -I thought it would be a relaxing way to spend some of my time -I brought children, other family members, or friends with me that I thought would enjoy the museum -I was looking for ideas or inspiration related to my work and/or personal hobbies -I'd heard positive things about the museum and decided it would be a good place to check out With one exception, my participants’ free-response answers were easy to categorize into one of Falk’s five motivators. The one excepti...