MAPS2022

 The essence of informal learning is that individuals get to select what, where and when to learn, presumably primarily driven by intrinsic motivation. However, as facilitators we may have very specific learning goals and outcomes we wish to achieve. How can we structure engagement to build on intrinsic motivation but at the same time motivate individuals to try/learn things that they may not have initially realized was worth learning? ASSIGNMENT 1 To briefly expand on the included context of the question, I found in our readings the observation that people who expected to be involved in a science career at the age of 13 were far more likely to have earned a science degree ( The 95% Solution) partiulcarly intrigueing. This describes myself (I believe, at the age of 13, I wanted to go into the biological sciences, even though I eventually gravitated towards geology) and many people I know. I was lucky to have a variety of informal learning experiences as a child as well as a family ...

This week’s readings and prompt got me thinking a lot about learning goals, and how those might differ between museums. Depending on the setting, the learning goal might be specific pieces of content, or it might be a set of experiences. I really liked the way this was broken down in “The Constructivist Museum.” It made me consider the variety of different approaches museums may take while still falling under the umbrella of “informal learning.”   My previous experience with the Boston Museum of Science was quite different from my experience here at MOXI. In the theory presented in “The Constructivist Museum,” I would say that the Boston MOS is far closer to a “Systematic Museum” (Hein, 2). As a volunteer, I was still taught not to lecture or overly explain to our guests, but there were several probing questions I was encouraged to ask to guide them to certain key concepts for each activity. These questions were also underlaid by a framework of learning goals related to the scienti...

Over the past 2 weeks, I've spent a lot of time in the Innovation Workshop. It has been an interesting experience and one that has been mostly positive. To understand the present, however, I have to go back to the past.  The very first week the IWS was open included Labor Day weekend. With a staff of less than 40 hours of experience in totality (and with that experience on light days following the soft opening), we dealt with a massive deluge of weekend guests. It was pretty miserable and the normal full-time supervisors weren't there to assist. There were various difficulties: keeping the space presentable while it was mostly full, turning people away at the door while at capacity and being berated by guests who were insistent on experiencing the whole museum, having people sneak in or even steal projects, and simply dealing with more than a dozen people at a time.  In the aftermath, I requested more time at the Innovation Workshop to really strive to improve my control of th...

  (As our class meeting has been shifted to next week, this is a regular blog post, rather than the assignment) My last blog post talked about one of the harder shifts I’ve had—so I’m happy to report that today was probably my best time on the floor to date! I think I can attribute much of this to the energy that I brought in with me, and my energy was extremely positive today following a very fun and successful VDL this morning. VDL facilitation is easily my favorite part of this job so far. I often enjoy and certainly don’t dread floor work—it’s a good challenge, and something I’m always wanting to improve at—but I am beyond thrilled about VDLs. We have four this week, with classes ranging from 2nd-5th grade, and even though some of them are at 8:30 in the morning, I find that I’m even excited at the prospect of waking up early for them. I’ve always loved giving presentations, and unlike floor facilitation, it’s something I already feel that I’m good at, like I’m starting from sq...

 This past week, I had the opportunity to work with Chandler doing outreach at the local Affordable Housing Fair. This really takes me back to some of the most positive experiences I've had, from going to elementary and middle schools for safety trainings and demonstrations with my Martial Arts Studio, to meeting some of my longest lasting friends at college orientation, and later as a club organizer for the Geology Student Organization and the Secret Swords and Sorcery Society.  It is a very different kind of energy. While guests that come to the museum floor are committed both to the idea of learning and the time that it takes to explore, with tabling, you have just a single moment to infect the passer by with passion, energy, and the information you want to give them. In this case, we were presenting our Museums for All program, whereby people with EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) Cards from CalFresh can purchase general admission tickets for just $1.  Other than the ...

This past Saturday afternoon was an especially hard floor shift. Staff was spread pretty thin due to event prep for the wedding that night, on top of all the usual weekend crowds. Amidst the chaos, we had an especially long Code Orange (right when I was thinking “wow, this afternoon has been hectic, can you imagine if we ALSO had a Code Orange today?”). With all the palpable stress in the air, it was hard for me to find the energy to enthusiastically facilitate, and I often ended up defaulting to more maintenance tasks like taking apart cars, pulling parachutes down from the rafters, and sweeping up the gravel in Quiet Quest.   I’ve mentioned quite a few times that open-ended floor facilitation is pretty far outside my comfort zone. I can often get stuck on doing something “the right way” the first time, and on numerous occasions I’ll find myself running through possible ways to engage a group of guests in my head, only for them to move onto the next thing before I can even start t...

Last week, I had been keeping track of interesting interactions with guests. However, on Wednesday, I learned that my family's dog, Flip Flop, had a complication with their planned surgery - the removal of 5 teeth. Since I was already in downtown, I returned to MOXI for the craft night and started looking for covers. Flip Flop came out of surgery fairly loopy and missing not 5, but 10 teeth, and over the course of the next 36 hours, became more and more paralyzed until trouble breathing forced my parents to take him back to the pet hospital. He was there for a long time, but eventually emerged healthier than before. He was able to move his rear legs, but was still in a precarious position.  The week became not a reflection on individual reactions, but an exercise of working with this issue at the back of my mind. I scrambled to find covers and tried to get to San Diego as quickly as possible, from where I currently write this post.  Regardless of the type of shift, the friendl...

  Blog post week 9/28/21-10/5/21 As I’ve been getting used to floor facilitation, I’ve been working to identify where I feel most and least comfortable at the museum. I’ll almost certainly be able to dedicate more blog posts to this, so today I wanted to focus on one exhibit that has perplexed me the most from the beginning: Mind Ball.   One of my issues with Mind Ball is purely logistical. I decided to play around with it for a bit one morning before guests showed up, and found it frustrating that you can’t see the monitor while you’re playing. It feels a like you can only get half the experience at a time—either you can play the game, or you can watch the game’s progress. My primary issue with Mind Ball, however, is more conceptual. I know that our exhibits are not concept-centered, but as a former neuroscience major, my curiosity was piqued when I was first introduced to Mind Ball. On a few occasions, I decided to test what would happen if you started the game without any p...