Children's Discovery Museum

Learning

Art loft, art education the benefits of art education

Learning Principles At Play

• Transfer (prep for future learning, transfer art to other

circumstances)

• ZPD (adult / staff modeling)
• Motivation / Engagement
• LPP? COP? (not present in the current system but desired by the designer)

Affordances

• Clear Windows
• Supervising Adults
• Facilitated by Staff
• Materials
• Prepared for interaction and learning
• Museum atmosphere
• Lots of natural lighting
• Designated space
• Controlled Access

Constraints

• Limited Capacity (space)
• Limited Access Times (15 mins @ a time)
• Budget
• Limited Staff
• Dubious Legitimacy of Children’s Art
• Too low profile for art community
• Museum is about play and learning, not Art
• Differing viewpoints

What are ppl expecting?

Parents

• A 15 min art show/experience
• A ‘check off’ of the museum experience
• The ability to help the kids
• To be ‘smarter’ than the kids
• Different from artwork at home

Kids

• Do some art
• Take something home?
• Spend 15 minutes
• Different from artwork at home

Designers

• Involved creation discovery process including, hopefully, an ‘aha’
• i.e., a realization that can be carried to future projects and life outside
• Expect the parents will learn something about art
• A experience that is transferable to home life

Environmental Factors

• In the CDM
• 2nd floor – removed from hubbub
• Active Art Space
• Context: chaperoned ‘field trip’ – trip with a parent
• San Jose
• Line-up outside
• Limited space in front
• Space is visible while waiting in line
• Small childrens’ area (wunderkabinet) is adjacent
• Locked / limited and controlled access
• Newer space
• In an area with many other museums
• Unique section of the museum with its own norms of interaction different from the surrounding space

Scalability

• Space might be able to handle more people at a time
• Staff may not be able to handle more kids at a time
• During peak hours 15 minute window CAN’T scale up
• Space not expandable architecturally might be able to have satellite activities
• Having the visible workspace while waiting may be more / less frustrating with other populations
• Art is not the only thing taught in this museum

Extensions

• Take away creativity and the potential for making art
• A sense of the importance of art
• A smile
• Own project
• Experience of interacting with

• ‘Aha’s – transferable knowledge bits
• Parents take away
• New knowledge about art potential of everyday materials
• Insight into their own kids creative process
• Creative process for themselves
• What stage their child is in developmentally
• Exposure to other children, parents, and new ideas
• Discovery is not child specific
• Legitimacy of childrens’ art

• Bottom Line: Children have a lot to learn and a lot to teach

Formality / Participation structures

• Line forming for access
• Line to get materials

1. Staff lines up kids
2. Gives instructions on todays theme
3. Line forms and takes materials from a single table
4. Take all needed (or wanted) materials back to space
5. Freeform access to additional materials
6. Afterwards the staff don’t give so much instruction

• 15 minute access points
• Place finished products on a specified shelf (probably based on the space already having the art on it rather than on receiving formal instruction)
• Unsure of process for accessing finished work once dry
• Individuals can go, field trip people who are done have to wait
• Projects tend to be individual
• Parents help with cleanup
• Chaperones on field trips tend not to help with cleanup
• If kids come into a clean area they tend to want to leave it clean

What Can You Measure

• Record finished products
• Time spent engaged in project
• Consecutive 15 minute periods in the room
• Parents’ / Chaperones time on task
• How many projects are left behind vs. how many go home
• How many projects are completed
• Repeat customers (school and other institution)
• Repeat customers (individuals or family units)
• Kids per chaperone group
• Line length
• % visitors to the museum who visit the art loft
• % adults that help with projects and time spent
• # kids who feel like they did the projects themselves
• perceived ratio of child : parent effort on project
• Previous art experience (adults and children)
• What exhibit are they coming from
• What other exhibits did they see
• What is the primary goal of the trip? (kids and parents)
• # kids that talk to others
• Staff interaction with parents
• Time spent cleaning

How Can You Measure Learning?

• Two projects comparing the first to the second
• Low level exit questionnaire (put a ball in the basket for satisfaction)
• Simple quizzes to measure engagement (e.g. “what materials did you use / did your child use”)
• Website for submissions of home projects to see if there is transfer of things learned here to the home environment
• ‘Send is pictures of things you’ve done at home’
• Do people follow / look at directions?
• # of repeat instructions
• Time spent on cleaning can help to show how learners adjust to the space, taking responsibility for your actions.

Q’s

What are the tensions that exist between individuals groups that exist in public learning spaces?

• Different expectations of time spent
• Different ratio of chaperone / kid
• Different speeds of interaction
• Different levels of engagement (some chaperoned kids just don’t want to be here while individual kids probably wont come otherwise)
• Groups compete within themselves for time on a specific task.

What tensions exist between the various missions of the organizations that maintain public spaces?

• Designer / User
• Art / Learning
• Designer / Implementation
• Designer / Budget

Designers should focus one user and design for that, focus on extreme users and design for them, design flexibility into the space?

• You sometimes have groups and you sometimes have individuals, schools vs. individuals is a major tension of these spaces and is a massive on the space and resources.