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Last year I went over to the singapore sciecne centre
to run the exhibit design training mentoring sessions for just such a project ( was run the previous year as well).
I've found it hard enough ( on occasions) to get industrial designers, or other design professionals to really understand what
an interactive exhibit is - getting kids across it can be as hard.
The sessions I looked after ( about 400 students from senior primary to uni pre entry) with groups of around 10 to 25 per session
were mostly focused on trying to get across the difference between a science fair project ( which many were familiar with) and what an interactive exhibit
needed...
many students found cool stuff in youtube and were just going to explain or recreate that.. so a lot of demonstrations, or models... it was necessary to really work with the groups
( in pairs and triplets often with their teacher/parent over the shoulder).. to tease the principle of what they were demo'ing out and get them to allow for some interaction/discovery/play.
The project was the "The Amazing Science-X Challenge" had folk from science centres like me, other mentors and lectures from design lecturers etc,
google up the project title and your find some of the resources/face book pages.
The main stimulus I (tried) to inject was to get the students to understand that they were making something FOR OTHERS to play with and discovery great things...
NOT making a demo that showed they understood a lot about what was going on.
ALSO because youtube was a source of many ideas The mentoring sessions also had to get some bad incorrect ideas about what was going on out of their heads.
If any one of interested I can find some of the details of the project and my section and share this round.
My team also looks after the delivery of an exhibition design coursework component ( of a grad diploma in sci-com) at our national university.. and many of the same challenges
about WHAT an "exhibit is" are to be found in these very bright students...
Dr Stuart Kohlhagen
Manager Research and Development
Questacon
The National science and technology centre
Canberra
Australia
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network on behalf of Erich Rose
Sent: Wed 2/02/2011 5:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exhibit Design Contest
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Hey aren't there child-labor laws about this? You trying to put us hard working exhibit designers outa work? I mean come on....
But seriously. I would have them follow as realistic a professional design process as possible or practical. Of course there are many variations on how that happens but they generally include a number of common phases: Research/Evaluation; Concept, Schematic/Development; Control/Final.
Research and evaluation would include being given parameters such as educational goals, experiential goals, target audience, physical constraints, etc.
Concept can be about brainstorming, sketching, free association and you either develop a handful of alternatives or one final idea.
Schematic or development would be about fleshing it out. Figuring out how big or small it really would be and how it would be built. It might include developing graphics or a written walkthrough.
Final design is pretty much just what it says. Scaled drawings and final specifications.
BIG QUESTION: Is the intention to actually build these? If not then you may just want to take them through concept.
I would give them the educational and experiential goals as well as a very general set of physical parameters (sized for kids, must fit in a defined space, can't be made of solid gold, etc.)
I would get them to do a written "walk through" of the exhibit. Getting them to think about the step by step experience is a great way to "proof" the design. It also provides a task that the less artistic kids can tackle while others are drawing or building models.
Erich Rose
Erich Rose Design
807 The Living End
Austin, TX 78746
512-626-9930; [log in to unmask]
On Feb 1, 2011, at 11:34 AM, Jeff Rosenblatt wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> We are planning an interactive exhibit design contest for schools grades k-8 and 9-12. Has anybody ever tried this before? If so, what kind of parameters/requirements did you provide to the schools, things like exhibit dimensions, weight, interactivity, summary of science concepts, safety, etc... And what types of categories (or rubric) do you all think would be best to evaluate and judge the exhibit designs.
>
> Currently, we would plan to fabricate the top 2 winning designs. These exhibits would be part of a larger 'Engineering Themed' exhibit space. Any advice would greatly help guide our efforts.
>
> --Jeff Rosenblatt--
>
> Director, Science City at Union Station
>
> ***********************************************************************
> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
>
> Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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