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Charlie-

I agree that not all visitors are engaged by the same things...which is why a science center should be filled with variety.  And, floor people don't have to approach visitors.  If floor people are doing something cool, people come to them.  If you, the visitor, want to avoid human contact, you can.  

Providing challenges or opportunities to be challenged works.  It works especially well with kids.  In fact, if you have kids do anything, they'll start to compare results or make challenges for themselves.  It's a natural phenomena - one that lends itself to learning environments.

And, I agree we must walk a delicate balance.  But my point is, how about letting people "do science" in a science center instead of talking about science.  They talk about and read about science in school, but rarely get to do science.  How about creating a place (a science center) to do science.  To get them going, engage them by asking if they can build a car that rolls down a ramp (a challenge). This is not threatening and if visitors don't want to they don't have to, but the challenge provides initial focus and from there they can figure out what interests them and what experiments they should run.  

Let people do science and learn, instead of telling them what we think they should know.

							Ed



Ed Sobey, Ph.D.
Northwest Invention Center
www.invention-center.com
(425) 861-8685

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