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I am interested to learn of these distinctions, but I think Dave Taylor
(I think it was) had an excellent point when he said that there are some
topics more conducive to manipulating intrinsic variables than others.
For the recent exhibition on time, just to take one example,
manipulating that key variable is going to be rather tricky. We are
right in the thick of developing an exhibition about networks, and we
moved the content toward areas where you could directly manipulate the
variables, away from the more obvious "technological" networks, in order
to develop what Bob describes as "strong" activities.  Our prototyping
has shown that physical puzzle and challenge activities are quite
successful in engaging participants in the content, so I would consider
these distinctly different from pushing buttons.  We have more
prototyping to do, the exhibition opens in a year, so we'll see how
successful we are in getting this rather abstract content across.



Eric Siegel
Director of Planning
   & Program Development
Connections Project Director
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
[log in to unmask]
www.nyscience.org

> Ted Ansbacher has made a similar distinction just described
> by Andrew Lloyd concerning different types interactions with
> hands-on exhibits.
>
> He defines interaction as "weak" where the activity is not
> directly connected to the content, such as pushing a button
> or putting together a puzzle.
>
> He describes interaction as "strong" where the activity
> directly associated with or directly affects the content,
> such as manipulating variables in exhibits on sound or light.
>
> Robert L. Russell, Ph.D.
> [log in to unmask]
> (202) 661-8080 (office)
> (202) 997-5539 (cell)
> (202) 637-8801 (fax)
>
> Principal, Learning Experience Design, LLC
> Science Advisor, Celebra la Ciencia
> (www.celebralaciencia.org) Contributing > Editor, Informal
> Learning Review (www.informallearning.com)
>
>
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