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Maija,

in our exhibition "the gender EXPERIMENT" visitors receive a bracelet with a
barcode  identifying them as either male (blue bracelet) or female (pink
bracelet). The barcode is necessary to start the exhibits. At each exhibit
we keep track of the result obtained by the individual visitor, and of the
average score of male and female visitors.
The main objective of the barcode system was a sort of
competition/comparison between de talents of women and men. For most
exhibits we did not observe large differences in talents .
An additional bonus of the barcode system is that we collect a lot of
information about visitor behaviour:
51% of the visitors of the exhibition are female, female visitors spend more
time in the exhibition and interact with more exhibits
but:
68 % of visitors who program a robot-dino  to look for a treasure (using a
flow chart system) are male
63 % of the visitors who 'make a baby' and find out what gender it is, are
female

in general:
men interact more with 'technical' exhibits: electricity, spatial insight.
Women prefer exhibits about people: recognizing faces, identifying body
parts as being male or female. One exception being the exhibit where
visitors get increasingly difficult mental arithmetic tasks: although a very
rigid science exhibit, it is much more popular among girls.

Our results show that those girls who do try out the more technically
looking exhibits have scores comparable to the male visitors (and they are
told so by the exhibit).

best regards,

Patricia

Patricia Verheyden
Manager of exhibits
Technopolis
Technologielaan
2800 Mechelen
tel. + 32 015 34 20 20
fax + 32 015 34 20 10
mailto [log in to unmask]
http://www.technopolis.be

De bovenvermelde berichten/tekst en bijlagen verbinden Stichting
F.T.I/Technopolis op geen enkele wijze, tenzij anders werd overeengekomen
bij een schriftelijke overeenkomst of tenzij zij later worden bevestigd bij
een overeenkomstig de wettelijke voorschriften ondertekende brief.  Evenmin
kunnen Stichting F.T.I/Technopolis aansprakelijk worden gesteld op grond van
de inhoud van deze berichten/tekst en bijlagen.




-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Maija Sedzielarz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Verzonden: maandag 28 juni 2004 23:43
Aan: [log in to unmask]
Onderwerp: research on gender or ethnicity and exhibit use


ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
****************************************************************************
*

Does anyone know of recent research looking at issues of the influence of
gender or ethnicity on exhibit access or use?

Thanks.

Maija

Maija Sedzielarz
Coordinator, School Visit Programs
Science Museum of Minnesota
120 Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul MN  55102
(651)221-4554  FAX: 651-221-4528
[log in to unmask]
Give EXPLORATIONS a try - self-guides to museum galleries for teachers and
students: http://www.smm.org/explorations

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