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Right, but Ed said "average" 30 minute dwell time...
Speaking of Temple Grandin, has this been circulated here?
<http://www.videosift.com/video/TEDtalks-2008-Jill-Bolte-Taylor-My-stroke-of-insight
>
Pretty amazing
Eric Siegel
esiegel at nyscience dot org
On May 18, 2008, at 1:20 PM, Charles Carlson wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> A few thoughts from me, which may either cloud or clarify the
> discussion: Human brains are all different––it's an inescapable
> uniqueness factor. It may be useful to reflect on Temple Grandin's
> division of things between "social" brain and "thing" brain at two
> opposite ends of a continuous spectrum, and what may be interesting
> and essential for one may in fact be useless and frightening to the
> other is a corollary. Human survival depended upon both component
> ends of the spectrum and probably still does.
>
> We've all probably seen people spend 30 minutes at an exhibit, that
> happens at a low frequency but it's there. Unless one is able to
> identify, measure and record the long term impacts from these
> transitory events, it's probably all a crap shoot about their
> purported benefits. Think about how difficult it is in your own
> life to make significant changes that really stick and last. We
> can't even measure what goes on in schools. Somethings work for
> some period of time and then they fall out of vogue. And we're
> always getting modern and updated, new and improved. Thank God for
> computers! And one day, we'll have the swiss army knife of learning
> instantiated in a museum exhibit. Hands on works for some folks and
> not others.
>
> It's not so much that we're not learning things, but it's kind of a
> fractal of human behaviors, and there is always more to learn and
> somethings are going to be difficult for some and easy for others.
> It use to be thought than an archetypal cell existed, and upon
> closer inspection we know that they are almost all unique, and that
> molecules and structures are transitory structures in nature. Such
> is the quantum mechanical nature of the universe.
>
> Charlie
> On May 18, 2008, at 6:30 AM, Eric Siegel wrote:
>
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
>> Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>> institutions.
>> *****************************************************************************
>>
>> Hi, Ed:
>>
>> I would love to see this exhibition. 30 minutes per exhibit! That
>> is amazing. I tried googling it to no avail, do you have a written
>> description of the exhibit components or some pics you could share?
>>
>> I am looking forward to going to Toronto later this Spring to see
>> Agents of Change at Ontario Science Center also. From what I have
>> heard and seen (in pictures) this incorporates similarly open ended
>> experiences.
>>
>> Eric Siegel
>> esiegel at nyscience dot org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On May 16, 2008, at 11:43 PM, Ed Sobey wrote:
>>
>>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
>>> Centers
>>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>>> institutions.
>>> *****************************************************************************
>>>
>>> Eric-
>>>
>>> The point is that people do dwell longer at transactive exhibits.
>>> They spend
>>> longer because they can do stuff (science).
>>>
>>> Years ago when I was directing the museum in Fresno, we circulated a
>>> traveling exhibit of trans-active (open-ended) experiences ("Move
>>> it, Build
>>> it, Zap it"). Lawrence Hall and the Chicago Academy of Science
>>> rented the
>>> exhibit. Both expressed amazement at how long people spent at each
>>> exhibit
>>> and at the high level of interactivity between people at each
>>> exhibit.
>>>
>>> Chicago invested some money to study visitors. They found that
>>> visitors were
>>> spending on average around 30 minutes per exhibit (the record they
>>> reported
>>> was 60 minutes by one family at one exhibit). This is of course
>>> orders of
>>> magnitude longer than a typical interactive exhibit.
>>>
>>
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> Charles Carlson
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> exploratorium
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> ***********************************************************************
> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers
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>
> Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org
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