“Oh my goodness. The whole thing is about ratios!” A longitudinal summative evaluation of visitor experiences in four Math Moves! exhibitions.

This study was a longitudinal summative evaluation of repeat visitors’ experiences in four Math Moves! exhibitions that were developed as part of a large collaborative exhibition development project called Math Core for Museums, and mounted at four museums around the country: Museum of Science (Boston); Museum of Life & Science (Durham, NC); Explora (Albuquerque); and Science Museum of Minnesota (St. Paul). The summative evaluation purposively selected four family groups at each institution and collected naturalistic data as the 16 groups engaged with the exhibits from 4-6 times over a two year period. Most initial and final study visits were video recorded with a researcher on site, and all study visits were followed up by an audio recorded face-to-face or telephone depth interview.