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Peer-reviewed article

Facilitating Family Group Inquiry at Science Museum Exhibits

January 1, 2010 | Media and Technology, Exhibitions
The authors describe a study of programs to deepen families' scientific inquiry practices in a science museum setting. The programs incorporated research-based learning principles from formal and informal educational environments. In a randomized experimental design, two versions of the programs, called inquiry games, were compared to two control conditions. Inquiry behaviors were videotaped and compared at pretest and posttest exhibits. Family members were also interviewed about their perceptions and use of the inquiry games. Results indicated that visitors who learned the inquiry games improved their inquiry more than those who did not. Effect sizes ranged from 0.3 to 0.7, depending on the assessment measure. Visitors who learned the collaborative inquiry game showed even more improvement than those who learned the individualized game, spending more time investigating the posttest exhibit, making more frequent and more abstract interpretations of their experiments, building more collaborative explanations, and engaging in more coherent inquiry investigations than controls. Qualitative analysis suggested that the collaborative inquiry game was superior because it required all family members to participate, work together, and explicitly articulate their interpretations. Visitors in all conditions enjoyed their experience, varied in what they liked and disliked, and reported applying what they had learned at new exhibits.

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  • 2013 07 22 Josh
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    Exploratorium
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    Allen and Associates
  • Citation

    ISSN : 1098-237X
    Publication Name: Science Education
    Volume: 94
    Number: 4
    Page Number: 710

    Funders

    NSF
    Funding Program: ISE/AISL
    Award Number: 0411826
    Funding Amount: 1256847
    Resource Type: Research Products
    Discipline: Education and learning science | General STEM | Physics
    Audience: Families | Museum/ISE Professionals | Evaluators
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Games, Simulations, and Interactives | Exhibitions | Museum and Science Center Exhibits

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