Outdoor Exploratorium: Front End Study – Open-Ended Exploration with a Noticing Toolkit at the Palace of Fine Arts

The Outdoor Exploratorium Project is a five-year project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF0104478), that aims to encourage and support visitors in noticing the subtleties of the outdoor environment. The study described here is one in a set of evaluation studies conducted for this project. It is a first look at what and how visitors notice in the area immediately outside the Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts. In particular, we look at visitors' experiences with a noticing toolkit, a set of simple tools we gave visitors to encourage them to explore the outdoors. The study 1) categorizes what visitors noticed and what caught their attention, 2) gauges participants' reactions to an open-ended exploration and noticing activity, and 3) identifies what tools visitors used, how they used it and what, if anything, was frustrating about each tool. The results are intended to inform the content and activity development for the Outdoor Exploratorium Project, in general, and future development of an outdoor noticing tool shed, in particular. The appendix of this report includes the interview protocol.