Science on a Sphere: Formative Evaluation Report

In May of 2006, Science on a Sphere (SOS) was set up in a permanent exhibit space at the Science Museum of Minnesota. With the new installation of the Sphere, came the addition of a variety of features that were not included in the initial front-end study. These new features included an expanded playlist, new audio for some of the visualizations, accompanying labels projected on the wall describing the visualization, indication on the labels of what image will be playing next, and seating for visitors so they can sit and view the sphere. The new master playlist was composed of three smaller playlists titled "In Our Solar Neighborhood"€, €œ"Earth, the Water Planet", and "Earth Surface Dynamics"€. The duration of the entire master playlist was 55 minutes. A formative evaluation of SOS was carried out to gain feedback on the new exhibit features. Visitors were unobtrusively observed when they entered the exhibit area to understand visitors'€™ behavior at the exhibit and how long they stay. When visitors left the exhibit they were approached for an interview to gain a deeper understanding of their experience. A total of 50 visitors were observed and interviewed. Key findings include: 1. The median viewing time was three and a half minutes. Thirty seconds longer than the previous study in which a much shorter playlist was used. 2. Over half of the visitors read a label, talked about the content, pointed to the sphere, or sat down to view the sphere. 3. Visitors who sat were stayed at the exhibit significantly longer than those who did not sit. 4. Visitors were most frequently interested in the technology of the sphere. 5. The use of questions in the labels improved the majority of visitor's experiences. This report includes an observation protocol, interview protocol and survey.