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This document offers guidelines for designing exhibits that engage youth with learning disabilities (LD). It includes brief background on learning disabilities and a set of personas, along with five single-page cards. Each card describes a research-derived design principle and offers guidance for exhibit teams, including prompts in the form of questions and visual examples of how the principles can be...

Knologyʼs Black Representation: Authoring STEM Stories for Climate Risk Preparedness (BlackRep4Kids) is a project focused on understanding our collective capacity to increase representations of Black children and families in childrenʼs climate literature. This project is supported by the National Science Foundationʼs Advancing STEM Informal Learning (AISL) program (award number 2314101). The project brings together researchers, educators, creatives, publishers, etc., across...

Black Representation: Authoring STEM Stories for Climate Risk Preparedness (BlackRep4Kids) was a collaborative, NSF-funded project (2023-2024) that aimed to enhance Black representation in children’s climate media, focusing on developing storytelling methods that highlight the experiences and innovations of Black communities in facing climate change. The project culminated in an unconference in October 2024, where 80 experts from fields including climate...

National Audubon Society collaborated with 18- to 25-year-olds to create a curriculum that uses birds and guided nature experiences to engage this age group in STEM fields and climate science. The curriculum was informed by input from over 600 18- to 25-year-olds who filled out surveys, participated in focus groups, co-created, and tested activities. The curriculum recognizes that participants aspire to...

Knowledge of the natural world through experiences, culture, exposure to traditions and information are things that visitors bring with them when they step in and engage in science museums. This encounter is instrumental in bringing forth feelings of awe and connection. Visitors are not just receivers of knowledge, but also sources of information, and asset-based orientations to science learning recognize...

Building Insights through Observation is a project designed to advance our understanding of how science teachers can learn to incorporate arts-based teaching methods and visualizations of authentic science data into their pedagogical practices in order to improve students’ data literacy and critical thinking skills. This project uses geospatial visualizations along with arts-based pedagogies for observing visual features of data visualizations...

The Change Your Game (formerly Game Changers) project has developed an Inventive Identity Toolkit for wide distribution across the informal science learning (ISL) community. The toolkit is aimed at exhibition designers and informal science educators; it provides practical tips to help visitors explore their inventive identities so they can see themselves as creative problem solvers. The toolkit first offers background...

Change Your Game | Cambia tu juego (CYG) is a 3,500 square foot exhibition located in the Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Uniquely, CYG aims to support history museum visitors to move beyond passively consuming information to make meaning about ways in which the exhibition is personally relevant...

This is a collaborative poster presentation between the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, describing two independent research projects on belonging in science and natural history museums. The poster describes the two projects' research designs, findings, and resulting models of belonging. The poster also shares project resources for museum practitioners interested in investigating...

The Museums and Inclusion study worked with 72 visitor groups (263 individuals) at four science/natural history museums across the United States. The individuals who visited brought a spectrum of identities and experiences, including participants from historically marginalized groups, particularly participants who identified as BIPOC, women, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. This study also included groups that contained individuals with these...

Understanding visitor belonging is a natural extension of science museums’ work to improve the visitor experience and access to informal STEM learning. The research study that informs this guide reveals that belonging can be an essential tool in improving science centers and museums to ensure equitable access for all. Reflections are a great tool for influencing concrete changes toward improving...

Researchers gathered audiences’ responses to prototype displays and inventor stories for the Game Changers exhibition (Change Your Game | Cambia tu juego). The exhibition was developed by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History. The findings informed a theoretical model of identity exploration in informal learning contexts and contributed to...

We developed and iteratively revised 5 Game Design workshops across the course of this National Science Foundation-funded (PIs: Gillespie-Lynch/Hurst, DRL: 2005772/2005729) program of research (2 workshops in Summer 1, 1 in Summer 2, and 2 in Summer 3). The purpose of these workshops was to help Autistic young people learn skills to secure meaningful jobs where they can pursue their...

This is the final summative evaluation for our project, entitled Collaborative Research: Promoting Engagement in Informal STEM Learning as a Path to Employment for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (NSF AISL 2005772 & 2005729). It was written by Drs. Meagan Henry and Ariana Riccio Arista of the Education Development Center. It summarizes EDC’s evaluation of NSF-funded Game Design and Employment...

With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) grant #2005404, the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) launched the project Change Your Game / Cambia tu juego. The project aimed to develop a STEM exhibition for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History...

With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) grant #2005404, the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) launched the project Change Your Game / Cambia tu juego. The project aimed to develop a STEM exhibition for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History...

Imagine being a visitor or a member of a visiting group walking into the lobby of a museum you’re familiar with: you see a sign proclaiming “you belong here.” How would you get a sense of belonging in that space? What would you see, hear, and feel? Where is belonging located in an experience, in the collection of spaces that...

During an in-person meeting for the Sound Travels project, we (the Center for Research and Evaluation at COSI team) asked our project partners from diverse informal learning institutions and job backgrounds to help us identify important paths for our research, given the existing set of data and measured constructs from the previous year of data collection. To do this, we...

This discussion will reflect on the collaborative work between the Museum of Science, Boston, Rochester Museum & Science Center, and Edtogther, and share insights on the methods and instruments used from working with youth ages 10-17 with learning disabilities to inform exhibit design....

This session builds off the discussion that took place at ASTC 2024. In this session, presenters shared exhibit design guidelines from youth with learning disabilities (LD) who worked alongside researchers and museum professionals. This session also covers exhibit examples from the Museum of Science, Boston and Rochester Museum & Science Center and how these insights were applied at their own...

People with learning disabilities comprise the largest population of people with disabilities in the US. This session, presented during the 2023 Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) conference. This session covers exhibits that were tested as part of the project's work, along with changes made and insights based on the feedback from youth with learning disabilities....

Experiential learning opportunities relevant to Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) are scarce, especially for students at the associate, undergraduate and master's levels or for early/mid-career professionals seeking up-skilling. While theoretical knowledge is essential, hands-on experiences using real-world equipment and facilities play a crucial role in deepening understanding and fostering practical skills. Unfortunately, due to the complex and specialized nature...

A research-practice partnership between museum-based educators and scientists, learning researchers, and rural community members was designed to support climate change education in public settings. We consider the museum’s role in this work, tracing how the partnership built upon lessons learned from prior work, and used asset-based strategies to learn from the rural community. We present a survey of rural climate beliefs,...

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Garden Raised Bounty (GRuB), Feed Seven Generations, Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI), and Oregon State University were awarded a 5-year Innovations in Development grant from the National Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM Learning (NSF-AISL) program entitled Transforming American Indian and Alaska Native STEM Learning via Indigenous Knowledge Translation, Education, and the Environment [NSF DRL #1812543]....

Through a partnership between the Public Archaeology Facility and the Department of Teaching, Learning & Education Leadership at Binghamton University, Binghamton University Community Schools, and three local, rural schools, middle school learners were engaged in an afterschool program that blended Western STEM concepts, practices, and processes emphasized in school standards with archaeological and Indigenous concepts, practices, and processes rooted in...