From Hands On to Minds On: Labeling Interactive Exhibits

This paper presents findings from a label study project at the Franklin Institute Science Museum, part of the Naive Knowledge Research Project, funded by NSF to identify "naive notions" about science, in particular the cause and nature of gravity, and test the power of interactive devices to alter them. The device which prompted this label study was designed to correct the misconception that spinning pulls things in and, more specifically, that the earth's rotation generates its gravitational pull.