How grandparents and their grandchildren think about and use informal spaces

This study compared grandparent-grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums and websites are not yet supporting? Do they find museums and websites to be good places to learn alongside their grandchildren? Our findings suggested that grandparents prefer museums as locations for intergenerational learning because the museum environment is more supportive of social engagement in ways that allow grandparents to accomplish their own visiting agendas. In contrast, the web appeared to introduce conflict between grandparent and grandchild agendas.