Visitor Responses and Behaviors in the Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History

This study, requested by Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small, was conducted between April 2004 and May 2005, over all four seasons, and used the following methods: 1) open-ended interviews with 55 visit groups; 2) formal observations of a sample of 100 visitors, for which the observer estimated the age and gender of visitors and noted their paths, all stops over 3 seconds in length, what displays they looked at, and which hands-on devices they used; 3) a peer review panel comprised of seven ex- hibition specialists (curators, designers,writers, educators, and exhibition developers) who work at or for the Smithsonian; 4) a teen review panel of three local high-school students, who also conducted interviews with teens in the exhibition.