Designing museum exhibits to support the development of scientific thinking in informal learning environments: A university-museum-community partnership.

Abstract

Our objective is to scaffold the natural behaviors that support scientific thinking and STEM learning in children through museum exhibit design and development. Here, we describe a collaborative research-to-practice initiative called "Designing Museum Exhibits to Support the Development Scientific Thinking in Informal Learning Environments: A University-Museum-Community Partnership," in which we document natural behavior in the context of children's informal learning environments and detail our plans to translate our findings into exhibit development. This initiative is part of a long-standing university (UT Austin, Center for Applied Cognitive Science), museum (Thinkery-Austin Children's Museum), and community (Austin's Early Learner Community) partnership called Thinkery Connect. Our first aim here is to review best practices in STEM exhibit design that fosters scientific thinking. We will then describe the design of a study on exhibit signage to promote scientific thinking development. We will also discuss our plans to develop and evaluate exhibit signage in context. Our long-term objective is to deepen engagement in activities that build scientific thinking for visitors at children's museums like Thinkery, at home, and in the community.