I am in the middle of putting together my exhibit proposal and my power point presentation for the final symposium on Friday and I had to take a quick break to geek out.
I'm going through all the data I collected by talking with people in the visitor center here, and I find myself feeling so excited! I'm so loving this. I think this kind of work is the perfect marriage of my passions for science, education, and psychology! I get to think about how the brain works, how it learns, how people interact with things based on their beliefs and values, and also some sociology of how they do all this in the context of participating with their family, sharing their opinion with others, etc. This is so cool!
I think I'm also really going to enjoy the research I'll be doing this fall with Dr. Heath Ogden. We're going to do a study on how college Biology students learn and accept or reject evolution. I'm super excited for this! Once again, it's that marriage of science, education, psychology, and even some religion on that one. Perfect.
I think the other wonderful thing about this project is that it's not just one of those research projects where you find some data and present it and you're done. No, I got to collect the data, interpret it, and immediately apply it into an exhibit proposal that is catered to the wants and needs of people based on that data I collected! It's data collection with an immediately applicable purpose! And creating the exhibit proposal is just such a powerful thing. To think that my work and ideas will be taken, tweaked and fleshed out, and made into an actual thing that people will use. That's very exciting to me. I wish I could be around for that tweaking and fleshing out process. It would be so awesome to see a project like this all the way to the finish.
Having a blast! Okay now back to work.
Showing posts with label Free Choice Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Choice Learning. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Week 8 of Internship: Climate change exhibit interface
"Would you like to take a survey?" Yes, I have said that very phrase or a variation of it many times this week. I have talked to more than 50 people and received some good feedback for my exhibit. I also began working on my exhibit proposal and visuals to go along with it. This is so fun! I love that I get to create this, and my proposal will be used to pitch the plan to whatever company they get to make the exhibit program. How sweet is that?
So, the plan is to have a big touch table - here is what it looks like, from the ideum website:
You can't see very well from that picture but people can grab photos or whatever, resize and move them around and place them wherever they want. Very cool technology. Here is a video done here at Hatfield- it has a lot of narration about Free Choice Learning, so if you're not interested in that, just scroll over to the parts that show visitors using the table, so you can see how cool it is.
So, here are the various transformations the interface has gone through:
Stage 1: My initial messy drawing to get my thoughts on paper and make sure I was on the same page with the exhibit team. At this point I thought we would just have a simple touch screen kiosk.
Stage 2: Mock-up made by Allison the graphic designer, using stage 1 as a guide. I showed this to people as I interviewed them so they'd have an idea of what the heck I was talking about.
Stage 3: My own digital version I'm currently working on, now more in sync with the awesomeness of the touch table. The final version will go into my exhibit proposal.
A folder opened - upon touching a file, an animation would show the file opening and spilling the contents on the workspace to end up kind of like this:
I'll spare you the details of the survey because I need to get back to work! I banked a couple days off and I'm taking my kids on our final trip of the summer this week, so that leaves me with only 9 more work days- eek! Have to use my time very wisely.
So, the plan is to have a big touch table - here is what it looks like, from the ideum website:
So, here are the various transformations the interface has gone through:
Stage 1: My initial messy drawing to get my thoughts on paper and make sure I was on the same page with the exhibit team. At this point I thought we would just have a simple touch screen kiosk.
Stage 2: Mock-up made by Allison the graphic designer, using stage 1 as a guide. I showed this to people as I interviewed them so they'd have an idea of what the heck I was talking about.
Stage 3: My own digital version I'm currently working on, now more in sync with the awesomeness of the touch table. The final version will go into my exhibit proposal.
A folder opened - upon touching a file, an animation would show the file opening and spilling the contents on the workspace to end up kind of like this:
Friday, July 27, 2012
Week 6 of Internship: The word at the VC
This week I got to talk to people out in the Visitor Center and get their opinions a little bit. I had them choose what case study they would want to learn more about, from a set of 14 pictures. (Species affected by global warming).
I wrote down what everyone said and came up with some interesting trends, such as how the majority of women in their 20's and 30's as well as school age girls chose the emperor penguin over the rest. This wasn't a huge surprise given the options.
So the next round, I removed the penguin and turtle to force a harder choice, so many in that age group switched to the next most familiar and cute creature: the clown fish. As my fellow intern Nick puts it, they're only interested in "charismatic mega fauna". :)
However, there was a very large number of people who chose things that were more local and meaningful to them personally. My favorite comment I found funny was, "I chose Dungeness Crab because I like to eat them. And I'm interested in keeping that going." :)
The two most surprising comments were from gentlemen who were roughly age 60 to 70. This demographic is kind of stereotyped as being very skeptical of climate change. One chose phytoplankton and said, "they are basic foodstuff. They're at the bottom of the food chain, so that has effects all the way up." The other chose algae and said, "some people don't believe [climate change] and think it's 'business as usual', but I don't think so. Algae will probably be one of the first affected." Wooohoo! You go dudes!
So my next challenge is figuring out how to do the rest of my formative evaluations to determine if people will tell a story and what media they want to help with that, as well as getting a more clear picture of what my final product (exhibit proposal) will look like.
I also got to work in the visitor center this week for a day and a half to help out. That was fun. I hung out at the touch tank for the first time and learned more about the animals there. Hoping to do that again soon. Here are a few pictures. Sorry some of them are a bit blurry. One of these days I swear I'll get a decent camera. Hopefully before I'm 80.
FYI on the above picture, the strawberry anemones are the tiny red ones dotting the rocks to right of the top anemone. The coralline algae are the crusted pink stuff toward the top and also in circles around the bottom anemone.
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| Pictures on a white board for visitors to choose from |
I wrote down what everyone said and came up with some interesting trends, such as how the majority of women in their 20's and 30's as well as school age girls chose the emperor penguin over the rest. This wasn't a huge surprise given the options.
So the next round, I removed the penguin and turtle to force a harder choice, so many in that age group switched to the next most familiar and cute creature: the clown fish. As my fellow intern Nick puts it, they're only interested in "charismatic mega fauna". :)
However, there was a very large number of people who chose things that were more local and meaningful to them personally. My favorite comment I found funny was, "I chose Dungeness Crab because I like to eat them. And I'm interested in keeping that going." :)
The two most surprising comments were from gentlemen who were roughly age 60 to 70. This demographic is kind of stereotyped as being very skeptical of climate change. One chose phytoplankton and said, "they are basic foodstuff. They're at the bottom of the food chain, so that has effects all the way up." The other chose algae and said, "some people don't believe [climate change] and think it's 'business as usual', but I don't think so. Algae will probably be one of the first affected." Wooohoo! You go dudes!
So my next challenge is figuring out how to do the rest of my formative evaluations to determine if people will tell a story and what media they want to help with that, as well as getting a more clear picture of what my final product (exhibit proposal) will look like.
I also got to work in the visitor center this week for a day and a half to help out. That was fun. I hung out at the touch tank for the first time and learned more about the animals there. Hoping to do that again soon. Here are a few pictures. Sorry some of them are a bit blurry. One of these days I swear I'll get a decent camera. Hopefully before I'm 80.
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| Hatfield Marine Science Center tide pool touch tanks |
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| variety of invertebrates in the touch tank |
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| Giant green sea anemones, orange cup coral, strawberry anemones, coralline algae |
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| Rock scallop |
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| Sea stars galore, red sea urchin, and sea cucumber (the long orange creature to the left of the urchin) |
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| Leather star- very soft |
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Week 3 - A Climate Change Enthusiast is Born
I can't believe it's been 3 weeks... time is flying, but at the same time I feel like I've been here longer. It's probably because it's like living in a dream world where I'm surrounded by other science geeks, environment geeks, animals, volcanism, teaching and learning, kids, awesome elderly folks, amazing research and incredibly intelligent and talented people constantly. Time seems to stand still as I cram my brain with cool new stuff! I can hardly contain the geeking out that is welling up inside me!
I'm going to explain more about my climate change project. The way in which the exhibit will relay the info is unique. It will take input from the visitor and then give them personalized information that they are more likely to understand and be open to. It follows the "Global Warming's Six Americas" study done by Yale in which the researchers wanted to find out what "camps" people fall into in relation to their views on climate change. They found there were 6 distinct groups from alarmed to dismissive. So this exhibit we will design is going to take input from the visitor and then give personalized information to them based on which of the 6 categories they fall into. The wonderful Free Choice Learning folks will then use this to study how this type of personalization affects learning.
I'm excited about this because I think it's a wonderful way to approach the subject. Climate change has become so political and polarized, so you really can't make a "one size fits all" message about it. I think this type of exhibit will be much more effective at meeting each individual where they are. In education we call it the "Zone of Proximal Development" - teaching something that is neither too basic nor too advanced for the student.
Here's a video that gives a quick overview of the Six Americas study if you want to know what the 6 groups are.
Education is power. It moves us to action. It causes us to share with others. It opens our minds to new possibilities and ideas. Could there be any greater work on this earth than to learn? And blessed are the ones who find themselves in the position to walk along this journey of learning with those who are new to the path (this is sometimes known as "teaching").
My greatest joy is to see a person have an "aha" moment because something they are trying to figure out finally clicks. Or to see a child get excited about something new. (And almost everything is new to a child, which is why they are so fun to learn with.) If only we all kept that childlike wonderment and curiosity about the world throughout our lives.
This week has been about the power of my education in climate change. I'm more motivated to act and share with others. Anyone who has read my earlier posts this week could see that. Heck, I even emailed my mayor back home to encourage him to become more involved for our city!
I will end with a complete tangent: the Newport 4th of July fireworks were awesome! Here's a sampling of photos:
And in typical Bio Geo Nerd fashion, everything cool should have some science connected to it... So, go to this site to learn how fireworks work! :)
I'm going to explain more about my climate change project. The way in which the exhibit will relay the info is unique. It will take input from the visitor and then give them personalized information that they are more likely to understand and be open to. It follows the "Global Warming's Six Americas" study done by Yale in which the researchers wanted to find out what "camps" people fall into in relation to their views on climate change. They found there were 6 distinct groups from alarmed to dismissive. So this exhibit we will design is going to take input from the visitor and then give personalized information to them based on which of the 6 categories they fall into. The wonderful Free Choice Learning folks will then use this to study how this type of personalization affects learning.
I'm excited about this because I think it's a wonderful way to approach the subject. Climate change has become so political and polarized, so you really can't make a "one size fits all" message about it. I think this type of exhibit will be much more effective at meeting each individual where they are. In education we call it the "Zone of Proximal Development" - teaching something that is neither too basic nor too advanced for the student.
Here's a video that gives a quick overview of the Six Americas study if you want to know what the 6 groups are.
Education is power. It moves us to action. It causes us to share with others. It opens our minds to new possibilities and ideas. Could there be any greater work on this earth than to learn? And blessed are the ones who find themselves in the position to walk along this journey of learning with those who are new to the path (this is sometimes known as "teaching").
My greatest joy is to see a person have an "aha" moment because something they are trying to figure out finally clicks. Or to see a child get excited about something new. (And almost everything is new to a child, which is why they are so fun to learn with.) If only we all kept that childlike wonderment and curiosity about the world throughout our lives.
This week has been about the power of my education in climate change. I'm more motivated to act and share with others. Anyone who has read my earlier posts this week could see that. Heck, I even emailed my mayor back home to encourage him to become more involved for our city!
I will end with a complete tangent: the Newport 4th of July fireworks were awesome! Here's a sampling of photos:
Friday, June 29, 2012
Week 2 of Internship
This week I did quite a variety of things. A lot of my time was spent in the library doing background research on climate change for my project. I have watched many documentaries, read many articles, and gathered photos and videos. There is a huge wealth of information out there and even after the many hours I spent this week, I have a lot more to go through. I should stay just as busy next week.
Today I got to work in the visitor center to cover for another intern. I love being around people and it was especially nice to get out of the library for a while. I got to lead the estuary walk with 16 visitors. A bunch of them were from Idaho very close to my home in Utah so it was nice to be able to relate to them in that way. We talked about the estuary, salt-tolerant plants, and invasive species, dug up ghost shrimp and had a grand old time.
I also got to work with fellow intern Nick to gather data on the new Tsunami wave tank that will be open for the public sometime next week. We ran a variety of scenarios with the tank, changing wave height, period, and number of waves, to find out which ones made water leave the tank too much so we could set some parameters for what settings the visitors will be able to play with that won't get water on the motors.
And of course, a video of the cool tsunami wave:
When this exhibit opens, the visitors will be able to use the software to change the characteristics of the waves and then let it run to see what happens. This will be an awesome tool for Free Choice Learning and will really encourage some great trial-and-error experimentation. As you saw in the pictures and videos, we have legos and lincoln logs for people to build structures on the shore for the tsunami or other waves to interact with. I can envision a long line of people waiting to play with this, I wonder how the crowd control is going to go. I know there will be one of the interns stationed at the tanks so that will help with safety and order. I think this exhibit is going to greatly increase the amount of time visitors spend in the VC.
Something I learned today is that kids are awesome! There were a lot of teen and pre-teen boys in the estuary group today and they were very curious, asked a lot of great questions, and offered additional information that I didn't know.
Later in the VC while McKenzie was feeding the animals in the eye level tank in front of a group of visitors, a young boy came up and started adding great info about the rock fish because he had read about them. He stood up there and rattled off a number of facts for a couple minutes while the crowd watched and the boy's parents were beaming with pride.
So, when this boy made one comment about the rock fish, McKenzie was wise to ask him if he had more info about them he wanted to share, so he came up and told us a string of facts. Beyond learning that kids are awesome, I have learned today to allow them to share what they know. Doing "interpretive" work doesn't have to mean that whoever is leading it is in charge and is the source of all knowledge. This is just like teaching. Rather than my students coming in, sitting down, and partaking of the knowledge I spew at them, I want to have a "community of learners", in which I am one of the learners right along with the students. Today proved to solidify this desire and belief for me- there is a great deal I can learn from others, no matter their age. I am merely the one to provide the opportunities and act as facilitator.
The last thing I want to talk about from this week was that I attended a seminar yesterday given by Katie who is a graduate student here working on Free Choice Learning. She explained to everyone (all the REU interns were there in addition to other folks) about Free Choice Learning and the projects going on including the wave tank and climate change exhibits and how we'll be using those to study how people learn. The visitor center has cameras all over and we'll be able to observe and collect data on what exhibits visitors go to, how long they spend, what things interest them, etc. I say "we" but really I'm not sure if I'll get to participate in that, although I think it would be pretty sweet. I love all the stuff going on here and the people I'm getting to meet and associate with. I'm so happy to be here!
Today I got to work in the visitor center to cover for another intern. I love being around people and it was especially nice to get out of the library for a while. I got to lead the estuary walk with 16 visitors. A bunch of them were from Idaho very close to my home in Utah so it was nice to be able to relate to them in that way. We talked about the estuary, salt-tolerant plants, and invasive species, dug up ghost shrimp and had a grand old time.
I also got to work with fellow intern Nick to gather data on the new Tsunami wave tank that will be open for the public sometime next week. We ran a variety of scenarios with the tank, changing wave height, period, and number of waves, to find out which ones made water leave the tank too much so we could set some parameters for what settings the visitors will be able to play with that won't get water on the motors.
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| Splashing at the back of the wave tank- the motors are on top at the back |
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| Nick tracking the data on his laptop |
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| Setting up the victims... |
And of course, a video of the cool tsunami wave:
When this exhibit opens, the visitors will be able to use the software to change the characteristics of the waves and then let it run to see what happens. This will be an awesome tool for Free Choice Learning and will really encourage some great trial-and-error experimentation. As you saw in the pictures and videos, we have legos and lincoln logs for people to build structures on the shore for the tsunami or other waves to interact with. I can envision a long line of people waiting to play with this, I wonder how the crowd control is going to go. I know there will be one of the interns stationed at the tanks so that will help with safety and order. I think this exhibit is going to greatly increase the amount of time visitors spend in the VC.
Something I learned today is that kids are awesome! There were a lot of teen and pre-teen boys in the estuary group today and they were very curious, asked a lot of great questions, and offered additional information that I didn't know.
Later in the VC while McKenzie was feeding the animals in the eye level tank in front of a group of visitors, a young boy came up and started adding great info about the rock fish because he had read about them. He stood up there and rattled off a number of facts for a couple minutes while the crowd watched and the boy's parents were beaming with pride.
 |
| The picture's not great, sorry, but here is this awesome kid explaining about rock fish |
The last thing I want to talk about from this week was that I attended a seminar yesterday given by Katie who is a graduate student here working on Free Choice Learning. She explained to everyone (all the REU interns were there in addition to other folks) about Free Choice Learning and the projects going on including the wave tank and climate change exhibits and how we'll be using those to study how people learn. The visitor center has cameras all over and we'll be able to observe and collect data on what exhibits visitors go to, how long they spend, what things interest them, etc. I say "we" but really I'm not sure if I'll get to participate in that, although I think it would be pretty sweet. I love all the stuff going on here and the people I'm getting to meet and associate with. I'm so happy to be here!
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