Messaging Matters: Order of Experience with Messaging at a STEM-Based Museum Exhibit Influences Children’s Engagement with Challenging Tasks

Abstract

This project examines how the order of messaging during parent–child interactions at a museum exhibit affects children’s engagement with the exhibit. Parents and 4-7-year-olds (N = 64) played at a circuit block exhibit. They were first given blocks with descriptive (e.g., “This is a battery.”) or discovery-prompting (e.g., “There is no wrong way to play.”) messages, and after 90 seconds, given more blocks with the other message type. Children who received discovery-prompting messages second – after being allowed to explore the affordances of the circuit blocks with the descriptive messages – played at the exhibit longer, and participated in more circuit-building challenges on their own. Parents were also sensitive to the order of the messaging; it related to the ways in which they interacted with their children at the exhibit. We conclude by considering how the timing of messages families receive at an exhibit relates to the way they engage with the exhibit.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2021.2015948 .

Keywords:

• Exploration
• parent–child interaction
• signage
• timing

Acknowledgments

We to thank Casey Berkowitz, Valentina Buritica, Julia Donovan, Zoe Finiasz, Sarah Nicita, Gina Pardi, Tess Rossi, Claire Szapary, Dee Williams, Molly Wood, Emily Yang, Hasiba Zandi and Bree Zang who helped with data collection and coding and Janella Watson for helpful conversation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

References

Notes

1 This follows from a definition provided by Klopfer, in an interview with Martin Storksdieck of the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) in 2018.

2 Treating this variable as a scalar variable instead of an ordinal one changes none of the significance levels in the reported analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by NSF (1661068 to DMS).

Notes on contributors

David M. Sobel

David M. Sobel is a Professor in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University.

Laura W. Stricker

Laura W. Stricker was a museum researcher at Brown University and Providence Children’s Museum. She is currently a Senior Curriculum Consultant at Janella Watson Consulting.