Abstract

The following qualitative study sought to answer three questions: (1) What are the high priority design values used by expert exhibit developers to create meaningful exhibits at children's museums? (2) How do exhibit developers prioritize these design values? (3) What are the desirable outcomes that exhibit developers seek to achieve with the guests who interact with the exhibits? These questions were answered through interviews with children's museum exhibit developers, personal observations, and artifact analysis. The data collected was organized into four cases, each representing a different children's museum and corresponding exhibit developer. The cases were then compared against each other using multiple case study analysis as described by Stake (2006). The data revealed that most of the developers designed exhibits which promoted family learning by encouraging meaningful interactions between parents and children. Other high priority design values used by exhibit developers included physical engagement, multiple entry points, simplicity, durability, multisensory engagement, staff and volunteer facilitation, safety, and immersive environments. Successful museum exhibits empowered guests and were always created using multiple design values. This thesis may be downloaded for free at http://etd.byu.edu.

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Instructional Psychology and Technology

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2011-04-20

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd4405

Keywords

museums, children's museums, family learning, exhibit design, exhibit development, design values, desirable outcomes, physical engagement, immersive environments, multisensory engagement, facilitation

Language

English

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