Your impressions of the look and feel of the whole place.
- The building felt small to me from the outside - walking over from the train, it was hidden behind another school. I think the main entrance was under construction and when I entered to go buy my ticket, I had to walk a convoluted path around the side of the building to get to the front desk. From the outside, it felt a little tired, but once I was inside the museum, the bright colors and energetic decoration made it feel a lot more alive and full of character.
What works, what doesn’t?
- One of my first thoughts when walking around NYSCI was how it felt like a science museum meets a children's museum. Some of the exhibition spaces seemed aimed at younger kids while others were aimed at older kids. Other than the mathematics section, each section of the museum was primarily hands-on, and even the mathematics section had some activities. I liked that no matter where you were inside the museum, there was always something to look at and do. Wayfinding was a little confusing but I will touch more on that later.
Do you feel welcomed, is the place intimidating or comfortable, what’s the atmosphere?
- While I did feel welcomed, several school groups were visiting at the same time, and the number of kids made the place feel a bit chaotic. I tried to make my way through the exhibits when they were in other parts of the building so I could both enjoy everything myself as well as not interrupt their field trips. I was not surprised or upset to see the school groups though because the museum is so geared towards kids.
A word (or two) for its personality?
- Curious and playful
A memorable object, exhibit, hall or interaction (person-to-person)
- Watching the kids play in the Connected Worlds exhibition - the tech and installation felt the newest (I think it is the newest). It was amazing to see them actually affecting the space and wanting to explore it more instead of doing a given activity and seeing the single result and moving on.
Hospitality: how hard is it to find the bathrooms, how nice are the guards, can you find your way around.
- I stumbled upon different bathrooms a couple of times, but if you’re out in the exhibits, they're not the most obvious. The museum staff was friendly and very happy to point me in the direction of whatever I was looking for. I did get turned around a couple of times when I was first exploring the space. Several of the rooms loop around and connect to others in several places, so I was not always sure where I was. Luckily, NYSCI isn’t too big so I was able to get back to the entrance pretty easily.
Who’s there? Ages, demographics, and other details you notice about visitors.
- Are they coming as one, twos, or in groups?
- I visited on a weekday, so the museum was primarily filled with elementary school groups. The kids seemed to be high energy and excited to be there, get their hands on all of the interactive activities, and chat with each other. The teachers seemed to be both excited to let the kids loose in the museum as they were exasperated to have to keep up with large groups of 8 year olds. There were a handful of parents there independently with their small kids. These parents seemed to have to be more encouraging of their children trying all the interactive activities than the kids who came with their peers.
How do people socialize at the museum?
- Does anyone socialize outside their group?
- Not while I was there - since it was mostly school groups, they were probably told to keep to themselves. I also did not want to approach them as a strange adult.
- Does anyone ask questions?
- From what I observed of the school groups, some of the kids were very engaged and asking lots of questions. Others were more interested in talking with each other, but both should be expected of groups that size and in that age group.
- Did you ask a question or socialize?
- I said hi to a couple of the adults there with their own children, mainly when those children ran across my path or started playing with whatever I was looking at. I did not interrupt others though.
Think about what behaviors the museum space supports in regards to socializing, learning, and engagement.
- Most of the exhibits encouraged talking - there was plenty of ambient noise and the main exhibition area had openings into the floor below. Only in one hallway did I feel like I was walking through a traditional, passive gallery with art on the walls. In the exhibitions themselves, I felt like I was getting an overload of information, and after two or three sections of the museum, my eyes started glazing over most of the informational text. There was no way I was going to see every detail on one visit. However, this combined with different areas being aimed at different age groups mean this museum is definitely a repeatable one for schools and parents.
Notice the exhibits.
- Are they designed for one person, two people, or a group?
- They are designed in a way that can be enjoyed on your own or with other people. I do think I would have spent more time interacting with the different activities had I gone with another person, but I still got a lot of entertainment, and some learning, out of playing with everything by myself.
- Is there a deep dive into content, or is the information “scaffolded” appropriately?
- It really depended on what age group the section was aimed at - some areas had more in-depth text with each object or activity than others. I do think it was scaffolded appropriately, although in the mathematics section, there was so much information and infographics I got overwhelmed. Even in the areas designed for the youngest kids, there was enough information to give a solid overview of the topic, and was interesting even to me as an adult.
- If there are any interactive technology exhibits, are they working? How do people interact with them? Get granular, think input/output.
- There was a lot of interactive technology exhibits, and most of them were working. On the ones that were down, they had signs that included QR codes leading to videos of what they’re supposed to look like when they work, or what the activity is. The most successful activities were the ones where the output was big and immediate after a kid triggered the input. The more passive activities, like looking through microscopes and at some static optical illusions were less popular. One area had what I would consider a new media exhibition called Connected Worlds. It had interactive, animated screens (projection) composed of several different habitats and a huge floor with a river that could be diverted with objects in the room. I’ve linked the design team’s page in the bullet point below. The kids I saw playing in this area seemed the most engaged and focused on the interaction than anywhere else in the museum. The visuals and interactions reminded me of teamlab’s experiences.
- There were also a number of side classrooms and activity spaces that looked like they were all closed and under construction for the time being
Spend a few minutes on the museum’s website.
- Does the website ‘feel' like it’s specific to the museum?
- It feels more specific to me than some others, but not particularly unique to the museum's identity. The branding is clear and concise, but the website itself feels a bit overwhelming and it’s not the most obvious to me where some information is.
- Would you ever go back to the website? Why?
- Probably not. There is not much information on there except for what the exhibits are and information about buying tickets, which I ended up just doing once I got there.
Missed Opportunities… think about what you would change or improve
- The biggest for me is having more maps of the space and wayfinding help. The building is not a regular shape so I got turned around a lot. I do also think some of the older exhibitions could use a little facelift to make them as interactive and exploratory as the Connected Worlds experience. This experience really worked well with the observing APE reading and was a practical example for me of what kinds of exhibits teach and engage visitors the best.
In addition to the Field Trip Report- share videos and images (If allowed by the museum)
