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Informal science education supports people of all ages and walks of life in exploring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

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Partnering with Youth to Pull Visitors In

Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists

March 02, 2010 by Mary Dussault

How do you engage visitors in exploring a topic of enormous popular intrigue, but one that is invisible, inaccessible, and un-intuitive in the extreme? One strategy we used developing the Black Holes traveling exhibition was the authentic involvement of youth (from the NSF-funded Youth Astronomy Apprenticeship program at MIT and Chabot’s Galaxy Explorer’s program) as exhibit development collaborators. Our primary goal here was NOT that their involvement would have an impact on the youth (although it did) – but rather that the teen contributions would have a measurable impact on making Black Holes more accessible to the exhibition’s audiences. Our preliminary evaluation findings suggest we’ve had some success.

Tags

apprenticeship, astronomy, development, exhibit, youth