phone out of service

This was a bad example of an interactive signage. The person was supposed to read the sign and then listen to the telephone to learn more. But when I picked up the phone it did not work. Maybe I didn't read the sign correctly.

My favoite activity that we did at the museum was they had pieces of a dinasuar on a table the pieces fit together to look like a dinasuar. The real dinosaur was sitting next to the fake dinasaur to use a reference. I love puzzles and this one was kind of hard. Kids would like this activity because they would get to play with dinasaur bones and pretend to be an arcialogist. They would also get to talk with they parents or whoever brought them to the museum about what kind of dinosaur this was and why he looked like this.

Use your Brain!!

On Saturday Dana and I went to the science museum and learned a lot about dinosaurs. One of my favorite signs that we saw in the dinosaur section of the museum was about stegosaurs. I liked this signage because it had some cool facts about stegosaurs. For example, did you know that stegosaurs' brain might have been in his hip bone area. His head was too small to hold the brain, so they think that maybe it was located there. The sign was displayed very nicely and was easy to read. It was next to the skeleton of a stegasaures.

The Creation of Coal and other natural materials

My favorite floor at the children's science museum is the floor with dinasaurs. One section of the floor was devoted to how coal is created in the earth. A sign talked about the process of coal by allowing the reader to slide a knob along the board. As the knob moved, differnt pictures were shown animating the process and breaking it down. The pictures were really cute, but with each picture there was captions explaining what was happening. The words with the captions were really little and hard to read. If I had bad eye-sightn I would not be able to read the cations. I think this is a bad example of signage.

The Como Zoo

I feel like this sign is an example of effective signage because it has a title bigger than the rest of the text and it also has a picture that takes up the majority of the space. It also has a map that pertains to the subject matter. The text on the sign describes body parts of the polar bear. You can read one or two and then walk away. You can also see these characteristics on the polar bears in the cage in front of the sign.






I feel like this sign is an example of effective signage because there isn't a large amount of information that would overwhelm anyone. The only drawback to the sign is that it is relatively high up in the exhibit so it may be difficult for children or people with impaired vision to read the sign. There is also a sign to the left of the snow leopard viewing area that gives more general facts about large cats.




I thought that this play area was an example of good interaction. It shows kids how a seal might hide its offspring from a potential threat. It makes sense for this play area to be here because it is in close proximity to the polar bear viewing area, hence connecting two different animals that share the same habitat.







This exhibit is in the children's room at the zoo. This exhibit is interesting because it explains the water cycle to younger children while still letting them play in the water. The only downfall to this exhibit is that it's a little bit out of the way if parents only want to take their child to the zoo and not take them into the plant rooms.

The Works Museum

This exhibit was a great example of signage because it had this little flip chart with directions sitting next to it. What's so great about this, or what caught my attention was the fact that if people wanted to try to figure out the exhibit by themselves, then they could. It makes the option available to look at more text for those who want it, without discouraging those who don't.






This exhibit was a very effective for my learning style. It was simple enough to use, hands out and had a great explanation about its use. I think this would be an activity I would use in my final project because of it was something simple that could be used in many different ways.








This exhibit had a great example of signage. The explanation of how the exhibit worked was not that long at all, and the pictures are GREAT at showing how the apparatus is supposed to work. I actually just looked at the pictures for this exhibit first and was able to figure out how this worked. Then went back to read exactly what this exhibit was about.









This was an exhibit at the works museum that I found to be ineffective as a student trying to learn. The first time stepped on the footprints the exhibit did not read my height accurately. I concentrated on getting my feet exactly aligned with those shown on the floor and that caused for inaccurate results. When I stood on the feet with them a little off (not aligned) the exhibit read my height right. I think this would get a little confusing for students.

Science Museum of Minnesota

This puzzle was featured in the Math/Geometry exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. This projected puzzle said "Look Here" if focused on from a certain spot (angle, distance, height). Though I think the signage did a good job explaining how to look at this puzzle, it left me wanting to know more about how the puzzle itself was created (How did they make the projection? Did they create a projection and then build the individual pieces? What kind of math did they use to create this? etc.). This activity engaged me because it was like nothing I had ever seen before, but I did not feel that I learned much from it. I left wanting to know how one would go about making this and what the math was behind it.

Science Museum of Minnesota

This activity about porous rocks was featured in the Mississippi River Valley exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. I was drawn to this exhibit because of the large samples of rock types with a faucet placed over them; I was curious about how the rocks and the faucet were related (to show how rocks hold water, and which rocks hold water best). I was also drawn to this activity because it was relevant to my life. The rocks featured are all types of rock that are found in Minnesota, and specifically, the Twin Cities area. I believe that this is a good example of signage because it was simple (without a lot of technical jargon), the diagrams were easy to understand, and the topic was relevant to many visitor's lives (water and water sources are something that affect everyone living in the area). This was also an engaging activity. I was drawn by curiosity to this exhibit and easily learned about the different rock types present in Minnesota, how/whether each type of rock holds water, aquifers, and where the water I use comes from (and all within about 5-7 minutes).

The Effectiveness of Posters

Spin a shape was an exhibit that caught my eye right away. The poster was very easy to follow and easy to read. I sat down followed the steps, then got to experience hands on spinning into 3D. This exhibit pulled me in because of it's simplicity, and interaction. By putting an image into a fast rotating spin that image then takes on a new form, a 3D form.
Exhibits that had to much length to them or the activity was too complicated to figure out, I found myself walking away from. So in this case less is more.
Another exhibit I enjoyed was about seeing your tissues up close. The signage again was simple and to the point. while still grabbing your attention enough to get you to sit down and experience the exhibit, while learning about epithelial tissue, and getting to see your own up close!

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

O.K. This one is for Dana. When I visited the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History, we saw an installation called the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, subtitled "Art, Science, Community". The exhibit featured a massive crocheted underwater world complete with facsimiles of coral reefs and not-facsimilies of garbage that might be found underwater, tangled in the reefs, like plastic six-pack rings. The colors were incredible and everywhere you looked at this "sculpture" (you could walk around it 360 degrees) you saw something fascinating--whether it was the amazing crocheted shapes or the objects that had been nestled in the fiber art.

The one drawback--I've never wanted to touch an exhibit as much as I did this one, and it was a no-touch zone. Not very interactive if you define interaction as being hands-on. But I guess maybe that rule mimics the reality of underwater life which you're not supposed to touch (or disturb) either.

I left this area of the museum with a new question, "In what ways can an exhibit be interactive?"

Plate Tectonics Signage

64 words that invite visitors to explore the plate tectonics exhibit. I like the way several sentences start with verbs and the use of interesting terminology throughout, including "simmering" and "an endless, slow-motion ballet". These vivid words help the visitor create mental images before they even begin viewing the exhibit components.

This effective signage explained the model streetlight's function with concise and informative language. Then followed a more in-depth explanation that was interesting but not essential, so the visitor would be able to get as much out of the experience as she or he wanted.


This signage accompanied the mobile bees shown below. Each page showed how to move the bees in a different direction using simple, step-by-step instructions.


The goal of this interactive setup was to move the bees through the maze. We found that it was fun for the younger children to push random buttons on the bees until they figured it out, while the older visitors enjoyed making the bee move after reading the flip-book posted above, and everyone learned a lesson in programming.


This harp has no strings, but is activated by laser lights. Each laser corresponds to a note that sounds when that laser is disrupted by a hand, creating fun for all ages and levels of musical ability.