Bringing Curiosiy to Life

Bringing Curiosity to

An eager desire to know. Wonder, oddity, oddment, peculiarity.

Irving Langmuir, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, inventor of the incandescent light bulb.

Foreword The International Centre for Life was set up to inspire curiosity in science, to help raise standards in science education and to support world class scientific research. We aim to provide a vibrant and exciting focus where science is explored and debated through an imaginative programme of exhibitions and events.

Our programme has grown to address all areas of science, and we offer a mix of formal and informal activities. Our Curiosity Zone begins our second decade of operation, building on the lessons learned here and on the latest learning research. It incorporates the experience of the worldwide science centre movement and marks the next step in the evolution of the Centre for Life.

I hope you will enjoy your visit to the Centre can welcome you back again soon.

Contents Background Making Things Happen A Focused Team Space to Play Getting Organised Short Listing Ideas Choosing a Style and Material Four Stages of Creativity Finding a Solution Testing Times Giving Things a Home Signage Final Reckoning Evaluation

Linda Conlon Chief Executive

Thank You

Background The idea for the Curiosity Zone first came up in 2007, when it was originally conceived as a 20 years experience developing and running hands on centres, we could see great potential for a new kind of hands-on exhibition. We wanted to harness the way visitors naturally behave in a science centre, and recognise that in this environment people take away impressions, iconic experiences and inspirations, not facts and information. We believed that this would be key to removing barriers to the enjoyment and appreciation of science, and that such an exhibition would also provide Life with a space that would engage visitors and be worth visiting that used and developed core skills that are also used in science, avoiding barriers to participation, we could help visitors to discover for themselves what they are capable of and potentially rethink their attitude to and relationship with science and technology.

To develop an exhibition using these ideas we turned to the Constructivist Theory of learning. This passively absorb knowledge fed to them, and they learn to learn as they learn. People also need physical activities that engage the mind as well as the hands while learning, they need to talk and need the time to play with and ponder new ideas. Most importantly we felt that the learning environment has to be one that makes people want to explore it and learn things.

In taking this route we were inspired by work done at the Exploratorium science centre in San Francisco. Their APE (Active Prolonged Engagement) project looked deeply into the nature of on exhibits and produced a series of principles for improving this. Applying these principles gives users a more engaging experience that increases the time they spend interacting with each exhibit.

The kinds of exhibits they found do this best are ones where the user discovers through interaction. Normally hands-on exhibits are based on planned discovery they set up a puzzling phenomenon and create a situation where visitors can solve the puzzle by interacting with the phenomenon. APE exhibits change the emphasis from planned to self discovery. Open ended

activities, used by several people at once, with some gentle guidance allow users to decide what they are going to explore in an exhibit and how. Four kinds of interaction typify APE experiences: Exploration, Investigation, Observation and Construction. These all involve sustained positive feedback to users, not delayed gratification.

These findings also chimed in with the Reggio Emilia approach to education, developed in Italy.

This philosophy sees children as the protagonists of their learning, not just passive receptacles, and believes that learning is best done in a group setting so people can share views and experiences.

They also believe children need to make mistakes in their attempts to solve problems, and discover how to learn from these mistakes. Learning comes through making connections between things, concepts and experiences, and by interacting with other people and with the surrounding environment.

For schools, this Constructivist approach also had clear connections to the English National Curriculum which emphasises the process of science as well as factual information.

F. Oppenheimer, founder of the Exploratorium

people to learn. Instead we came up with a list of skills and behaviours that we wanted our exhibits to encourage, which were as follows: Observation Exploration Pattern recognition Experimentation Fine motor control Hand-eye coordination

Discussion Teamwork Creativity Planning Mental modelling Hypothesis making

To achieve this there were some key attributes that we knew our exhibits would need to embody to give users ownership of the experience: Control what the exhibit does when a visitor uses it should be under their control Kinaesthetic the exhibit should involve motion and activity on the part of the visitor Social exhibits should encourage visitors to communicate, interact and share ideas Self-related they should have an obvious link to visitors and their previous experience Finally, we wanted the exhibits to be able to communicate what they do by their appearance, so that they could function without instruction labels. This was partly because many visitors in a inspiration for what people should do should come from the users themselves, rather than being telling them what to do.

We wanted the overall outcome of applying this philosophy to be an extremely user friendly gallery that contains a wealth of absorbing, fascinating and satisfying interactive opportunities that will enable users to create their own science experiences and respond to their own curiosity.

We wanted the gallery experience to be significantly different for each person who uses it, and to be different for them each time they come. I believe we have achieved this goal, and that the Curiosity Zone at the Centre for Life is a rich and fascinating experience for our visitors which stimulates thinking and brings forth the kind of behaviours that underpin scientific discovery.

While many of our visitors may never realize that this is what is happening, I do not believe this matters. What does matter is that it happens, and opens their minds to ways of exploring the world that they may not have used before. In doing this I believe Life has truly achieved its goal of being a place that helps people to think rather than telling them what to think.

Ian Simmons Science Communications Director

Making Things Happen Coming up with the idea for an exhibition is one thing, but making it a reality is quite another. In 2007, as we completed the final phase of our Human Life exhibitions, we had a first attempt at articulating the philosophy (as discussed) of our next project on paper. What was to become Curiosity was going to be a step change from our previous interpretive exhibitions and we would need to be very clear about our plans to make a case to any potential funders.

We are quite a small team at Life but between us we have many collective years of experience, gained at institutions across the UK. We can also call upon the help and support of friends and colleagues in the world of informal science learning. Building on all of this prior work we spent several months formulating the basic idea of the project, matching it to local needs.

The North East compares poorly with England as a whole on a range of educational indicators at GCSE achievement in science is generally lower than the national picture; participation rates in full time education for 16/17 year olds are below the national average; the region has the highest percentage of young people classified as NEET (not in education, employment or training) and one of the highest levels of people with no qualifications at all (10.7% in Newcastle). The causes are complex but Life has a role alongside formal education to support the renewal of the region and a future based on highly-skilled, knowledge-based industries.

as they progress through school. Science is generally viewed more positively in primary school,

primary years. Choices made later around about subjects and careers are very heavily

Curiosity needed to provide positive experiences of scientific process that could be shared by whole families together. Focussing on process over information helps young children to develop confidence around science, strengthening their science identity, without requiring them to absorb apparent to their children, and the overall cultural impact would be to make the process of science a normal, common experience.

Planning We were going to need people to deliver the project, but exactly who would depend on their roles. Previous projects at Life have always used external designers and exhibit builders but we worried that this might stifle the degree of experimentation we wanted. Our nearest exhibit builder is based 100 miles away, with others even further afield. Building and testing exhibit prototypes could be very expensive if we had to keep transporting things between the workshop and the science centre and even regular staff visits could very rapidly get expensive. However Life had never built its own exhibits so that route would require a new space, tools and new people. On the other hand, managing external contractors would also need extra project managers and costs would include a profit margin for every company involved.

A financial comparison exercise produced a very surprising result. For a two year project there was hardly any difference in cost between managing outside exhibit builders or establishing a workshop and recruiting skilled people to staff it. As we wanted the flexibility to experiment and test ideas we decided to set up the workshop and build exhibits ourselves for the very first time.

Recruiting the right people is a difficult task. We needed a Workshop Coordinator who could establish the workshop and supervise the ongoing work, supported by a team who could work together from day one. The senior role was recruited first, with adverts circulated (and applications received from) around the world. We saw candidates from California to Tokyo but eventually chose a candidate working in North Wales. The Exhibit Builder recruitment was a UK wide exercise, generating over 100 applications for two roles. The group dynamic was

going to be critical for the project so a shortlist of 12 was invited for an unusual interview day which included group problem-solving activities to see how people worked together. With two we had the core team of four people who would go on to create magic.

create. Life is an educational charity and although it has a subsidiary business to support some of fortunate to be supported by a number of large charitable foundations over our first decade of operating. For Curiosity both the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Northern Rock Foundation were inspired by our plans. Both funders trusted our ability to deliver a good project and their relatively hands off approach to grant funding was vital to the experimentation (with occasional changes of direction) that this project needed.

We brought in some additional expertise to get the creative process off to a flying start. Planning workshops with external consultants, including Steve Pizzey of Science Projects and Harry White of At Bristol, gave the new team an early steer on the development process. They also gave us a first long-list of potential exhibits. Over the winter of 2010/11, as the workshop space was Kitted out, these early ideas were developed into a shorter list with nominal budgets. From the start of 2011 design and construction could begin...

Andy Lloyd Special Projects Manager

A Focused Team

Lizzie

Anais Nin, author

Philip

That much, at least, we knew about the Curiosity Zone when putting the Project Team together.

Less certain, was what we would want to build.

So, we cast our net wide, and found a team with plenty of enthusiasm, skill and experience to cope with any eventuality.

Richard

It is poking and prying with a

Zora Neale Hurston, author

Philip is the Workshop Coordinator. He brings a broad range of experience to the project, having developed learning resources for several

Lindsey is an engineering graduate who can also bring her experience as a qualified teacher to bear in her role as Exhibit Builder.

Richard is also an Exhibit Builder. He has many years of practical experience building museum exhibitions and producing graphic designs.

Lizzie is our Project Assistant. Her commitment to the project and administration skills ensures that we can meet our tight project deadlines.

Lindsey

Space to Play A place to experiment and test theories was what we needed in order to develop the Curiosity Zone.

building.

The challenged to make a unique exhibition and the opportunity to fully explore exhibit concepts has been the driving force behind our work here. and the yard stick for measuring success all start from this flexible approach.

which discipline and order are relieved with some play and

May Sarton, poet and novelist

Getting Organised At the outset of the project, we decided to dispense with the normal exhibition development sequence of design, prototyping, evaluation then construction of the exhibition as one entity. Instead, we broke our 24 month build time into a series of mini projects. Each of three weeks duration, with an immoveable deadline.

Consequently, we maintained high workshop output from Week One, applied lessons learnt as we went along and delivered the exhibition comfortably within budget and timescale.

A feature of this way of working is the breakdown of mini projects into individual tasks which are written on sticky notes, given an estimated duration and allocated to a member of the team on the calendar.

1

2

3

6

4 5 Of course, when you break it down, even apparently simple exhibits, like Build require a large number of tasks and processes in their making.

was the sheer number of repetitive jobs to be done. (1) cut, (2) rout, (3) drill, (4) slot, (5) singe, (6) varnish, (7) string. Repeat 599 more times!

7

Short Listing Ideas At the start of our project, we carried out a brainstorming exercise. The objective was to identify a list of possible exhibits to explore further. Members of the group included educators, experts in exhibit development and staff from Life. The resulting list was quite long and vague.

Over the following 24 months the workshop team evolved the list. Some ideas merged, some fell by the way side. Occasionally, a new idea surfaced.

Late arrival; Music Box prototype (left) and final design (right).

Choosing a Style and Material

Draft

Our intention is for the Curiosity Zone to change and develop slowly in subsequent years, so we

Finally, we felt it important to work in a way that is as environmentally sustainable as practicable. So we set ourselves some guidelines including: Reduce: The amount of unsustainable materials and electricity required by each exhibit.

Reuse (use): Off the shelf products where available, because why waste time, energy and Recycle: recycled.

Harry White

Four Stages of Creativity

The starting point for an exhibit varies. Often we have seen an exhibit elsewhere and want to make our own, more building blocks. Sometimes, we simply see something we think is really interesting and want to make it into an exhibit.

confirm what works and where we need to think again (which marble works best, above). documentation, above right).

Finding a Solution At several points during our development of the exhibits, we needed to come up with a way to assemble components onto we wanted users to be able to mix and match the cogs and pulleys, stacking them up either locked together or rotating separately on their common axle. The final solution came in

Harry White, exhibit designer and consultant

Testing Times 50% of our time on this project has been dedicated to building and evaluating commitment necessary to ensure we achieved our aims for this innovative project. Some of the main advantages of prototyping include:

It gives us a physical item to let our exhibit testing group play with.

We get to try out several ideas before committing to one to build for real.

but good design can multiply the Harry White

Development of a working Plucker instrument for Music Box (opposite page).

Giving Things a Home

Building exhibits is just one part of a well thought out exhibition. Each exhibit has needs some need to be kept apart, some need a power supply, others need darkness, a couple of ours need special flooring.

Additionally, because each exhibit is intended to be enjoyed by users for a prolonged period of time, we

be undisturbed or distracted by other happenings in the gallery. So, we designed dividing walls.

Planning exhibit layout with models (left) Installation begins for real (above).

Signage The big innovation of the Curiosity Zone is that we avoid the usual museum style of explaining scientific principles. Instead we focus on collaborative exhibits, visitor led enquiry and fostering of extended engagement. This approach was inspired by research into engaging visitors more deeply in science centre interactives, pioneered by the Exploratorium in San Francisco, as mentioned previously.

Harry White

One of our most ambitious moves is to minimise the use of traditional, wordy signage on our surprising however, is that many of the videos, tweets and conversations about the exhibits are coming from visitors themselves, either through our dedicated social media feeds, from interactions with our staff and their tablet PCs or in spontaneous discussion between previously unacquainted exhibit users who find themselves enjoying co operative play.

Richard Whately, logician, economist and theologian.

Final Reckoning

used to make our exhibits look like in a word cloud (larger words means we have used more).

Evaluation

innate enquiry skills and confidence about exploring new phenomena and experiences which are difficult outcomes to measure. We spent a lot of time observing visitors in the search for behaviour we can link to this kind of skills development, including: Active, prolonged engagement with exhibits, Self directed playing and creativity, Physical and mental problem solving, Talking and collaboration between strangers.

William Yeats, poet and playwright

Thank You

The Curiosity Zone was devised and produced by the Centre for Life Projects Team assisted by grants from the Northern Rock Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

The project was delivered with help from the following: -

Environmental design by Paula Atkinson Design, York.

Scenic construction by Workhaus Projects Limited, Sherburn in Elmet.

Electrical installation by Stuart Watson, Electrical and Data Services, Stanley.

Creative photography by Caleb Charland, Brewer, Maine.

Tesla coil provided by Dr Karim Ladha, Brightarcs, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Reactable provided by Reactable Systems, Barcelona.

Recursive Worlds animations by Andy Love, Nottingham Trent University.

Freqtric Drums provided by Dr Tetsuaki Baba, Tokyo Metropolitan University.

Magic Wall supported by the EPSRC Holmes Hines Memorial Fund.

QRator courtesy of UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis and UCL Museums.

Tales of Things by Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, UCL, University of Dundee and University of Salford.

QRiosity links courtesy of the many friendly people online who have agreed to share their work.

Planning, design, development and installation supported by everyone at the Centre for Life.

We would also like to thank the following for their advice and practical support: -

Our Curiosity Advisors (pictured).

Dan Bird, At-Bristol.

Camille Cocaud, Stendhal University, Grenoble.

Ben Craven.

Dr Jen DeWitt, Kings College London.

Alex Ellikhuijzen, Free University of Amsterdam.

Dr David Gurden-Williams, 3M United Kingdom Plc, Aycliffe.

Robin Hoyle, Glasgow Science Centre.

Will Jackson, Engineered Arts Limited, Penryn.

Colin Johnson.

Dr Rachel Kendal, Department of Anthropology, Durham University.

Bridget McKenzie, Flow Associates, London.

Stephen Pizzey, Science Projects, London.

Dr Jenny Read, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University.

Lauren Reid, Department of Anthropology, Durham University.

Anthony Richards, Science Museum, London.

Harry White, At-Bristol.

Photographs courtesy of ICFL. Eloquent design process description by Miles Bullough, Aardman Animations Ltd

Scan this QR code on your phone to be taken to the Curiosity website.

Written and designed by Philip Wilkinson. First Published by ICFL Trust in 2012

gallery of interactive exhibits. The big innovation is that

collaborative exhibits, visitor led enquiry and fostering of extended engagement.

What visitors to our exhibition say:

-scientist, I felt I was working parts of my brain that had

Š International Centre for Life Trust Times Square Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear NE1 4EP Telephone: +44(0)1912438200 E-mail: general@life.org.uk www.life.org.uk/curiosity Registered charity No. 1059607

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