First narrow your search. What is the goal? Proving cognitive gain? Proving effective (+ or - attitude) gain? Affective gain What would be a behavior that would show what that they enjoyed the visit? Develop a survey to ask these questions Return visit? Referral from a previous visitor? Child says they would return? Parent is impressed (they decide if the kid returns) Length of stay versus other exhibits? Purchasing a membership? Or, observations Eye movements (number of blinks) See neuroscience literature. Body movements (animated vs passive) On task or (literally) attached to an interactive all these measure againsty a similar exhibit in the "traditional part of the museum or another children's museum. Cognitive Gain Pick one or two popular exhibits. What is the learning goal of those exhibits? Pretest and post test all visitors then random select children for one on one interview. See Piaget's original works for how he interviewd students on physics experiments. Be prepared to address if you are showing learning gain on specific exhibits or the room. Don't ask them if they learned......it is untestable and unreliable data for a quantitative or quantiative study. It's really messy to prove to a committee. Betsy Price, Project Manager A joint project sponsored by: The Natural History of Genes Eccles Institute of Human Genetics UMNH Utah Museum of Natural History University of Utah University of Utah Medical School Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 801-581-6286 [log in to unmask]