Study: Installing tech in museums keeps kids engaged longer and increases learning

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Installing state of the art technology in museums keeps kids engaged up to four times longer and increases learning, according to a new study.

Hands-on exhibits are staples of science and children’s museums around the world. They invite youngsters to explore scientific concepts in fun and playful ways.

But museum staff, parents or caregivers are not always on hand to help guide children through the exhibits and enable learning.

Now researchers have shown a more effective way to support learning and increase engagement by using artificial intelligence (AI) to create a new genre of interactive, hands-on exhibits that includes an intelligent, virtual assistant to interact with visitors.

When the team compared their intelligent exhibit to a traditional one, they found that the intelligent exhibit increased learning and the time spent there.

Project leader Dr. Nesra Yannier called the results “purposeful play.”

She said: “Having artificial intelligence and computer vision turned the play into learning."

Earthquake tables are popular museum exhibits. In a typical example, children build towers and then watch them tumble on a shaking table. Signs around the exhibit try to engage youngsters in thinking about science as they play, but it is not clear how well these work or how often they are even read.

Dr. Yannier led a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) that built an AI-enhanced earthquake table outfitted with a camera, touchscreen, large display and an intelligent agent, NoRilla, that replaced the signs.

NoRilla - a virtual gorilla - interacts with participants, taking them through different challenges and asking questions about why towers did or didn't fall along the way and helping them make scientific discoveries.

The team tested their intelligent earthquake exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.

Elementary-school-aged children attending a summer camp interacted with either the intelligent or traditional exhibit and completed pre- and post-tests as well as surveys to gauge what they learned and how much they enjoyed the experiment.

Researchers also observed visitors interacting with the exhibit during regular hours.

The pre- and post-tests and surveys revealed that children learned "significantly more" from the AI-enhanced intelligent science exhibit compared to the traditional exhibit while having just as much fun.

A surprising result was that even though children were doing more building in the traditional exhibit, their building skills did not improve at all, as they mostly engaged in random tweaking rather than understanding the underlying concepts.

The AI-enhanced exhibit not only helped children understand the underlying scientific concepts better, but also transferred to better building and engineering skills as well.

The experiment also showed that people spent about six minutes at the intelligent exhibit, four times the 90-second average of the traditional one.

Research team member Professor Ken Koedinger, of HCII, said: “What’s particularly impressive to me is how the system engages kids in doing real scientific experimentation and thinking,

“The kids not only get it, they also have more fun than with usual exhibits even though more thinking is required.”

Parents of children who experienced the exhibit said it was more interactive, directed and instructional and offered two-way communication compared to other exhibits.

They also commented that “it employs inquiry learning, which is the heart of how kids learn, but is also a play model, so it does not seem like a learning activity.”

Dr. Yannier added: “Our exhibit automated the guidance and support that make hands-on physical experimentation a valuable learning experience.

“In museums, parents may not have the relevant knowledge to help their children, and staff may not always be available.

"Using AI and computer vision, we can offer this experience to more children of different backgrounds and at a wider scale.”

She says AI technology will not only enhance lessons in a museum, but could also assist students learning in the classroom or at home.

The findings sere published in the Journal of the Learning Sciences.