Working at Play: Informal Science Education on Museum Playgrounds

Abstract This article discusses the importance of play in informal science education and the growth of science playgrounds as an international trend among museums to create safe, challenging outdoor environments that use play to explore the foundations of science. Play is characterized by intrinsic motivation, active engagement, attention to means rather than ends, non‐literal behavior, and freedom from external rules, a means for acquiring information about and experiencing the environment. Successful exhibitions for children and families share these qualities and outdoor exhibitions encourage a degree of exploration and full‐body experience often not possible nor appropriate inside a museum. Two case studies are provided as evidence of the importance of play in the interpretation and design of science playgrounds. The first, Science Playground at the New York Hall of Science (opened 1997), uses an interpretive strategy in which evaluation and remediation are continually incorporated into the educational process. Experimental workshops were conducted to observe children's intuitive uses of the physics‐based exhibits, uninhibited by any authoritative explanations. From this evaluation, the institution elected not to produce interpretive signage at each unit, but rather to develop a guide for visitors and one for educators that outline the exhibition's basic physics principles and encourage visitors to experiment and make connection to their own experiences. The second case study, Exploration Park at Prisma, Zona Exploratoria de Puerto Rico in San Juan (opening 2002), outlines ten design criteria used to develop the playground. These include bringing together a diverse team to respond to institutional and audience needs, ages, interests, and cultural backgrounds; creating a specific sense of place, making use of the local environment and taking advantage of natural elements including water, soil, wind, and sun. Practical considerations of safety, materials, and prototyping are also addressed. The article concludes with the idea of play as essential not only in child development, but also in development of successful outdoor science exhibitions.     

‘Cracks’ in the scholarly communications system: Insights from a longitudinal international study of early career researchers

• 170 early career researchers interviewed three times over 2 years, have uniquely contributed towards a stress test of scholarly communications and cracks have been identified.
• The perfect storm created by the convergence of millennial values and the pandemic appears to have fast-forwarded the cracking process, perhaps, for the good.
• The cracks in question are: (1) peer review; (2) reputational assessment; (3) unethical/questionable practices; (4) collaboration; (5) networking.