Stentor (a microbe I saw under a microscope at NYHS)

My first thought upon walking into the New York Hall of Science was, “Yay! We get to play!” My second thought was, “And I won’t have to feel like I am hogging the exhibits since there are hardly any kids here.” (Third thought? “Please don’t let me get pink eye or swine flu or whatever else is likely to be hanging out on all this stuff– I can tell by the fingerprints that none of it has been cleaned too recently. Just don’t touch your face, ok? Do. Not. Scratch. Your. Nose.”) Despite the fact that the Hall of Science bills itself as a museum for all ages, kids are definitely the focus here, and the children I did encounter a little later in the day were very aware of that fact. They were clearly perplexed to see adults interacting with the exhibits without another kid nearby, and they grew frustrated quickly if we were taking to long reading instructions or, in the words of one little boy in the Mathematica exhibit, “making it go.” Unlike other museums, where I’ve seen adults interpreting exhibits for their children, most parents at the Hall of Science were hanging back, letting their children interact with exhibits on their own. I think this is in part due to the fact that the exhibits actually look like they’re meant for kids, and it’s usually possible to operate them and get something fun to happen without actually understanding what is happening (e.g. kids can press a button over and over to drop a ball into a vortex, finding it fascinating to see how many they can get going at once, without ever finding out a bit about what is happening, scientifically). I also noticed that the visitors at this museum seemed more ethnically and economically diverse than at several of the other museums I’ve visited recently. Many of them seemed to be from the city, rather than visiting from out of town, and I overheard lots of bilingual kids. The majority of adults were there with children, but I did notice two groups of people in their early twenties who were visiting with friends and playing every bit as much as the kids were.

Although I was immediately engaged by the exhibits, just like the children around me, I realized after about 15 minutes that I was not actually retaining much information. I wonder if the benefit of a visit to a museum like the Hall of Science isn’t just an improved view of science overall and an increased curiosity, rather than the takeaway of any particular bits of knowledge. To me, the most successful exhibits were where something was actually happening right then (e.g. the microbes moving under a microscope or the sound or light exhibits). In the face of so many things to manipulate, I found myself completely avoiding any exhibit that only contained video. While plain video might be seen as the most easily accessible exhibit in some museums, in this context it felt boring. That said, the dial interface used in several exhibits, allowing users to navigate through video forwards and backwards at varying speeds, was completely addictive.

Photo via PROYECTO AGUA