Understanding How the Museum of Mathematics’ Visitors Perceive Math
Client: National Museum of Mathematics | Location: New York, NY | Funding: Institute of Museum and Library Services
In advance of a potential expansion, we partnered with the National Museum of Mathematics to understand if and how its exhibits foster visitors’ positive perceptions of math.
OVERVIEW
We conducted a summative evaluation of MoMath, a 9,200 square foot museum consisting primarily of interactive exhibits with roaming full-time staff available to support and scaffold visitors’ experiences.
Mathematics is a complex and abstract subject that many children and adults find intimidating. The museum wanted to understand if it could shift visitor’s perceptions of math from negative or neutral to positive through stimulating inquiry, sparking curiosity, and revealing the wonder of mathematics.
APPROACH
We employed two methodologies for this study:
Open-ended qualitative interviews with a random sample of visitor groups exiting the museum
Unobtrusive timing and tracking observations, to gain additional context about visitors’ behaviors and time spent in the museum.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Results showed that the exhibits did indeed shift visitors’ perceptions from math as boring, scary, or hard to positive beliefs that math is fun, fascinating, and relevant. The evaluation reinforced two related lessons about exhibition design and live facilitation for MoMath to take into consideration when deciding on a possible expansion:
The museum’s financial investment in staff facilitation of exhibits proved critical to visitors’ enjoyment and understanding of the interactive exhibits;
The MoMath exhibits that visitors found most engaging presented visitors with a clear challenge and allowed some level of choice, control, and/or creativity as part of the experience.
