Interview: GRPM EducationSpecialist (Erin Koren)

September 5, 2018 at GRPM

Take-Aways

Target Age & Number of Students

The most common age groups are between third to sixth grade, mainly due to the fact that they do not have rotational teachers, and that this is the most common age group for immerse students. There can be up to 32 students and for both field trips and Immerse programs. Immerse groups will be a minimum of 20 and field trips will be a minimum of 8

Reserved Field Trips With Guided Education Programs (Target This Use-Case)

While there is not a large staff to assist these groups at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, there is a high demand for field trips. One of the main reasons teachers come to see the museum is that many of the exhibits align with the Michigan teaching standards. More info about education on the GRPM website. Click the Streets of Old Grand Rapids tab to see that program and its associated EDU standards.

Immerse (Target This Use-Case)

This program can be thought of a week long string of guided field-trip-style activities (1 per day), mixed with teacher-ad-hocced, programming that kids can participate in as a camp experience. More info about the Immerse program. There is a very popular 'Immerse Family Night' where students display their project work.... what can be displayed from our game? These displays can be an important promotional opportunity to bring awareness to the game as there is a lot of repeat business from schools and teachers. The displays can prompt them to sign their class up for that field trip or Immerse activity during their next trip.

Education Standards

In Old Grand Rapids, the current guided program covers units such as goods and services, economics, understanding of transitions from past to present, all of which align with the third grade teaching standards. Social Studies and Science standards are the most come within all current exhibitions; Michigan history, immigration, push/pull factors, economics.

General Educational Goals

Another factor that makes the museum uniques, is their ability to create stories that connect with the students, and evoke emotion. The overall goal is to create empathy and ask thoughtful questions about that time period.


Timing

The attention span of children, which is said to average 2-5 minutes per year old. The target range for our game would be about 16-30 minutes (for 3rd grade) to 22-55 minutes(for fifth grade). School field trips are generally pre-scheduled to be 30 minutes.

Engagement

A common method for making the exhibits more interesting include asking students to share their personal experiences and ideas. More subtle methods can be used as well, like a show of hands or a thumbs up vs thumbs down. Cycling frequently through different activities is important for younger students. Providing the opportunity for social interaction is important for the older.

Technology

Technology is handled in the museum rarely, as there is a thick firewall with the museums wifi, age restrictions with virtual reality, and not much interactive technology already in place. To learn more about the technology at Grand Rapids Public museum, we were told to consult Eric from IT.

Space

In addition to Old Gr there are classrooms available for extended activity as is the Old Gr barrel factory are right in Old GR. The train depot should be avoided with groups because the students become distracted with the seating arrangements.

Diversity

English-language-learners are common... especially Spanish speaking.

General Public

Old GR is the only permanent exhibit in the museum that has no informational signage.

Data Archive


Audio Recording of the Interview

Erin Koren Interview (1:11:29)

Questions Asked

  • How do educational field trips/programs/experiences typically work at GRPM (such as Immerse)(timing, flow through space, etc.)?
  • Can some of the individual Old GR spaces be opened for the game?
  • What are good age targets for an educational AR game
  • How is technology typically handled in the museum?
  • How are field trips and other organized learning events typically handled
  • How much repeat business do you have
  • How many non-native english speakers do you get?
  • Which current GRPM exhibitions are best for an education/entertainment experience?
  • Is historical fiction and option... or should we stick to the real history?
  • Have you seen or experienced any other tech integrated exhibitions?
  • What are the keys to optimizing engagement with young audiences?
  • What are the keys to optimizing engagement with older audiences?
  • What are the keys to optimizing learning with young audiences? How do you measure that?
  • Anything you would like to add?

Notes from Emily Grush

  • Keep it to third thru sixth grade, keep it to relevant education standards content, that’s the immerse grade grouping
  • Less teaching programs now, small staff but demand is high, sit down with each immerse teacher and plans their five day experience
  • After school programming is a big one now
    • Whatever grant money allows for that to happen, two types of programming
      • Came once a month and do a wide variety of STEM experience and careers
      • Middle school girls, twelve sessions six weeks, based on renewable energy, and design challenge in this classroom and the lab on the third floor
  • We have some field trips that are entirely teacher facilitated (they are the ones who have prompts)
    • The only touch point is to reserve the space
    • Planetarium is a popular one
    • Guided tours are 60-90 minutes
    • They could do all three, and can pick and choose
  • How technology handled in the museum:
    • Not much technology integration in the museum
    • Talk to Eric (IT dude)
    • Wifi is shared with school, has a thick firewall
    • Grand river water quality and decision making has an augmented reality sandbox
      • Has been in the place for a year
    • Design with little bits (introduce little circuits input output)
  • Why teachers come?
    • Aligns with the teaching standards
    • Open spaces
    • A lot of the standards in Old Grand Rapids, goods and services, economic, understanding of time, how past and present are different, follows the teaching standards of third grade
    • gram.org/schools
    • Don’t want the trip to be boring, bring in emotion
    • Not much content delivery
  • Putting yourself in the person's shoes
  • They often kept targeted to the programs






  • Kids can concentrate on a task 2-5 minutes per year old,
    • Build in time for personal socialization
    • Talking pairs of three, talking about their own personal connection
      • Something super simple, thumbs up and thumbs down
      • Think Pair Share
      • Scavenger hunt, you can trust them more to make observations
      • Groups can change sizes often
      • Five Habits of mind
  • Even more important for the older age groups to talk, social status
    • Short journal prompts (way of measuring learning)
    • Informal assessment what’s your biggest takeaway
  • History app, walking tour of the downtown area, historic marker and the app shows what that building looked like
    • GREAT IDEA FOR THE GRAPHIC MAP
  • Age range with the VR; not too young of kids, can cause problems
  • Text heavy on the panels, what else can we incorporate
    • Something extra with the panels
  • HUGE PRIORITY making it so that all hours of the museum there is someone volunteering at the shop
    • Has to be when there’s somebodies in there
  • Immerse program is going from session to session, best audience for the augmented reality, since they have the most time in the museum, looking for something short that can fill the time
  • Target length is around thirty minutes
  • Historical fiction in a museum, keep it personal
    • Gena bivvons training for shop interpreters
  • Spanish bilingual opportunities