This week I got a chance to go and visit the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh with my team members.  I was equally fascinated by the exhibits, and the way children were experiencing them.  The exhibits ranged in complexity from the text rain to plain old slides for kids.  The most time that I saw kids spending on one thing was perhaps in the water theme area.  A tub in which water came spiraling down and kids could throw ice or plastic objects into, was seemingly a favorite.  I also saw a little girl playing with glee with a machine with coins that come spinning down, and she loved how they felt in her hands.  I saw adults going crazy over the complex exhibits like the text rain, but were easily bored by the mundane things.

My biggest observation was that children’s attention to a particular exhibit wasn’t necessarily proportional to its complexity.  Rather, I saw that kids were really attracted to things that they could pick up, throw, kick or manipulate all by themselves.  It was the tactile quality of the exhibits that they loved most rather than the visual qualities.  I also saw that their attention was held if they got an immediate reaction (and hence reward) from the exhibits.  They seemingly did not have the patience to explore something if there was an obscure or hidden meaning.  They quickly got bored and moved on.

As we went through the museum we also earmarked the places which might be suitable for our own exhibits.  Since we need our work to be hung from the ceiling, this was a bit of a challenge.