The purpose of this project is to design better interactive touchscreen exhibits to support learning in a museum environment. In our current study, we are examining different interactive platforms in the Hatfield Marine Science Center to analyze museum interactions. Over the previous summer, Drs. Anthony and Stofer visited the Science Center in Oregon and gathered preliminary data of museum visitors over a one-week period. We are in the process of going through all the data collected in the form of video footage, observation notes, audio recordings, and demographic questionnaires to consolidate a high-level picture of the data in a spreadsheet format. I am currently working through the video footage to provide a spreadsheet of the necessary data in an organized format. Our next steps will be to analyze the data we collected for patterns in how people interact with the exhibits using qualitative coding methods.

I am an undergraduate student at the University of Florida studying Computer Science. Working on the IPES Museum Learning Project has been so helpful in giving me a chance to learn not only research skills but also about computer science. For example, I am learning how to best organize video data in a log format, along with developing my Microsoft Excel skills.