Interactive surfaces are increasingly common in museums and other informal learning environments where they are seen as a medium for promoting social engagement. However, despite their increasing prevalence, we know very little about factors that contribute to collaboration and learning around interactive surfaces. In this paper we present analyses of visitor engagement around several multi-touch tabletop science exhibits. Observations of 629 visitors were collected through two widely used techniques: video study and shadowing. We make four contributions: 1) we present an algorithm for identifying groups within a dynamic flow of visitors through an exhibit hall; 2) we present measures of group-level engagement along with methods for statistically analyzing these measures; 3) we assess the effect of observational techniques on visitors' engagement, demonstrating that consented video studies do not necessarily reflect visitor behavior in more naturalistic circumstances; and 4) we present an analysis showing that groups of two, groups with both children and adults, and groups that take turns spend longer at the exhibits and engage more with scientific concepts.

A central goal of many science museums is to provide hands-on experiences in which visitors learn from exhibit elements and through their interactions with other visitors (Falk & Dierking, 2000; Allen, 2004; Humphrey & Gutwill, 2005; Oppenheimer, 1978). These types of experiences are often characterized by physical engagement with scientific phenomena, open-ended exploration, and carefully designed support for collaboration. However, there are many types of experiences that museums might want to offer in this spirit that go beyond the direct manipulation of physical phenomena (Meisner et al., 2007; Louw & Crowley, 2013). In particular, advances in interactive computer displays coupled with new information visualization techniques have made it possible to offer hands-on experiences in which visitors “touch” and explore large scientific datasets (e.g. Louw & Crowley, 2013; Ma et al., 2012; Roberts et al., 2014; Hinrichs, Schmidt, & Carpendale, 2008). Such exhibits create new opportunities for visitors to engage with authentic computational tools (Louw & Crowley, 2013) while at the same time reflecting the evolving nature of scientific inquiry (Henderson, Cortina, & Wing, 2007). Despite these advantages, however, we know little about how such exhibits support learning.

In this paper we present a qualitative analysis of natural history museum visitor interaction around a multi-touch tabletop exhibit called DeepTree that we designed around concepts of evolution and common descent. DeepTree combines several large scientific datasets and an innovative visualization technique to display a phylogenetic tree of life consisting of over 70,000 species. After describing our design, we present a study involving pairs of children interacting with DeepTree in two natural history museums. Our analysis focuses on two questions. First, how do dyads negotiate their moment-to-moment exploration of the exhibit? Second, how do dyads develop and negotiate their understanding of evolutionary concepts? In order to address these questions we present an analytical framework that describes dyads’ exploration along two dimensions: coordination and target of action. This framework reveals four distinct patterns of interaction, which, we argue, are relevant for similar interactive designs. We conclude with a discussion of the role of design in helping visitors make sense of interactive experiences involving the visualization of large scientific datasets.

Build-a-Tree (BAT) is a multi-level puzzle game designed to help people learn about evolution and to develop phylogenetic tree-thinking skills. Through game play people can learn about relationships between different groups of organisms as well as the traits that help define those relationships.

Build-a-Tree is a puzzle game designed to facilitate learning about evolution in museums. BAT asks players to construct phylogenetic trees (known as cladograms) using tokens depicting species and traits. Cladograms are a fundamental representation used by scientists to communicate hypotheses about common ancestry and shared trait inheritance. BAT challenges players with seven increasingly difficult levels. To win BAT, players build on what they learn in early levels to complete more complex trees. Visitors play BAT on a multi-touch display with visual tokens that can be independently and simultaneously manipulated. Players arrange tokens to build trees that accurately depict relationships of plants and animals. BAT is the result of an iterative design process in which numerous prototypes were developed and tested over three years. We have begun testing BAT at a natural history museum with parents and children to better understand how gaming might influence interpretation of museum objects.

Do people learn better when the "flow of experience is under their control"? (Gureckis & Markant, 2012). The results from cognitive science and educational research have been mixed, though the preponderance of the evidence suggests that such active learning is beneficial, with recent work in machine learning providing additional support for this idea (Gureckis & Markant, 2012). For the informal learning community self-directed or free-choice learning is the centerpiece of the visitor experience (Falk & Dierking, 2010). In this study, we investigated whether free-choice active prolonged engagement (Gutwill & Allen, 2009) with a multiuser interactive touch-table exhibit provides a learning experience that differs from that provided by viewing a video on the same topic. The extant cognitive research finds that objects that are within reach of hands or tools elicit different cognitive resources than do more distal objects (Brockmole et al., 2013). Thus the specific question addressed in this study, is whether such hands-on or embodied learning can help youth acquire relatively abstract STEM topics, such as the core evolutionary concept that all life on earth is related through common descent.

We provide an analysis of pairs of children interacting with a multi-touch tabletop exhibit designed to help museum visitors learn about evolution and the tree of life. The exhibit’s aim is to inspire visitors with a sense of wonder at life’s diversity while providing insight into key evolutionary concepts such as common descent. We find that children negotiate their interaction with the exhibit in a variety of ways including reactive, articulated, and contemplated exploration. These strategies in turn influence the ways in which children make meaning through their experiences. We consider how specific aspects of the exhibit design shape these collaborative exploration and meaning-making activities.

In a study of 8-to-15-year-old visitors (N = 250) to two large natural history museums, we
investigated the broader implications of visitors' conception of "human as animal."
Professional biologists include humans in the "tree of life”, which also includes less visible
members of the living world: plants, fungi, and microscopic organisms. Are youth who
acknowledge this common ancestry more likely to feel part of the natural world? Results
suggest that youth who indicated that humans share a common ancestor with other species
were better informed regarding core evolutionary concepts and were more likely to feel
related to all life on Earth

We present FloTree, a multi-user simulation that illustrates key dynamic processes underlying evolutionary change. Our intention is to create a informal learning environment that links micro-level evolutionary processes to macro-level outcomes of speciation and biodiversity. On a multi-touch table, the simulation represents change from generation to generation in a population of organisms. By placing hands or arms on the surface, visitors can add environmental barriers, thus interrupting the genetic flow between the separated populations. This results in sub-populations that accumulate genetic differences independently over time, sometimes leading to the formation of new species. Learners can morph the result of the simulation into a corresponding phylogenetic tree. The free-form hand and body touch gestures invite creative input from users, encourages social interaction, and provides an opportunity for deep engagement.

In this paper, we present the DeepTree exhibit, a multi-user, multi-touch interactive visualization of the Tree of Life. We developed DeepTree to facilitate collaborative learning of evolutionary concepts. We will describe an iterative process in which a team of computer scientists, learning scientists, biologists, and museum curators worked together throughout design, development, and evaluation. We present the importance of designing the interactions and the visualization hand-in-hand in order to facilitate active learning. The outcome of this process is a fractal-based tree layout that reduces visual complexity while being able to capture all life on earth; a custom rendering and navigation engine that prioritizes visual appeal and smooth fly-through; and a multi-user interface that encourages collaborative exploration while offering guided discovery. We present an evaluation showing that the large dataset encouraged free exploration, triggers emotional responses, and facilitates visitor engagement and informal learning.

Multi-touch technology lends itself to collaborative crowd interaction (CI). However, common tap-operated widgets are impractical for CI, since they are susceptible to accidental touches and interference from other users. We present a novel multi-touch interface called FlowBlocks in which every UI action is invoked through a small sequence of user actions: dragging parametric UI-Blocks, and dropping them over operational UI-Docks. The FlowBlocks approach is advantageous for CI because it a) makes accidental touches inconsequential; and b) introduces design parameters for mutual awareness, concurrent input, and conflict management. FlowBlocks was successfully used on the floor of a busy natural history museum. We present the complete design space and describe a year-long iterative design and evaluation process which employed the Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation (RITE) method in a museum setting.

In this paper we describe visitor interaction with an interactive tabletop exhibit on evolution that we designed for use in natural history museums. We video recorded 30 families using the exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. We also observed an additional 50 social groups interacting with the exhibit without video recording. The goal of this research is to explore ways to develop “successful” interactive tabletop exhibits for museums. To determine criteria for success in this context, we borrow the concept of Active Prolonged Engagement (APE) from the science museum literature. Research on APE sets a high standard for visitor engagement and learning, and it offers a number of useful concepts and measures for research on interactive surfaces in the wild. In this paper we adapt and expand on these measures and apply them to our tabletop exhibit. Our results show that visitor groups collaborated effectively and engaged in focused, on-topic discussion for prolonged periods of time. To understand these results, we analyze visitor conversation at the exhibit. Our analysis suggests that social practices of game play contributed substantially to visitor collaboration and engagement with the exhibit.