An Examination of Science Center Visitors' Interactions With Exhibits

Abstract

This study aims to observe how visitors interact with exhibits in a science center. The study, employing the naturalistic research method, made natural observations to examine the visitors' interactions with the exhibits. The study group consists of 119 people visiting Kocaeli Science Center in Turkey between October 2017 and December 2018. Data were collected through an observation form and analyzed by descriptive analysis. The visitors were mostly observed to head towards the exhibits they could use without reading the labels, and the most preferred exhibits were seen to be those involving high interaction, open to manipulation, colorful, illuminated, extraordinary, misleading perceptions, involving video or camera, and easy to understand and use. Level of interest in the exhibits changed depending on visitor characteristics (i.e., group, individual, family). Although the visitors interacted with the exhibits, they often did not show much interest in what was told in them.