The Bilingual Exhibits Research Initiative (BERI) project is conducting research and producing a series of deliverables that provide the necessary background to advance understanding of how to best develop bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibits in ISE museums and related institutions, thus broadening access to informal science education. The primary target audience for this project is informal science education professionals who plan to employ the most current research results and effective practices in development of bilingual exhibits and related programs. BERI is a partnership among the Institute of Learning Innovation (Edgewater, MD), Garibay Group (Chicago, IL), Miami Museum of Science, and the San Diego Natural History Museum, as well as partners where front-end evaluation is being conducted on bilingual learning in exhibits. The STEM content employed during the research includes socially relevant topics such as biodiversity, health, and climate change.
This BERI Pathways project is developing five principal deliverables: (1) literature review (available online); (2) on-line archive of current bilingual exhibits on the Association of Science-Technology Center's web site at www.exhibitfiles.org; (3) a pilot front-end research study of visitors to five bilingual exhibits located at museums and related institutions; (4) a bilingual exhibit framework (effective practices) document disseminated online; and (5) talks and workshops to disseminate these results and effective practices to the informal science education community.
Once this project is completed, the informal science education community will be better positioned to serve the needs of the Spanish-speaking segment of the U.S. population. The long-term outcomes of this project will ultimately benefit visitors to diverse informal science learning institutions who are bilingual or do not speak English. This project primarily deals with Spanish/English learning in informal science settings. Nevertheless, the general outcomes of this project may also be applicable to learning in other kinds of cultural institutions (e.g., art museums and libraries) and to other bilingual or multilingual exhibits that involve languages other than Spanish. BERI is therefore developing, contributing to, and advancing the infrastructure of informal science education and other fields of learning that are communicated in more than one language.
NSF DRL#1265662 Intellectual Merit Researchers in the field of informal science education have provided frameworks for exhibit planners, developers, designers, educators, and curators (Borun et al., 1999; Falk & Dierking, 1995, 2000; Hein, 1998; Perry, 1993; Serrell, 1998). In addition to focusing on what practitioners can control (i.e., physical design factors), these frameworks were intended to promote visitor motivation and engagement by recognizing the wide range of factors that influence and define learning. However, researchers have neither systematically tested the impact of these or other learning frameworks on nor developed new ones for Spanish-speaking Latino audiences. A group of researchers and practitioners at Audience Viewpoints Consulting (AVC), Garibay Group, the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) and Babel No More collaborated on the Bilingual Exhibit Research Initiative (BERI) project to survey the field and conduct exploratory research on how bilingual Spanish/English exhibits expand access to science learning for Latinos in U.S. science museums. Our model for understanding and studying learning was envisioned as an interaction between the group’s personal/social/cultural experiences and the physical environment of the museum’s exhibits. In order to answer the research questions, the BERI team conducted 1) a Focused Literature Review, 2) ISE Staff Interviews, and 3) Bilingual Visitor Research. The Focused Literature Review was conducted in order to provide a theory-based approach to thinking about the two research methods, and to inform thinking about the working model for the research. The ISE Staff Interviews included telephone interviews paired with a web survey with 32 staff from 22 different ISE institutions that have bilingual exhibits at their institutions. Lastly, the Bilingual Visitor Research component included collecting data from 32 intergenerational Spanish-speaking groups at four different ISE institutions: methods included observations of the groups in a fully bilingual exhibition, followed by a group interview about the experience. Findings and implications from this project were disseminated via conference presentations and online resources including reports. Broader Impacts This research promises to be an essential first step in expanding informal science learning for Spanish-speaking Latinos by increasing practitioners’ understanding of the range of personal, social, cultural, and physical factors involved in the bilingual exhibit experience—going beyond just translation and label design. This Pathways project examined and built on existing informal science learning frameworks with two goals: 1) to applying these kinds of frameworks to a multicultural audience and 2) to improve the field’s knowledge and capacity to create bilingual exhibits. By documenting and evaluating strategies to promote informal science learning through bilingual exhibits, this project will inform and influence how science museums invite engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) content for a growing and typically under-served audience—Spanish-speaking Latinos. At the present time, we are not aware of a large systematic effort to document the current state of bilingual exhibits in Spanish, and this project allowed us to do that. In addition, few resources exist to support practitioners in creating bilingual exhibits and evaluating their effectiveness with diverse audiences. As such, this project along with the future Research project has the potential to become an essential resource for science museum practitioners by "generating knowledge and transforming practice in STEM education," specifically in the area of bilingual exhibits and underrepresented audiences. The final report specifically includes implications for practitioners that we hope will be useful for those already engaging in or thinking about bilingual interpretation and experiences.
