Have you ever been to a Museum and wondered how the exhibits are created? How do they decide what the interactive exhibit experiences should be? Who designs them? Do exhibits get tested before they officially open? Young people participating in the Museum’s Environmental Explorers Summer Camp program not only found out the answers, they even gave their opinions on a game prototype for an upcoming hurricane exhibit. These 6th, 7th, and 8th graders tested a Hurricane Preparedness Game that allows players, through interactive touchscreen technology, to choose different hurricane scenarios and try to get all the supplies they need to survive the storm and its aftermath – before time runs out (in other words, before the storm arrives). After the storm passes, players get to see how well they were prepared. When the participants were finished trying out the game, they gave Museum exhibit designers lots of creative ideas for improving the game design and experience, and some of their ideas have even been incorporated into the game! As a thank you for their help, participants were then offered the unique opportunity to visit the Aplysia (Sea Slug) Facility at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. And when these young people come back to the Museum to see the upcoming Hurricane exhibit, they will know that the exhibit would not have been the same without them.
