Experiential Posters: Theatrical and Improvisational Tools Aid in Science Museum Outreach

We frequently use diagrams or animations to reveal to others biological phenomena that are both invisible to the naked eye and difficult to conceptualize. But these didactic tools fall short in that they generally do not provide feedback or interaction with the user, nor adapt easily to the user’s needs and abilities. Adaptability to the user’s educational level and needs is critical to catalyze effective learning, especially when the new content is highly complex in nature. The need for adaptability is key in museum learning environments, where the student audience is very diverse in age and academic training. We are rethinking the way we go about representing biological processes to general audiences, particularly highly complex topics such as those found in neuroscience. We have experimented with the concept of using (what we are calling) “experiential posters” in the context of museum educational experiences to represent processes in neuroscience in a way that is more accessible to the general public. An experiential poster is an installation that uses props and staging to provide the user or learner an opportunity to “act out” the sequence of events and the flow of materials in a biological process of interest. We describe the use of an “experiential poster” to meet specific learning objectives. We also discuss the potential for its use in service learning and science outreach education.