Leveraging Side Doors and Humor to Connect Diverse Informal Learners to Climate Change

• In Event: Innovation in Informal Learning Environments for Diverse Communities

Abstract

This research confronts the challenge of designing museum exhibits about modern, anthropogenic climate change. The framing of climate change as contentious, along with the topic’s emotional weight, has made designing exhibits challenging. We present findings from a project that designed and tested two innovative elements of a larger exhibit about climate change, to open at a natural history museum in the US in 2023. One interactive provided opportunity to connect diverse informal learners to climate change learning through “side doors”, or perspectives on climate change not typically seen in the public sphere. Another interactive leveraged humor to engage learners around the emotionally heavy and socially contentious topic. We articulate how these findings contribute to the field of informal learning environments.

Authors

• Lynne Zummo, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Thompson
  Non-Presenting Author

• Casey Clifford
  Non-Presenting Author

• Claire Davis
  Non-Presenting Author