Big Data from One Location: Museum-Based Developmental Research

• In Event: 1-041 - Big Ideas to Tackle Small Samples

Integrative Statement

An exciting new trend in the study of human development is emerging. In addition to researchers conducting their science in traditional, individual university-based labs, teams of researchers are partnering with museums to create “Living Labs” where barriers between scientists and the public are broken down. This talk outlines a partnership between a research-intensive university and a national science museum that has resulted in a large, cutting-edge Living Lab. Outfitted with eye tracking technology and audio-visual recording/output across three testing rooms, our Living Lab focuses on cognitive and language development research from the age of 3 months to 8 years. As part of their museum visit, parents and children are invited to experience “science-in-action” by taking part in developmental research in a dynamic and open space.

This community-based research leads to improved knowledge translation, enhanced university-community partnerships, and key research advances. Perhaps the largest advantage of a Living Lab is the rapid acquisition of large amounts of data from populations that reflect a greater linguistic and social diversity than usually be obtained from our campus-based labs. Our lab maximizes productivity by having multiple testing rooms. We conduct separate studies with short time limits (<15 min) to fit within a larger museum visit. Our museum partner has 300,000 annual visitors, and in our first 7 months, over 1000 participants were tested. Thus, the Living Lab model, especially at a national museum, allows for big data from one location with a variety of participants (e.g., home location, ethnicity, language background, SES, etc.).

Our presentation will give a basic “how-to” guide with respect to setting up and running a community-based Living Lab. We will discuss how we formed a strong and productive relationship with our community partner. We will then highlight some choices we made in the design E.g., to facilitate participation, we opted for a greeting area with glass walls, seamlessly integrating our lab into the museum and truly embodying open science. We also included eye-tracking technology because this is amenable to quick and rich data collection. To illustrate the power of this approach, we describe two large-sample, child-language studies undertaken in the Living Lab. We will highlight best practices and unique issues to overcome when conducting research in a museum setting. An example of the former is our approach on how to best run multiple, different studies simultaneously in a dynamic setting. An example of the latter relates to issues of consent that rarely arise in a campus setting, but arise in a museum (e.g., a non-guardian grandparent brings the child into the lab). Finally, we will highlight how the Living Lab fulfills a primary responsibility of knowledge translation for developmental science through the larger public’s direct interactions with researchers and displays of current and topical child development research from around the world.

Authors

• Tania Zamuner, University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Cristina M. Atance, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christopher Fennell, University of Ottawa
  Non-Presenting Author