Epistemic Actions in Science Museums: Families Interacting with the Mirror Room Exhibit // Acciones epistémicas en museos de ciencias: Familias en interacción en la Salita de Espejos

Abstract

Interactive museum exhibits offer opportunities to manipulate and discuss phenomena. We identified epistemic actions relevant to the Mirror Room exhibit, analyzing the exhibit's messages and the external representations that support these activities. Exhibit elements placed at different angles can attract the attention of visitors and support the conversation around the number of reflections in each corner.  The effect of these external representations on the interaction of families in the Mirror Room was recorded. The added geometric solids in the corners of the mirrors in the experimental group doubled the interaction time and supported epistemic actions in the form of counting, as compared to the control group without the geometric solids. In addition, families mentioned corners or angles more frequently in the experimental condition. Based on these results, we generalize the application of representational analysis and the need to identify specific epistemic actions in each exhibit display as guidelines for the design.