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The Exploratorium's Visitor Research and Evaluation Department was founded in 1996. The Department includes a Director, two Senior Researchers, a Research Associate, and two Research and Evaluation Coordinators. Each person's contact information is provided below.
If you'd like to send a general query to the department,
please email to: visitor-research@exploratorium.edu. |
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Sue Allen
Director of Visitor Research and Evaluation
Sue Allen is Director of the Department of Visitor Research and Evaluation at the Exploratorium. Over the last decade, she has conducted studies of teacher professional development courses, exhibits and exhibitions, wayfinding, and public programs. Her research focuses on questions that are of interest both to museum practitioners and learning theorists, in areas such as diagrams and visualizations, scientific inquiry, narratives in science museums, and tools for assessing learning in informal environments. She received her Ph.D. in Science Education from the SESAME program at UC Berkeley, studying the use of model-based reasoning in geometrical optics. She first joined the Exploratorium through a James S. McDonnell Post-doctoral Fellowship in Cognitive Studies in Educational Practice.
 Sue Allen's CV
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Joshua Gutwill
Senior Researcher
Joshua Gutwill is a Senior Researcher in the Department. His work includes exhibit and program evaluations to improve visitors' experiences and research on learning in informal environments. Specifically, he is interested in creating opportunities for visitors to engage in self-directed inquiry in science museum settings. Before joining the Exploratorium in 1998, he was the Director of Assessment and Evaluation for a consortium of college and university faculty creating a new college chemistry curriculum. He received his Ph.D. in Science Education from UC Berkeley in 1996, conducting research on high school students' models of direct current electricity. His driving interest is to use research and evaluation methods to help educators (teachers, exhibit developers, curriculum designers) improve their practice.
Joshua Gutwill's CV
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Joyce Ma
Senior Researcher
Joyce Ma is a Senior Researcher in the Department. Her work involves characterizing the visitor experience in order to
inform exhibit and program development and better understand the nature of informal learning at our museum. Before joining the Exploratorium, Joyce was in the Learning Sciences Program at Northwestern University. She worked in the Qualitative Reasoning Group, headed by Professor Ken Forbus, where she conducted research on mental models, analogical reasoning, and computer-based learning environments, specifically those that scaffold students in building and testing system models. Joyce is interested in understanding how people make sense of scientific and technical domains and in developing innovative learning environments as informed by cognitive research.
Joyce Ma's CV
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Veronica Garcia-Luis
Research Associate
Veronica Garcia-Luis is a Research Associate in the Department. Her scope of evaluation work includes exhibit development, public programming, orientation and wayfinding, and audience development. Before joining the Exploratorium in 1997, Veronica was a museum educator at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles, where she explored object-based programming with a wide range of audiences. She then went on to receive her M.A. in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University in 1997, where she investigated how museums can create effective partnerships with urban Latino families. Veronica is very enthusiastic about creating accessible learning environments for diverse audiences.
Veronica Garcia-Luis' CV
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Toni Dancu
Research Associate
Toni Dancu is a Research Associate in the Department. Her work is focused on enhancing the visitor experience (both cognitive and affective) through exhibit evaluation and research. She is currently completing her doctoral degree, using developmental psychology to understand visitor learning and engagement in museums. Her research interests include understanding the role of relevance in the visitor experience and how informal learning environments can engage learners from diverse backgrounds. Prior to joining the Exploratorium, Toni interned at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and the Institute for Learning Innovation, and she has consulted with several organizations in the visitor studies community.
Toni Dancu’s CV
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Nina Hido
Research and Evaluation Coordinator
Nina Hido is a Research and Evaluation Coordinator in the Department. She assists the evaluation and research efforts on several large grant initiatives, working closely with the exhibit development team and visitors out on the museum floor. Nina is especially interested in how human-factors-based designs affect the way people make choices. Previously, Nina worked for a web-site usability consultancy and at UCSF's Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute.
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Adam Klinger
Evaluation Systems Designer
Adam Klinger is an Evaluation Systems Designer in the Department. Currently, he is involved in the development and refinement of tools and methods for the capture, management, and analysis of data, with a focus on audio/video streams. Recently, he has developed two such systems, one for a lab study, and most recently, a system for recording visitor dyads as they move about the museum floor. In his previous position as an Research and Evaluation Coordinator, Adam was heavily involved with the GIVE (Group Inquiry by Visitors at Exhibits) Project, where he served many roles including the development of methodology, integration of new technology, and collection and coding of data. Before joining the team, Adam was enrolled in a clinical psychology Ph.D. program at NYU, where he studied adult attachment patterns and their link to mental representations of the self and others.
Adam
Klinger's CV
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