Constructing a science gallery for children and families: The role of research in an innovative design process

We describe the role of research in designing ScienceWorks, an innovative gallery at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The gallery, intended for 6–10-year-old children and their families, was constructed on the basis of existing and new research concerning how children think and learn about science. The gallery is atypical in several respects, but perhaps most fundamentally in its overarching agenda, to foster children's understanding. Each major component in the gallery contains a broad array of activities to support learning for casual visitors, but also includes opportunities for successively deeper levels of learning and engagement. Existing research on science learning was reviewed to develop the theoretical framework that guided the design process. Moreover, research informed the development of each of the major gallery components and its associated learning activities. Current ongoing research focuses on identifying effective forms of mediation in the gallery, which is more accurately conceived as a collection of tools for supporting children's learning at various levels of engagement, than as a series of stand-alone “exhibits.” © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 81:781–793, 1997.