There is a growing awareness that play is the way children explore the physical world and learn. Play represents children’s ability to perceive, use and represent symbols. It is an activity through which children construct much of their reality. However, there has been little effort to design play spaces in traditional museums and galleries and to understand this process. Research carried out in formal learning environments cannot easily be adapted and applied in informal learning environments since the institutional agendas are very different. The following articles represent an effort to understand and study play in museums. They highlight the importance of play in human development and call for more research to be carried out in this area.

Forman, G. (1998) ‘Constructing Play in Children’s Museums’, Hand to Hand, Association of Youth Museums, Vol. 12, No. 2, Washington, DC, 1-2, 10.

This paper uses research on children’s play carried out elsewhere to provide exhibit designers with five design principles. These principles aim to maximise constructive play: developing immediately engaging exhibits; ensuring problems presented are within the range of children’s competence; providing problems with a variety of solutions; providing children with the means to assess their predictions and observe results and allowing children of different ages to interact and affect each other’s play. Finally, Forman offers a definition of play and argues that play helps children reorganise their experience and construct knowledge.

For copies of the Hand to Hand journal contact Mary Maher, Editor, 609 East Market Street, Suite 102, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902, USA/ fax: 001 (804) 295-5045 or e-mail: Mmaher2049@aol.com. The (1998) Vol. 12, No. 2 of the Hand to Hand journal was dedicated to play.

Jones, R. (1998) ‘A Place of their Own: Play Spaces for Infants and Toddlers’, Hand to Hand, Association of Youth Museums, vol. 12, No. 2, Washington, DC, 6-7.

Following the same approach as the previous paper, Jones researches the design of play spaces for infants and toddlers. The aim is to create museum play spaces that relate to children’s developmental needs. The author also suggests consulting safety standards for play equipment when available and using the experience of toy manufacturers.

For copies of the Hand to Hand journal contact Mary Maher, Editor, 609 East Market Street, Suite 102, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902, USA/ fax: 001 (804) 295-5045 or e-mail: Mmaher2049@aol.com.

Moussouri, T. (1997a) Family Agendas and Family Learning in Hands-On Museums, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, Leicester, England.

There is some evidence that children prefer more open-ended types of environment that provide opportunities for role-play. Children in Eureka! found the ‘Living and Working Together’ followed by ‘Hello! Is Anyone There?’ exhibitions particularly appealing. Both exhibitions allow children to assume roles and be involved in collaborative play. Furthermore, visitors were more likely to interact with gallery staff and they included every day objects that presented opportunities for simulations of real life experiences. On the other hand, press-button exhibits did not score high on children’s preferences. Findings from this study are also presented in the sections on ’Family learning’ and ’Learning from interactive exhibits and activities’.

The thesis is available through an inter-library loan from the University of Leicester Library in Leicester, UK.

Resnick, M. & Wilensky, U. (1998) ‘Diving into Complexity: Developing Probabilistic Decentralized Thinking through Role-Play Activities’, Journal of Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 2.

The researchers engaged students in role-play activities designed to help them explore the behaviour of complex systems. They argue that role-play activities can play an important role in mathematics and science education. Although this study was not conducted in a museum, is an interesting example of how role-play can be used as an educational approach to learning.

This paper is available on the internet at: http://www.tufts.edu/as/cci/cm/papers/starpeople/

or by e-mailing Mitchel Resnic at: mres@media.mit.edu

or Uri Wilensky at: uriw@media.mit.edu.

Sykes, M. (1993) ‘Evaluating Exhibits for Children: What Is a Meaningful Play Experience?’, in Thompson et al. (Eds), Visitor Studies: Theory Research and Practice, vol. 5, Visitor Studies Association.

This study showed that children prefer exhibits that provide opportunities to touch, and which involve large motor and pretend play activities (imitative behaviour and role-playing). By comparing two exhibits – one with more familiar components than the other - Sykes concluded that the familiar inspired more pretend play. The study was carried out at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, USA.

Copies of the Visitor Studies: Theory Research and Practice series are held in the Science Museum & Imperial College library, London, and in the Leicester University Library, UK. They can also be ordered by writing to: Brenda Ward, Visitor Studies Association, Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876, USA.

(E-mail: vsa@lamar.colostate.edu).