The students have already studied the relationship between electricity and magnetism in class. They decide to use the handheld with data probes at the Generator Effect exhibit to measure the current produced when the coil of wire passes through the magnetic field. While some students move on to the next exhibit, one curious student uses her handheld to peruse the exhibit information available on the network and discovers, in a section on the history of electricity, that scientists were puzzled by the same question over 100 years ago. A link to a nearby exhibit is proposed for further exploration. The whole class returns to the Learning Studio to turn in their handheld devices and discuss what they found.
Some participants gather at the tables, talking over what they have seen.
Some head straight for the computer, where they can enter their name to see a detailed record of their visit in the form of a series of web pages of each exhibit visited. These web pages are created automatically with links to the graphs the museum guests created, background information about the phenomena they observed, and questions and ideas for further exploration. Some students are typing notes to accompany a picture they took of an exhibit. Others are digging into online materials about the properties of electricity or the discovery of magnetism. The family's experience is slightly different.