Designing and Evaluating Museum Exhibit Prototypes to Foster Middle Schoolers’ AI Literacy through Creativity and Embodiment

Museums play a critical role in promoting public understanding of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), but it is unclear what design features lead to learning about AI in museums. We contribute a design research exploration of how embodiment and creativity foster AI literacy in museum exhibits. We present design prototypes of three museum exhibits—DataBites, Knowledge Net, and LuminAIx—that aim to teach middle schoolers about AI. We present results from a qualitative analysis of an in-museum study in which we examined participants’ understanding of and interest in AI through interviews and video recordings. Our findings illuminate how creativity fosters interest in AI and how different forms of embodiment contribute to learning about AI. We recommend that AI museum exhibits utilize creative and personally relevant activities to engage middle schoolers, support hybrid conceptualizations of AI, and leverage tangible interaction to make AI concepts approachable.