Abstract:
In recent years, there has been an increased focus on identity and how it shapes visitor
experience in free-choice learning (FCL) environments. Inquiry into how visitor's sex
impacts identity and experience has yielded equivocal results. To date there has been no
research into how the psychosocial construct of gender and gender identity influence
visitor identity, experience, and science identity. This thesis set out to discover possible
connections between and individual's visitor experience, visitor identity, free-time
science activities, and science identity through the gender identity lens. The study took
place at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon. The Personal Attributes
Questionnaire (PAQ) was used to measure gender identity, and interviews were
conducted to determine visitor experience, visitor identity, and science identity based on
free-time science activities engaged in by the participants. Raw PAQ scores were
statistically analyzed within the study population using standardized scores, which were
then applied to the coded interview data. Links and "hints" were noted based on this
analysis, and hypotheses for future research were formulated based on this data. Gender
identity emerged as a useful construct that could broaden the FCL field's ability to
understand the complexity of the visitor experience and explain some of the equivocal
findings about traditional influences of sex in such settings. Although science identity
did not emerge as an important variable, there are likely conceptual and measurement
issues affecting these findings. The information gathered here and applied to research in
the future, both in school and FCL settings, could lead to a deeper understanding of why
there is still a gender gap in many science, mathematics, engineering, and technology
fields.
