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Change Your Game | Cambia tu juego (CYG) is a 3,500 square foot bilingual exhibition located in the Lemelson Hall of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. The exhibition explores invention and technology in sports with embedded research into visitors’ exploration of inventive identity. Uniquely, CYG aims to support history museum visitors to move beyond passively consuming information to make meaning about ways in which the exhibition is personally relevant and to (re)consider inventiveness within their current and future life roles. This research report summarizes how the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) theoretical model and the Visitor Identification and Engagement with STEM (VINES) design principles were applied to the design of the exhibition, and provides an empirical study to address two research questions: RQ1. What theoretical model of inventive identity can we formulate from an analysis of inventive identity indicators and their shifts among diverse visitors? RQ2. What can we conclude about exhibition design principles that the field can use to promote inventive and other STEM identity exploration and change among diverse groups of visitors? A key finding was that CYG supported diverse visitors to construct personal relevance, learn to “re-see” inventiveness as an accessible everyday concept, consider the implications of their inventive experiences in the exhibition to their roles outside the museum, and explore their own identity as an individual with inventive capacities in a variety of life domains. The DSMRI provided a theoretically robust, complex, and dynamic framework to conceptualize inventive identity as a network of invention-related beliefs, goals, self-perceptions, and perceived action possibilities that manifests within a person’s role identity in their lived context (e.g., athlete, parent, student, engineer, citizen). The VINES framework provided a comprehensive set of design principles for the effective operationalization of features in very different types of exhibits (e.g., personal inventor stories, artifacts, interactives) that, across multiple exposures and variable contents and exhibit types, promoted diverse visitors’ inventive identity exploration. We have shared this research report with the informal science learning (ISL) community at informalscience.org.
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This content will become publicly available on January 28, 2026
Inventive Identity Toolkit
The Change Your Game | Cambia tu juego (formerly Game Changers) project has developed an Inventive Identity Toolkit for wide distribution across the informal science learning (ISL) community. The toolkit is aimed at exhibition designers and informal science educators; it provides practical tips to help visitors explore their inventive identities so they can see themselves as creative problem solvers. The toolkit first offers background on Joanna K. Garner and Avi Kaplan’s theoretical frameworks, the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI), and the Visitor Identification and Engagement in STEM (VINES) model. The toolkit then includes design tips for applying the DSMRI-VINES models and encouraging visitors’ inventive identity exploration in unstaffed exhibition galleries. Similarly, the toolkit offers specific facilitation techniques (and associated training exercises) to help educators encourage inventive creativity in informal learning spaces staffed by facilitators. The toolkit also provides a catalog of verbal and behavioral indicators that signify when a visitor has activated their inventive identities; this will help researchers and evaluators measure the efficacy of exhibitions, learning labs, and other informal learning environments that strive to foster these kinds of identity shifts. Finally, the toolkit provides a template for designing public programs and community events around inventiveness in sports. We have shared the Inventive Identity Toolkit with the informal science learning (ISL) community at informalscience.org.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2005404
- PAR ID:
- 10568542
- Publisher / Repository:
- Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- invention innovation sports inventive identity
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) grant #2005404, the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) launched a bilingual exhibition project called Change Your Game / Cambia tu juego. The project developed a STEM exhibition for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on invention and technology in sports with embedded research into visitors’ exploration of inventive identity. This summative evaluation explores the impact of the exhibition on walk-in visitors and the project’s priority audiences: girls/young women ages 10-17; African American boys/young men ages 10-17; people with disabilities of all ages; and Spanish-speaking Latinx visitors of all ages. The summative evaluation of the Change Your Game / Cambia tu juego exhibition indicated that project team members did a good job at identifying stories that represent many different people and sports. Visitors found it novel to consider invention in relation to sports and games, thus serving as an entry point to inventive identity exploration in terms of ontological-epistemological beliefs within audiences’ role as a museum visitor. The exhibition was especially impactful for youth audiences; approximately half of visitors aged 10-17 said they felt more inventive after seeing the exhibit (p. 48). Beyond ontological-epistemological beliefs, the evaluation results are indeterminate about how the exhibition affected audiences in other areas of identity exploration. The evaluation raises questions about inventive identity to be considered along with the research findings for further exploration. We have shared the summative evaluation with the informal science learning (ISL) community at informalscience.org.more » « less
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IntroductionThis paper describes an initial phase of research to inform the design of Change YOUR Game—an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) that aims to promote visitors’ inventiveness in STEM and in other life domains. The exhibition’s content focused on the history of inventions and innovations in sports. The research was framed by the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) and by a set of design principles for promoting visitors’ agentic identity exploration: The PRESS Principles. MethodsFive data collection sessions engaged participants in a virtual, simulated visit to an early rendition of the exhibition. Diverse groups of participants were prompted to consider the self-relevance of the exhibition content to their identities and how they have been and can be inventive in their lives. ResultsFour themes captured participants’ museum visitor role identities, varied readiness to engage in identity exploration of their inventiveness, and how these provided affordances and hindrances to participants’ engagement in identity exploration in the context of the simulated visit. The themes served as bases for design recommendations. DiscussionThe study highlights the potential of the DSMRI and PRESS design principles to address conceptual and methodological challenges of research that aims to inform environmental design of a context that is not yet in existence and that will be relatively fixed. The findings suggest recommendations for design as well as theoretical insights about museum visitor role identities and the contexts that may promote visitors’ active and agentic engagement in exploring their identities.more » « less
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With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) grant #2005404, the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) launched a bilingual exhibition project called Change Your Game / Cambia tu juego. The project developed a STEM exhibition for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on invention and technology in sports with embedded research into visitors’ exploration of inventive identity. In the process evaluation, the project team complimented the collaborative project plan, particularly valuing how the project was designed to include many voices into the exhibition development process. NMAH staff perceived the process as particularly collaborative and innovative for them in its focus on promoting inventive identity, which fostered a relationship with educational psychology researchers around a dynamic systems model of role identity. However, the project team identified challenges that prevented the project from fulfilling the collaborative ethos they had desired. The COVID-19 pandemic added a layer of uncertainty and required adaptability not previously encountered. The project was also challenged by turnover within the project team. Looking to the future, we helped NMAH staff identify three areas for improvement in their process: build in ample time and resources on collaborative projects to address challenges that may emerge, identify fewer priority audiences for an exhibition, and engage priority audiences even earlier in the exhibition development process. We have shared this process evaluation with the informal science learning (ISL) community at informalscience.org.more » « less
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This study examined identity processes among early-mid adolescent girls as part of an experience designed to promote their identity exploration around being inventive. Data were collected through virtual focus groups where participants assumed the role of a museum visitor in an exhibition about inventiveness in sports. Data analysis was guided by the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) and explicated the participants’ beliefs, goals, self-perceptions, and action possibilities around being inventive in their lives.more » « less
