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By listening to the voices of young people National Museums Scotland recognised the need to recruit a national youth engagement team to develop a relevant programme of work and test a range of different engagement methods.
Working with one of our consortium partners, Young Scot, a team of dedicated young people signed up as volunteers and took on the task of exploring the needs of their peers by producing ideas and prototypes.
Featured below is an outline of the National Museum of Flight project which was delivered by five young volunteers.
Illustration of the the National Museum of Flight team's co-design process.
How Might We...
design and potentially pilot an event/experience at the National Museum of Flight that encourages *Connection Seekers to engage with the museums and heritage?
Connection Seekers are...
*Young people interested in heritage but been put off museum spaces by negative past experiences.
Thanks to our young people
Justin, Alix, Jessica, and Beth.
Outcome
Operation Sabotage, a public event at National Museum of Flight in August 2022.
The National Museum of Flight team initially explored the site, learning about National Museums Scotland events, as well as the collections and the communities the National Museum of Flight serves.
Market research was carried out to better understand the 'connection seeker' and understand what kind of experience would be attractive to a 16-25-year-old audience.
“Because of Scotland 365... I am more confident and understand the role I can play in engaging young people in heritage and culture.
The team explored many ideas and came up with three event concepts including an outdoor cinema, an art installation and a murder. These ideas were tested further to include a tweaked version of the murder mystery to comprise an escape room experience. After more consultation and further user testing the team decided to develop the escape room concept.
The Youth Engagement Team visiting the National Museum of Flight.
The group commissioned an escape room events company to work with to develop a site-specific WW2 themed escape room. The Youth Engagement Team delivered a small scale ‘test’ escape room experience at the museum in November 2021 to an invited group of 30 young people. Small user groups tested both indoor and outdoor escape room experiences, as well as participated in a facilitated feedback workshop and online survey questionnaires.
Alongside this, an external evaluator compiled feedback and responses to develop a report with recommendations for engaging 16-25 year old's at the National Museum of Flight site.
After thoughtful consideration, the National Museum of Flight staff team considered the escape room experience a viable activity to offer as a ticketed event at the museum and developed Operation Sabotage, a public event running through August 2022.
1. Events company briefing young people at the beginning of the indoor escape room challenge
2. Escape room participant trying to crack the numerical code
3. Young person searching around the room for hidden clues to solve the puzzle
4. Young person trying to problem solve within the allocated time
5. Young people applying their problem solving skills
6. A group of young people working as a team to find the hidden answers
7. Young people being competitive, trying to solve the puzzle before another team beat them to it
8. Youth Engagement Team member rating their escape room experience
9. Indoor escape room props and problem solving tools
10. Young person giving their valuable feedback to the process
11. Participant contributing to the escape room evaluation activity
Throughout the process, the young people developed their knowledge and skills, honing insights and establishing an understanding of the wider context their project sits within. Through engagements with internal staff, external organisations and wider groups of young people, insights have been strengthened to represent a range of views and needs.
With this, the National Museum of Flight site-specific project group highlight some key reflections and priorities related to their project aim to consider moving forward.
