Appendix 1: VEF Behavior Types Examples

Appendix 1: VEF behavior types – examples

Initiation behavior

Negative emotion

 David plays for a few seconds, says to his friend "this is boring" and leaves.

 Sarah tries to get the ball up and can't, saying "I don't feel like doing this" and leaving.

 Erik gets upset, saying "this is not working, it is broken".

 Donna approaches the exhibit telling her friend "this is not fun, right? Let's go".

 Karen tries to get the cube, says "great! Now I win… nothing! So lame…"

Transition behavior

Asking others

 Adam asks his friend "how do you make the red one go up?" and his friend replies "it is on time, you need to wait and then it will go up".

 Abigail asks Anna "what do you need to do here?" Anna explains how you should activate the exhibit.

 Chloe asks Daniel "what do you do here?" Daniel answers "you need to change here in the arm and then pull the rope".

 Dylan tells Elizabeth "you have one minute left, the most important thing is to make the highest tower you can".

 Jessica "you need to spin it", John "I can't do it," Jessica "don't just push! You need to wait until it gets higher and then release it".

Positive emotion

 Justin to his friend "come here look how cool it is!"

 Diana tells her friend "look! I am so good at this!" (Laughing and clapping her hands).

 Robby catches one cube and yells "Yay! I got it!"

 Tom tells his friend "this is the coolest game here, I really like it".

 William gets near the exhibit and manipulates it while singing a song "My little clown, will you come dance with me…" (There is a clown in the exhibit, and this is a well-known children's song).

Breakthrough behavior

Referring to past experiences

 Julie tells Emily "this is like a crane, like what we did outside; you can lift up and down".

 Jamie says "it like that thing in the mall that you need to get the doll with the robotic hand, you need to move it to the right place and catch it".

 Jeffery asks Erin "what do you do here?" Erin replies "I did it last year when I was here. You need to think and then catch the cubes".  Mark calls Megan "come see here! It is like this game that they had on 'big brother' with the colors".

 Paul says "ohhh I played with this once before. You need to see the colors and then repeat it in the right order". Samantha says "so it is like Simon?"

Sharing and seeking information

 Ross watches George trying to get the red ball higher than the yellow and asks "what about that (points at the valve on the side)?" George answers "you're not supposed to touch that". Ross replies "why not? How are you supposed to get the ball higher?" Ross goes around the exhibit trying to find some instructions; he can't find any and asks George to listen to the instructions again. After listening, he does the activity again by using the valve and explaining its purpose to his friend.

 Tony and Barbara are playing. Barbara has done the activity so she is now explaining to Tony "you need to move here. Not with this button with the joystick". Tony asks "why? What does the red button do?" Barbara explains what every part of the exhibit does and how you need to activate it.

 Rachel gets to the exhibit with her friend. Rachel reads the instructions out loud and says "oh I got it; you need to make a face. Let's pick the girl. Stop spinning you don't even know what to do – We need to pick each part of the face, eyes, mouth, and nose. We need to put it in the right place so it will make a face". She goes around the exhibit and says "There are mirrors here! That is why we can make the face!"

 Dana succeeds in making het train go and says "Yes! Mine is going". Josh asks "how did you do it?" Dana answers "you need that the sun will be in front of this (points to the solar panels)". Josh – "oh I thought I am moving the sun". Dana – "No the sun is moving by itself can't you see? You need to follow it so the train will move".

Engaged and involved

 Ted and Ben activate the exhibit for the second time, while switching jobs. Ted says "here, I will get it up to 90 degrees, it is the hardest let's see if you can do it". Ben does it and says "now let's see what happens in different angles, you move and I'll pull". They try different things while mentioning if it is hard or easy.

 Veronica is trying to the make a face; she is alone in the exhibit for 3 minutes, trying different things. Her friend calls her but she ignores her. She is looking through the slot but also going around the exhibit. When she thinks she is done, she smiles and calls her friend to see what she did and she explains "you see here I have mirrors and I need to choose parts of the face and make a clown".

 Monica says while pedaling "at list we will burn energy now". Liz says while pedaling on the second bicycles "look how many calories I have burned. I wonder if that is all the food that I ate today". Monica reads what's on the screen (everything is in English) "that's the distance, kilometer and calories. See here, it has things written so we can see what we are doing. I have burned only 8 calories??? It doesn't seem right. What do you think?" Liz – "who cares? I won!"