The Living Lab at the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem was established through a collaboration between Prof. Inbal Arnon and Prof. Ariel Knafo from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The lab team is made up of researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students from the Departments of Psychology, Education, Cognition and Neuroscience at the Hebrew University and operates with the help of the staff at the Bloomfield Science Museum. There are dozens of such labs around the world, but this is the first Living Lab in Israel! 

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Since its establishment in 2014, the lab has conducted 40 different studies, involving more than 16,000 children and parents. Participants have included museum visitors of all ages- toddlers, children, and teenagers, as well as adults: parents, grandparents, and educators. Our youngest participant was just ten months old!

More than 1,000 participants have been bilingual or multilingual. In addition to Hebrew, English, and Arabic, we’ve had French, Russian, Portuguese, Yiddish and Amharic speakers.

 

Research conducted in the lab has led to the publication of 20 scientific articles, 50 conference presentations, graduate theses, and articles in popular media. The lab offers students hands-on training in developmental research while inspiring curiosity in both children and parents about the research methods they experience first-hand.

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Additional information about us and our research beyond the Living Lab can be found on the websites of our participating researchers: Prof. Ehud Zohary (Neuroscience), Prof. Ram Frost (Psychology), Dr. Hagit Sabato (Education), Dr. Avi Benozio (Psychology), Dr. Shira Tal (Center for the Evolution of Language).