Explainers & visitor services
Stories are a powerful tool, but exhibitions with firm storylines raise questions about visitors’ freedom to explore content on their own. Should science exhibitions suggest paths or simply let visitors create their own journeys? What motivates...
Explainers & visitor services
Putting the visitor at the heart of what we do is essential to the appeal and success of a science centre or museum. But just how far are we prepared to go in applying this principle? How much freedom can we handle? Co-curation is the active...
Education
Hands-on workshops are dominated by physics, chemistry and engineering experiments. What about biology? Are biologists closed in bio-labs, limited by a need for special equipment? We would like to show the best of short biology experiments which...
Exhibit development
Do visitors learn in science museum exhibitions? Evaluation is one way of determining whether an exhibition or program meets its goals, however, a research approach is necessary to gauge if, and how much, learning takes place. When we observe...
Networking & Partnerships
The Lisbon Treaty commits the EU to the “development of a special relationship with neighbouring countries aiming to establish an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness, founded on the values of the Union and characterised by close and...
Science in Society
When raising important social issues in science centres and museums there is often a question about how far we can or should go in presenting an issue, stating an opinion and asking visitors to take an active role. This approach is viewed by some...
Networking & Partnerships
The data we collect about institutions says a lot about how we perceive our mission. We can usually find data about the numbers of visitors and their demographic statistics, as well as financial data such as annual turnover and physical data such...
Science in Society
The world of health bombards us with information, experts, opinions, fashions and fads. This panel will present three experimental projects that have engaged patients and young people by offering them the freedom to question and the freedom to...
Science in Society
How can science centres and museums use current events in scientific research to engage their visitors? Should they be a conduit for research research institutions to reach their public? And how can science centres encourage visitors to...
Explainers & visitor services
Science centres and museums are not only places for celebrating scientific achievements and displaying science. They are also an ideal locations to engage the public with real scientific research. Our institutions are capable of generating their...
Education
Training teachers at the science centre or at the science museum is not always easy. Teachers are one of the main protagonists in schools (the other one are the students!) and they are the ‘specialists’ of teaching. Furthermore, very often they...
Education
Recent studies have shown that children should play outside in natural environments to ensure healthy physical and emotional development. Science centres and museums are designing exhibit spaces using real and artificial representations of nature...