Hi Mico.
Do you know Miha Kos, the director of House of Experiments, Ljubljana,
Slovenia? If not, contact him immediately! Here is his email address:
[log in to unmask] He is friendly and helpful, understands the local public,
has a great sense of humour and knows as much as anybody about the
challenges of setting up a small science centre, making best use of
available resources.
You say "museum". Is the main aim of your project (1) to preserve and
display historical objects, or (2) to engage people with science? Is your
team agreed on the relative priority of these two aims?
To achieve the second of these aims, the first thing to search for is not
objects or even interactive exhibits: it is to recruit the right people into
your team. People who care passionately about this aim. Not just academic
teachers and arm-waving explainers, but people who can really 'connect' and
communicate with the widest possible spectrum of your target audience.
And don't waste money on companies like mine who may try to sell you fancy
interactive exhibits! Develop the skills within your team to conceive,
design and produce them yourselves. There is no quick way to do this, and
failures will be part of the learning process. But you will finish with a
skilled, highly motivated team, well able to maintain more complex exhibits
as your project grows.
If you are careful to invest in motivated staff as well as in 'hardware',
evaluation studies are likely to show that your visitors attitudes towards
science are more influenced by your staff than by your exhibits.
I am sure Miha Kos will say all the same things to you. Do contact him.
Promoting public engagement with science
through a contagious delight in phenomena
*
[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
*
Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
*
Ian Russell
________________________________
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of mico tatalovic
Sent: 01 December 2008 23:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] What would you put into a science museum?
Dear all,
I am involved with a small new science museum in Croatia that is
just starting up. They are currently brainstorming some ideas about content
and this made me wonder what other people think should go into such a
museum. So, if you were a curator of a science museum what would you put in
it (and why)?
Regards,
Mico
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