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Article

Science Museums as Environments for Learning

NOV 01, 1990
Science museums have evolved into unique educational institutions with particular attributes for science learning that are hard to duplicate in almost any other setting.
Robert J. Semper

A science museum is created by its contents and the activities relating to them. These contents may be historical artifacts, such as a steam engine, or exhibits of natural phenomena, scientific ideas or technological inventions. A museum is an educational county fair, a serious and exciting learning environment where the relationships between one exhibit and the next, and among the exhibits, the visitors and the space as a whole are important. This location‐and‐object specific attribute sets museums apart from other communications media such as television, books and periodicals.

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References

  1. 1. Assoc. Sci.‐Tech. Centers, 1987 survey (115 institutions reported “through the door” attendance of 50 million) Washington, D.C.

  2. 2. B. Serrell, ed., What Research Says About Learning in Science Museums, Assoc. Sci‐Tech. Centers, Washington, D.C. (1990).

  3. 3. P. Morrison, Am. J. Phys. 32, 441 (1964).https://doi.org/AJPIAS

  4. 4. J. Diamond, Curator 29 (2), 139 (1986).

  5. 5. J. H. Falk, J. Mus. Ed. 7 (4), 22 (1982).

  6. 6. M. Csikszentmihalyi, I. S. Csikszentmihalyi, eds., Optimal Experience, Cambridge U.P., New York (1988).

  7. 7. R. A. Hodgkin, Playing and Exploring, Methuen, New York (1985).

  8. 8. W. H. Whyte, City, Doubleday, New York (1988).

More about the authors

Robert J. Semper, Exploratorium, San Francisco.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 43, Number 11

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