Three science departments share lecture facilities in one compact building. (Author)

Explores the perceptions, ideas, and understanding about science of the staff and adult visitors to an interactive science center. Involves (n=63) staff and (n=102) visitors through interviews and a survey. Suggests that visitors to the science center have a positive experience and most of them recognize a change in the way they think about…

Describes one teacher's experience working at a science center during a leave of absence from teaching. Discusses the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, OH. COSI is a science and technology center where visitors can see and interact with hundreds of exhibits and demonstrations on topics related to science, industry, health, and…

Introduces physics laboratory experiments offered to general public by the Stockholm Science Laboratory demonstrating collaboration between theory and experiment. (YDS)

Recently, science centers have created issues-based exhibitions as a way of communicating socioscientific subject matter to the public. Research in the last decade has investigated how critical issues-based installations promote more robust views of science, while creating effective learning environments for teaching and learning "about" science.…

Framed by a "personal constructivist" perspective, this study analyses visitors' use of spontaneous memories in understanding different types of interactive exhibits, the nature and sources of the retrieved memories, and the way that visitors relate an exhibit analogically to memories of previous exhibits. One hundred and thirteen…

The Brooklyn Children's Museum, the world's oldest children's museum, has a new home underground. The museum's teaching collection of artifacts is particularly strong in the areas of ethnology, natural history, and technology. Objects relating to these fields are organized according to the historic physical divisions of fire, air, earth, and…

The design of the Sherman Fairchild Center for the Life Sciences at Columbia University emphasizes the lightness necessitated by the building's placement on an existing five-story podium structure. (Author/MLF)

Describes the Howard B. Owens Science Center at Prince George's County (Maryland) Schools, which concentrates advanced equipment and highly trained teachers to give visiting students and teachers hands-on experiences they cannot get in the classroom. The center boasts computer-controlled rocketry, laboratories, exhibits, and lectures introducing…

British Physics Centres are organizations within which university and school physics teachers meet to exchange ideas. Membership characteristics and activities of these centres are discussed. (JP)

A science museum designed to make the wonders of science accessible to the general public and thereby narrowing the knowledge gap between the scientist and the non-scientist. (Author/RK)

The difficulties faced by the Hull Chemistry Teachers' Centre in England are discussed. The lack of finances and time, as well as organizational difficulties in relationship with Science Centres and universities are among the problems. (TS)

Reviews past studies on research in natural history museums and science centers, proposes a taxonomy of exhibits in museum settings, and focuses attention of factors which should be considered when studying/learning in these settings. Also presents potentially productive methods of conceptualizing research and suggests possible future lines of…

Reviews research related to gender and learning in science museums. Examines 10 studies including studies of stereotypic behavior patterns, parent talk and family interactions, and gender-biased exhibits. Describes the need for a better understanding of gender differences in informal learning environments and more exhibits specifically designed to…