Museums - from local to global (original) (raw)
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Should one aim at presenting a local or global science perspective in construing an effective museum narration for communicating scientific and technological issues in natural science? This article will attempt to respond to this question by presenting the data of an evaluation exercise undertaken by the Trento Natural History Museum (Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali -MTSN) from 2009 to 2011. The local dimension apparently lies at the heart of the museum's appeal for its visitors: they associate their mountain surroundings with the symbol of the region's identity, and appreciate in particular the efforts undertaken by the museum to communicate and conserve the mountain's environment. Indeed, in their opinion, by protecting the mountains and disseminating knowledge about them, the museum indirectly acts as a custodian of the region's own identity. However, interest in local issues far from rules out global scientific themes, whose presence is sought to complement and interact with the local discourse.
Museums and museums: the picture of scientific museums
Journal of Science Communication
In the field of scientific communication in Europe, science centres have gained increasing importance over the last ten years. Italy, beyond the City of Science in Naples, is also planning the set up of more science centres throughout the country. Their hands-on style makes them something between a museum and a fun fair and, beyond the issue of merit, no doubt the success of many science centres also depends on the fun offered. It is important then to be able to assess to what extent people can actually make use of the proposed themes. This report tries to point out the dialogue opportunities between science museums and people1. A questionnaire has been submitted to two scientific secondary schools in Trent and Busto Arsizio (Varese) as a pilot study in this research. A research of this kind should not limit itself to museums, because public opinion on scientific subjects is also influenced by more popular and widespread media such as newspapers and television. Together with people,...
Educating to the Scientific Method and Culture in the Italian University Museums
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2020
The first Italian University Museums Network, constituted in 2012 for a first project, coordinated by Modena and Reggio Emilia, in 2015 started a second project, approved and financed by the Ministry of the University and Research (Online available from http://www.pomui.unimore.it), dedicated to orient the students to the scientific method and culture. The primary objective was to promote, starting from the historical-scientific and naturalistic heritage of the Network, among the students of the IV and V High School classes, the interest in scientific culture that still suffers not only in our country but worldwide. The Museums of the Network decided not only to propose to look at their scientific instruments and naturalistic specimens or to observe the reproduction of some natural phenomena, but with a hands-on approach for raising awareness, to provide to the students the tools in order to understand the cultural context in which the scientific instruments have been invented or realized, the specimens collected, the phenomena observed for the first time. The museums realized 56 experiential educational paths through the individuation and the sharing of operative methods, the adoption and the use of common languages and tools, with specific attention to the information technologies. These paths are dedicated to three principal themes, biodiversity, color and time, and seven subthemes and are published in the Network web portal (Online available from http://www.retemuseiuniversitari.unimore.it). After this experience, an University Museums Observatory will be useful to help the University Museums to become privileged places of the science communication, laboratories of participation, observatories on the past, present and future and able to promote and develop students' interests and skills for the scientific culture.
Earth Science Communication at Museums: Strategies and Tools
2013
Univ. degli Studi dell'Insubria (Varese). 2-(9.30)-Mining history and geoparks: a case study in the W area of Lombard Prealps Candela A. Dip. di Sc. Teoriche e Applicate-Univ. degli Studi dell'Insubria (Varese-Como) 3-(10.00)-Ecomuseum: telling Earth Sciences through the territory
International Journal of Conservation Science Museums in the Life of the Public
The present paper aims to emphasize how, in the latest years, more and more events and museum practices focus on the identification of new ways of engaging more individuals into the museum life, even exploring the possibility to extend and adapt the museum activities in the life of communities, according to the actual realities. In this regard we selected a number of relevant institutions in the field (museums, cultural forums etc.) and analyzed their innovative museum practices regarding the visitors and their engagement into the life of the museum. The results revealed that to attract more visitors and to increase public engagement, a museum must to be as a living entity who adapts its needs to the present cultural, economic, social, educational and technological context.
At present, university museums represent a largely submerged backbone of Italian scientific culture and also the source of a strong relational potential which Italian universities continue to inadequately value. Based on this scenario and on available international data, this article discusses the results of a national survey of the widespread museum system belonging to Italian universities. The research, conducted in July-October 2015, examined 198 museums and 44 collections in the various fields of academic knowledge. The survey has made it possible to investigate the dimensions and major features of the museum system, with special reference to the territorial distribution of museums and collections, the variety of exhibition contents and coordination systems set up by each academic institution, naming strategies and online communication.
Natura Croatica, 2017
Modern museums have an ever more important role in the implementation of programmes of cultural or natural tourism, for with their collections and exhibitions they attract increasing numbers of tourists and also encourage their visitors to set off into nature, to see the sites of the natural history. The Republic of Croatia has outstanding geological (rocks, minerals, fossils and relief) and biological diversity (the plant and animal worlds, habitats and ecosystems), and a little part of this is to be seen in the museum as well, which gives it great potential for interpretation of the natural heritage, and thus for tourism as well. The museum does keep and look after its heritage, but it also promotes it, together, then, with its city, region and country. The partnership between museum and tourism is today necessary for a given natural feature to be properly presented and preserved. There is particular importance in the networking of natural history museums with institutions related to the actual sites of natural features of interest (nature and national parks, geo-parks). The paper shows how the museum in its programmes is oriented to the popularisation and interpretation of the natural beauties of the country. Along with the interactive map on the museum's web site, by touring the display and the exhibitions, through workshops, publications and other activities, the public can get to know some well known and less well known or entirely unknown and yet significant natural history sites. The programme partners are primarily schools, and after them, tourists. The Croatian curriculum is increasingly encouraging familiarity with natural history, the aim being systematic learning in the classroom and in nature as well, at the sites themselves. In the museum programme of presentation of the natural heritage for schools and tourists, sites are presented that have not only natural value and interest but are also easy, simple and safe of access, in other words, laid out for visitors.
Exploring where science is made in an outdoor and digital museum in a Brazilian university
Research for All, 2022
In conventional science museums, where collections are at the centre of activities, large financial contributions and staff are required, which results in their existence being unfeasible in many cases, especially in developing countries. We present an alternative proposal: a science centre called Knowledge Paths, which is, simultaneously, a virtual platform and an outdoor museum located on one of the campuses of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Brazil. The project has a much lower cost than traditional institutions and presents itself as a possibility for mediation between different audiences and scientific knowledge. The approach used is supported by the theoretical framework from Educating Cities and science, technology, society (STS) education. The project proposes itineraries to be followed on campus, through signposts that, in addition to texts about great scientists and other thinkers, contain QR codes linking them to videos, other texts and supplementary materials related to the areas of knowledge associated with the marked places. The project also offers guided tours in which participants visit laboratories and other locations where science is made. The museum has two functioning itineraries: the Epistemological Trail, about history and the main characteristics of different areas of knowledge; and the Light Trail, which is aimed at children.