A day at the museum: science centres and museums play an increasingly important role in bringing science and technology to the public.

Reviewed by: Wiederaufbau: Das Deutsches Museum, 1945–1970 Peter J. T. Morris (bio) Wiederaufbau: Das Deutsches Museum, 1945–1970. By Otto Mayr. Munich: Deutsches Museum, 2003. Pp. 216. Due to its gradual Nazification on one hand and the impact of air raids in July and December 1944 on the other, the Deutsches Museum—the science and industry museum on the Isar River in Munich—was both physically and morally damaged by the end of the Third Reich. Because it fell within the American zone, the discontinuity with the past was less than it otherwise would have been—only thirty members of staff were forced to leave out of a surviving workforce of 150. Had it been in the Soviet zone, for example, the institution would have been completely transformed. Nevertheless, the leadership faced a massive task to bring the museum back to its former glory. This volume by former museum director Otto Mayr is a relatively short account of the twenty-five years up to 1970 when the reconstruction was finally completed. One major problem was the kind of museum that had to be rebuilt in the new Federal Republic of Germany. The physical reconstruction was daunting enough, but it was simple compared to the development of a new role in the politics and culture of postwar Germany. The original conception of the museum was very much the personal creation of industrialist Oskar von Miller. He founded the museum in 1903 at the height of the Wilhelmine empire and he enjoyed close links with the Bavarian royal family, dethroned in 1918. Furthermore, unlike the Science Museum in London or the Smithsonian in Washington, the Deutsches Museum was not a national body, despite its name. It was a Bavarian institution, controlled by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. Thus it was a cultural legacy of empire, only without the backing of an imperial state. Mayr’s story of the museum’s reconstruction in both its physical and moral aspects shows how a modern German institution was created out of the Nazi wreckage of a Wilhelmine ideal. This is very much a high-level account, divided chronologically by the terms of office of the different directors. Hence it is largely concerned with the management of the museum, its internal politics, and the long-term planning of exhibitions. It is the institutional history of an organization [End Page 939] rather than a sociological account of a community. There is no comparison with museums elsewhere, perhaps on the assumption that the experience of the Deutsches Museum was unique. This is unfortunate, as there are parallels to be drawn with the much-delayed building of the Centre Block at the Science Museum or with the creation of the Museum of History and Technology in Washington. And surely the management of the Deutsches Museum must have looked over their shoulders at developments at their rivals as they sought to rebuild their museum. Although there is material about the permanent galleries and exhibitions in the context of the overall reconstruction, this book lacks the sustained treatment of exhibitions one finds in the 2010 volume edited by Elisabeth Vaupel and Stefan Wolff on the Deutsches Museum in the Third Reich. Nor is there much on the role played in the post-war museum by leading scientists or large German companies. However there is good coverage of the museum’s relations with its neighboring universities, the University of Munich and the Technische Hochschule. But these criticisms should not be allowed to obscure that this is an excellent book. Otto Mayr has both the personal experience of leading the museum and a unique empathy with his predecessors, which allow him to give an insightful account of the rebirth of a world-class institution. This book will be of great value to historians of museums, students of museology, and scholars working on the postwar reconstruction of West German institutions. Peter J. T. Morris Peter J. T. Morris is Keeper of Research Projects at the Science Museum, London. Copyright © 2012 The Society for the History of Technology

In this article, environmental and climate practices in science and natural history museums in Türkiye are presented and discussed. While environmental and climate problems are global issues, they have local roots. As environmental issues are related to human activities and museums play a societal role, it is important to examine practices and approaches of museums in relation to the environment. Operations and practices of natural history and science museums in Türkiye, including educational activities, are important elements in communicating the risks of vulnerable environmental issue. This study outlines the environmental practices of the science and natural history museums of Türkiye which are commonly accepted as reliable providers of information to engage with audiences for action towards environmental challenges. Documentary research was conducted for the study. When the environmental practices and approaches are reviewed, it is seen that natural history museums function basically as research areas. Still, they have public education roles and organize educational activities about natural history, biodiversity and environment. While public education is one of the roles of natural history museums besides their conventional functions like collecting, conserving, researching and exhibiting, science centers are institutions dedicated to public education. Since science centers are mostly supported by municipalities, it can be said that they operate in a more sustainable and holistic way. Also, it is seen that their environmental reach-out programs offer a wider range. Based on data, we claim that collaboration with municipalities has an effect on the environmental activities and perspectives of museums. Also, climate-context works encourage museum community to make interdisciplinary works across the world. By presenting the current environmental and climate practices in natural history and science museums in Türkiye, it is aimed that the article can provide collaboration among institutions and advance the discussions among museums in the context of environment and climate.

How has chemistry been presented at the Science Museum, London, during the 20 th century? After an overview of the history of the Science Muse- um and its chemistry galleries, four galleries are considered in depth (1906, 1926, 1977, and 1999). The importance of the curators' external constituency of chemists and chemical educators is emphasized. The image of chemistry at the Science Museum has concentrated on the general utility of chemistry and chemistry as a skilful craft. The presentation has been low-key rather than boosterist. A comparison is made with the chemistry galleries at the Deutsches Museum. Chemistry in the Deutsches Museum has put more emphasis on hands-on exhibits and the chemical industry. Science and technology museums have promoted chemistry in a quiet but successful way for many years, but their influence may have waned along with chemistry kits.

The first floor of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) in Washington, D.C., has been, at least since 1980, the most studied and remodeled space in the entire Smithsonian Institution. The apparent objectives of all the remodeling efforts were to improve the circulation patterns and to create a more engaging, welcoming environment in this area, so notoriously reminiscent of a bus station, with its relatively low ceilings (or does it just seem that way?), bad lighting, and unforgiving terrazzo floor. Although more people actually enter the museum via its Mall entrance one floor above, this space still fills up with folks, and it's always a clangorous, bustling place. Weathering the decade's changes was the first-floor entry's prime attraction, the Foucault pendulum, perpetually swinging and knocking down those little red pegs for a cheering, delighted crowd. Make no mistake about it-this mesmerizing exhibit was popular. But it was above all a science exhibit, more at home in the Deutsches Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry than in a place that, in 1980, changed its name (from National Museum of History and Technology) and then got a subtitle, Science, Technology, and Culture, a place that in its programs, hiring, and exhibit planning was turning decisively in the direction of the social and cultural history. And so it seemed the pendulum's days were numbered, especially when its explanatory graphics and text were removed, and when it disappeared on a couple of occasions to accommodate a performing arts stage on the second floor. When plans emerged during the mid-1980s for a new exhibit on materials to occupy the first-floor pendulum area, the end truly seemed to have come. But amazingly, when The Big Change came,

Darwin . Niles Eldredge, curator . At the American Museum of Natural History, New York, through 29 May 2006;. Museum of Science, Boston, 2 December 2006 to 22 April 2007;. Field Museum, Chicago, 15 June 2007 to 1 January 2008;. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 8 March 2008 to 4 August 2008;. Natural History Museum, London, October 2008 to March 2009. www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin Darwin . Discovering the Tree of Life. By Niles Eldredge . Norton, New York, 2005. 272 pp. $35. ISBN: 0-393-05966-9. An exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, "Origins" presents a comprehensive collection of artifacts and displays that illustrate the life of Charles Darwin and the intellectual formation of his theory of evolution.

There is a growing commitment within science centres and museums to deploy computer‐based exhibits to enhance participation and engage visitors with socio‐scientific issues. As yet, however, we have little understanding of the interaction and communication that arises with and around these forms of exhibits, and the extent to which they do indeed facilitate engagement. In this paper, we examine the use of novel computer‐based exhibits to explore how people, both alone and with others, interact with and around the installations. The data are drawn from video‐based field studies of the conduct and communication of visitors to the Energy Gallery at London’s Science Museum. The paper explores how visitors transform their activity with and around computer‐based exhibits into performances, and how such performances create shared experiences. It reveals how these performances can attract other people to become an audience to an individual’s use of the system and subsequently sustain their engagement with both the performance and the exhibit. The observations and findings of the study are used to reflect upon the extent to which the design of exhibits enables particular forms of co‐participation or shared experiences, and to develop design sensitivities that exhibition managers and designers may consider when wishing to engender novel ways of engagement and participation with and around computer‐based exhibits.

In the last decade there has been growing interest in Europe concerning the role that science centers and museums play in the governance of science. Science centers, in fact, have the potential to be one of the most effective platforms for the discussions and debates that enable citizens to inform and participate in the democratic development of science.1 Exhibitions and programs often offer learning opportunities and resources on the ethical, legal and social issues of scientific research in contemporary science and technology. Citizen science programs, science cafes, workshops, discussions and festivals are just a few examples of the wide variety of programs and activities in this direction that have emerged in the field. Two of the largest museums in Europe, the Science Museum and the Natural HistoryMuseum, both in London, went so far as to build whole new facilities for this purpose: the Dana Centre at the Science Museum and Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum have been established precisely with the goal of creating dialogue opportunities among visitors and between visitors and the scientists, researchers, museum staff and other players in the many fields in which these museums are active. Many other European science centers and museums include similar activities intheir programs and exhibitions; nowadays, it is virtually impossible to find a science center which is not active in the field of science engagement, opening up mechanisms and opportunities for their visitors not only to learn about science and technology, but to “play a role” in the ways science and technology are shaping our society. Projects funded since the late 1990s by the European Commission have seen sciencecenters and museums developing a variety of activities to tackle the most important issues and topics in the “science in society” agenda: from gender gap to responsible research, from climate change to stem cells to nanotechnology. In parallel, significant attention is given to participatory approaches and methodologies for the publicengagement with science at meetings for practitioners and scholars in the field, such as the annual Ecsite conference.2

As long ago as 2001, the director of the Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond, USA, in an article for ASTC Dimensions, described his institution as a “community powerhouse.” He rightly pointed out that science museums and science centers have many roles to play in serving their communities, many of which can only be fulfilled through “outreach.” Outreach is capable of many definitions, but one which applies well here is “any systematic effort to provide unsolicited and predefined help to groups or individuals deemed to need it.” This is not a new form of education: as early as 1891, the “science demonstrator” to the Birmingham School Board in England had adopted an outreach program which circulated science teaching equipment and samples to schools in a handcart. The motivation, then as now, was to provide resources where they were most needed – economically and efficiently and in a timely manner. Science museums and science centers embraced outreach from their early years. Museum loans of natural history specimens to schools were common during the twentieth century, and early-established science centers like the Ontario Science Centre were taking programs to remote areas (and, in the specific case of OSC, education programs for students and teachers in the schools for Canadian Forces based in Germany). In the succeeding years, the reasons for conducting science museum outreach have become more subtle. A process which may have begun as a profile-building exercise or for meeting a resource deficit has evolved into a developed sense of responsibility for promoting community engagement – in ways that are similarly practiced by orchestras, football teams, opera houses, and theater companies. Such engagement may be socially motivated (e.g., in using outreach programs to promote social cohesion) or driven by a wish to take science directly to the public. An important element in science museum outreach activity is engagement with the formal education system through visits to primary and, less frequently, to secondary high schools. Examples from around the world are now chosen to illustrate the various methods and motivations for delivering outreach programs from science museums and science centers. The broadcast media and online activity are excluded from this account, as they are treated separately elsewhere. The Shell Questacon Science Circus claims to be “recognised as the most extensive and longest running touring science centre outreach program in the world.” Using a large vehicle and a team of presenters, it offers school shows, professional development for teachers, a traveling science center for the community, and extension activities for senior high school students. This is a model which has been adopted worldwide and indeed was being used, e.g., by the Ontario Science Centre, as early as 1971. The Australian science circus has another purpose; however, it is a core component of the training of future science communication professionals who are following a Master’s program at the Australian National University, Canberra. It has also undertaken an “ambassadorial” visit to China. Science on the move, using vehicles ranging in size from caravans to tractor-hauled multi-wheel trailers can now be found on every continent. Heureka, the Finnish science center, has even offered science shows on cruise ships in the Baltic. PROMUSIT is the traveling museum program from MCT-PUCRS, the interactive Museum of Science and Technology run by the Catholic University of

A new type of museum based on newly created materials for learning, exploration and discovery was created in the second half of the twentieth century. Science centres find their roots in the working technology exhibits displayed in the Deutsches Museum in Munich in the 1920s. The Evolution of Eindhoven, the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Ontario Science Centre sprung up in the 1950s–1960s and represent the first real examples of science centres as we know today, presenting interactive exhibits throughout the whole world. The collections in these types of museums require less maintenance both during preparation and on display, even though interactive exhibitions sometimes require a specialised type of workshop space.

`Quality in teaching and learning physics' is the title of a one-day Institute of Physics Education Group meeting, taking place in the Institute's new conference centre at Portland Place, London on Saturday 9 November 1996. The aim of this one-day meeting on 16 - 19 physics education is to provide some answers to such questions as: what is quality?, can it be measured?, can systems and attitudes ensure quality?, and most importantly, are there ideas and techniques that teachers can use to improve their teaching and their students' learning? Speakers will be drawn from both education and industry with practical experience of using the concepts and techniques of quality management to explore these issues, and it is hoped to familiarize participants with useful and practicable systems and strategies that have worked well elsewhere. Application forms and further details may be obtained from Mrs Leila Solomon in the Education Department at The Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, London W1N 4AA (tel: 0171 470 4821, fax: 0171 470 4848). Core degree skills A two-day workshop to be held in Leeds at the end of September will concentrate on the acquisition of core skills in physics degree schemes. The venue will be Fairbairn House, University of Leeds, and the dates are 26 - 27 September 1996. The Physics Discipline Network (of the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York) is examining ways of maintaining the physics content of various teaching methods whilst at the same time equipping students with the high-level skills vital for the wide range of physics graduate careers. It is hoped that the workshop will give delegates ample time for debate on such issues as the meaning of core or key skills and whether or not physics lecturers are capable of teaching them. University physics department staff, particularly those with a responsibility for courses, modules or degree programmes with significant skills content, and those wishing to learn more about current thinking and practice in the field are invited to attend the workshop. Registration is being handled by Gerard Aylward, TLSU, Room 6.11, E C Stoner Building, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (tel: 0113 2334097, fax: 0113 2334095). Cheques should be made payable to the University of Leeds. Improving the presentation A special international conference will be held at the Science Museum, London, on 21 - 23 November 1996 to consider how to improve the presentation of contemporary science and technology in museums and science centres. These establishments are facing their greatest challenge from the sheer speed of change in modern science and technology, together with the complex underlying ideas and social implications. The aim of the meeting is to identify strategies to improve presentation, and the problems will be examined from a variety of perspectives, culminating in a half-day focusing on the challenge posed by contemporary biotechnology in particular. Those working in museums, industry, research and the media should find this conference a unique opportunity to share new ideas and suggest ways of collaborating successfully. Keynote addresses will be given by Wolf Peter Fehlhammer (Deutsches Museum, Germany), Simon Schaffer (Cambridge University) and Jana Bennett (BBC Science), and sessions will include: Collaborate or stagnate?; The virtual visit; Visitor view; and Programming for success. Bookings should be made with Rebecca Mileham, Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD (tel: 0171 938 8047, fax: 0171 938 9773).

This article deals with a pioneering project currently being developed, namely, the Exhibition on Testing and Measurement. This interactive traveling exhibition will be presented in science museums in Israel, the United States, and other countries. It has been conceived as an innovative means of familiarizing the public with educational measurement concepts and scientific principles. The exhibition will initiate and encourage a dialogue regarding the social aspects of testing. Science centers and museums can play a vital role in helping to forge a more authentic relationship between science and society. Presenting an exhibition on testing and measurement in a science museum is an excellent way to engage the public in a discussion on the benefits and risks of measurement in our society. In this article we discuss the opportunities that this exhibition offers the challenges of converting theory into interactive exhibits, the feedback received thus far, and the current status of the exhibition.

Science centers and museums provide opportunities for informal science education. However, their presentation of chemistry is sparse. The successful presentation of chemistry to the public relies on the illustration of the relationship between molecular structure and the properties of familiar materials. A survey of the use and portrayal of polymers in science museums as educational resources identifies a number of successful programs. The suggestion is made that exhibits concentrating on polymers will serve to present chemistry to a broad audience in a manner that is both entertaining and educational.

Evolution writ large

Science museums and science centres are far from welcoming places for many people. Built quite literally during violent colonial expansion and the trans-Atlantic slave trade their funding, collections and the very fabric of their buildings are enmeshed in socio-political histories steeped in racism and its intersections with sexism, ableism, homophobia and class discrimination. In European science centers and museums these traumatic legacies of Empire often sit alongside celebrations of people, ideas and practices we find abhorrent today, such as the ‘science’ of eugenics. While such theories are widely denounced, they live on in science museums, in their statues of dead white men, the names of rooms, collections and buildings. In this chapter we explore how trying to address and redress these legacies in contemporary museum and science centre practices is a battle. The authors will discuss their work and experiences to discuss the opportunities and challenges of working to transform science museums and centers from decolonial, anti-racist and social justice perspectives.

Recently, there have been movements towards the inclusion of critical and often controversial exhibitions in science centres and museums. In this case study we consider the controversial exhibition Preventing Youth Pregnancy, hosted by the Catavento museum (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Specifically, we explore responses from, and relationships between, school and museum communities that attended the exhibit. We begin with a brief literature review on informal settings and controversial exhibitions, and present a science communication framework that informed our research. Findings are framed by three major themes: building connections between the formal and the informal sector through collaboration, building connections with youth culture, and building pathways for change. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the challenges faced by museums and science centres in creating and/or displaying controversial exhibitions.