Science Museum Research Articles

Examining the impact of listening to music on writing fluency

ABSTRACT Research on the effects of background music has historically produced mixed findings. This study examined whether listening to background music impacted participants’ writing fluency and perceived cognitive load. Participants in this experiment were 109 attendees of a science and history museum. Participants had to be at least six years old to participate in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to write a story for three minutes in response to a picture prompt while writing under three listening conditions in random order (i.e. blocked randomised design). Participants’ writing samples were scored for the number of words written and the number of words spelled correctly. Two analyses of variance indicated no significant main effect based on background music condition. Regression analyses indicated some significant associations with writing fluency based on participants’ personal characteristics. Based on these results, writers should not expect changes in writing fluency when listening to music.

Open Science for Fostering Seismologic Science Literacy

This paper reports on an attempt to introduce “open science” into the field of seismology to improve disaster literacy in seismology and related fields. The term “open science” has a variety of meanings, but the core idea is of diverse stakeholders “doing science collaboratively.” This study reports on four pieces of action research to improve seismology-related disaster literacy through the idea of “open science,” which focuses on “doing science collaboratively” with the active participation of citizens (non-experts) and researchers (experts). In particular, this study focuses on the “citizen science” perspective because disaster literacy, first and foremost, refers to the disaster literacy of the general public. Specifically, we improved earthquake literacy by operating the Abuyama Earthquake Observatory Science Museum; promoting citizen-participatory earthquake and tsunami evacuation drills by developing and implementing Nige-tore, a smartphone app to support tsunami evacuation drills; promoting the Minna de Honkoku project to decipher historical materials related to natural disasters through citizen involvement; and conducting a trial “open/citizen science”-oriented seismologic-data observation program, the Manten Project, for inland earthquake research.

MUVE: A Long-Term Science Museum-Based Environmental Volunteer Conservation Program

ABSTRACT Science museums and similar institutions provide informal science and environmental education, both on museum grounds and out in the community. Since 2007, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida, USA, has run Museum Volunteers for the Environment (MUVE) program, a conservation volunteer program that is also an effective method of place-based education for the local community. Here, we document the evolution of MUVE over the past 15 years, from a small eco-art installation to a multi-faceted conservation program that brings the museum into nature, and share the program’s recent achievements. We outline program activities, participation, funding sources, key challenges, and lessons learned. Our goal in doing so is to provide a case study to other museums interested in developing similar programs.

Initial Exploration of the Transformation of Technology Museums Empowered by Artificial Intelligence

Traditional science and technology museums are facing challenges in the rapid advancements in science and technology. These challenges include limited exhibition formats, outdated methods of conveying information, and inefficient resource management. However, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, there is an opportunity to overcome these challenges. Artificial intelligence technology, specifically in the field of natural language processing, has made significant progress in improving multilingual understanding and generative models. This advancement can greatly enhance the learning experience for diverse audiences. In addition, the development of computer vision technology focuses on scene understanding, video analysis, and visual inference. These advancements can provide a more immersive and engaging exhibition experience at science and technology museums. This paper aims to explore how traditional science and technology museums can integrate and redesign artificial intelligence technology to better meet the needs of their audiences. By doing so, it can improve the effectiveness of science and technology communication and enable museums to adapt more flexibly to the rapidly changing science and technology landscape. The findings of this study can provide strategic considerations and guidance for the future development of science and technology museums.

The Identification Potential of Atherosclerotic Calcifications in the Context of Forensic Anthropology.

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease that, in its more developed stages, can lead to the calcification of fatty plaques on the walls of arteries, resulting in the appearance of new bone elements. It is a condition that has been studied and documented little in the context of paleopathology, especially in the framework of forensic anthropology. This article analyzed the skeletal remains of 71 individuals (35 females and 36 males) from the Luís Lopes Identified Collection of the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon, 31 of whom had an autopsy report. An attempt was made to ascertain whether these bone elements resulting from atherosclerotic calcification would resist cadaveric decomposition and whether they would be recoverable several years after burial, and a survey was carried out of their distribution according to sex and age, as well as their association with other pathologies, such as osteoporosis and cardiac and renal pathologies. An imaging analysis of an atherosclerotic plaque was also carried out to complement the macroscopic analysis and present other methods of identifying plaques. It was concluded that each atherosclerotic calcification has a unique profile, which can be useful for identification, especially in cases where the individual shows a severe condition. In terms of identification potential, the analysis of calcified atherosclerotic plaques can be useful, as they can corroborate or reject an identification. However, it always requires the existence of ante-mortem imaging exams and must always be used in addition to other identification methods. Regardless of the identification, these plaques are bone elements resulting from a pathology and should, therefore, be known and recognized by the scientific community.

Indoor thermal nonuniformity of atrium-centered public building: Monitoring and diagnosis for energy saving

Heating ventilation and air conditioning system accounts for over one third of building energy usage, especially for public buildings due to large indoor heat source and high ventilation and thermal comfort requirement compared to residential buildings. Natural ventilation shows high application potentials in public buildings because of its high-efficient ventilation effect and energy saving potential for indoor heat dissipation. In this paper, the building design is conducted for a science museum and library with atrium-centered natural ventilation consideration. The floor layout, building orientation and internal structure are optimized to make full use of natural ventilation for space cooling under local climatic conditions. A natural ventilation model is established through building field tests to evaluate the air flow and thermal environment under indoor and outdoor pressure differences. The preliminary results show that Building A's courtyard exhibited overheating issues, likely attributed to outdoor solar radiation, whereas Building B's courtyard experienced localized cooling, possibly due to indoor air conditioning system controls. Addressing these concerns necessitates modifications in courtyard design and structure. Moreover, both courtyards displayed vertical temperature gradients, emphasizing the need for effective management of outdoor heat influx and enhancements in indoor ventilation and shading strategies. To mitigate these issues, the study proposed three distinct roof design models and more refined indoor air conditioning system control strategies. The optimization of architectural design can achieve a maximum energy-saving rate of 46.54 %. Furthermore, aligning functional zones with thermal comfort areas was recommended to enhance overall building thermal comfort. The findings and proposed solutions from this study are anticipated to contribute to the enhancement of thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and vertical temperature distribution in large public buildings, catering to user requirements while reducing energy consumption. This research holds significant implications for advancing sustainability and environmental preservation in the realm of architecture.

Knowledge Graph Analysis of Science and Technology and Children's Education

In this study, 1700 articles related to children and science and technology education published on CNKI) were taken as the research objects, and the visualization software CiteSpace was used to draw the keyword knowledge map, so as to explore the hot research issues of children and science and technology education in China. The results show that the research of children and science and technology education in China basically focuses on the core issues of child education, and the main topics include the relationship between child education and science education, science museum and science and technology, early childhood education and child education. This study will focus on the following aspects, The relationship between science and technology and children's education policies: to explore the government's policy measures in promoting the integration of science and technology and children's education, and the impact of these policies on educational practice. Development and application of science and technology education products: analyze the design concept and functional characteristics of science and technology education products, as well as their application effect in educational practice. Development and innovation of science and technology education enterprises: to study the business model, market competition strategy of science and technology education enterprises, and their exploration in technology innovation and education practice. The knowledge graph analysis of this study will provide a visual tool for understanding the relationship between technology and child education, and will help to provide a useful reference for educational researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

Celebrando Herencia: A Latino Educator’s Reflection on a Science Museum’s “Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month Celebration Day”

ABSTRACT Promoting science education to all continues to be a key focus for many individuals and organizations. Informal science education settings such as museums have been shown to have a positive influence on student attitudes and interests toward science. Unfortunately, many underrepresented groups do not frequent museums as frequently as other majority groups. Hispanic and Latino-identifying individuals are an example of a group of interest, as their national population growth is not reflected in museum visitor statistics. This paper explores how the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts attempts to engage the Latino community through a Hispanic Heritage Month event. This is explored through the lens of the author, after attending the event. These reflections will capture a “lived experience” that can potentially be used as consideration when planning future events that target the Latino community.

Natural Ventilation for Cooling Energy Saving: Typical Case of Public Building Design Optimization in Guangzhou, China

Heating ventilation and air conditioning systems account for over one-third of building energy usage, especially for public buildings, due to large indoor heat sources and high ventilation and thermal comfort requirements compared to residential buildings. Natural ventilation shows high application potential in public buildings because of its highly efficient ventilation effect and energy-saving potential for indoor heat dissipation. In this paper, a building design is proposed for a science museum with atrium-centered natural ventilation consideration. The floor layout, building orientation, and internal structure are optimized to make full use of natural ventilation for space cooling under local climatic conditions. The natural ventilation model is established through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for airflow evaluation under indoor and outdoor pressure differences. The preliminary results show that such an atrium-centered architectural design could facilitate an average air exchange rate over 2 h−1 via the natural ventilation effect. Moreover, indoor thermal environment simulation results indicate that the exhaust air temperature can be about 5 °C higher than the indoor air mean temperature during the daytime, resulting in about 41.2% air conditioning energy saving ratio due to the free cooling effect of natural ventilation. This work can provide guidance and references for natural ventilation optimization design in public buildings.

The Science Museum and the imaginarium of steam, 1725–1840

The Science Museum has in its East Hall one of the finest collections of steam engines anywhere. The collection has traditionally been interpreted in formal taxonomical terms. However, as the display scheme has become physically fragmented, and the museum’s relationship with its visitors has been assessed in new ways, so new approaches to interpreting the collection have been sought. The primary and secondary source review underpinning development of a revised gallery scheme for the East Hall suggested the existence of an ‘imaginarium of steam’, a body of historic material illustrating how the steam engine exerted an imaginative hold on those who built, worked with, and observed it. The steam engine was as much a symbolic and imaginative machine as it was a tangible one. This is reflected in a rich range of sources, stretching far beyond the technical sources so traditionally and closely identified with the engine. This paper will outline some of these primary sources with particular reference to the museum’s collection and other appropriate material culture, and attempt to identify some of their shared characteristics, which together form the imaginarium.

“Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance Man” – Using Narrative-Based Pedagogy on a Field Trip to a Science Museum

ABSTRACT Narratives, or stories, are used every day by people as a way of making sense of and communicating events in the world. Narratives can be highly useful as a learning tool in science education. Though research on narrative-based pedagogy in science education and communication is very common, most of that research was done in formal settings. Our study followed fourth-grade students who visited the science museum on a field trip, entitled “The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci,” which used narrative-based pedagogy (e.g. the story of Leonardo da Vinci) as a common thread throughout the visit. Interviewing the students after the visit revealed that most students remembered facts mentioned in the narrative, and the narrative had a long-term effect. The students remembered this visit better than other visits. In addition, more than half of the students used vocabulary that could be associated with the visit. This study supports the idea that art-based research methods can be effective. Using photos and images proved to be more engaging for students, and all students used the photos of exhibits and other images to create their own stories.

The first interactive science museum in Peru: the origin and creation of TECNO-ITINTEC, 1975-1979.

This paper examines the development of the TECNO-ITINTEC museum, the first interactive science museum in Peru, which opened in 1979. The museum functioned under the Institute of Industrial Technology Research and Technical Standards (ITINTEC), a public institution established during the government of Velazco Alvarado. In 1975, Jorge Heraud became the president of ITINTEC's Board of Directors and proposed a science museum to inspire future generations of scientists. José Castro Mendívil joined as the exhibition's director and designer. Their motivation to open a museum coincided with the government's ideals for modernization and nationalization. This article analyzes various sources including newspapers, laws that regulated the institute, reports, and interviews with people involved in the museum to understand how science and politics intersected in TECNO-ITINTEC.

“I Think You Should Make All Museum Exhibitions with This Approach”: Benefits and Challenges in Co-creating an Exhibition at a Science Museum with Young People

“I Think You Should Make All Museum Exhibitions with This Approach”: Benefits and Challenges in Co-creating an Exhibition at a Science Museum with Young People

A Comparative Study of Physical and Haptic Exhibits in an Informal Learning Environment.

Virtual exhibits with haptic feedback offer greater flexibility in diversifying content and providing digital affordance, even at a lower cost, than physical exhibits. However, few studies addressed the value of such haptics-enabled educational systems in informal learning environments. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of a haptic exhibit as an alternative or supplement for a traditional physical exhibit in a science museum. We developed a two-degree-of-freedom cable-driven haptic device to simulate physical interactions on a large visual display. Choosing a seesaw-like physical exhibit available in a local museum, we designed and implemented a virtual lever simulation closely embodying the physics principles that the physical exhibit showcased. Then, we conducted an observational user study with children to compare the exhibit-visitor interaction behaviors, learning effects, and self-reported motivation and enjoyment between the physical and virtual exhibits. The results revealed that the visitors well-received and engaged with the haptic exhibit, instantiating its potential application in diverse learning settings. We hope that our research encourages further exploration of innovative haptic exhibits that enhance users' learning experiences across various environments.

Application Research on Integrating Digital Garden Culture into Exhibition Space Design of Science and Technology Museum

Application Research on Integrating Digital Garden Culture into Exhibition Space Design of Science and Technology Museum

Блинк-компаратор: герменевтика предмета в техническом музее

The article is devoted to the problem of interpretation of a museum object, its kind, when an unambiguous demonstration of the purpose of a thing in the environment of its primary existence is important. In the case when an exhibit does not reveal its essence by itself, it is necessary to decipher its purpose, application practice, history of occurrence and other similar aspects of its information potential. In practice, the depressurization of meanings, the deep deployment of an information flow densely saturated with facts and events, is a non-trivial task. This is all the truer regarding monuments of scientific and technical heritage in technical and natural science museums, since very often objects related to scientific instruments or various kinds of machines are not amenable to information disclosure without prior preparation on the part of the visitor. As an example, to demonstrate the hermeneutical isolation of an object and decode its functional and utilitarian essence, the blink-comparator, an astronomical device of the relatively recent historical past, which has lost its relevance today, was chosen. The author of the article proves that any explanations of the purpose of this thing as a museum object in the context of working with a visitor cannot be reduced to a linear chronological sequence of presentation of the material, but inevitably there will be a need for asynchronous transitions from period to period with the presence of parallel places and a branching structure of the story with multiple storylines.

Inclusion Despite Colonial Contexts?: Critical Reflections through a Participatory Research Project with Students in a Natural Science Museum

Inclusion Despite Colonial Contexts?: Critical Reflections through a Participatory Research Project with Students in a Natural Science Museum

A Study on the Correlation between Experience Exhibition Types and User Satisfaction in Chinese Science Museum

A Study on the Correlation between Experience Exhibition Types and User Satisfaction in Chinese Science Museum

Triangle from the Past: A Late Ottoman measuring instrument

In this study, we present an unusual instrument that is rarely seen in museum collections. This richly decorated brass triangle belongs to a group of objects used by Ottoman architects and engineers. The level or havāyī terāzū is an instrument that has a wide application in geometry, architecture, military engineering, hydraulic works, and topography. With its rich decoration, it can certainly be seen as a work of applied art and an artifact that – alongside its functional role – also has a symbolic value. Dating of the level is possible based on comparisons with other finds, especially those from the collections of the Pera Museum in Istanbul and the Petrovic Collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. However, the level from the Museum in Doboj is significant because it was cast in a form that is unique among levels known to date. Detailed descriptions of the instrument can be found in medieval Persian and Arabic treatises, later Ottoman studies, and Renaissance European publications. Finally, this study provides an opportunity for the wider public to learn about a lesser-known artifact, and to encourage the publication of similarly little-known ones.

A lesson in port citizenship

This article applies the framework of François Hartog’s regime of historicity to a comparative and historical study of three successive maritime museums in postwar Yokohama, Japan. Each museum was operated by the city to educate its citizens about Yokohama’s maritime identity, though through different affectively-laced temporal organizations that reflected evolving conceptions of municipal identity. The article distinguishes between “scientific universalism” in the Marine Science Museum (1961-1988), “romantic futurism” at the Maritime Museum (1989-2009), and “nostalgic presentism” at the Port Museum (2009-). As evidence of each historical regime, the article uses the form and content of exhibits, architectural changes to the museum building, and fieldwork when possible. Over the course of time, the spirit of the museum shifted from the natural sciences to romanticism and, lastly, nostalgia. These museums show how temporality-infused historiography has implications for the politics of identity.