Communicating Science Through Interactive Science Centres: A Research Perspective

Abstract

It is 3.30 pm on Thursday as I pass through the entrance to Scitech Discovery Centre. “Hello”, I say to the young person at the door, “It’s the Education Committee meeting today!” She smiles and waves me on. The entrance to Special Effects II, the current major exhibition, looms large before me. Side-stepping the opening and weaving between the colourful scent exhibits of the Perfumed Garden, I head towards the office area at the back. The Centre is relatively quiet now, school groups have gone, a few adults wander about. One, thoughtfully and deliberately, touches each of several different materials set into a large toilet seat, apparently comparing the feeling of hotness or coldness resulting from different heat conductivities. Two small children press their faces to the glass wall of the chicken hatchery, and a woman watching them from a seat nearby loosens her shoes with a sigh. A blast of sound hits me: “Melanie! Melanie! Where’s Daddy?” I realise I have walked between the Whispering Dishes and move aside. Tiny Melanie, held aloft by a Sciguide so that her ear reaches the focal point of one Whispering Dish, looks around to find her father waving from 40 metres away at the other. She looks surprised, confused, then begins to laugh.