From playing to investigating: research in an Interactive Science Centre for primary pupils

Passive visitors or independent explorers: Responses of pupils with severe learning difficulties at an Interactive Science Centre

“…Our early papers published about VISTA Solomon 1996, andSolomon 1998) described the 'four generations' of exhibits, based on Richard Gregory's categories (Gregory 1986), showing a final level of interactivity, as practised at VISTA, where the visitors are invited to interact with the exhibit, to design their own explorations, and so to 'make discoveries'. Like Csikszentmihályi and Hermanson (1995) we saw curiosity as the most important factor in setting the pupil off on their own exploration, energizing the 'flow' in their terms.…”

“…In 1998 we described how pupils from primary schools reacted at our Interactive Science Centre (VISTA) and how, through the medium of curiosity, they moved from unfocused play to an active search for cause and effect which became a creative investigation (Brooke and Solomon 1998).…”

“…The previous research at VISTA (Brooke and Solomon 1998) had been designed to find out which features of interaction led to active exploration on the part of the pupils. We used research findings on the nature of play from Piaget (1951), Millar (1968) and Sylva et al (1974).…”

Different Images of Science at Nordic Science Centres

“…A number of research studies have been carried out in order to investigate the outcome of these institutions. A majority of these studies are related to learning outcomes and attitudes toward science (eg Heard, Divall and Johnson, 2000;Nyhof-Young, 1996) or visitors' perceptions and interactions with exhibitions (eg Pedretti, Macdonald and Gitari, 2001;Brook and Solomon, 1998). However these studies do not discuss the foundations and assumptions on which staff members at science centres This article focuses on the aspects of science staff members believe they display in exhibitions and also the aspects they would like to display in the future.…”

Des ateliers de pratiques scientifiques pour l'insertion scolaire : vers l'élaboration d'un cahier des charges

“…Dans les centres de culture scientifique et technique et dans les ateliers de loisir, les animateurs proposent parfois des démonstrations expérimentales "spectaculaires" ou "éton-nantes." Celles-ci peuvent, certes, développer une curiosité mais plutôt que de rester au niveau d'une simple illustration, un questionnement pourrait être sollicité et une réelle investigation scientifique enclenchée (Brooke et Solomon, 1998 …”