Science Education in a Museum: Enhancing Earth Sciences Literacy as a Way to Enhance Public Awareness of Geological Heritage

Abstract

Today, scientific literacy has become increasingly important as a hallmark of citizenship and as a way to facilitate many of life's daily decisions. Scientific literacy can be achieved through learning, a complex lifelong process that occurs both in school and out-of-school settings. As most adults only engage in formal education about science during compulsory schooling, all the learning that people go through in out-of-school settings and beyond compulsory schooling becomes extremely important toward the scientific literacy of the individual. The learning process in out-of-school settings requires interest from each person and can be facilitated by various agents, for example, museums. This is particularly true for Earth sciences as Geology topics are rarely taught within the science curricula during school. The Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência provides realistic experiences that engage different publics into science and thus enhances the public science literacy. It is expected that by enhancing people's Earth sciences literacy, it will also enhance their awareness of geological heritage.

The Use of Museum Collection for Studying the Origin of “Rose-Like” Calcite in the Holy Cross Mountains (South–Central Poland)

“…This decorative mineral is a visiting card of regional geologic and stone mining history and its application to manufacturing of many architectural details in southern Poland, particularly during the late Renaissance period. Both the unique scientific and educational values of this calcite show the significance of geologic museum collections in protecting regional geoheritage (Reis et al 2014). This is due to the fact that images always predominate over formal and usually misunderstood texts, as emphasized by many authors (Mariotto and Venturini 2017).…”

Mineralogical, petrological and planetological heritage. The (Italian) story so far

“…The same authors then underlined how the concept of scientific heritage lies "at the intersection of two distinct and complex worlds-the world of science and the world of (cultural) heritage." In this context, the term 'heritage' refers not only to buildings and landscapes of historical value but also-and among many others-to minerals, rock samples, meteorite specimens, as well as to ethical issues in conducting research and teaching practices through geoscientific materials-materials that were often dispersed in scientific museums or institutions and university collections (Cipriani and Poggi 1994;Cipriani 2007Cipriani , 2011Jardine 2013;Ludwig and Weber 2013;Barale et al 2014;Marengo et al 2014;Reis et al 2014;Petti et al 2015;Wolfschmidt 2016;Bittarello et al 2017;Canudo 2018;Rosenberg and Clary 2018;Franza and Pratesi 2020). In this regard, the cataloguing of several naturalistic collections in Italy was promoted by the Italian University Museum Network, a project established and financed in 2012, involving 12 Italian universities (i.e.…”

Geodiversity Assessment Through the Évora–Montemor-o-Novo Region: on the Scope of Valorising the Mining Heritage of the Ossa-Morena Zone (SW Iberia, Portugal)

“…The insu cient geological literacy, particularly in Portugal, is in part due to the inappropriate and unproportionally teaching of geology through middle and high school, when compared to other natural sciences (Reis et al 2014). This ine ciency leads to a de cient awareness to the role of mineral resources in society.…”