This report applies a practice-based approach to learning and making in the context of a museum makerspace (The Makeshop at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh). This perspective draws upon theories of cultural and social learning, which assert an understanding of learning as fundamentally tied to the social and cultural contexts in which it occurs and focuses on the "practices" that define learning communities. The practices identified in this report are observable and/or reportable evidence of learners' engagement in making as a learning process.
This article discusses the concept of ‘heroism’ in relation to science, medicine and technology. It unpicks the complexities of the concept and discusses its implications for historians of science and museum professionals.
Accounts of the life of Scottish engineer James Watt have tended to take a rather monocular approach to his life’s work – primarily concentrating on the steam engine. However, the evidence of Watt’s workshop, preserved at the Science Museum, points to the diverse nature of his interests, and particularly to the close integration of philosophical and pragmatic elements in his work. Here is the workplace of one of the savant-fabricants that Britain’s ‘Industrial Enlightenment’ depended upon. All was, however, underpinned by physical work and the creation of tangible artefacts that took into
From October 1965 to May 1966, the Science Museum in London displayed the American spacecraft Freedom 7, the first capsule in NASA’s Mercury programme to take a human on a suborbital flight. Archival records concerning this temporary display are extensive and contain photographic sources as well as written ones. This case therefore lends itself to a study aimed at evaluating the comparative merits of these two types of records, for understanding the logic at play in the display, and for retrieving at least part of the visitors’ experience. Visual sources emerge from this comparison as
This article argues that it is useful to see historical exhibitions as both responses and contributors to narratives about science that are circulating in the public sphere. It uses the example of the 1876 Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus (which was the immediate predecessor of the Science Museum in London). The article demonstrates how, in promoting this huge exhibition and fighting for the necessary support and resources, leading scientific, cultural and political figures engaged with two rather different public interpretations of science’s past, present and future. One dealt with
When George Adams assembled a large collection of philosophical instruments for King George III in the early 1760s, he drew on a variety of printed books as sources of experiments and instrument designs. Most important of these was Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy by the Dutch mathematician and philosopher Willem ’s Gravesande, whose own collection of instruments is now in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden. Papers in the Science Museum archives reveal the specific practices through which Adams used books such as Mathematical Elements in the course of his business. These techniques
INTO THE DEEP: America, Whaling & the World: a two-hour documentary film for national broadcast on PBS in 2010, directed by Ric Burns and co-produced by Steeplechase Films, American Experience, and WGBH/Boston, explores the history, culture and significance of the American whaling industry from its 17th century origins in drift and shore-whaling, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling in the 18th and 19th centuries, and on to the industry's demise in the decades following the American Civil War. Combining stunning archival material with powerful on-camera interviews, evocative live cinematography, dramatic reenactments, and underwater footage of whales at sea, the film will bring alive the complex reality and extraordinary experience of American whaling as the nation rose to the threshold of global power, all the while registering the larger forces, economic, social, cultural, technological and environmental, that shaped and propelled American Whaling.
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) seeks support to complete the reinstallation of its 25,800 square-foot permanent Gallery of California History and to develop and implement accompanying educational programs. OMCA’s history collections contain the largest, finest, and most comprehensive collection of California material culture anywhere. The Gallery of California History was originally created in the 1960s and 70s, and it has been more than 20 years since it has been updated. The new installation of the gallery will include approximately 2,200 historical artifacts, works of art, ethnographic materials, and original photographs. This reinstallation is part of a major transformation of the entire museum that will realize the institution’s deep and continuing commitment to telling the full story of California and its people. The opening of the new Gallery of California History is planned for early 2010.
Today's Brooklyn Navy Yard is a rarity: a 19th-century citadel of the Industrial Revolution reincarnated as a model of clean industrial re-use in the 21st century. A historic national icon, the Yard has long been a mystery to its neighbors. Now, for the first time since 1801, BNYDC is inviting the public in and offering a unique and remarkable venue where the Yard can tell its many stories, most for the first time. On September 7, 2011 (Labor Day), BNYDC will open the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Building 92, a visitor center and home of a new exhibition, The Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present, and Future.
There can be a mistaken impression that the new vision for K-12 science education is only relevant to classroom science instruction. But youth frequently engage in powerful science and engineering activities that take place after or outside-of-school. They learn STEM content, engage in STEM practices, and develop an understanding of how STEM is used in the world. To capitalize on those assets, educators and other stakeholders should learn about, leverage, and broker connections for youth across the STEM learning experiences available in and out of school.
Our Center works with students from kindergarten through graduate school and beyond. We work with teachers and scientists and combine our knowledge to inspire students to pursue careers in neural engineering and neuroscience. Program activities include summer research programs, curriculum development, school visits, teacher/student workshops, science festivals, and international student exchanges.
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University of WashingtonEric Chudler
The Friends of the C&TSRR, a non-profit 50l(c)(3) dedicated to preserving and interpreting the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR), will advance its interpretive programs to complete the schematic design phase of a permanent exhibition planned for a proposed Railroad Visitor Center in Chama, NM; and to acquire the humanities expertise necessary to further develop and implement interpretive content and planning for this and other key sites along the C&TSRR's 64-mile route winding through the San Juan Mountains of Northern NM and Southern CO. The C&TSRR is a designated National Park Service National Historic Site. The C&TSRR, successor to the original Denver & Rio Grande Railroad-San Juan Extension built in 1880, operates today as a 64-mile "living museum" - a coal-fired, steam-powered narrow gauge railroad between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO.