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Interactivity in science museums, the link between expectations and empirical facts: the case of Centro Interactivo de Ciencia y Tecnología Abremate (Argentina)

Abstract:

This article reflects on the interactivity and experience of adolescents in science museums, through an exploratory and qualitative study carried out in the Interactive Center of Science and Technology Abremate (Argentina). The corpus includes the audiovisual record of the visits made by five groups of students between 14 and 17 years old from public schools in the Buenos Aires suburbs. The collected data were coded with a tool oriented towards the understanding of learning processes in science museums in Latin America. The analysis indicates that interactivity is present, especially, in situations in which young people interact simultaneously with the exhibition and with each other, while they talk about the manipulation of the artifacts. It is also observed that there are initial conditions to promote the learning of activities that teach thinking and to exercise emotions about the intelligibility of the world.

Keywords:
Science museum; Science education; Interactivity; Non-school educational activities

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação para a Ciência, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Faculdade de Ciências, campus de Bauru. Av. Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, 14-01, Campus Universitário - Vargem Limpa CEP 17033-360 Bauru - SP/ Brasil , Tel./Fax: (55 14) 3103 6177 - Bauru - SP - Brazil
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