Developing New Strategies for Science Museums in Increasing the Public Understanding of Science:Case Study from CSTM

Mo Xiaodan, Ma Yugang, Qi Xin

Science Research and Management Department, China Science and Technology Museum, Beijing, China

Abstract: Science museums have unique resources distinct from formal educational institutions, and play a very important role in bringing science and applied technology to children and adults of all backgrounds, to promote their understanding of science. China Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) has been constantly seeking strategies in the creation, conservation and communication of knowledge and identities. This study examines effective pathways and methods to stimulate the interest of visitors and meet public demand for scientific literacy. (1) Bolster audience participation through digital and intelligent service to make the exhibitions content richer and more interesting. (2) Rethink the role of CSTM in K-12 science education, and to improve the quality and influence of museum-school collaboration. (3) Use social media to expand the influence of the exhibition resources in a way that resonates with the young generation. As a leader in the ‘Science museum system with Chinese characteristics’, CSTM plays a big part in solving the problem of inadequate public scientific education services in rural areas by promoting the sharing of resources with multiple cooperation projects and platforms. Our findings suggest that science museums should make new and greater contribution to promote the development of a learning oriented society.

1. Introduction

The achievement and advances of science and technology (S&T) are deeply changed the life of general public. All technologies involve advantages and disadvantages that have had a broad and profound impact on the society. It will contribute to the sustainable society when the general public is cable of understanding and support the positive role of S&T. However, the rapid development and complexities of science and technology, such as nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, new and renewable energy, and other discoveries could hinder a clear understanding of the public. To form an environment that the public understand of S&T. Education and communication strategies for the public should be developed in order to strengthen S&T education. This article is divided into three main sections. The first section introduces the role of science museums in increasing the public understanding of science. The second section reports the practice of China Science and Technology Museum. The final section provides reference and reflect on the path through the summary.

2. The Role of Science Museums in Increasing the Public Understanding of Science

1) The Science Museums

Science museums are defined as socially-involved institutions dedicated to science communication and education. According to Bernard Schiele’s definition, science museum is a socially-involved institution dedicated to making the general public aware of the latest science discoveries and development of technology application. (Bucchi, 2014) Historically, the development of science museums has undergone four phases. The first phase of development(1683–1929) was dealt with the enrichment of the collections and displaying the history of technology. The second phase of development(1930–1959) kept pace with the times by showing contemporary science and knowledge distribution. The third phase of development(1960–1975) has a significant effect on the development of science museums led to a proliferation of knowledge. The latest phase of development (1976–present) is not without controversy, with some researchers viewing it as a period in which science and technology innovations fully interact with the society (Cheng, 2017) and respond to current-day challenges. To advance public understanding of science, learning in informal context has become a more acceptable part of science education. And one of the trend of museums and science centers is that these institutions have regularly had increased numbers of visitors during the last decades. Take Chinese Science and Technology Museum(CSTM) as an example, CSTM was opened to public in 1988, there were 21 million person–times total in the last two decades. And the new venue of CSTM was opened to public in 2009, there were 27 million person-times total in less than 10 years, which 2015, 2016, 2017, three years in a row, over three million person-times per year. A research done by China Research Institute for Science Popularization (CRISP), which issues such survey result of scientific literacy of Chinese citizens every other year, showed that the population who visited natural science museums is as follows: science center(22.7%), natural history museum (22.1%). (National Science Board science & engineering indicators, 2014)

Since 1990s, the growth of science museums is closely related to the developments of the information society. Also, the continuing worldwide trend is for a broadening of the subject range of science museums and an increasingly interdisciplinary approach to exhibition themes. The number of science museums have increased regularly during the last decade in China. There were 11 science museums in 2000, there were 192 in total in 2017 (Fig. 1). This phenomenon is closely related to the growing impact of science and technology in public’s daily lives.

2) The Opportunities for Science Museums in the Development of Science Communication

Science museum is an important education institution to foster science communication and informal learning, as well as the platform for public engagement with science. As we know, the progress of science and technology is inevitable. New science and technology such as information sciences, biomedical engineering, Nano materials and technology, new and renewable energy, marine/geospatial technology and its applications have had a broad and bold impact on society. Public began to reflect, even to question the price we have paid for when we are enjoying the great conveniences brought by scientific and technological progress and economic development. It also brings ethical issues involved in the overpopulation, environmental pollution, food security, genome editing and etc., leads to what we call social issue with scientific context and scientific issues of social significance. To advance public understanding of science, new forms of education were actively sought. The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Science and Technology (CIMUSET) works to ‘popularize and promote science and technology among children and young people all over the world’. Additionally, the increased focus on the visitor in the form of stronger ties the local community, prioritizing the viewpoints of the visitors over the ‘language’ of the object, and ultimately, attempting to create scientifically informed citizens, seems to be an indication of a broader tendency where institutions place their users and communities at the center of their functions. First of all, science museums need to integrate the state-of-the-art technological advances into their existing exhibitions and displays, as well as their educational programs, so as to avoid lagging behind. Secondly, science museums take the advantage of such high technologies as IT in their effort to seek innovation in terms of exhibition education, visitor services, and user experience, as well as to extend their services to visitors prior to and post of their visit, and to the public who cannot make it to the museum. Finally, science museums set up new platforms for scientific exchanges, bring into full play their unique features and advantages, and promote the public understanding of issues such as science and society and science and ethics.

In a conclusion, the global concerns about the sustainable development, social issue with scientific context and scientific issue of social significance are responding by natural science museums through the best practices to educate the public. Correspondingly, the public’s new expectation for understanding and participating in science, these are the new needs, asking the natural science museums to respond. The following session is who and how to provide this kind of service deserved to discussion.

3. Science Communication in China Science and Technology Museums

1) Bolster Audience Participation Through Digital and Intelligent Service to Make the Exhibitions Content Richer and More Interesting

The popularization of intelligent terminals has brought an APP into all fields of people’s life, brought convenience to the public, and also brought new approaches to museum education. A portable phone or tablet helps to the promotion of information related to museums, and can help the public better understand of exhibitions. CSTM carries out the projects of so-called ‘smart venue’to improve the level of information construction. It develops public intelligent service platform which includes ticketing, exhibits guide, wireless network, passenger flow density and other information systems, integrates WiFi, Bluetooth and location-based technology, and provides personalized services to the public through combining mobile APP, applets and mobile terminals, and through information acquisition methods such as QR codes, iBeacon, etc.

In recent years, with the increasing audience, to provide convenience to the audience, CSTM carries out the overall reform of ticketing system, to add a variety of forms for purchasing tickets, implement that viewers can enjoy one-stop service of purchasing, changing and checking in after finishing real-name ticket purchasing, update the online ticket booking function, optimize online ticket purchasing process, and provide Alipay, WeChat, mobile payment and other third-party payment forms, which conforms to the development of modern science and technology and meet the demand of the audience for many kinds of payment forms. In order to further provide considerate services, CSTM also regularly maintains and updates public service facilities such as deposit boxes, phone-charging stations, baby carriages, automatic vending machines and hundreds of audience seats, etc., conducts regular audience reaction survey and timely provides feedback and deals with the problems reflected by the audience, and publicizes and forecasts the activities in the museum through various channels, such as the official website, the LED display, WeChat, Sina Weibo, etc. so that the audience can obtain the exhibition information in advance, which increases the comfort level of the experience.

To help the public understand natural selection and evolution, based on the ‘13 kinds of birds with different mouth (Darwin thinking)’ exhibits of Hall B for exploration and discovery of CSTM, and combining with related exhibition resources, the popular science APP is designed and developed with ‘one day of Darwin in the Galapagos Islands’ as the theme, to realize online and offline participation and interaction of the public. After completing the task, the public can view the text or animation display of the relevant exhibits. The game rewards in the APP are designed based on the exhibits, which can stimulate the learners’ strong interest in scientific inquiry in the combination of combination of emptiness and reality to achieve the effect of 1+1>2. Selection and design of all kinds of game elements fully reflect the concept and method of communications, adopting the design idea of situation introduction, role play, task-driven, motivation and problem-orientated and making use of the methods of pedagogy and communications to design tools for the communication and learning of scientific and cultural knowledge with both knowledge and being interesting.

CSTM proposes ‘take the science and technology museum home’ to share information of the exhibits online so that the visitors can search and learn from home through information technology. The website of China Digital Science and Technology Museum has more information about exhibits and exhibition items, which expands the service scope of CSTM and the audience’s experience of the museum.

The education activities based on the exhibits and exhibition items focus on cultivating scientific thoughts and spirit of the audience. Through the exhibition content and the audience’s participation and interaction with the combination of knowledge, entertainment, and science, they show the scientific principles and technical application to the audience and encourage the audience to explore and practice. In addition, while conducting the exhibition education, CSTM also organizes various scientific popularization practices and training experiment activities which enable the audience to deepen their understanding and perception of science through their own participation, and to improve their scientific literacy unconsciously. Two education concepts of CSTM: one is Maker Education. In order to enhance education effect and expand the audience, CSTM has launched a series of exhibition hall workshops such as ‘Maker Dreamworks’, ‘Science SUBWAY’, ‘Play Science’, etc. in public space. The second is to carry out the maker education project with STEM education concept to carry out education activities which are deeply loved by the majority of the young audience.

While popularizing scientific knowledge, it pays attention to promoting scientific spirit, advocating scientific methods, propagating scientific ideas, and spreading the process of science and stories of scientists. With the brand of ‘base of combination of museum and school’, CSTM leads the popular science services for teenagers, providing 150 primary and secondary schools with venue education activities, serving 30,000 teachers and students, and organizing special training of science and technology education for primary and secondary schools, serving 200 teachers. With the brand activity of ‘custom travel’, it leads personalized and differentiated popular science services for the public, carrying out the special customized‘scientific birthday party’ activity for 12 sessions, and 150 customized group counseling sessions. It has developed 4 multi-activity resource bundles to serve different application environments including a physical museum, mobile museum, and popular science caravan. It has held the‘night of science and technology museum’ that is the first large-scale evening activity of science education. It aims to build scientific education brand of ‘Huaxia science and technology school’, carrying out 40 themed education activities based on ancient science and technology exhibition and exhibits to tell the ‘Chinese story’ in a diversified way in 2017.

2) Rethink the Role of CSTM in K-12 Science Education, and to Improve the Quality and Influence of Museum-school Collaboration

Lifelong learning needs new practical forms, and the formal education can learn something from the informal, open learning environments like the science museums. The relation to science, technology and education are met through the cooperation between universities, science centers, schools, teacher education and school authorities. Science museum is located where science, technology and education meet. A science museum features all of these three fields. Out of school education often uses informal education sources for formal education. Science museum education is one form of out-of-school education. The education objectives under the background of the science and technology museum, and scientific and specific knowledge, skills, attitudes, and tendencies of the development of school are inevitably overlapped. Therefore, it can play a complementary role in promoting the development of the common cause between the informal learning environment and the school. How to closely connect with the formal K-12 curriculum; how to carry out offcampus teaching, service to school, resources loan, course development, teacher training and so on. In recent years, driven by the development of the times and under the guidance of national policies, the school education increasingly needs to cooperate closely with the venue education. By exploring and practicing the cooperation mode of the museum and school, abundant exhibition items and education activities resources in the venue are taken as the beneficial supplement to the existing education system, so as to further improve the education system. When learning in the venue, experiential teaching, inquiry teaching, and other teaching strategies should be adopted, and educational concepts such as STEAM, should be adopted to break the barrier formed by the imparting teaching method in the traditional school education, so as to build a broader platform for students to learn scientific knowledge, master scientific methods and pursue scientific spirit.

CSTM mainly implements its education functions through exhibition items and education activities. Compared with formal school education, education of the science and technology museum has the advantages of independence, interestingness, participation and interactivity, which can display the dull and abstract textbook knowledge in a vivid and intuitive form, encourage students to explore and practice by themselves and obtain direct experience, which can effectively make up for the deficiency of school education. For the cooperation between museum and school, for one thing, CSTM inherits and carries forward the excellent practices of science and technology museums at home and abroad, such as free visits of students, training of teachers in primary and secondary schools. For another thing, it launches a number of distinctive projects, such as students’ practical experience materials, 100 courses of themed scientific practice, customized travel to science and technology museum, going over the test for senior school entrance, innovative methods training, etc.

‘The first lesson’ is an important ceremony to start the new term. In order to thoroughly implement the National Scheme for Science Literacy (2006–2010–2020), and actively respond to requirements of Ministry of Education for primary and secondary schools to do a good job in the first class, it implements the action of science literacy education for teenagers, vigorously carries out the science and technology education activities both inside and outside the school, and regards ‘the first class’ as an important part of ideal and belief education, popular science education and school education at the beginning of the term. The exhibition education center of CSTM takes advantage of its unique advantages and makes full use of the exhibition resources in the museum to elaborately design ‘the first class’ for primary and secondary schools throughout the city to provide students with a distinctive opening experience through vivid and abundant education forms.

The theme of ‘the first class’ of 2016 is ‘space exploration, building a strong country’. The past year of 2016 is the 60th anniversary of the founding of China’s space industry. At the beginning of the new term, it coincides with the moment when the transformation of the exhibition hall ‘space exploration’ of CSTM is completed. This activity leads students to experience the mysterious wonders of space. They can also play the role of astronauts, and in the laboratory, students can simulate the dialogue between heaven and earth, learn the knowledge of space plant cultivation, and watch scientific experiments of astronauts. They can experience frontier space technology and the latest achievements that Chinese people are proud of. In the space show, the science instructor will prepare making on your own hand’s activity‘a small rocket to soar into the sky’ and rocket-themed science shows for students.

Teacher training comes again shared discussion and collaboration help to make progress—The second phase of science and technology teacher training of 2017 was successfully held

Since 2016, the exhibition education center has launched a series of science and technology teacher training for primary and secondary school teachers in Beijing, which has been widely praised by teachers in the school. On March 22, 2017, the exhibition education center completed the first phase of 2017 science and technology teacher training in the form of open class, and communicated with the attending teachers about related issues of teacher training after the meeting. Based on teachers’ feedback, in order to further promote carrying out activities of the combination of museum and school, make teachers more in-depth understanding of education resources of CSTM, promote students to visit the effect, the exhibition education center, on May 9, conducted the second phase of 2017 science and technology teacher training for junior middle school physical teachers in Beijing, and nearly 300 teachers from more than 100 schools in Beijing attended the training. It centered on the topic ‘how to use the science and technology museum resources to carry out the junior middle school physics teaching’ to conduct a special topic lecture.

3) Use Social Media to Expand the Influence of the Exhibition Resources in a Way that Resonates with the Young generation

The Internet has fully penetrated into education, service, management and others of the science and technology museum, making it a smart science and technology museum; Its core is to provide new ideas and methods for the science education of science and technology museum based on experiential practices through Internet concepts and application of technology to promote the design and implementation of exhibitions or education activities to be more open, cooperative, shared, accurate, and more attractive, and realize the innovation and change of science popularization mode of science and technology museum.

The traditional mode of science and technology museum is that staff of the science and technology museum develops exhibits and education activities, and the audience interacts with the exhibits and education activities in the venue. The science and technology museum in the network era has added network platform. The public can interact with the website through the network, or with the physical museum through the network, and there is a connection between the entity and virtuality. The public has the opportunity to participate in the construction of physical and network popular science, so that information flow and workflow have been expanded in a wide range, fully reflecting the Internet concept of open, collaboration, sharing and shared work.

As a state-level public welfare science popularization service platform, China Digital Science and Technology Museum (CDSTM)has been committed to creating high-quality and original science popularization content, and providing high-quality science popularization resources for the public, especially children. In recent days, the video playback amount of‘Science, open the door’, which is an original audio program for children of CDSTM has exceeded 10 million on the Himalayan FM that is the largest audio we media platform in China. In just half a year, it has doubled from 4.98 million at the end of last year to 5 million. The program started in April 2016, and up to July 26, 2018, it has been broadcast 129 programmes, with a total duration of over 800 minutes. And the highest single broadcast volume reached 193,000. With a total of 35,000 subscribers, the program has a completion rate of 69.46%, ranking the seventh in the Himalayan children’s science popularization channels.

CDSTM has conducted an in-depth cooperation with Baidu Baike, Baidu Zhidao Daily, Baidu Wenku, Baidu Chuanke, and other columns, and has achieved good results. Through strategic cooperation, on the basis of good cooperation in the past, CDSTM will enter Baidu Zhidao as a science popularization professional institution, continuing to cooperate in multiple columns and channels, providing users with solutions to their scientific problems from a professional perspective, popularizing scientific knowledge, and interpreting scientific hot spots.

CDSTM works hard to dispel poor creative micro-video. Centering on the focus of popular science work, focusing on topics with public concern and social concern such as PX, waste incineration and nuclear power, etc., it pioneers a combination of matting technology and interesting animation. It teaches through entertainment and guides the public to reject rumors and be objective and rational through creative forms of Internet thinking such as inviting WeChat call by popular science persons, delivering popular science newspaper, opening up popular science adventure game, situational presentation, etc. The highly innovative work has been recommended by China Popular Science, CDSTM and other WeChat official accounts.

It will create high-quality and featured network popular science resources, and adopt‘informatization + exhibits exhibition + education activities’ to build all-media exhibits exhibition and activity database, and build a demonstration interactive learning experience center. It will promote the application of virtual reality technology, adopting 360-degree panoramic virtual roaming technology to allow the public to visit the popular science venues with a feeling of actually being there without leaving their homes through panoramic shooting and interaction design. It will develop and promote 300 mobile terminal virtual reality projects and popular science mobile games, providing the public with novel and convenient popular science resources.

4. Conclusion

Through science learning in the designed scene, various projects and media can satisfy different demands of the public on science, stimulate their interest in science, build their scientific knowledge and skills, help the public to cope with science more freely and confidently, and construct and understand scientific learning experience.

References

Cheng, D. (2018) Opening Up a Bright Future for the Development of Natural Science Museums under the Belt and Road Initiative. Journal of Natural Science Museum Research. 3(01):17-26.

Massimiano, B., Brian, T. (2014). Routledge Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology, Second edition. London: Routledge.