Science and Technology Museums Serving for Urban Development Keep Science around Us

Qi Xin, Ma Yugang

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

Abstract: Science and technology museums have important social education and public service functions for urban development. The history of science and technology museums worldwide is closely related to economic and social development, scientific and technological progress, and urban development. Science and technology museums are faced with three new challenges:sustainability, unbalanced development, and technological innovation and its interaction with society in promoting urban development. Modern science and technology museum system with Chinese characteristics greatly makes up for the unbalanced regional distribution of national science and technology museums and improves the utilization rate of science popularization resources. It extends public science popularization services to cover all parts of the country and people from all levels of society, and promotes the science popularization service of science and technology museums to be fair, beneficial and efficient to make ‘science around us’ from a concept gradually become a reality.

No matter in the world or in the country, science and technology museums in each city play an important role in promoting scientific spirit, popularizing scientific knowledge and spreading scientific culture in local cities. And they benefit local people, especially children, with science and technology to enrich their daily life and their future. In the process of interacting with the public, science and technology museums pay attention to stimulating their interest in science, enlightening their scientific thinking and cultivating their scientific spirit to imperceptibly help the public to foster correct world outlook, views on life and values; In the process of interacting with the society, the science and technology museums strive to promote technological innovation and its interaction with the society to enhance citizens’ scientific literacy and socialresponsibility, and thus to promote the sound and sustainable development of cities.

1. The Development of Science and Technology Museums Worldwide

After more than 100 years of development, science and technology museums worldwide are always echoed by the development of social economy, politics, science and technology, and education. And they complement the development of cities so that the social education and public service functions are constantly expanded and strengthened.

In the early 20th century, as the First Industrial Revolution deepened, great scientific and technological inventions and creations emerged one after another, and countries held world fairs or set up museums to collect and display the fruits of the industrial revolution. Deutsches Museum(1906) represented the transformation of the science museums from a storeroom with researching objects through science to a powerful place to explain scientific facts to the public through physical education, and especially the way of participatory display and audience participation became the most vital part of the science and technology museums.

In the middle of the 20th century, with the Second Industrial Revolution developing rapidly, science and technology played a more important role in promoting the development of productive forces, and science and technology museums were popular for enhancing the public’s understanding for science and technology. Palais de la Découverte (1936), Exploratorium in San Francisco, USA (1969), Ontario Science Centre (1969), etc., they carried out scientific education for the public by specifically using exhibits transformed from scientific instruments, emphasizing direct experience, experiencing science and exploring science. And they developed exhibition modes and educational concepts with ‘inquiry learning’as the core. Later, science and technology museums around the world took interactive exhibits as the main form of science education, and dug deep into and further developed education content, education form, and public service. And they have developed more flexible education resources including small exhibition and exhibits, experiment courses, and science performances, and they have extended single interior displays to schools, communities, and streets in the cities through temporary exhibitions or tours.

After the 1980s, the new technology revolution greatly encouraged the change of the content of science and technology museums. Science and technology museums with physics and other subjects as the main content have gradually turned to the popular science places which reflect high and new technology and frontier science. The life science, environmental science, and information technology have become the important contents that science centers exhibit. The science and technology museum in this period was represented by City of Science and Industry in Villette, France(1986). It took modern science and technology as its main content to reflect the relationship of mutual penetration between science and technology as well as various disciplines, and to highlight the interrelationship between science and society.

After entering the 21st century, with the rapid development of the Internet, science and technology museums worldwide made full use of network, digital and other information technologies to expand their audience from the inside to the outside. In recent years, the functions of science and technology museums have been continuously extended, gradually combining venue education with school education, social education, and individual lifelong education to have a wider impact. And they have been playing an increasingly important role in the improvement of scientific literacy of the public and have gradually becoming communication centers of urban science and technology culture.

Thus, in the process of development, science and technology museums worldwide have gradually established and deepened its concept and functions to make it become nonprofit social education and public service agencies, open to the public, especially teenagers to carry out work and activities related to the popularization of science and technology, with experiencing science, stimulating interest, promoting exchanges and inspiring innovation for the purpose, the public’s participation in the experiential exhibition exhibits and education activities for the main form, and autonomous learning based on scientific and technological practice for the main characteristic.

In a sense, the expansion and transformation of social education and public service functions of science and technology museums as well as the deepening and renewal of the public’s understanding of science and technology museums are the inevitable outcomes of the city’s own development and the progress of the times, and science and technology museums, in turn, continue to promote urban transformation and improve civic literacy. The interactive relationship between science and technology museums and the city has become one of the important features of modern society and the sign of the progress of the times.

2. New Challenges that Science and Technology Museums are Facing in Promoting Urban Development

The science and technology museums are not ivory towers, but urban public infrastructure providing scientific communication services and important platforms for the public to participate in science. On one hand, the development and application of science and technology, such as information science, bioengineering, new energy and new materials, marine technology and space science, etc., have brought great benefits and convenience to us; on the other hand, they also have brought a series of problems including population expansion, environmental pollution, food security and so on. The public has begun to reflect, and even question whether the price we pay for it is worth. Therefore, the called social problems with a scientific background and scientific problems with social significance arose, which triggered the thinking and changes in the field of science and technology museums. To sum up, sustainability, unbalanced development, and technological innovation and its interaction with society are the most important new challenges faced by science and technology museums and the key to promote urban development in the future.

1) Sustainability

According to 2015 Annual Report of World-watch Institute, human needs are growing, and natural resources have been unable to support immoderately growing demand. To solve the problems in sustainable development, in September 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Summit adopted the ambitious Transforming our World:The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development(2030 Agenda) that proposes 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, and the Goals and targets will be achieved in the next 15 years. At the global and national policy level, the smooth transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the 2030 SDGS has been achieved.

Based on this, the science and technology museums spare no effort to foster the public’s interest in science, provide a platform for the public to understand science, promote the public to study science outside school, promote the innovation and entrepreneurship of the whole society, and cope with various challenges. Through these actions, the science and technology museums have sent a clear and strong signal to the whole society on the importance of science for sustainable development to provide an interactive space for the benign development of cities, and offer balance of information and practical help for the government, society and citizens to jointly address the problems of sustainable development of cities.

2) Unbalanced development

Over the past few decades, the world economy has been growing rapidly, but the resulting wealth and prosperity have been distributed so unevenly that it has been seen as a source of worsening social problems, political turmoil, and unbalanced educational resources in many cities. There is also an unbalanced development in the field of science and technology museums.

In November 2017, the Second World Science Center Summit was held in Tokyo, Japan, and the participants had an extensive and in-depth discussion on the current global problems of human society with the theme ‘connect the world, achieve a sustainable future’, especially on how to effectively achieve the balanced distribution of science popularization resources and, fair and beneficial science popularization services to seek strategic countermeasures with long-term effects.

At present, there is an unavoidable fact that science popularization resources provided by science and technology museums in underdeveloped areas are limited and lack of access to shared resources. In contrast, large and medium-sized venues in economically developed regions and central cities have relatively high-quality resources. In this case, the latter has the responsibility and obligation to provide resources and services for the former through the integration, sharing and flow of resources across regions and venues. It involves the interactive relationship between urban development and rural revitalization, and the science and technology museums of China have made a lot of efforts here, which will be offered more details in part three.

3) Technological innovation and its interaction with society

New scientific discoveries and achievements constantly drive the transformation of the world, and constantly refresh the way people understand science and the world as well. For technological innovation and its interaction with the society, there are three aspects: the first is the basic education of science which breaks through the core of the science and technology museums, and timely reflects the progress of frontier science and technology, and the latest technology in the exhibition. The second is to adopt advanced technology as a tool and means to effectively improve the quality of exhibitions and education activities. The third is to promote social problems with scientific background and scientific problems with social significance into the science and technology museums, and build a communication platform through the interaction between scientists and the public.

Although scientific and technological progress is irreversible, it brings us many challenges while making great achievements. For this reason, the science and technology museums must: (i) integrate the latest scientific and technological achievements into the existing exhibition contents and education activities to avoid the lag; (ii) make full use of new and high technologies such as information technology to seek innovations in educational exhibition, service for audience and user experience, and expand its services to the audience before and after the visit, and to people who cannot visit the scene;(iii) establish a new platform for scientific exchange, give full play to its own characteristics and advantages, and strive to enhance the public’s understanding and participation in scientific and social issues as well as scientific and ethical issues.

In a word, the science and technology museums must timely respond to social concerns about sustainable development through its exhibition content and education activities, elaborate social problems with scientific background and scientific problems with social significance, and satisfy the public’s new demands and expectations for understanding and participating in science.

3. Solution: Science and Technology Museum System Keeps Science Around us

It is a challenge, but more an opportunity for science and technology museums on how to cope with new challenges and problems from sustainability, unbalanced development, and technological innovation and its interaction with society. As mentioned above, science and technology museums are the product of urban development, but one of the important signs of the progress of the times is the equalization of public rights in urban and rural areas. People living in less developed areas and rural areas have the same or even more urgent needs with urban citizens in terms of enjoying scientific popularization public services. In response to the above problems, science and technology museums in China have been exploring ways and practices to realize public science popularization resources and services to benefit to all, making science and technology museums gradually extend to cities and towns across the country.

In 2012, China Association for Science and Technology started from the situation of insufficient and unevenly distributed public science popularization facilities and resources to integrate physical science and technology museums which have been developed for nearly 30 years, popular science caravan introduced in 2000, China digital science and technology museum launched in 2005, and China mobile science and technology museums which started in 2011. And it launched the building of a modern science and technology museum system with Chinese characteristics (hereinafter referred to as the‘science and technology museum system’):physical science and technology museums should be built in places where conditions permit;In the places that do not have the conditions, the exhibition tour of the mobile science and technology museums should be carried out in the towns, and the popular science caravan activities should be carried out and rural middle school science and technology museum should be built in remote areas; the Internet-based digital science and technology museum website should be developed. Since the start of the construction, the science and technology museum system has aimed at extensive coverage and practical effect, the constructions of physical science and technology museums, mobile science and technology museums, popular science caravan and digital science and technology museums have been accelerated, the abilities of development and sharing of science popularization resources and services have increased gradually, and a wide range of services has been achieved, making‘science around us’ from a concept become a reality.

1) With the rapid development of physical science and technology museums, capability of science communication has been significantly enhanced

(1) With the rapid growth of the scale of venues, social benefits are prominent

In the 1980s, China built and opened the first batch of science and technology museums represented by China Science and Technology Museum, which started the construction of science and technology museums in China. After 2000, science and technology museums came into blossom all over the country. Between 2000 and 2017, the number of science and technology museums around the country that have been built increased from 11 to 192, and China has become the country with the fastest growth in the number of science and technology museums in the world in the 21st century. In 2017, the national science and technology museums served a total of 56,982,000 visitors, 1.7 times more than in 2010. And the total number of visitors to China Science and Technology Museum and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum both exceeded 3 million in 2017.

Since May 2015, science and technology museums have carried out free opening of pilot, and the number of visitors to science and technology museums that have been included in the pilot program has grown rapidly. In 2015, 92 science and technology museums were included in the pilot program, serving 26.58 million visitors. and it increased to 123 in 2016, serving 37.22 million visitors. The free opening of science and technology museums has greatly improved the financial difficulties in the central and western regions, and small and medium-sized science and technology museums in China, and promoted public science popularization services to be fair and benefit to all in underdeveloped areas.

(2) The functions of exhibition and education have been steadily enhanced, and the content and form have been continuously enriched

In 2007, the total area of permanent exhibition of science and technology museums in China was 1.214 million square meters, an increase of 94.6% over 2010. Science and technology museums around the country pay attention to exhibition planning and design, and there are various forms for the exhibition, such as theme expansion, storyline, knowledge chain and subject classification, etc., and the exhibition content of frontier technologies such as new energy, aerospace, information technology, bioengineering and new technologies including VR and AR are constantly emerging so that interactivity, inspiring innovation, and special features of the exhibits are increasingly enhanced.

Science and technology museums around the country have also intensified the development and introduction of short-term exhibitions. In 2017, national science and technology museums held 835 short-term exhibitions, serving 24.551 million visitors, a four-fold increase compared with 2010.

Education activities are in full swing in science and technology museums around the country. Science and technology museums in China conduct 71,850 education activities like popular science training (activities) and popular science report (lectures), serving 5.631 million visitors, an increase of 2.2 times over 2010. In addition, science and technology museums around the country pay attention to carrying out themed and serialized education activities in combination with exhibition and exhibits, and launching a large number of high-quality activities such as scientific performance, summer camp, etc. for the public. The number and type of education activities have significantly increased, and the level and quality have also been significantly improved.

2) The mobile science popularization facility has achieved remarkable results, and its service coverage has been gradually expanding

(1) Mobile science and technology museums enrich the county popular science resources

Relying on the provincial science and technology museums, the mobile science and technology museums carry out tour exhibition services in county-level administrative regions where the science and technology museum has not been built. By the end of 2017, a total of 364 sets of exhibition had been produced and distributed, and 2,339 tour exhibitions had been conducted, serving 87.51 million visitors, and successfully achieving the expected goal of ‘covering counties (cities) for four years’. In September 2017, the second round of national tour exhibition was officially launched. The mobile science and technology museum has been recognized by all sectors of society for its popular science communication mode with a small investment and large benefits, which has greatly enriched the popular science exhibition and education resources in the central and western regions and improved the utilization rate of popular science resources.

(2) Popular science caravan promotes grassroots popular science work

Relying on basic level Association for Science and Technology to carry out exhibition services, the popular science caravan is an important carrier for the last kilometer for ground application of addressing popular science work. By the end of 2017, 1,445 vehicles had been allocated to the whole country, with nearly 34.24 million kilometers of driving distance, and nearly 196, 000 activities had been conducted, serving a total of 215 million people. With its flexible feature, it meets the needs of the grassroots public for popular science, affectionately known as ‘popular science Hussar’, which strongly promotes the grassroots science popularization work, especially rural science popularization work.

(3) Rural middle school science and technology museum promotes the balance of rural popular science education resources

The project of the science and technology museum in rural middle schools is supported by China Association for Science and Technology, and Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology Museums in China raises funds from the society, makes use of the existing places in rural middle schools, allocates popular science exhibits to build science and technology museums in schools, which achieved good results in improving the scientific quality of grassroots youth, promoting the equalization of popular science resources and promoting the industrialization of exhibits in science and technology museums. By the end of 2017, a total of 539 technology museums had been built, serving more than 2.06 million youth directly. Among them, 384 science and technology museums for middle schools were built in poor areas, accounting for 71.24%. Rural middle school science and technology museums promote the combination of science popularization work and the construction of science and technology museums, and national poverty alleviation, education improvement and prompting ambition.

3) Digital science and technology museums have been booming, and their resources and influence have been greatly enhanced

In 2005, China digital science and technology museum, as the national infrastructure platform of science and technology project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, was officially launched. In 2010, China Science and Technology Museum took full charge of its operation and management. In 2011, it became the only popular science platform jointly identified by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Finance, and listed by the state among the 23 national infrastructure platforms of science and technology. By the end of 2017, the total official resources of China digital science and technology museums were 10.4TB. The website had an average daily PV of 3.13 million. ALEXA China ranked highest at 76, with an average stable around 100.

At the same time, China digital science and technology museum gives full play to its advantages in serving the science and technology museum system to actively develop and explore the construction of science popularization platforms and digital science popularization resources which are complementary to physical science and technology museum, mobile science and technology museum, popular science caravan and rural middle school science and technology museum. At the same time, virtual reality and other new and high technologies were introduced into the construction of science and technology museum system. In 2017, 25 science and technology museums were set up in the country, and 726 projects were configured.

It can be seen above that the construction and development of science and technology museum system greatly makes up for the unbalanced distribution among the national science and technology museum regions, improves the utilization rate of science popularization resources, enables the public science popularization service to cover all groups in all regions of the country, and promotes the science popularization service of science and technology museums to be fair, beneficial and efficient. Looking forward to the future, the science and technology museum system will continue to focus on solving the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, promoting the transformation from the growth of quantity and scale to the development mode of quality and efficiency, realizing the innovation and upgrading of the science and technology museum system to further give play to the unique role of science and technology museums in promoting public science popularization services to be equitable and benefit to all.