essay about science museum

The New York Times

The learning network | exhibit a: exploring and learning at science museums.

Exhibit A: Exploring and Learning at Science Museums

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

• See all in Science »
• See all lesson plans »

Overview | What do science museums have to offer? How can visiting a science museum complement classroom curriculum and reinforce science standards? What can students get out of a trip to a science museum? In this lesson, students reflect on the exhibits, learning experiences and purposes of science museums, then prepare for and visit a local science museum where they engage in an open-ended scavenger hunt. Afterward, they develop scripts for a museum guide to use with visitors or generate ideas for their own science museum.

Materials | Computers with Internet access (optional), copies of the handout.

Warm-Up | Begin by having the class brainstorm a list of places in their community that provide an opportunity to learn about science. Record the list on the board. Students might name science museums, zoos, nature centers, aquariums, science-oriented exhibits at children’s museums and other non-science museums, local colleges or universities, farms, weather stations, state parks, Audubon centers, planetariums, rock formations, rivers and ponds, etc.

Once students have compiled the list, you might review the major disciplines and sub-disciplines of science , and sort the locations by asking: Where would you most likely learn about life science, physical science and earth science? What places might feature, for example, astronomy? Which would most likely focus on environmental science?

Discuss further the purposes of the various sites they listed. Is their primary purpose to teach science, or do they tie science together with another focus, like history or sociology? Are they meant to inspire awe, provide an experience or promote a cause? Ask students to identify trends. For instance, they might realize that their town has many opportunities to explore the life sciences, but few places to learn about physics or chemistry.

Generate further discussion with the following questions:

• What science museums, or science exhibits in other museums, have you visited?
• Which ones are your favorites? Why? What memories come to mind?
• Which are your least favorites? What didn’t you like about these sites or exhibits?
• Which exhibits did you learn the most from? Which, if any, inspired in you a “sense of wonder about the world”? Which inspired a greater understanding of the diversity of life or made you ponder deep questions about human existence?
• Thinking about the science museums you have visited, what would you say are their missions and purposes? Is there any connection between the museums with clear purposes and those that you identified as your favorites?
• Did any allow you to experiment or interact with materials? Did you learn something from these experiences, or were they just for fun?
• In general, what should visitors take away from a visit to a science museum? Are there different answers to this question for children, teenagers and adults? If so, what are they? If not, why not?

At this point you might read aloud the beginning paragraphs from today’s article, which highlight the question of purpose for today’s science museums:

Many science museums, for example, now feature prepackaged touring shows about hit movies to draw in the crowds. (I saw costumes from the “Chronicles of Narnia” films and the stage sets from “Star Trek” films on two separate visits to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.) Otherwise sober institutions present filmic extravaganzas with only the flimsiest relationship to science (an upbeat promotional travelogue about Saudi Arabia is now getting the Imax treatment at Boston’s Museum of Science). But there are also serious inquiries going on in science museums, philosophical goals described in mission papers, conflicting theories about what should happen when visitors arrive. And differences in approaches are astonishing. I have seen meticulous displays explicating the structure of padlocks (London’s Science Museum), a hortatory exhibition of environmental apocalypse (New York’s American Museum of Natural History), a terrarium of dung beetles plowing through waste (New Orleans’s Audubon Insectarium), an array of physics demonstrations in which visitors play with sand, balls, pendulums and bubbles (San Francisco’s Exploratorium), collections of antique bicycles and movie cameras (Berlin’s and Prague’s science museums), and a 50-year-old exhibition in which mathematical principles are portrayed as beautifully as the topological surfaces on display (Boston’s Museum of Science). This antic miscellany is dizzying. But there are lineaments of sustained conflict in the apparent chaos. Over the last two generations, the science museum has become a place where politics, history and sociology often crowd out physics and the hard sciences. There are museums that believe their mission is to inspire political action, and others that seek to inspire nascent scientists; there are even fundamental disagreements on how humanity itself is to be regarded. The experimentation may be a sign of the science museum’s struggle to define itself.

Ask students: How do these descriptions of various science museums and exhibits jibe with your experiences? Which ones would you characterize as crowd-pleasers, designed to attract visitors? Which qualify as “serious inquiries”? Has it been your experience that most science museums give as much attention to “politics, history and sociology” as to hard science, if not more?

Finally, explain that students will reflect on these ideas further as they read the full article and prepare for a visit to a local science museum.

Related | The article “The Thrill of Science, Tamed by Agendas,” part of the 2010 special Museums section , examines the identity crises of modern-day science museums:

A science museum is a kind of experiment. It demands the most elaborate equipment: Imax theaters, NASA space vehicles, collections of living creatures, digital planetarium projectors, fossilized bones. Into this mix are thrust tens of thousands of living human beings: children on holiday, weary or eager parents, devoted teachers, passionate aficionados and casual passers-by. And the experimenters watch, test, change, hoping. … Hoping for what? What are the goals of these experiments, and when do they succeed? Whenever I’m near one of these museological laboratories, I eagerly submit to their probes, trying to find out.

Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.

Questions | For reading comprehension and discussion:

• How have science museums changed in the last century? How has their purpose or message also changed, if at all?
• What difference does the author point out between the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York? In your opinion, which approach is more appropriate for a contemporary science museum and why?
• The author describes Stephen T. Asma’s book, which suggests “a form of self-loathing” found in contemporary natural history museums. Based on your experience in science and natural history museums, does this idea resonate with you and why?
• What type of exhibits does the author hope are part of the future of science museums? Do you agree that this is where science museums should be headed and why or why not?

RELATED RESOURCES

From the learning network.

• Lesson: A World of Art
• Lesson: Bites That Kill: Creating Informative Exhibits on Malaria
• Lesson: Not Bare Bones at All

From NYTimes.com

• Times Topics: Museums
• Article: Wonders of Science at the Golden Gate
• Article: Golfing Through the Stratosphere

Around the Web

• Boston Museum of Science
• The Franklin Institute
• Exploratorium

Activity | This activity is meant to be used in preparation for a class field trip to a local science museum. For help finding a local museum, the Association of Science-Technology Centers provides a searchable database of science centers and museums by country and state.

Below is a template for a handout to lead students through a “scavenger hunt” through the museum they will visit. You will probably want to modify it in a way that meets your curricular focus as well as the specific resources and exhibits available at the science museum your class will visit.

We suggest that you pare down the open-ended suggestions provided to three to five items that you would like students to complete while at the museum, and then add questions that directly link what students are learning in class to the exhibits they will see. You may also, as suggested below, want to give students an opportunity to devise their own prompts in anticipation of their visit.

Museum Scavenger Hunt

Directions:

While at the museum, you will participate in a scavenger hunt to find exhibits or museum experiences to fit each description below. For each prompt, you will:

• Identify the name and location of the exhibit, or portion of the exhibit that fits the description.
• Describe, sketch, collect data or summarize what the exhibit is, what it does, or how you interacted with it.
• Identify three or four science key words connected to the exhibit.
• Explain briefly why you chose this exhibit as an example of the given prompt.
• Something that gives you a “sense of the human capacity to make sense of the world.”
• Something that makes a statement about the significance, or insignificance, of humans on the planet or in the universe.
• An exhibit urging “consciousness change.”
• An exhibit that gives “a sense of amazement,” awe or wonder “about the world.”
• An exhibit that demonstrates a theory or law you have learned about in class (e.g. Newton’s Laws of Motion, Cell Theory, Theory of Evolution, Atomic Theory, Conservation of Momentum, Boyle’s Law, etc.)
• Something that gives you an idea for an experiment you could conduct at home or in the classroom.
• Something interactive that allows you to experiment and collect data (tell what you did and show data in a table).
• Exhibit that interested you in a topic you weren’t interested in before.
• Exhibit that makes a connection between pop culture and science.
• An exhibit that teaches an important science skill or demonstrates something that scientists do.
• Make your own criteria and fulfill it: An exhibit that ____________________________.

For example, students visiting the Boston Museum of Science might plan to find:

• “Something that gives a sense of amazement about the world” when they visit an exhibit detailing the organization and communication of bees or walk through the butterfly garden .
• “Something interactive that allows you to experiment and collect data” in the Investigate! exhibit, where visitors can design and race their own solar cars.
• “Something that demonstrates the “human capacity to make sense of the world” in the Natural Mysteries exhibit, where they observe and classify specimens from the museum’s collections.
• “Something that demonstrates a theory or law you have learned about in class at the Science in the Park exhibit , where students investigate forces and motion.

Before the visit, provide students with your tailored handout and a map of the museum so that they can plan their visits; they might also peruse the museum’s Web site to aid in their planning. In addition, establish ground rules of the trip and the activity, including how students should work (individually or in pairs or groups) and move through the museum, when and where the class will meet up, expectations for behavior, required learning outcomes, and so on. Make sure students bring the handout and a pen or pencil as they tour the museum so they can record what they see and do under each prompt.

Back in class after the trip, have students share what they selected for each prompt and tell what they learned from the exhibits. As they review the exhibits, have students identify and discuss the purpose of the museum.

Ask: What is the museum’s primary mission? How can you tell? In your opinion, do you think the museum successfully achieves its goals to educate, inform, persuade, inspire scientific endeavors, spark an interest in science, create awe, or another goal? What did you learn from the trip? What connections did you make between what you have learned in class and what you saw in the museum? What feedback and suggestions do you have for the museum? Would you recommend visiting it to others?

Alternate activity: If the class is unable to visit a science museum, you might consider having students conduct this activity virtually. Using the same handout and prompts, and computers with Internet access, students can visit virtual exhibits by the Boston Museum of Science , the collection Resources for Science Learning from the Franklin Institute , online activities from the Science Museum of Minnesota , a digital library and hands-on activities provided by San Francisco’s Exploratorium , Web-based student activities from the National Museum of Natural History or other similar online activities from the Web site of the science museums of your choice.

Going Further | Students do one or both of the following two activities to take this further:

• Students select one of the exhibits they experienced and described on their handout, and write a script that a museum guide or docent might use to explain the exhibit. Scripts should improve the visitor’s experience of the exhibit by including background information, making it more informative, helping visitors understand the science involved or providing examples to explain how the exhibit relates to the greater context of scientific knowledge. Students perform their scripts for the class to recall their experiences at the museum (perhaps using parts of the museum’s Web site as a visual aid) and reinforce their learning of scientific concepts.
• Small groups convene and work together on this prompt: “Imagine that our town is planning to construct a new science museum or renovate an existing science museum, and that you have been asked to provide input into the museum’s focus, mission and plan for exhibits. Discuss the following questions in your group and jot down the ideas you generate: What types of exhibits should be included in the new science museum? How can you incorporate what we have been studying this year into the museum? How can you best use local resources? What should be the main goal or mission of the museum and why? How will you accomplish that goal through your choice of exhibits? What design ideas might you incorporate that would enhance the visitor experience? What can you take away from our recent museum visit to inform your planning?” When groups are ready, have them present their ideas and rationales. Discuss all of the ideas. Where and how do their purposes fit with respect to the broad spectrum of philosophies adopted by other science museums, as described in the article? Could the groups’ ideas be combined to create one museum?

Standards | From McREL , for grades six to 12:

Science 11 – Understands the nature of scientific knowledge. 12 – Understands the nature of scientific inquiry. 13 – Understands the scientific enterprise.

Technology 3 – Understands the relationships among science, technology, society and the individual.

Art Connections 1 – Understands connections among the various art forms and other disciplines.

Visual Arts 3 – Knows a range of subject matter, symbols and potential ideas in the visual arts.

Arts and Communication 1 – Understands the principles, processes and products associated with arts and communication media. 2 – Knows and applies appropriate criteria to arts and communication products. 3 – Uses critical and creative thinking in various arts and communication settings. 4 – Understands ways in which the human experience is transmitted and reflected in the arts and communication. 5 – Knows a range of arts and communication works from various historical and cultural periods.

Working With Others 1 – Contributes to the overall effort of a group. 3 – Works well with diverse individuals and in diverse situations. 4 – Displays effective interpersonal communication skills.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

What's Next

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• BOOK REVIEW
• 21 November 2022

How science museums can use their power

• Anna Novitzky 0

Anna Novitzky is a subeditor team leader at Nature in London.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

A nineteenth-century aircraft on display at the Paris Museum of Arts and Crafts, one of the first public science museums. Credit: CNMages/Alamy

Curious Devices and Mighty Machines: Exploring Science Museums Samuel J. M. M. Alberti. Reaktion (2022)

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 611 , 657-659 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03795-1

Related Articles

Brunch with a carnivorous plant

News & Views 03 SEP 24

Man versus horse: who wins?

News & Views 27 AUG 24

The meaning of the Anthropocene: why it matters even without a formal geological definition

Comment 26 AUG 24

Candidate 1143172 cover letter: Junior pot scrubber

Futures 04 SEP 24

Massive Attack’s science-led drive to lower music’s carbon footprint

Career Feature 04 SEP 24

Live music is a major carbon sinner — but it could be a catalyst for change

Editorial 04 SEP 24

Guide, don’t hide: reprogramming learning in the wake of AI

Career Guide 04 SEP 24

What I learnt from running a coding bootcamp

Career Column 21 AUG 24

The Taliban said women could study — three years on they still can’t

News 14 AUG 24

Faculty Recruitment, Westlake University School of Medicine

Faculty positions are open at four distinct ranks: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, and Chair Professor.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Westlake University

Postdoctoral Researcher - Neural Circuits Genetics and Physiology for Learning and Memory

A postdoctoral position is available to study molecular mechanisms, neural circuits and neurophysiology of learning and memory.

Dallas, Texas (US)

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Assistant/Associate Professor (Tenure Track) - Integrative Biology & Pharmacology

The Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology (https://med.uth.edu/ibp/), McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Scienc...

Houston, Texas (US)

UTHealth Houston

Faculty Positions

The Yale Stem Cell Center invites applications for faculty positions at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or full Professor. Rank and tenure will b...

New Haven, Connecticut

Yale Stem Cell Center

Postdoc/PhD opportunity – Pharmacology of Opioids

Join us at MedUni Vienna to explore the pharmacology of circular and stapled peptide therapeutics targetting the κ-opioid receptor in the periphery.

Vienna (AT)

Medical University of Vienna

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Advertisement

Museums as avenues of learning for children: a decade of research

• Original Paper
• Open access
• Published: 27 October 2016
• Volume 20 , pages 47–76, ( 2017 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Lucija Andre   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2125-3264 1 ,
• Tracy Durksen 2 &
• Monique L. Volman 1  

65k Accesses

117 Citations

37 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

In this review, we focus on the museum activities and strategies that encourage and support children’s learning. In order to provide insight into what is known about children’s learning in museums, we examined study content, methodology and the resultant knowledge from the last decade of research. Because interactivity is increasingly seen as essential in children’s learning experiences in a museum context, we developed a framework that distinguishes between three main interactivity types for facilitating strategies and activities in children’s learning: child–adults/peers; child–technology and child–environment. We identify the most promising strategies and activities for boosting children’s learning as situated in overlapping areas of these interactivity types. Specifically, we identify scaffolding as a key to enhanced museum learning. Our review concludes by highlighting research challenges from the last decade and recommendations for practice and future research on how to design, evaluate and guide theoretically-grounded educational programs for children in museums.

Similar content being viewed by others

A systematic review of the pedagogical roles of technology in ICT-assisted museum learning studies

Designing an Interactive Learning to Enrich Children’s Experience in Museum Visit

Interactive Museums - New Spaces for the Education of Children and Adolescents

Explore related subjects.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Digital Education and Educational Technology

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

“A museum is an educational country fair” (Semper 1990 , p. 50) that is rich with exciting things for individuals to explore and discover through touch and inquiry. Museums direct learning by providing visitors with unique opportunities to explore various concepts of mathematics, art and social science. As with museum education experts (e.g. Falk and Dierking 2000 ; Falk and Storksdieck 2005 ; Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ; Kelly 2007 ), we recognise the need for a conceptual change from museums as places of education to places for learning. By responding to the needs and interests of visitors, we believe that museums can transform from “being about something to being for somebody” (Weil 1999 , p. 229).

Children’s learning takes place in a range of formal (i.e. traditional classroom) and informal settings (e.g. unstructured and self-paced museum program; Falk and Dierking 2000 ). Generally, learning in museums and other non-school-based environments is referred to as informal or free-choice learning and is qualitatively different learning from that in schools (Falk and Dierking 2000 ). As a result, findings from research in school-based settings are not easily transferable to museums because learning in museums operates in rich and complex sites and focuses on concrete material such as objects and exhibits (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ).

Although the last three decades of museum research have resulted in significant findings and advances, there are many knowledge gaps about learning in museums. For example, the importance of visitor’s personal context (motivation and experience), social interaction and the museum context are highlighted as important factors in museum learning and meaning making (e.g. Falk and Dierking 2000 ). However, we know very little about children’s learning processes and results from experiences in different museum types, and how their learning can be best guided. Moreover, there is a need to map the appropriate research approaches that would facilitate this goal.

For the purpose of this review, we define museums as informal learning environments as accessible by the public, based on the subjects of science, history, archeology and arts, and involving various objects and exhibits (live and/or simulated) and programs. Consequently, we refer to various types of museum such as: science museums and centres, children’s museums, history and archaeology museums, and art museums/galleries. Interactivity is a focus of this review because it is increasingly seen as essential in children’s learning experiences in a museum context (e.g. Cheng et al. 2011 ; Falk and Storksdieck 2005 ). That is, learning is seen as embedded in the interactive process between children and knowledgeable ones, and media at hand, which makes children’s museum learning both dialogical and hands-on (Henderson and Atencio 2007 ).

Audiences of various ages, including children, visit museums. A bibliographic review by Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri ( 2000 ) focused on a decade (1990–1999) of general museum learning research and highlighted how children’s museum learning was mainly studied in the context of science museums in the United States. Very little was revealed about children’s learning in history and archaeology museums or art galleries, and in other countries. The majority of research in science museums concentrated on exhibits, while learning through participation in educational programs or while using educational materials was scarce. Most of the studies reviewed by Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri used a positivistic approach to learning with an emphasis on testing hypotheses.

Research on child-focused museum programs primarily aimed to understand children’s learning from a theoretical base, used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, and placed learning within the sociocultural context. The effect of interactions with adults on children’s museum experience was highlighted with attention to adult scaffolding as particularly supportive of children’s learning. Overall, Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri ( 2000 ) identified a need for more research into children’s learning across various types of museums. Also, they made a plea for research that makes the study design transparent, by clearly describing the process of museum learning, and how it is the same as or different from learning processes in other sites.

Children represent one of the major museum visitor groups and not just in children’s museums. For example, in the United States, about 80 % of museums provide educational programs for children (Bowers 2012 ) and spend more than $2 billion a year on education activities (American Alliance of Museums 2009 ). Although a surprisingly-high number of museums offer educational programs for children, there is no review focusing mainly on children’s learning within museums. In particular, very little is known about preschool and elementary school-aged children learning in museums. In order to create museum environments that are conducive to children’s learning, there is a growing desire for museum professionals and researchers in museum education to know more about children’s learning in museums. To move this process forward, there is a need to form a foundation based on previous research efforts, identify issues and present directions for future research on children’s museum learning.

This review is, to the best of our knowledge, the first that covers both theoretical and empirical studies about children’s learning in various museums types in the last decade (1999–2012) and across countries. Based on the identified gaps in the research, an agenda for future research into children’s learning in museums is offered. The review is scientifically relevant in two ways: (a) it provides an overview of learning theories and methodologies for studying learning in museums, which can be used by museum researchers and for other informal learning studies and (b) it develops a framework of facilitating strategies and activities for children’s learning in museums. We conclude with practical implications that offer a foundation for museum professionals in designing theoretically-grounded and effective educational programs for this target group of visitors, and help museum educators, teachers and families to facilitate children’s learning in various types of museums.

The overall aim of our review is to provide insight into what is known about children’s learning in museums worldwide over the last decade, while focusing on how learning can best be facilitated. Specifically, we aim to identify what has been studied, how children’s learning in museum has been studied and what knowledge this research has yielded. We focused the analysis of what has been studied about the strategies and activities aimed at facilitating children’s learning in museums. Specified questions were aimed at distinguishing the what (e.g. different strategies and activities) and how of children’s learning in museums. First, however, we want to characterise the research in terms of learning theories that inform the research on children’s learning in museums and the methodological approaches used. By mapping the well-recognised learning theories and research methods, we aim to prepare the ground for further research improvements. To this end, we posed the following research questions:

Which learning theories informed the research?

Which methodological approaches were applied?

Who and what were facilitating the learning?

Which activities and strategies were used to facilitate children’s learning?

What knowledge has the research yielded about children’s learning in museums?

Article selection

We performed the literature search for related articles in February 2012. We initially searched the database of the Web of Science for peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical articles published between 1999 and 2012 and relevant to children’s learning in museums. The reason for starting the search in 1999 was that a comprehensive bibliographic review of research on this topic until 1999 is available (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ). Articles were included if they were: (a) written in English; (b) published between 1999 and 2012; (c) provided a definition or description of learning in museums within the theoretical, methodological or results sections and (d) focused on preschool or elementary-school visitors under 12 years old (identified as the general age for the start of high school in most of the study populations). We excluded articles on visitors of high-school age because younger children’s museum experiences can be qualitatively different and depend on their development of abstract-level thinking/operations (Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ). We also excluded articles from our review if the focus was on museum curators’ learning or training programs and if articles lacked a clearly-stated theoretical and/or methodological approach. However, because the museum field is developing, in a few cases, we decided to include resources that did not completely match our inclusion criteria, because they could help to answer our research questions.

Our five-step review procedure is summarised in Table  1 . Step 1 involved a search of the Web of Science database. Step 2 focused on two leading journals on research and theory in museum education ( Curator: The Museum Journal and Journal of Museum Education ). In Step 3, we examined the results of 264 studies, with 33 deemed to be relevant to this review. Step 4 involved a concurrent search during which we compiled an additional eight articles from leading researchers in the field of museum education, our review of 33 reference lists, and familiar empirical research. Lastly, Step 5 centred on identifying key resources. In total, our review was based on 44 sources (identified in the reference list with an asterisk): 41 peer-reviewed articles, a review (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ), a doctoral dissertation (Kelly 2007 ), and a book (Falk and Dierking 2000 ). Of the selected articles, we identified articles that were written by the same author/coauthor more than once: Falk (3), Piscitelli (2), Tenenbaum (2) and Weier (2).

Analysis strategy

Our analysis of the 44 sources involved three subsequent rounds. First, we examined the articles in order to develop a general profile of the research on children’s museum learning. This round of analysis was also aimed at identifying the main learning theories (research question 1) and methodological approaches (research question 2) used in research on children’s museum learning. Our interpretations of the theories and/or the methodologies applied in empirical studies were guided by Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri ( 2000 ) and the reviewed theoretical papers. The second round of analysis sought to answer research questions 3 and 4 while contributing to the development of a framework of facilitating strategies and activities. This framework was further developed during several discussions between the first and the third author after a first reading of the articles. We present our framework in the methods section (under Analysis scheme), as it was used to analyse the literature in the third round of analysis and to organise the main part of the review (research questions 3, 4 and 5). In the third round of analysis, the first author used the framework to code the articles. Also the other columns of Table  3 in Appendix were filled. The second author checked the coding and Table  3 for unclear aspects and inconsistencies. If necessary, the original articles were consulted, and Table  3 was complemented or changed. The second author critically reviewed the interpretations as presented in the text.

Analysis scheme

The highlighted value and different forms of interactivity (as the core of a learner’s museum experience) guided our framework development. In fact, interactivity became the focus for our unit of analysis (facilitating strategies and activities in children’s museum learning). It is important to note that, within our framework, we refer to facilitating strategy in a much broader sense than activity. That is, while the latter presents a specific and single activity type or task (e.g. to tell a story), the former comprises a structured or semi-structured combination of different activities (e.g. hands-on, story-telling, explanation) that have a shared learning goal. Table  2 presents the seven descriptors that we used when coding facilitating strategies and activities. Figure  1 displays an illustration of our framework in which we distinguish between three main interactivity types (coded 1 to 3) and four that share qualities of the main types (coded 4 to 7).

The framework of facilitating strategies and activities in children’s learning in museums

In this section, we present an overall profile of the reviewed resources, theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches and information sources used, as well as results based on applying our framework for children’s learning in museums. Because research context has a major effect on the way in which learning is conceived and on the research methodologies chosen (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ), we present our findings according to type of museum: science museums and centres, children’s museums, natural history museums, and art museums/galleries. (In cases for which the research encompassed more than one museum type, we grouped the research within the science museums and centre type, as this was the most common type.) Findings are presented in narratives and augmented with examples. Table  3 in Appendix presents a systematic overview of the reviewed empirical studies along with methodological characteristics and study design.

Profile of the research

As displayed through Fig.  2 , our review revealed children’s learning in museums as being researched primarily in science museums and centres, followed by history museums (especially natural history museums)—adding up two thirds of the research. In contrast, very few research studies were conducted within children’s and art museums and galleries. The majority of study participants were children older than six years, with much research focusing on 9-years-old and elementary-school students (52.28 %). Out of 44 studies, about half (47.72 %) focused on children (under 9 years old) and took place in Australian and American museums (e.g. Anderson et al. 2002 ; Mallos 2012 ). About two-thirds of the studies reviewed focused on field-trip visits to museums from schools, with less of an emphasis on family learning. However, interactions within parent–child dialogues during a family visit and within whole-class and small-group settings were the focus of the majority of the studies, with peer dialogue interactions studied at a slightly lesser extent (see Table  3 in Appendix). A somewhat surprising finding was how few studies examined children’s exploratory behaviour while learning during a museum program or exhibit.

Percentage of total 44 reviewed sources presented per museum type

Of the 44 articles, more than half were conducted in the US (59.09 %), with the remainder spanning a range of locations (13.63 % in Australia, 9.09 % in the UK, 9.09 % in Europe, 6.81 % in Asia and 2.27 % in Canada). The majority of the research was empirical (31 articles) and cited descriptive or exploratory case studies and surveys (with the exception of one ethnographic study). As well, two action-research studies and 13 experimental studies were included (see “ Appendix ”). The remaining articles were categorised as theoretical (12 resources) or a review (1 article). Most of the descriptive research depicted learning activities, interactive exhibitions, conversations with museum educators or parents and peers (and the roles that they take), as well as children’s interactions and learning experiences with the exhibit or with objects in museums. Most of the theoretical studies (27.27 %) focused on the conceptualisation of the nature of learning in museums (Falk 2004 ; Falk and Dierking 2000 ; Falk and Storksdieck 2005 ), characteristics of learning in museums (e.g. Rennie and Johnston 2004 ) and the design of the research in learning in museums (e.g. Reisman 2008 ).

Theoretical perspectives

In the last decade, constructivism and, in particular, sociocultural theory have greatly impacted children’s programs/exhibition and museum learning research designs (Bamberger and Tal 2007 ; Falk and Storksdieck 2005 ; Martell 2008 ; Rahm 2004 ). Also, researchers have highlighted how the museum environment influences theory choice (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ). Sociocultural theory extends Vygotsky’s ( 1978 ) concept of learning as a socially-mediated process in which learners are jointly responsible for their learning. Specifically, Vygotsky outlined the idea that human activities are formed by an individual’s historical development and take place in a cultural context through social interactions that are mediated by language and other cultural symbol systems. Vygotsky’s theory highlights the importance of scaffolding when learning—as the temporal verbal and nonverbal guidance provided by adults when assisting children at tasks—in order to help them to move towards understanding, independent learning or task/concept mastery. The importance of guidance was evident in our review (Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ; Wolf and Wood 2012 ) and was provided in a variety of ways (modeling, posing of questions). Several researchers (DeWitt 2008 ; Martell 2008 ; Rahm 2004 ; Zimmerman et al. 2008 ) who used sociocultural theory focused their analyses on parent–child and school–group conversational interactions. For example, Zimmerman et al. ( 2008 ) examined the interweaving role of children’s cognitive resources, social interaction and cultural resources in knowledge construction and meaning-making of the scientific content and practices.

In 2000, Falk and Dierking applied sociocultural theory to museum learning research to highlight not only what happens during a museum visit, but also the where and with whom . This theoretical milestone centred on the development of the contextual model of learning (CML) as a general framework for learning in museums (see also Falk and Storksdieck 2005 ). The CML identifies 11 factors that influence learning and sorts them into three main contexts: personal, physical and sociocultural. The personal context represents the history that an individual takes into the learning situation of a museum (i.e. individual’s motivation and expectations, prior knowledge and experience, interests and beliefs, and choice and control). The physical context includes: advance organizers, orientation to the physical setting, architecture and physical space, design of the exhibit, and subsequent reinforcing events. On the other hand, the sociocultural context (i.e. within-group social mediation and facilitated mediation by others) involves visitors as part of a social group (e.g. family, school, preschool) that form a community of learners. Socially-mediated learning in museums also occurs through interactions with knowledgeable adults (parents, curators and teachers) using scaffolding strategies during programs/exhibits to maximise children’s learning. Sociocultural theory (as well as a moderate use of constructivism) was also evident in Tenenbaum et al. ( 2004 ) application of Fischer’s skill theory (Fischer and Bidell 1998 ). Here, skills are domain-specific and there is a high degree of variability across tasks and contexts (Fischer and Bidell 1998 ).

Overall, the specific museum environment was found to have an impact on the choice of learning theory (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ). The theory of social practices (a type of sociocultural theory) conceptualises knowledge as practical understanding and ability, with practice being situational ‘doing’ in relation to social and material surroundings (Reckwitz 2002 ). Based on this theory, Wöhrer and Harrasser ( 2011 ) proposed a framework that helps understanding of children’s practices in the context of, and in relation to the setting of, children’s museum. Within this framework is a focus on children’s interactions with technological objects in different settings and through games. Children’s knowledge acquisition was considered to be embedded in their handling of objects and involved task performance.

Additional theories emerged from our review. For example, Milutinović and Gajić’s ( 2010 ) study within the context of art museums/galleries was rich with multisensory experience activities and aligned well with Gardner’s ( 1999 ) theory of multiple intelligences. Another example of theoretically-framed research within children’s museums included exhibits of real-life social and nature environments (e.g. Puchner et al. 2001 ). Such research aligned well with Bandura’s social cognitive theory ( 1986 ) given the focus on learning as a change in mental representations because of experience that could, or could not, be manifested in behaviour.

Methodological approach and information sources

The last decade of research into children’s museum learning is rich with examples of how quantitative and qualitative methods can help to describe facilitating activities and strategies, children’s learning experience, engagement with an exhibit, and assessing learning. For example, we found a number of the studies that used qualitative approaches to provide a more-comprehensive portrayal of children’s museum learning (see “ Appendix ”). Compared with the previous decade, there has also been an increase in longitudinal designs about assessment of learning (e.g. Anderson et al. 2002 , 2008 ; Rahm 2004 ). The findings of this review were in contrast to those of Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri’s ( 2000 ) review, for which the methodological approach was mainly positivistic and focused on hypothesis testing.

Our review revealed 31 empirical studies whose characteristics and study designs are systematically presented in the “ Appendix ”. Much of the qualitative research performed in museums was classified as descriptive. Often case-study designs (e.g. microanalysis or multiple case studies) or action research designs were used, mainly in art museum/galleries (e.g. Martell 2008 ; Milutinović and Gajić 2010 ). Qualitative data collection included pre/post interviews, field notes and participatory observations of activities and interactions. Reviews of documents such as children’s drawings were used in art museums/galleries and science centres (Martell 2008 ; Milutinović and Gajić 2010 ), whereas worksheet assignments and children’s diaries were used in history and science museums (e.g. Martell 2008 ). The most recommended information source in all types of museums for capturing adult–child, peer–peer and child–object/exhibit interactions, learning experience, and to describe children’s behaviour, were video recordings (for example, see Martell 2008 ).

In science and (natural) history museums, quantitative research methods typically addressed the use and effectiveness of learning activities and strategies or educational programs. Quantitative information sources used in all types of museums research often involved surveys that required children or teacher/parent to answer closed- or open-ended questions (e.g. Bamberger and Tal 2007 ; Murriello and Knobel 2008 ; Zimmerman et al. 2008 ). However, measuring preschool children’s learning in relation to interactivity has proved to be a challenge in museum education research (Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ). Because a focus on children’s verbalisation is best combined with is a focus on their actions, Van Schijndel et al. ( 2010 ) used an exploratory behavioural scale that measures children’s behaviour and the quality of interactions.

All of the reviewed studies were of high quality, particularly with respect to clearly stating the purpose of their study, describing the study setting (e.g. type of the museum, exhibit, educational program and its duration, strategies and activities used) and specifying the people involved (e.g. museum educators, teachers, parents). As museum learning is difficult to measure (Reisman 2008 ), most studies we reviewed benefited from the use of the multiple instruments in assessing children’s learning (e.g. Bamberger and Tal 2007 ; Benjamin et al. 2010 ; Palmquist and Crowley 2007 ). However, we also noted a few methodological shortcomings of the reviewed studies.

When interpreting the study results, we were cognizant of a range of limitations. First, one third of the empirical studies did not cite the number of participants. With the exception of a few studies (see “ Appendix ”), others specified a small sample size ( N  < 100) that influenced the power of the study. Second, most of the studies in art and children museums did not report the reliabilities associated with their instruments or coding structures. Science museums and centres, as well as history museums did, but they reported moderate to high reliabilities for the instruments used (α = 0.60 and 0.95). Lastly, studies that primarily relied on the use of subjective measures in the assessment of learning (e.g. interviews and self-reports), could have measurement bias, which can be solved by the use of more objective measures (e.g. knowledge tests).

Overall, the challenge for researchers investigating children’s learning in museums is to account for a multitude of confounding, competing and mutually-influencing factors (e.g. motivation and beliefs, design of the exhibition, social interaction; Falk and Dierking 2000 ). In order to answer this challenge, Reisman ( 2008 ) has argued for the use of design-based research (DBR), including both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies in a complementary way. Although this approach has been primarily used in formal education for creating complex interventions in classroom settings (e.g. Brown 1992 ), it is beginning to be used in science museums for examining the process of learning. Because DBR often combines qualitative and quantitative measures to study learning, it allows observing the system holistically while maintaining awareness of the changes in the learning process, interactions and resulting outcomes (Reisman 2008 ).

Framework of children’s learning in museums

The reviewed studies focused on children’s interactions with adult guides (e.g. curator, parent, teacher, scientist) and technology, accompanied with hands-on activities that facilitated children’s learning. Our review revealed the dominance of facilitating strategies and activities present in seven interactivity types defined in Table  2 : (1) child–adults/peers, (2) child–technology, (3) child–environment, (4) child–environment–adults/peers, (5) child–technology–adults/peers, (6) child–technology–environment and (7) total interaction. What follows is a description of interactivity according to four learning contexts: science museums, children’s museums, (natural) history museums and art museums/galleries.

Science museums

Science museums and centres are valuable resources for first-hand technological exploration that often are not available for students in formal learning settings (Glick and Samarapungavan 2008 ). Moreover, they are considered helpful resources for supporting the inclusion of gifted children, teacher professional development and field trips (Henderson and Atencio 2007 ). During the last decade, the role of museum guide in science museums and centres has become more geared towards interaction with children (Cheng et al. 2011 ). Not surprisingly, the majority of reviewed studies (15) were within the context of science museums. Most of these studies focused on students’ learning during field trips and family visits to the museum, with seven studies on preschool learning. Mainly studies of effectiveness took place within science museums and centres (see “ Appendix ”) and they focused on the effectiveness of interactive exhibitions, museum/school interventions and coaching. Analyses performed in the reviewed studies focused on the extent of exhibit exploration, knowledge and understanding of science concepts and phenomena, and attitudes.

We also reviewed studies that demonstrated the child–environment–adults/peers interactivity type by using different levels of guidance to explore children’s learning (see Bamberger and Tal 2007 ; Rahm 2004 ; Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ). While Van Schijndel et al. ( 2010 ) explored scaffolding, explaining and minimal coaching style on preschool children’s hands-on behaviour, Bamberger and Tal ( 2007 ) inspected three levels of choice activities (free-choice, limited-choice, and no-choice interactivity). Results revealed three key findings: (1) the scaffolding coaching style implied that the guide aroused the child’s investigations to the next level by asking open questions and directing the child’s attention to specific exhibit parts, (2) the explaining coaching style included an exhibit demonstration and its explanation (e.g. causal connections, physical principles) and (3) the minimal coaching style (child–environment interactivity) served as the control condition (the child freely interacted with the exhibit; Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ).

Overall, this selection of findings revealed that different levels of scaffolding and guidance yielded differences in children’s learning. That is, children showed more active manipulation with the exhibit when coached with the scaffolding style, and more exploratory behaviour when coached with the explaining style (Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ). While limited-choice activities yielded the most advantages (e.g. promoted teamwork during problem solving), the no-choice activities allowed students to connect experiences from the visit to their school and non-school knowledge (although strongly dependent on the guide’s teaching skills). As anticipated, the free-choice activities (e.g. pressing buttons, operating objects) resulted in insufficient understanding and frustration (Bamberger and Tal 2007 ). Finally, in the study by Rahm ( 2004 ), the children developed an understanding about the exhibit through parents’ and children’s ‘listening in’ during ongoing conversations, observation and the manipulation of an exhibit (child–environment–adults/peers interactivity). Therefore, we consider that visits to museums that include activities founded on scaffolding, limited choice and encouraging parents–child action and conversations (that externalise children’s meaning-making) are most supportive of children’s learning as they develop their natural curiosity into more substantial learning.

In many science museums and centres, the rapid evolution of information and communication technologies have replaced the role of humans in facilitating children’s learning (Cheng et al. 2011 ; Murriello and Knobel 2008 ; Hsu et al. 2006 ). As a result, multiple and overlapping interactivity types are occurring with child–technology (see Fig.  1 ). For example, Hsu et al. ( 2006 ) demonstrated that a child–technology–environment interaction occurred when mobile phones were employed to help to improve elementary-school children’s learning in a science museum. In this study, the pre-visit learning stage included creation of a learning plan by specifying the student’s subjects of interest, visit date and duration of stay. The onsite-visit learning stage took place during the student’s museum visit, where he/she engaged in the learning activity using a handheld device. Learning was made personal when all the tracked learning behaviour was analysed and results informed recommendations for the student. During the post-visit learning stage, the student was encouraged to continue learning via the Internet after leaving the museum.

With advances in computer technologies and networked learning in science museums, educators and researchers have begun to create the next generation of blended learning environments that are highly interactive, learner-centred, authentic, meaningful and fun. One example of child–technology–adults/peers interactivity that involved an interactive computerised simulation exhibit (a 3D virtual brain tour combined with a video game format; Cheng et al. 2011 ) was found to be highly effective as a teaching and learning tool for improving the neuroscience literacy of elementary-school children. First, the exhibit involved a 3D virtual brain tour for which visitors viewed and manipulated the comparison between a normal and a methamphetamine-impaired virtual brain. Next, visitors played a driving video game that simulated driving skills under methamphetamine-abused conditions. The brain models were presented on displays (viewable by multiple people simultaneously) and children used a video game controller to navigate and manipulate the virtual brain, thereby authoring their own learning experience. While the simulation exhibit environment was effective in promoting children’s understanding and attitudes, children performed better if they had parents’ help (child–technology–adults/peers interaction).

Like Cheng et al. ( 2011 ), Murriello and Knobel’s ( 2008 ) study employed technology in order to increase the nanoscience and nanotechnology understanding of children. During an hour-long experience guided by an actor and facilitators, visitors participated in four interactive-collaborative games and watched two narrated videos. Children recounted the rich learning experience about identifying small-scale length or the concept of tiny particles. By studying an educational multimedia experience (music, images and computer simulation) presented in an attractive, playful and modern environment, Murriello and Knobel ( 2008 ) demonstrated the combination of facilitating strategies and activities of all interaction types.

Children’s museums

According to the Association of Children’s Museums ( 2008 ) children’s museums are places where children, usually under the age of 10 years, learn through play while exploring in environments designed for them. For example, one museum’s slogan of “Hands on, minds on, hearts on!” (Wöhrer and Harrasser 2011 , p. 473) refers to a learning concept involving physical, emotional and intellectual experiences—an often-seen characteristic of learning practices in children’s museums. While our conclusions are limited to our review of six articles, the research conducted in children’s museums appears to centre on defining what early learning looks like and on exploring the role of adults in children’s early learning experiences.

Studies revealed that preschool children’s learning within children’s museums exceeds simple acquisition of facts and disciplinary content knowledge and, instead, extends into developmental areas such as procedural or cause/effect learning (e.g. Puchner et al. 2001 ). Although most of the six reviewed studies focused on describing the facilitation strategies and activities, two studies explored learning gains. The positive effects on children’s learning emerged mainly as an outcome of active adult guidance, which provided evidence of a shifted focus from child-centred to family-centred experiences in museum learning (e.g. Benjamin et al. 2010 ; Freedman 2010 ). Museum professionals realised that, in using child-centered approaches, they had overlooked the critical role of adults as members of the learning group, and that their integration into the learning process can offer the impetus to expand the learning experience beyond the museum (Wolf and Wood 2012 ).

The importance of scaffolding was highlighted in most of the studies as an essential strategy for maximising children’s learning during family or school visits to museums (e.g. Benjamin et al. 2010 ; Puchner et al. 2001 ; Wolf and Wood 2012 ). For example, Wolf and Wood ( 2012 ) present the ‘Kindness tree’ exhibit in the Indianapolis children’s museum as an excellent example of scaffolding use. The exhibit told the story of prejudice and intolerance through the life stories of Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges and Ryan White while encouraging children to have the power to confront intolerance by using their words, actions and voices. Scaffolding occurred when parents read messages about kindness acts from magnetic ‘leaves’ and related those experiences to the child as he/she completed the activity. Scaffolding was more frequent and intensive at exhibits that included activities with clear directions for adults, that were attractive for them (but children had trouble performing correctly on their own) or that invited participation through scripts/labels of the exhibits (Puchner et al. 2001 ). In line with this, Wolf and Wood ( 2012 ) recommended that that content of an exhibition can be scrutinised for potential scaffolding opportunities by determining various levels of content accessibility or providing a learning framework for specific age groups.

Also derived from sociocultural theory is the acknowledgement of collaborative verbal parent–child engagement as a potentially powerful mediator of cognitive change. Therefore, it is no surprise that parent–child conversational interactions were highlighted in research on children’s museums research. Benjamin et al. ( 2010 ) elaborated on the effectiveness of open-ended ‘wh’ questions (e.g. What? Why? ) during a child–adults/peers interaction in a museum. Ideally, these questions can reflect and change what is understood by focusing children’s attention on what is available to learn, obstacles and problem-solving strategies. In Benjamin’s study, the conversational instruction coupled with hands-on activities (child–environment–adults/peers), resulted in children’s abilities to report program-related content immediately after the exhibit and again after two weeks.

Guided (either by parent or museum educator) hands-on activities were the leading effective activities for facilitating children’s learning in most children’s museums and a representation of child–environment–adults/peers interactivity. For example, an intervention study (Freedman 2010 ) revealed a significant positive change in children’s knowledge about healthy ingredients after a ‘Healthy pizza kitchen’ program (a presentation followed with a hands-on mock pizzeria exhibit). In this study, Freedman conducted a playful experiments strategy (child–environment and child–environment–adults/peers interactivity) which presented an example of how hands-on activities help to facilitate children’s learning through child–adults/peer and child–environment interaction.

Overall, strategies and activities applied in children’s museums represent the interactivity types child–adults/peers and child–environment, as well as predominantly their overlapping area (child–environment–adults/peers). Despite the positive influence of parental involvement on children’s learning found in children’s museums, Wolf and Wood ( 2012 ) indicated that parents’ beliefs and roles about guiding their children’s learning are often divergent from ideas highlighted by museum professionals and researchers. For example, a lack of understanding of the importance of play for children’s learning, and parents discomfort or hesitation to play in public, lead them to simply watch instead of interact while their children play.

(Natural) history museums

Our review included 11 studies set in historical museums (generally natural museums). Most studies we reviewed described museum learning as meaning-making during a field trip or family visit to a museum, with effectiveness being the focus of examination in five studies (Melber 2003 ; Sung et al. 2010 ; Tenenbaum et al. 2010 ; Wickens 2012 ; Wilde and Urhahne 2008 ). History and archeological museums feature a plethora of information, normally in the form of science specimens and cultural or historical artifacts (Cox-Petersen et al. 2003 ). Historical museums with three-dimensional models or live exhibits can afford children the opportunity to construct richer and more-realistic mental representations relative to traditional digital and pictorial illustrations in textbooks. Furthermore, with access to various historical documents, images and collection items (often unavailable in formal settings as schools), children are not just exposed to primary resources as learning tools, but also to interpretations of the past that guide them through history (Wolberg and Goff 2012 ).

History museums are ideal places for stories to be told and, because storytelling serves as a fundamental way of learning and defining human values and beliefs, interactivity can help to “make connections between museum artifacts and images and visitors’ lives and memories” (Bedford 2001 , p. 30). Dramatic narratives or storytelling were highlighted in all reviewed (natural) history museum papers as having a pivotal role in facilitating children’s learning (e.g. Bowers 2012 ; Hall and Bannon 2006 ; Kelly 2007 ; Tenenbaum et al. 2010 ). By including a role for a knowledgeable adult (or a technological aid) to tell stories, these studies provided examples of two interactivity types (child–adults/peers and child–technology) and the overlapping framework areas (child–environment–adults/peers interactivity and total interactivity).

Wickens ( 2012 ) also described the use of a storytelling activity for preschool children as part of a three-mode structure (story/tour/activity). The three-mode structure strategy was identified in our framework as belonging to the overlapping area of child–environment–adults/peers (see Fig.  1 ) because it combined narratives, hands-on activities, free play, free exploration and guided multisensory experience. Children participated in the interactive story, then moved to the gallery to explore the themes, and returned for the creative activity. Results confirmed that the three-mode structure helped children to feel a sense of comfort because their familiarity with story time and art-making activities helped them to have control during their learning and facilitated learning. Moreover, Hall and Bannon ( 2006 ) found that narratives provided by a computer within an exhibit can also engage children by affording an overall coherence and intelligibility to their museum activities. In their study, exhibit interactivity was examined in two rooms: the study room where children heard stories if they pressed ‘the virtual touch machine’ and the ‘room of opinions’ where children were encouraged to explore clues and develop their own opinions about artifacts through hands-on activities. This particular study design provides an example of the total interactivity type represented through our framework (i.e. the combination of activities from all three main interactivity types, namely, child–adults/peers, child–technology and child–environment).

Inquiry-based activities and conversations at the exhibit or as part of problem-solving with a mobile guide system (MGS) can be positioned in the overlapping areas of our framework (child–environment–adults/peers, child–technology–environment and total interactivity) and were commonly described and highlighted as successful for helping children to gain knowledge and meaning about the past (e.g. studies by Melber 2003 ; Sung et al. 2010 ). For example, the MGS problem-solving strategy designed by Sung et al. ( 2010 ) involved total interactivity. In contrast to the commonly-used audio-visual guiding system that provides only information about each exhibit (via pictures, texts, voice narratives), the MGS offered a problem-solving scenario that guided the learners to look at the exhibits, browse the information on their mobile phone, discuss it with their peers, and solve a series of questions to complete the quests. Because results revealed increased interest and enjoyment during the activity, recommendations include that museum educators and teachers utilise MGS, and that researchers and system developers design more guided-learning activities and systems that constitute problem-solving tasks with inquiries. Limitations include learners being absorbed by amazement about the technological possibilities, the ‘magic’ of the concealed technology (Hall and Bannon 2006 ), rather than on the task-at-hand. Future research could involve how technology can be made less obvious and how concealing technology might influence children’s learning experience (Hall and Bannon 2006 ; Sung et al. 2010 ).

Inquiry was also part of the learning strategy ‘thinking routines’ (child–adults/peers interactivity type)—identified by Wolberg and Goff ( 2012 ) as advantageous in supporting young children’s learning in museums. With this strategy, children were encouraged to see, think and wonder when encountering a new object or image. An important goal of this strategy was to expose students to the language of thinking through guided conversation and questions (posed by both museum educator and children) in order to deepen understanding and gain knowledge. The information gathered by a student did not come just from visual cues within the collections, but also from thoughtful inference, reason and deduction—a strategy that could further enhance children’s learning even within the limited period of a museum visit. By using careful observations and thoughtful interpretations involving an image or artifact, students’ thinking and learning became more visible to themselves, teachers and peers.

Wilde and Urhahne ( 2008 ) found open-ended tasks involving child–adults/peers interactivity to be less successful than closed tasks (or a combination of both) in contributing to knowledge gains and, in particular, less intrinsically motivating for fifth-grade students. The children showed more interest/enjoyment with closed tasks and greater short-term and long-term retention of knowledge (after four weeks) through closed and mixed tasks. On the other hand, children who engaged with open-ended tasks did not show evidence of increased learning and showed less task-related intrinsic motivation. As a result, Wilde and Urhahne recommend a museum visit with more structured tasks and a certain amount of instruction (i.e. closed tasks) for children. Tenenbaum et al. ( 2010 ) emphasised the importance of activities within interactivity types child–environment and child–environment–adults/peers by suggesting that hands-on support for children (e.g. booklets, backpacks with props) through exhibits can enrich their conversations as they require more engagement with the museum exhibit. Overall, Melber ( 2003 ) recommends a combination of hands-on and inquiry-based activities as effective (particularly for gifted elementary school-aged children) at influencing attitudes and understanding of the scientific work. For example, Melber found that children were fascinated by the opportunity to handle objects and to have the time to critically look at and discuss the object’s characteristics with peers and/or curators. In addition, children became aware of the different scientific careers associated with a museum in an engaging and personally-relevant manner.

Palmquist and Crowley ( 2007 ) stressed that parents of gifted or ‘expert’ children should be particularly cautious when facilitating their learning. Through family conversation analysis with children (ages 5 and 7 years), Palmquist and Crowley found that, when compared with children of less experience and content knowledge, children developing an “island of expertise” (p. 784) had parents who provided a reduction in active contributions to learning conversations. In fact, children with less experience focused on the features of objects and learned together through conversations with parents. Here we recognise a knowledge gap about how to support and extend learning trajectories in museums and, in particular, how to use the expert knowledge of children as a platform for future learning.

Art museums/galleries

Art museums/galleries are often seen as imposing places that keep a myriad of valuable artworks and objects and that are intolerant for any kind of child-centred exploration (Weier 2004 ). With “ever-present security guards, overwhelming architecture, stillness, quietness, and artworks displayed at adult height” (Weier 2004 , p. 106), latent messages project that children are not welcome. Art museums are unfortunately the most reluctant type of museum to embrace early childhood visitors (Mallos 2012 ) despite how children are naturally attracted to contemporary art—to its abstractions, diversity, scale and experimentation, and by being open-minded and spontaneous in their interpretations. According to Jeffers ( 1999 ), when welcomed and empowered by developmentally-appropriate learning strategies and activities, children can “actively connect” (Jeffers 1999 , p. 50) with the museum and its contents, providing imaginative insights and new perspectives about the artworks.

Of nine reviewed studies, there was only one study of effectiveness (Burchenal and Grohe 2007 ) that assessed the effects of the program on the development of critical thinking skills. Most of the reviewed studies and descriptions of children’s learning in art museums took place in Australia and the UK and were based on the partnership between museum educators, researchers and artists. The museum programs/workshops mainly aimed to facilitate the development of young people’s critical-thinking skills (e.g. Burchenal and Grohe 2007 ; Luke et al. 2007 ). The dominant activity in facilitating children’s learning in art museums/galleries was hands-on activity (see Burchenal and Grohe 2007 ; Krakowski 2012 ; Mallos 2012 ; Milutinović and Gajić 2010 ). As stated by Mallos ( 2012 ), hands-on activities in art museums/galleries encourage children to make connections to ideas or materials with which the artists worked and, by relying on a child’s experience, deepen his/her understanding about the artwork.

In order to understand the work of art and to freely express themselves, children engaged in diverse hands-on activities in the reviewed studies. The program designers often utilised hands-on activities as part of a strategy that can be positioned in the overlapping child–environment–adults/peers area of our framework. For example, Mallos ( 2012 ) described strategies useful for cultivating children’s encounters with art which are very similar to the three-mode strategy ‘Listen, Look & Do’ applied in history museums. Mallos used a ‘three-window approach’ which consisted of: the experiential window, or hands-on approach—inviting children to touch, manipulate or respond using bodily movements; the narrative window—allowing children to experience an object through the medium of story; and the aesthetic window—focusing on having children describe the visual and aesthetic qualities of the object encountered.

In two reviewed studies, the artist (along with the museum educators and parents) played an essential role in facilitating children’s learning. For example, Mallos ( 2012 ) describes how gallery members collaborated with more than 100 local and international contemporary artists to develop and take part in various exhibitions, installations and workshops for families. Weier ( 2004 ) however, suggests that, by allowing children to take the lead (i.e. act as a tour guide for parents or peers), art museums can provide opportunities for self-expression, choice and control during visits. Weier ( 2004 ), also noted that, by allowing young children the opportunity to be tour guides, they can access art on their own level and terms, in contrast to learning an expected set of meanings or accepting another’s interpretation of an artwork as the only possibility. Once children experience a sense of accessibility, enjoyment and motivation when viewing and discussing artworks on their own terms, they are more likely to be ready to have their conversations extended to include visual arts concepts.

By emphasising the role of the adults and peers in guiding children’s learning and their interactions, Weier ( 2004 ) represented the child–adults/peers interactivity area of our framework. The advantage of allowing children to take the lead in museum learning was also supported by the research of Falk and Dierking ( 2000 ) who found that children are more motivated when having choice and control over their museum encounters. Weier ( 2004 ) also underlined the importance of having a supportive and responsive adult (i.e. curator, artist, parent) during child-led tours build on children’s conversations and introduce the language and concepts of the visual arts or the materials used. The information about the artwork should only be used as a trigger for discovery, which assists children to form hypotheses, create stories, build meanings and make connections based on personal experiences and feelings about the work.

Suggestions about introducing visual arts language and concepts at appropriate junctures in the child’s dialogue, using a range of “scaffolding behaviors” (Weier 2000 , p. 1999), include:

focusing children’s attention on a particular aspect of the artwork

asking open-ended questions

providing explanations

recalling facts or experiences to encourage associations

making suggestions; initiating a line of thinking that children can follow

hypothesising (or imagining or wondering) to spark curiosity and encourage further exploration, and

prompting with cues to support divergent thinking; and posing problems (Weier 2000 , 2004 ).

Burchenal and Grohe ( 2007 ) provide one example of prompting through the study of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)—a beneficial approach for use in both the classroom and museum settings when seeking to promote the development of critical-thinking skills. By concentrating on conversational interactions between a museum educator and children (child–adults/peers interactivity), VTS starts with questions as prompts for children, encouraging them to provide evidence for their ideas. By carefully observing and discussing works of art, students had the opportunity to apply previous experiences and knowledge to make meaning of artwork on their own terms.

A possible model for the successful integration of multisensory enriched activities in museums is presented by Milutinović and Gajić ( 2010 ) through the six-month educational program ‘Feel the art’ in the Gallery of Matica srpska in Serbia. (The first author of this paper contributed to this program.) With the goal of encouraging children to employ all senses when confronted with artwork, this museum program provides an example of the child–environment–adults/peers type of interactivity identified in our framework. For example, children recognised what, from the paintings, could produce sounds (e.g. sea waves, an erupting volcano, birds, frogs, rustling leaves) and imitated the sounds with musical instruments. Results revealed children’s descriptions of paintings or objects that reflected interest development and the capability to participate in multisensory art activities.

In order to understand artwork, Mallos ( 2012 ) recommends that children are incorporated into the artwork. For example, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s (as cited in Mallos 2012 ) encouraged children to freely ‘obliterate’ a bare environment by sticking dots everywhere. In this way, children could take part in the art-making experience and see themselves through the screen of dots that was the subject of artist’s work. Mallos ( 2012 ) also described an activity in which children were asked to design and construct a bridge with fine pieces of cane and masking tape using artists’ line drawings of various bridges. By this immediate interaction with the museum environment, these activities present an example of the child–environment interactivity.

The imaginative aspect of play is one of the most powerful learning tools that children can use in order to make sense of their world (Vygotsky 1967 ). Guided and facilitated play (child–environment–adults/peers interactivity) was a motivating strategy for multisensory and stimulating learning in art museums. For example, Krakowski ( 2012 ) found guided play through dressing-up and role-playing activities that allowed children to discover ‘who they could be, who they might be, who they want to be’, with the aim of reflecting and understanding different perspectives. According to Krakowski, guided play embodies many of the characteristics of spontaneous or free play, but it is teacher-directed and is used intentionally for educational purposes. In particular, it “engages children in pleasurable and seemingly spontaneous activities that encourage exploration and learning” (Hirsh-Pasek et al. 2008 , p. 27).

The last decade of research into children’s museum learning has provided rich descriptions of children’s learning in various types of museums worldwide. In our review, we focused on the activities and strategies that mediate informal learning. In contrast to the review by Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri ( 2000 ), in which research in children’s museum learning was dominated by studies from science museums and centres in the US, much of the research we reviewed was conducted in Australia, China and the UK. Our review also revealed increasing evidence from museum research in European countries such as The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Serbia. Science museums and centres remained a major focus in the literature, with research in natural history museums, children’s museums and art galleries increasing over the decade. Like Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri ( 2000 ), we believe that additional research could have been conducted, but not yet published.

The shift in the literature towards the importance of interaction in children’s museum learning, notable by its presence in all museum types (see “ Appendix ”), contributed to the development of a framework of facilitating strategies and activities in children’s learning in museums. Three main types of interactivity, by which children’s learning was facilitated, were identified: child – adults/peers ; child – technology ; and child – environment . However, all facilitating strategies and activities made use of one or more of the interactivity types, which led to categorising some articles as representative of overlapping interactivity types (see Fig.  1 for the illustration of our framework). The most-common activities in all museum types were hands-on activities, which could include individual and self-controlled engagement (child–environment interactivity), as well as guidance from a knowledgeable adult/peer (child–adults/peers interactivity) or a computer (child–technology interactivity).

Which learning theories informed the research on museum learning?

In response to our first research question ( Which learning theories informed the research? ), we found more research that was framed by sociocultural theory (and less by socio-constructivist theory) and related theories on museum learning (e.g. the contextual model of learning). These theories underline the social nature of museum learning and the importance of children’s interaction with adults/peers and technology. While the previous research framework and program designs focused on the learner’s individual role in knowledge construction and meaning-making, an awareness of interactivity as an indispensable characteristic of children’s museum learning (child–adults/peers interactivity, child–technology interactivity) now reflects the theoretical influence of socio-constructivism and sociocultural theory. Moreover, while previous museum learning research has centred mainly on children visiting exhibits (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ), recent articles on all museums types tend to describe children’s learning through participation in programs or workshops, or through the use of educational materials and objects.

Which methodological approaches were applied in the reviewed studies?

The wish to do justice to the social complexity of museum learning was also reflected in the methodological approaches applied (and addressed our second research question). An awareness of the benefits of not only quantitative, but also qualitative, methodological approaches in museum learning research is apparent (see “ Appendix ”). Descriptions of learning strategies, activities and experiences of participants were provided and actual learning outcomes were assessed. Our review revealed an increased number of longitudinal studies, thereby helping to fill a research gap identified in a previous review (Hooper-Greenhill and Moussouri 2000 ), and reflecting an increased awareness of ‘time’ in children’s museum learning: museum learning takes time, because knowledge is being accumulated over time (Rahm 2004 ).

Who and what facilitates museum learning: which activities and strategies are being used?

In science museums and centres, the most prominent learning strategies and activities were positioned at the heart of our framework (Fig.  1 ): a combination of three main interactivity types (child–environment–adults/peers, child–technology–adults/peers and child–technology–environment interactivity type). The dominant activities were interactive exhibits with technology, guided and free-choice or limited-choice hands-on activities. Here, the impact of technology and teaching guidance was most prominent, especially through the designs and applications of the mobile guiding systems and interactive games. Children interacted with the technology, which invited them to engage (individually or with the guidance of knowledgeable adults) in other activities (such as hands-on activities) in the museum environment. Although the use of technology in facilitating children’s learning extends to other museum types (e.g. history and art museums/galleries), the strategies and activities used in children’s and art museums/galleries were identified as child–adults/peer interactivity (e.g. scaffolding, children as guides, storytelling activities), child–environment interactivity (e.g. hands-on activities, free exploration) and as a combination of both (e.g. playful experiments, the three-window approach, multisensory experiences).

While research on children’s museum learning clearly demonstrated a shift from child-centred to family-centred, the scaffolding strategy dominated in our review. In contrast, activities and strategies used in history museums, as in science museums, spanned most interaction types and their combinations (e.g. open tasks on the worksheets, booklets and backpack with hands-on activities, free exploration), with an emphasis on narratives (e.g. storytelling activity guided either by the adult or by a computer).

What knowledge has the research about children’s learning in museums yielded?

We found that research on children’s museum learning during the last decade provides knowledge about learning experiences, as well as an appreciation of the effects related to several facilitating strategies and activities in children’s learning. In general, we found growing evidence suggesting that museum exhibitions, when supported with facilitating strategies and activities, can positively influence children’s science attitudes and concept knowledge, understanding, teamwork, communication and group communication skills, and critical thinking skills in history, science, arts and humanities. Although we noted some differences in children’s learning between the museum types based on the strategies and activities that facilitate their learning, we also found many similarities. Our review revealed activities and strategies that evoked curiosity, excitement, memorable moments, discussions and explorations during exhibits, together with peers or/and family members form a common base for children’s learning in all museum types. Based on these findings, we recommend hands-on activities, narratives and play, and an emphasis on the importance of scaffolding by a knowledgeable adult/peer or support through technology.

Future research

Much remains unknown about actual learning and museum learning outcomes. Future research could involve designing and testing the effectiveness of the facilitating strategies and activities noted in our framework. In particular, we recommend future research on museum–school learning as well as the effects of family learning in art museums/galleries and children’s museums that extends beyond the case study approach. Museum educators will also benefit from the development and validation of reliable measurement instruments. Several recommendations for future research on children’s learning in museums can be formulated, beginning with more design-based research (DBR).

Design-based research

Although DBR has been previously used in science museums, we believe that it could offer a significant contribution for all museum types. Interventionist in nature, and by combining qualitative and quantitative research methods, this approach could test the effects of various learning strategies and activities (described in our interactivity framework) on children’s learning gains. Also, DBR could help to facilitate the design and testing of new strategies and activities and confront the range of theoretical perspectives. Specifically, through the process of design, museum educators and researchers could collaborate together and apply key facilitating strategies and activities (typical for one museum type) across museum types to explore their effects on children’s learning and the process of learning within different museum environments. For example, with a DBR approach, researchers could ask: How can the level of interaction types be increased and boost the effects of learning strategies and activities in different learning settings? The research procedure for answering this question could involve designing an intervention based on the offered framework and theoretical approaches and with naturalistic observations.

Video-based methodologies

Video recordings such as those used in the video-based interpretative case study approach or with the quantitative exploratory behaviour scale, can offer deeper insight into both the quantity and quality of children’s interactions during learning. Besides being applied in science museums, video recordings could be used in other museum types as well. Also, these tools can be a valuable source for museum educators in understanding their own actions as facilitators (Martell 2008 ; Van Schijndel et al. 2010 ). Video recordings could be supplemented with the child’s personal perspective in the video recording process. That is, the child’s learning experience about a museum exhibit or a program could be recorded by his/her head-mounted camera (e.g. mobile eye-tracking apparatus) and provide detailed engagement data about a child’s attention and interaction with museum educators and objects.

Co-creating during the research process

In addition, we suggest more attention to children’s perspective in the research process (i.e. to include them, not only as research subjects, but as co-creators of the process and outcomes). We suggest involving children in focus groups to gain a more realistic picture about agendas, interests, values and beliefs, in contrast to those interpreted by adults (as is the case in most studies that we reviewed). Also, by including their voices throughout the research process, children could contribute their ideas and describe their interests, thereby informing the design of current and future programs, activities and exhibitions. This could help with the challenge of documenting the effectiveness of a specific learning strategy and activity in a specific museum type.

Future studies on children’s museum learning should include a wider framework of learning factors both in and out of museums, because much of the research reviewed still focused on the individual family group/child conversations and their immediate experience within the museum. Overall, the implication for museum learning practice is to strengthen a partnership of institutions as part of a wide sociocultural context (e.g. schools, preschools, families, cultural institutions) and the museum environment, and combine their advantages in order to promote children’s optimal learning. A beneficial partnership could involve co-developing curriculum-based materials supplementary to preschool/school use, which focus on exhibit contents in museums. As a result, a bond between practitioners (e.g. school teachers, scientists and artists) could be strengthened through the process of working together to design and conduct museum educational programs. Our framework supports the idea that museum educators and teachers could partner and supply practical tools for designing effective learning experiences as part of the children’s regular museum visit or a school field trip.

Overall, the field requires more qualitative and quantitative evidence to further understand the extent to which the strategies and activities from our framework are effective for children’s learning, as well as which of these strategies, if any, are most effective in certain situations. Although we presented some studies with innovative mobile and computer technologies deployed in museums, there is still a dearth of research concerned with how this new generation of learning systems in museums can be developed to enhance children’s museum learning. Given the different learning strategies and activities presented in our framework, the next step is to explore what competencies of museum educators are needed when applying these strategies and activities. Based on this knowledge, the professional programs for museum educators could be developed and strengthened, with a focus on pedagogy directed at successful museum learning processes.

Limitations

While the current review provides the first overview of studies on children’s learning in museums beyond the US, it is not without limitations. First, although we reviewed 44 studies on children’s learning across various museum types, the latest study included in our review was conducted in 2012. Results from reviews are most useful when representing the current state of research, but we were unable to find consensus on the timing of updates (Yoshii et al. 2009 ). Second, in our review, we used the Web of Science database because of its capability to search across disciplines and we reviewed relevant journals on museum topics. However, the search strategy could have been expanded by using additional databases and additional search terms. Despite these limitations, we think that our review approach and subsequent framework have contributed a valuable overview and description of the field for future researchers.

We highlighted the need for museums to transform themselves from “being about something to being for somebody” (Weil 1999 , p. 229) and, in this case, children. As detailed through our review, this need implies that museum researchers and educators should co-create learning environments that welcome children with effective and powerful learning strategies and activities that enhance their learning by combining different interactivity types. Our developed framework of facilitating strategies and activities for children’s museum learning offers a valuable knowledge base for museum educators and researchers, as well as teachers and families when visiting museums. Specifically, by distinguishing interaction types that are used in different museum learning environments, this framework offers a practical map on how to design and research the educational programs/exhibitions. This review of research on children’s museum learning provides guidance for next steps that move towards a greater focus on interactivity, in its varied forms, with attention to the merit of scaffolding. Ultimately, research that continues in this direction is likely to contribute greatly as we seek to support learners in informal settings.

*References marked with an asterisk are those on which this article’s review was based.

American Alliance of Museums ‘Museum Financial Information Survey’ (2009). http://www.aam-us.org . Accessed June 23, 2015.

*Anderson, D., Piscitelli, B., & Everett, M. (2008). Competing agendas: Young children’s museum field trips. Curator: The Museum Journal, 51 (3), 253–273. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2008.tb00311.x .

Article   Google Scholar  

*Anderson, D., Piscitelli, B., Weier, K., Everett, M., & Tayler, C. (2002). Children’s museum experiences: Identifying powerful mediators of learning. Curator: The Museum Journal, 45 (3), 213–231. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2002.tb00057.x .

*Ash, D. (2003). Dialogic inquiry and biological themes and principles: Implications for exhibit design. The Journal of Museum Education, 28 (2), 8–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479283 .

Association of Children’s Museums. (2008). http://www.childrensmuseums.org/about/faq.htm . Accessed May 23, 2012.

*Bamberger, Y., & Tal, T. (2007). Learning in a personal context: Levels of choice in a free choice learning environment in science and natural history museums. Science Education, 91 (1), 75–95. doi: 10.1002/sce.20174 .

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Google Scholar  

*Bedford, L. (2001). Storytelling: The real work of museums. Curator: The Museum Journal, 44 (1), 27–34. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb00027.x .

*Benjamin, N., Haden, C. A., & Wilkerson, E. (2010). Enhancing building, conversation, and learning through caregiver-child interactions in a children’s museum. Developmental Psychology, 46 (2), 502–515. doi: 10.1037/a0017822 .

*Bowers, B. (2012). A look at early childhood programming in museums. Journal of Museum Education, 37 (1), 39–48.

Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2 (2), 141–178. doi: 10.1207/s15327809jls0202_2 .

*Burchenal, M., & Grohe, M. (2007). Thinking through art: Transforming museum curriculum. Journal of Museum Education, 32 (2), 111–122. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479582 .

*Cheng, M., Annetta, L., Folta, E., & Holmes, S. Y. (2011). Drugs and the brain: Learning the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain through a virtual brain exhibit in the museum. International Journal of Science Education, 33 (2), 299–319. doi: 10.1080/09500693.2010.482571 .

*Cox-Petersen, A. M., Marsh, D. D., Kisiel, J., & Melber, L. M. (2003). Investigation of guided school tours, student learning, and science reform recommendations at a museum of natural history. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40 (2), 200–218. doi: 10.1002/tea.10072 .

*DeWitt, J. E. (2008). What is this exhibit showing you? Insights from stimulated recall interviews with primary school children. The Journal of Museum Education, 33 (2), 165–173. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479641 .

*Falk, J. H. (2004). The director’s cut: Toward an improved understanding of learning from museums. Science Education, 88 (4), S83–S96. doi: 10.1002/sce.20014 .

*Falk, J. H., & Dierking, L. D. (2000). Learning from museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning . Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

*Falk, J. H., & Storksdieck, M. (2005). Learning science from museums. História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, 12 , 117–143.

Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (1998). Dynamic development of psychological structures in action and thought. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., pp. 467–561). New York: Wiley.

*Freedman, M. R. (2010). A “healthy pizza kitchen” nutrition education program at a children’s health museum. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 42 (5), 353–354. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2010.01.012 .

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century . New York: Basic Books.

*Glick, M. P., & Samarapungavan, A. (2008). Wolves are beautiful and proud: Science learning from a school field trip. Journal of Museum Education, 33 (2), 199–207. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479644 .

*Hall, T., & Bannon, L. (2006). Designing ubiquitous computing to enhance children’s learning in museums. Journal of Computer Assisted learning, 22 , 231–243. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2006.00177.x .

*Henderson, T. Z., & Atencio, D. J. (2007). Integration of play, learning, and experience: What museums afford young visitors. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35 , 245–251. doi: 10.1007/s10643-007-0208-1 .

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Michnick Golinkoff, R., Berk, L. E., & Singer, D. (2008). A mandate for playful learning in Preschool: Applying the scientific evidence . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

*Hooper-Greenhill, E., & Moussouri, T. (2000). Researching learning in museums and galleries 1990–1999: A bibliographic review . Leicester: Research Centre for Museums and Galleries.

*Hsu, T.-Y., Ke, H.-R., & Yang, W.-P. (2006). Knowledge-based mobile learning framework for museums. The Electronic Library, 24 (5), 635–648. doi: 10.1108/02640470610707240 .

Jeffers, C. (1999). When children take the lead in exploring art museums with their adult partners. Art Education, 52 (6), 45–51.

*Kelly, L. (2007). The interrelationships between adult museum visitors’ learning identities and their museum experiences . Sydney: University of Technology.

*Krakowski, P. (2012). Museum superheroes. Journal of Museum Education, 37 (1), 49–58.

*Luke, J. J., Stein, J., Foutz, S., & Adams, M. (2007). Research to practice: Testing a tool for assessing critical thinking in art museum programs. Journal of Museum Education, 32 (2), 123–136. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479583 .

*Mallos, M. (2012). Collaboration is the key. Journal of Museum Education, 37 (1), 69–80.

*Martell, S. T. (2008). Of cultural tools and kinds of knowledge: Investigating field trip-based learning about art, culture, and the environment. Journal of Museum Education, 33 (2), 209–220. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479645 .

*Melber, L. M. (2003). Partnerships in science learning: Museum outreach and elementary gifted education. Gifted Child Quarterly, 47 (4), 251–258. doi: 10.1177/001698620304700402 .

*Milutinović, J., & Gajić, O. (2010). Intercultural dialogue in the museum context. US-China Education Review, 7 (7), 30–42.

*Murriello, S. E., & Knobel, M. (2008). Encountering nanotechnology in an interactive exhibition. Journal of Museum Education, 33 (2), 221–230. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479646 .

*Palmquist, S., & Crowley, K. (2007). From teachers to testers: How parents talk to novice and expert children in a natural history museum. Science Education, 91 (5), 783–804. doi: 10.1002/sce.20215 .

*Puchner, L., Rapoport, R., & Gaskins, S. (2001). Learning in children’s museums: Is it really happening? Curator: The Museum Journal, 44 (3), 237–259. doi: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2001.tb01164.x .

*Rahm, J. (2004). Multiple modes of meaning-making in a science center. Science Education, 88 (2), 223–247. doi: 10.1002/sce.10117 .

Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5 (2), 243–263. doi: 10.1177/13684310222225432 .

*Reisman, M. (2008). Using design-based research in informal environments. Journal of Museum Education, 33 (2), 175–185. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40479642 .

*Rennie, L. J., & Johnston, D. J. (2004). The nature of learning and its implications for research on learning from museums. Science Education, 88 (4), S4–S16. doi: 10.1002/sce.20017 .

Semper, R. J. (1990). Science museums as environments for learning. Physics Today, 43 (11), 50–56. doi: 10.1063/1.881216 .

*Sung, Y., Hou, H., Liu, C., & Chang, K.-E. (2010). Mobile guide system using problem-solving strategy for museum learning: A sequential learning behavioural pattern analysis. Journal of Computer Assisted learning, 26 (2), 106–115. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00345.x .

*Tenenbaum, H. R., Prior, J., Dowling, C. L., & Frost, R. E. (2010). Supporting parent-child conversations in a history museum. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80 (2), 241–254. doi: 10.1348/000709909X470799 .

*Tenenbaum, H. R., Rappolt-Schlichtmann, G., & Zanger, V. V. (2004). Children’s learning about water in a museum and in the classroom. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19 (1), 40–58. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2004.01.008 .

*Van Schijndel, T. J. P., Franse, R. K., & Raijmakers, M. E. J. (2010). The exploratory behavior scale: Assessing young visitors hands-on behavior in science museums. Science Education, 94 (5), 794–809. doi: 10.1002/sce.20394 .

Vygotsky, L. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Soviet Psychology, 5 (3), 6–18.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Weier, K. (2000). Lessons from an interactive exhibition: Defining conditions to support high quality experiences for young children . Unpublished Master’s thesis, Queensland University of Technology.

*Weier, K. (2004). Empowering young children in art museums: Letting them take the lead. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 5 (1), 106–116. doi: 10.2304/ciec.2004.5.1.2 .

Weil, S. (1999). From being about something to being for somebody: The ongoing transformation of the American museum. Daedalus, 128 (3), 229–258. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027573 .

*Wickens, K. A. (2012). Museums and community—The benefits of working together. Journal of Museum Education, 37 (1), 91–100.

*Wilde, M., & Urhahne, D. (2008). Museum learning: A study of motivation and learning achievement. Journal of Biological Education, 42 (2), 78–83. doi: 10.1080/00219266.2008.9656115 .

*Wöhrer, V., & Harrasser, D. (2011). Playful experiments: Gendered performances in a children’s museum. Science as Culture, 20 (4), 471–490. doi: 10.1080/09505431.2011.605925 .

*Wolberg, R. I., & Goff, A. (2012). Thinking routines: Replicating classroom practices within museum settings. Journal of Museum Education, 37 (1), 59–68.

*Wolf, B., & Wood, E. (2012). Integrating scaffolding experiences for the youngest visitors in museums. Journal of Museum Education, 37 (1), 29–38.

Yoshii, A., Plaut, D. A., McGraw, K. A., Anderson, M. J., & Wellik, K. E. (2009). Analysis of the reporting of search strategies in Cochrane systematic reviews. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 97 (1), 21–29. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.97.1.004 .

*Zimmerman, H. T., Reeve, S., & Bell, P. (2008). Distributed expertise in a science center: Social and intellectual role-taking by families. Journal of Museum Education, 33 (2), 143–152.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Gabrijela Reljić for her valuable comments.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, 1018 WS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lucija Andre & Monique L. Volman

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

Tracy Durksen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucija Andre .

See Table  3 .

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Andre, L., Durksen, T. & Volman, M.L. Museums as avenues of learning for children: a decade of research. Learning Environ Res 20 , 47–76 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-016-9222-9

Download citation

Received : 08 September 2014

Accepted : 18 April 2016

Published : 27 October 2016

Issue Date : April 2017

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-016-9222-9

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Facilitating strategies and activities
• Informal learning
• Museum education
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Browse Course Material

Course info.

• Dr. Janis Melvold

Departments

• Comparative Media Studies/Writing

As Taught In

• Academic Writing
• Technical Writing

Learning Resource Types

Science writing and new media: explorations in communicating about science & technology, assignment 1: a critical review.

Due: Session 5

Length: ~1250 words

For this assignment you will write a critical review of an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science .

The purpose and target audience of your review: Who are you writing for and why?

Here’s the scenario:

Imagine there’s a journal devoted to the topic of communicating science—let’s even imagine that the journal has that very title, Communicating Science . The journal caters to a broad audience of scientists, science teachers, students interested in STEM fields, and science writers. The editors of this journal are planning a special issue on the topic of communicating science through museum exhibits. You have been invited, as an MIT student, to contribute to this issue by submitting a review of a Boston Museum of Science exhibit. You may choose to write about any exhibit you want.

The purpose of the review is to provide an analysis and assessment of this exhibit, showing how it succeeds or falls short in engaging and conveying scientific ideas and information to its target audience.

Format and Content of the Review

The review should be written in the form of an essay.

It should include:

• A brief overview of the Boston Museum of Science and your views about the role of science museums
• A more detailed description of the exhibit you’re focusing on (e.g., its topic, content, design, aims, target audience(s))
• An analysis of the exhibit’s strengths and weaknesses
• An assessment of the overall success of the exhibit in achieving what you see as the designers’ intent

Organizing the Review

The review should have a discernible introduction (providing context and a framework for critique); body (consisting of your description and analysis of the exhibit); and a summary/conclusion (underscoring the main idea of your review).

You may use section headings to highlight key points. The paper should be either 1.5 or double-spaced, using a standard 12 pt. font and standard margins. It should also include a descriptive title.

Evaluating an Exhibit: What Should You Consider?

Consider the exhibit in light of the ideas discussed in the Semper article, “ Science Museums as Environments for Learning ,” as well as your own ideas about science museums.

Here are some questions to consider:

• What is the topic of the exhibit and what is its basic purpose?
• Is this an appropriate topic for a science museum?
• Who is its target audience (or audiences)? How can you tell?
• Are the scope and depth of the exhibit’s content appropriate for the target audience(s)?
• What forms of media are used to present information? Are they effective? Why or why not?
• How is the exhibit organized (e.g., historically, topically, thematically)? Does the method of organization seem logical and clear?
• What do you notice about people visiting the exhibit and their responses to it?
• Does the exhibit actively engage the audience? If so, in what ways? If not, why?
• Is the exhibit aesthetically appealing?
• Are there gaps in the coverage of the topic?
• Is the content accurate and up to date?
• Are aspects of the exhibit confusing?
• Do you have ideas about how the exhibit could be improved?

Take notes! You can even take pictures!

Using and Citing Source Material

If you draw on any idea, concepts, or facts from the Semper article, be sure to cite them and include a complete bibliographic reference to the article at the end. You are not expected to do additional research or consult other sources of information for this paper.

Suggestions for the Process of Writing

Thinking and planning are important (and often underappreciated) aspects of the writing process. You’re likely to find that the actual writing will be easier if you devote plenty of time to thinking about and sketching out your ideas and key points.

Using your recollections and notes, list the key points that you want to include in your analysis. Identify a central unifying theme for your review . Then you’ll be ready to sketch out the organization of each section and to see how the sections fit together into a coherent critical review. (The structure might change as you’re drafting the piece.)

And remember that you will have the opportunity to revise the essay after receiving feedback on the first version.

You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

Spring 2024

• Issue 21 Editorial Tilly Blyth
• Theory and every thing: acquiring the office of Professor Stephen Hawking as a resource for history and museology Tilly Blyth and Alison Boyle
• Collaboration and mediation: a guide to the creation of the Stephen Hawking Archive Katrina Dean and Susan Gordon
• We create the Universe: artists and scientists take on the Big Bang Hannah Redler-Hawes
• Stephen Hawking’s superspace and supergravity blackboard: an iconic artefact in the making Juan-Andres Leon
• Objects of the Mind: using film to explore the entangled histories of media and mental health Tim Snelson, Toni Booth, William Macauley, Annie Jamieson, Natasha McEnroe, Selina Hurley and Katie Dabin
• Book review: Stuff: Humanity’s Epic Journey from Naked Ape to Nonstop Shopper by Chip Colwell, Hurst, 2023 Ken Arnold
• Review: Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design , Ashmolean Museum Oxford exhibition Elissavet Ntoulia
• Book review: The Museum of Other People , by Adam Kuper (London: Profile, 2023) Harry Parker
• Jim Bennett (1947–2023): life as a museum practitioner Stephen Johnston

Autumn 2023

• Issue 20 Editorial Jessica Bradford
• Revealing observatory networks through object stories : Introduction Rebekah Higgitt
• Revealing observatory networks through object stories : Instrumental networks Emily Akkermans, Kelley Wilder and Samantha Thompson
• Revealing observatory networks through object stories : Object itineraries Ileana Chinnici, Louise E Devoy and Fernando B Figueiredo
• Revealing observatory networks through object stories : Observatory audiences Rebekah Higgitt, Susana Biro and Pedro M P Raposo
• Photography and electroplate in 1840s Birmingham Jo Gane
• 1876 and All That: the ‘Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus’ as a case study in crowd-sourced international public science Graeme Gooday, Alexander King and Nela Spurna
• Tinkering with nature: craft, domesticity and female labour in F Percy Smith’s ‘Data’ notebooks (1925–1944) Max Long
• How Britain’s railways prepared for nuclear war Lucy Slater
• Trevor Pinch: a personal and institutional appreciation Tim Boon
• Trevor Pinch’s legacy for media studies Simone Tosoni
• Obituary: John P Ward (29 July 1940–9 April 2023) Michael Pritchard
• Book review: What Photographs Do: The Making and Remaking of Museum Cultures Geoffrey Belknap
• A history of ourselves? Tim Boon
• Book review: Science Illustration: A History of Visual Knowledge from the 15th Century to Today , by Anna Escardó Surya Bowyer

Spring 2023

• Editorial: Issue 19 Kate Steiner
• The Indian challenge and the rise of Manchester Prasannan Parthasarathi
• When is a shield not a shield? Interpreting Indigenous versatility in an East End match factory Nicola Froggatt
• Supporting young children’s learning from science objects: the importance of play on gallery Naomi Haywood, Karen Davies and Lauren Souter
• ‘We lost a type of job for a type of person in this country’: changing expectations of working in the UK scientific civil service Emmeline Ledgerwood
• Collecting twenty-first century science: an analysis of public and professional perceptions Esme Mahoney-Phillips
• From obsolete technology to performance instrument: new live presentations of the EMS Synthi 100 Frances Morgan
• Book review: Curious Devices and Mighty Machines: Exploring Science Museums by Samuel J M M Alberti (Reaktion Books, 2022) Alison Hess

Autumn 2022

• Congruence Engine in action Helen Graham and Arran J Rees
• Origins and ambitions of the Congruence Engine project Tim Boon
• The Congruence Engine Manifesto Alex Butterworth
• History of communications and the Congruence Engine: early thoughts and possibilities Jon Agar
• History of textiles and the Congruence Engine William Ashworth
• The future: reflections on emerging machine-learning methods for digital heritage Asa Calow
• Connecting places and collections Ben Russell and Wayne Cocroft
• Connecting with industrial heritage collections using video production methods Paul Craddock
• Energising connections in museum collections Graeme Gooday, Kylea Little, Bernard Musesengwe and Cameron Tailford (Deceased)
• Collaborative conversation as a method for exploring multiple perspectives on 'community' and forms of knowledge in the Congruence Engine Simon Popple, Stefania Zardini Lacedelli, Arran J Rees, Stuart Prior and Maggie Smith
• Textiles in a modern age Tim Smith
• The potential and pitfalls of machine learning in the Congruence Engine context John Stack and Jamie Unwin
• ‘South Kensington is practically as far away as Paris or Munich’: the making of industrial collections in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Birmingham  Kylea Little, Felicity McWilliams and Ellie Swinbank
• Working at scale: what do computational methods mean for research using cases, models and collections? Daniel C S Wilson
• The role of digital humanities in an interdisciplinary research project Jane Winters and Anna-Maria Sichani
• Surfacing multiple perspectives on keywords for the Congruence Engine; embracing multiplicity, interdisciplinarity, and mutual learning Stefania Zardini Lacedelli and Arran J Rees
• Review: Living with Machines Lauren Ryall-Waite
• Obituary: Cameron James Tailford, 10 October 1991 – 3 August 2022 Tim Boon and Graeme Gooday

Spring 2022

• Editorial Scott Anthony
• Zygalski sheets: Polish codebreaking and the role of reconstruction in the Top Secret exhibition at the Science Museum Elizabeth Bruton, Jeremy McCarthy and Dermot Turing
• Smart and sustainable: collecting urban transport and mobility innovation in the 2020s Meredith Greiling
• Staging listening: new methods for engaging audiences with sound in museums James Mansell, Annie Jamieson and Alexander De Little
• The BepiColombo ‘model’: looking beyond the ‘original’ Abigail MacKinnon
• Black Arrow R4: the object behind the screen Doug Millard
• Photographic plates and spirit fakes: remembering Harry Price’s investigation of William Hope’s spirit photography at its centenary Efram Sera-Shriar
• Commemorating the past, shaping the future: the jubilee and centenary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Sophie Vohra
• Book review: The Visualization of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe edited by Marcia Kupfer, Adam S Cohen and J H Chajes, Volume 16 in the Studies in the Visual Culture of the Middles Ages (Brepols Publishers: Tunhout, Belgium, 2020) Sara Stradal
• Book review: Native Americans in British Museums by Jack Davy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021) Shelley Saggar

Autumn 2021

• Editorial Sally MacDonald
• Preserving skills and knowledge in heritage machinery operations Pippi Carty-Hornsby
• A long engagement – railways, data and the information age Robert Gwynne
• The Whitworth: a place for Industry and Art Imogen Holmes-Roe
• Reports and commands: deciphering a health exhibition using the SPEAKING mnemonic David H Lee
• From Renaissance medals to the Jaguar E-Type car bonnet: mechanised production and the making of luxury goods Charles Ormrod
• Seismographs at Eskdalemuir Observatory, 1908–1925: tools for rethinking the origins of international cooperation in seismology Alexandra Rose
• Philanthropy, industry and the city of Manchester: the impact of Sir Joseph Whitworth’s philanthropy on Manchester’s built environment Abi Wilson
• Book review: Photography Off the Scale: Technologies and Theories of the Mass Image Surya Bowyer
• Book review: Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections by Professor Corinne Fowler Subhadra Das

Spring 2021

• Editorial Tim Boon
• Science and the City : Introduction Alexandra Rose
• Science and the City : Valentine Gottlieb, immigrant engineer of Lambeth: his trade card of c. 1810 unpacked David Bryden
• Science and the City : The role of women in the science city: London 1650–1800 Jane Desborough and Gloria Clifton
• Science and the City : Spaces and geographies of Metropolitan Science Rebekah Higgitt, Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin and Noah Moxham
• Clinical images, imperial power and Bhau Daji’s secret treatment for leprosy at the Royal College of Physicians Museum Kristin Hussey and Martha Biggins
• Lyon Playfair: chemist and commissioner, 1818–1858 Ian Blatchford
• Inventor, devoted daughter, or lover? Uncovering the life and work of Victorian naval engineer Henrietta Vansittart (1833–1883) Emily Rees Koerner
• ‘Iron lung’ as metaphor Farrah Lawrence-Mackey
• ‘Your body is full of wounds’: references, social contexts and uses of the wounds of Christ in Late Medieval Europe Johanna Pollick, Emily Poore, Sophie Sexon and Sara Stradal
• Book review: Exploring Emotion, Care, and Enthusiasm in “Unloved” Museum Collections , edited by Anna Woodham, Rhianedd Smith and Alison Hess, Leeds, ARC Humanities Press, 2020 Jennie Morgan
• Obituary: Dame Margaret Weston, DBE, FMA (7 March 1926–12 January 2021) Colin Ford

Autumn 2020

• Editorial Sarah Wade
• Contagious Cities : an international collaborative enquiry Ken Arnold and Danielle Olsen
• Artist interviews – new art for Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries Katy Barrett, Eleanor Crook, Marc Quinn and Studio Roso
• Curating Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries Sarah Bond, Katie Dabin, Stewart Emmens, Selina Hurley and Natasha McEnroe
• Rapid Response Collecting and the Irish Abortion Referendum Brenda Malone
• The valuable role of risky histories: exhibiting disability, race and reproduction in medical museums Manon Parry
• Misbehaving Bodies : exhibiting illness George Vasey
• AIDS memorials from obituaries to artworks – a photo essay Jörn Wolters

Spring 2020

• Festschrift: Ways of curating: introduction to a mini- festschrift in honour of Robert Bud Tim Boon
• Festschrift: At the Boundary between Science and Industrial Practices: Applied Science, Arts, and Technique in France Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
• Festschrift: of mice and myths: challenges and opportunities of capturing contemporary science in museums Alison Boyle
• Festschrift: experimenting with research: Kenneth Mees, Eastman Kodak and the challenges of diversification Jeffrey Sturchio
• Festschrift: how do we value artefacts in museum research? Helmuth Trischler
• Why the anonymous and everyday objects are important: using the Science Museum’s collections to re-write the history of vision aids Gemma Almond
• Projecting soldiers’ repair: the ‘Great War’ lantern and the Royal Society of Medicine Jason Bate
• A model instrument: the making and the unmaking of a model of the Airy Transit Circle Daniel Belteki
• Wounded – an exhibition out of time Stewart Emmens
• Curating Ocean Ecology at the Natural History Museum: Miranda Lowe and Richard Sabin in conversation with Pandora Syperek and Sarah Wade Pandora Syperek, Sarah Wade, Miranda Lowe and Richard Sabin
• A museum by the people for the people? A review of St Fagans National Museum of History’s new galleries Miriam Dafydd
• Review: Behind the Exhibit: Displaying Science and Technology at the World’s Fairs and Museums in the Twentieth Century Helen Langwick
• Book review: Higher and Colder: A History of Extreme Physiology and Exploration, The University of Chicago Press, 2019, by Vanessa Heggie Nanna Kaalund
• Book review: Physics and Psychics: The Occult and the Sciences in Modern Britain , by Richard Noakes Efram Sera-Shriar

Autumn 2019

• Technologies of Romance : introduction Laura Humphreys and Katy Barrett
• Technologies of Romance : Valentine from a Telegraph Clerk (m) to a Telegraph Clerk (f): the material culture and standards of early electrical telegraphy Elizabeth Bruton
• Technologies of Romance : on the choice of a typeface for a book and the possibilities for technological Romance Catherine Dixon
• Technologies of Romance : Mineralogy: a digital account Lee Mackinnon
• Technologies of Romance : looking for ‘object love’ in three works of video art Paul O'Kane
• An overlooked eighteenth-century scrofula pamphlet: changing forms and changing readers, 1760-1824 Hannah Bower
• New mobile experiences of vision and modern subjectivities in Late Victorian Britain Sara Dominici
• Writing sound with a human ear: reconstructing Bell and Blake’s 1874 ear phonautograph Tom Everett
• The museum micro-fellowship Anna Geurts and Oliver Betts
• Mobilising the Energy in Store : stored collections, enthusiast experts and the ecology of heritage Elizabeth Haines and Anna Woodham
• Collections development in hindsight: a numerical analysis of the Science and Technology collections of National Museums Scotland since 1855 Tacye Phillipson
• Book review: The Life and Legend of James Watt by David Phillip Miller Ben Russell
• ‘Everything passes, except the past’: reviewing the renovated Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA) Donata Miller

Spring 2019

• Editorial Kate Steiner
• Wounded : ‘They had no fever…’ Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) and his method of gunshot wounds management Elena Berger and Sergey Glyanstev
• Wounded : ‘A small Scar will be much discerned’: treating facial wounds in early modern Britain Emily Cock
• Wounded : Healing communal wounds: processions and plague in sixteenth-century Mantua Marie-Louise Leonard
• Mind-Boggling Medical History : creating a medical history game for nurses Sarah Chaney and Sally Frampton
• A discourse with deep time: the extinct animals of Crystal Palace Park as heritage artefacts Alison Laurence
• From the White Man’s Grave to the White Man’s Home? Experiencing ‘Tropical Africa’ at the 1924–25 British Empire Exhibition Jules Skotnes-Brown
• A history of amulets in ten objects Annie Thwaite
• The provenance and context of the Giustiniani Medicine Chest Julie Ackroyd
• A royal gift? Mrs Strangways Horner’s small silver clock, 1740 Tessa Murdoch and Jonathan Betts
• In memoriam: Jeff Hughes, 1965–2018 James Sumner

Autumn 2018

• Editorial Anne Locker
• The life and material culture of Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923): suffragette, physicist, mathematician and inventor Elizabeth Bruton
• Engineering and the family in business: Blanche Coules Thornycroft, naval architecture and engineering design Keith Harcourt and Roy Edwards
• Uncovering the secrets of Canadian Pacific Becky Peacock
• Wired-up in white organdie: framing women’s scientific labour at the Burden Neurological Institute David Saunders
• The history of women in engineering on Wikipedia Alice White
• From 2D to 3D: the story of graphene in objects Sarah Baines
• The Panstereomachia, Madame Tussaud’s and the Heraldic Exhibition: the art and science of displaying the medieval past in nineteenth-century London Barbara Gribling
• Ventriloquised voices: the Science Museum and the Hartree Differential Analyser Tom Ritchie
• Tacita Dean: LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT, STILL LIFE Katy Barrett
• Review: Science Museums in Transition: Cultures of Display in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America , edited by Carin Berkowitz and Bernard Lightman, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017 Henry A McGhie

Spring 2018

• Getting to grips with energy: fuel, materiality and daily life Frank Trentmann
• ‘As snug as a bug in a rug’: post-war housing, homes and coal fires Lynda Nead
• Refrigerating India Harold Wilhite
• Making Material and Cultural Connections: the fluid meaning of ‘Living Electrically’ in Japan and Canada 1920-1960 Heather Chappells and Hiroki Shin
• Visualising electricity demand: use and users of a 3D chart from the 1950s Alice Cliff and Jenny Rinkinen
• Light as material/lighting as practice: urban lighting and energy Joanne Entwistle and Don Slater
• Networks of knowledge and power: working collaboratively on the HoNESt project Stuart Butler
• The language of Electricity : Jan Hicks in conversation with Bill Morrison Bill Morrison and Jan Hicks
• Turning energy around: an interactive exhibition experience Sarah Kellberg and Christina Newinger
• Collecting the personal: stories of domestic energy and everyday life at the National Museum of Scotland Elsa Cox, Katarina Grant and Haileigh Robertson
• ‘The whole exhibition becomes the stage…’ – a journey through time by children for children as a new approach to peer learning Sabine Oetzel
• Energy/Culture: a reading guide for historical literature Hiroki Shin

Autumn 2017

• Editorial Justin Dillon
• Museums theme – Adventures in Museology: category building over a century, and the context for experiments in reinvigorating the Science Museum at the turn of the twenty-first century Robert Bud
• Museums theme – Quest for Absolute Zero: A Human Story about Rivalry and Cold Dirk van Delft
• Museums theme – Science vs technology in a museum’s display: changes in the Vienna Museum of Technology with a focus on permanent and temporary exhibitions and new forms of science education Peter Donhauser
• Museums theme – making Split + Splice: Fragments from the Age of Biomedicine Martha Fleming
• Museums theme – Beyond the Black Box: reflections on building a history of chemistry museum Jennifer Landry
• Adapting to the emergence of the automobile: a case study of Manchester coachbuilder Joseph Cockshoot and Co. 1896–1939 Joshua Butt
• A tale of two telegraphs: Cooke and Wheatstone’s differing visions of electric telegraphy Jean-Francois Fava-Verde
• Prosthetic limbs on display: from maker to user Sophie Goggins, Tacye Phillipson and Samuel J M M Alberti
• Towards a more sonically inclusive museum practice: a new definition of ’the ‘sound object John Kannenberg
• ‘Great ease and simplicity of action’: Dr Nelson’s Inhaler and the origins of modern inhalation therapy Barry Murnane, Darragh Murnane, Mark Sanders and Noel Snell
• ‘Not one voice speaking to many’: E C Large, wireless, and science fiction fans in the mid-twentieth century Charlotte Sleigh
• ‘Organising Sound’: how a research network might help structure an exhibition Tim Boon, Annie Jamieson, John Kannenberg, Aleks Kolkowski and James Mansell
• A symposium on histories of use and tacit skills Tim Boon, Roger Kneebone, Peter Heering, Klaus Staubermann and Yves Winkin
• Review: what should reviews do in an online journal? Towards a New Format Geoffrey Belknap
• Review: More than colours (or why some Austrian school children might not want to eat red Gummy Bears anymore) Toria Forsyth-Moser

Spring 2017

• Editorial Jo Quinton-Tulloch
• Something in the Air: Dr Carter Moffat’s Ammoniaphone and the Victorian Science of Singing Melissa Dickson
• Rather unspectacular: design choices in National Health Service glasses Joanne Gooding
• ‘A Chamber of Noise Horrors’: sound, technology and the museum James Mansell
• The Hugh Davies Collection: live electronic music and self-built electro-acoustic musical instruments, 1967-1975 James Mooney
• Acoustics on display: collecting and curating sound at the Science Museum Jennifer Rich
• Philip Carpenter and the convergence of science and entertainment in the early-nineteenth century instrument trade Phillip Roberts
• Moments of danger: photography, institutions and the history of the future Benedict Burbridge
• Location, location: a polemic on photographs and institutional practices Elizabeth Edwards
• Contexts for photography collections at the National Media Museum Michael Terwey
• Review: The Return of Curiosity , by Nicholas Thomas Ken Arnold
• Review: Science and Technology galleries at National Museums Scotland Jane Desborough

Autumn 2016

• Editorial Tilly Blyth
• Giovanni Canestrini’s models of Leonardo da Vinci’s friction experiments Ian Hutchings
• Understanding storm surges in the North Sea: Ishiguro’s electronic modelling machine Claire Kennard
• Threading through history: the vertical transmission of Davy, Faraday and Tyndall’s lecture demonstration practices Ceri Pitches
• Doping at the Science Museum: the conservation challenge of doped fabric aircraft in the Flight gallery Ben Regel, Jannicke Langfeldt, Louisa Burden and Mary Ryan
• Pilgrimages to the museums of the new age: appropriating European industrial museums in New York City (1927-1937) Jaume Sastre-Juan
• Problem/science/society Jane Gregory
• Challenges of conservation: working objects Elizabeth Pye
• Review: Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee (Royal College of Physicians, 18 January-29 July 2016) Glyn Parry
• Obituary: Brian Bracegirdle (1933-2015) at the Science Museum R G W Anderson and Sandra Bicknell
• Obituary: Dr Anita McConnell FRGS FRSA FRMetS (1936-2016) Jane Insley

Spring 2016

• The ‘co’ in co-production: Museums, community participation and Science and Technology Studies Helen Graham
• Private portraits or suffering on stage: curating clinical photographic collections in the museum context Mieneke te Hennepe
• A statistical campaign: Florence Nightingale and Harriet Martineau’s England and her Soldiers Iris Veysey
• Thinking things through: reviving museum research Ken Arnold
• Functionless: science museums and the display of 'pure objects' Jean-Francois Gauvin
• Flying Scotsman: modernity, nostalgia and Britain’s ‘cult of the past’ Andrew McLean
• Cosmonauts: Birth of an Exhibition Doug Millard
• Review: The Fate of Anatomical Collections , edited by Rina Knoeff and Robert Zwijnenberg Simon Chaplin

Autumn 2015

• Editorial Ludmilla Jordanova
• Capturing the song of the nightingale Iain Logie Baird
• The Science Museum and the Leonardo da Vinci Quincentenary Exhibition of 1952 Jim Bennett
• The birth of a collection in Milan: from the Leonardo Exhibition of 1939 to the opening of the National Museum of Science and Technology in 1953 Claudio Giorgione
• A sustainable storage solution for the Science Museum Group Marta Leskard
• The Cosmonauts challenge Ian Blatchford and Natalia Sidlina
• Through the lens of a space tourist Julia Tcharfas
• Review: The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: the (mostly) true story of the first computer , by Sydney Padua James Sumner
• Review: Fairfield Govan: visiting a future heritage space Alex Hale

Spring 2015

• Editorial Jean Franczyk
• Museums as brokers of participation: how visitors view the emerging role of European science centres and museums in policy Andrea Bandelli and Elly A. Konijn
• Troublesome telephony: how users and non-users shaped the development of early British exchange telephony Michael Kay
• The Art and Science of Acoustic Recording: Re-enacting Arthur Nikisch and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s landmark 1913 recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony Aleks Kolkowski, Duncan Miller and Amy Blier-Carruthers
• Information age? The challenges of displaying information and communication technologies Tilly Blyth
• Embedding plurality: exploring participatory practice in the development of a new permanent gallery Katy Bunning, Jen Kavanagh, Kayte McSweeney and Richard Sandell
• Old weather: citizen scientists in the 19th and 21st centuries Sally Shuttleworth
• Review: Cabinet of Curiosities: How disability was kept in a box Joanne Bartholomew

Autumn 2014

• James Short and John Harrison: personal genius and public knowledge Jim Bennett
• Oramics to electronica: investigating lay understandings of the history of technology through a participatory project Tim Boon, Merel van der Vaart and Katy Price
• Curating the collider: using place to engage museum visitors with particle physics Alison Boyle and Harry Cliff
• ‘½ vol. not relevant’: The scrapbook of Winifred Penn-Gaskell Caitlin Doherty
• Made real: artifice and accuracy in nineteenth-century scientific illustration Boris Jardine
• Science communication in Latin America: what is going on? Luisa Massarani
• Chronometers, charts, charisma: on histories of longitude Simon Schaffer
• Review: Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude Seb Falk
• Review: Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century , by Omar W Nasim David Hughes

Spring 2014

• Editorial Ian Blatchford
• Coming home – Bally’s miniature phrenological specimens Alice Cliff
• Reading, writing, drawing and making in the 18th-century instrument trade Florence Grant
• Responding to stories: The 1876 Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus and the Science Museum Robert Bud
• ‘Something simple and striking, if not amusing’ – the Freedom 7 special exhibition at the Science Museum, 1965 Jean-Baptiste Gouyon
• Watt’s workshop: craft and philosophy in the Science Museum Ben Russell
• On heroism Ludmilla Jordanova
• Sputnik and the ‘scientific revolution’ – what happened to social justice? Justin Dillon
• Review: Perfect Mechanics: Instrument Makers at the Royal Society of London in the Eighteenth Century, by Richard Sorrenson Jim Bennett
• Review: Seven Ages of Science , BBC Radio 4 Rebekah Higgitt
• Obituary: Frank Greenaway Peter Morris and Robert Bud

Thinking things through: reviving museum research

art, exhibition, experience, experiment, humanities, knowledge, material culture, research, understanding, Wellcome Collection

Introduction

Like many who started out as an ‘assistant curator’, I came to work in museums after years of academic study. Evolving some and swapping other habits formed whilst at university has mostly suited my aptitudes and appetites. But a puzzle emerged: how might I hang on to the invigorating, indeed intoxicating practices of research? After a quarter century of being involved with projects that attempted working solutions to this museological conundrum, the following speculations outline a more considered response.

On taking over as its director, Ian Blatchford bravely criticised previous decades of activity at the Science Museum: he feared that they betrayed the lack of ‘a clear intellectual agenda’, and signalled his intention instead to return to a ‘classic art museum model of doing great exhibitions based on real research on our own collection’ ( Stephens, 2012, p 37 ). Blatchford is right, the vibrancy of any museum (no matter what its subject) is emphatically expressed through the vitality of its investigation-led programming. This is how we come to judge its ability to inspire visitors to spend their time fruitfully thinking things through and out loud. For museums need to be places where people (both visiting and working) are able to study rather than just learn; and this should be possible without turning them into the earnest, elitist institutions that these ponderous words might suggest. As the following will make clear, I am optimistic about how much could be done in the spirit of research within curious and adventurous public museums.

Knowledge and museum understanding

No one is more acutely aware than those working within universities these days about how much more complicated the ‘knowledge economy’ has become: how much more difficult it is to say exactly where we should expect telling new insights and information to emerge. Academia’s previously dominant role has gradually had to be shared with areas of business, government, broadcast, entertainment and, increasingly, across the tidal wave of ‘citizens-band’ on-line initiatives. There are, of course, economic repercussions that follow from the globalisation and general diffusion of research agendas, especially when questions of ‘translation’ and ‘impact’ threaten to further complicate a simple ideal of the detached and disinterested pursuit of knowledge ( Munck, 2010 ). The consequent intellectual recalibrations are generally shaking up campuses, with innovations being trialled in examinations, course structures, study methods and funding strategies. And away from formal education, various quasi-academic enterprises have popped up, signalling their learning-with-a-difference approaches through evocative titles like School of Life, Institute of Ideas and Makerversity. Even thoroughly commercialised summer music festivals have toyed with brainier sideshows based on comedy, mindfulness, poetry, drama and even science.

What, one wonders, could museums contribute (collaboratively maybe) by way of their own unique new courses, trialled as ‘summer schools’? Might they offer students seeking a less orthodox curriculum access to an open public platform that hosted widely sourced guest experts; studio or laboratory-based workshops actively focused on material- and visual-culture; and learning environments that made the most of the far-from-ivory-towers public soil in which museums are so firmly planted; all of which channelled by a thematic enquiry aimed at some productive (if not examined) outcomes? We should be wary of the over-orchestrated meddling that such speculations potentially posit. Museums have too often been dragged, albeit sometimes with good intentions, far from what Hilde Hein has playfully, but also wisely, reminded us are their ‘idle roots’; having to work around heavy-handed instrumentalist goals foisted onto institutions that should essentially be ‘gratuitous and wondrously unencumber[ed]’ ( Hein, 2006, pp 1–2 ). It is all too easy to over-promise what they are capable of while simultaneously ignoring what in essence they are good at. But a general point about the relatively untapped research potential of museums nonetheless still stands: they are ideally placed to exploit distinctive new roles in a shifting epistemological landscape, providing places for alternative models of partaking in more accessible research.

Since its launch in 2007, Wellcome Collection has sought to make a contribution to the idea of popular, investigation-led programming. Starting with the levelling assumption of a shared ‘incurable curiosity’, its experimental exhibitions, events and other initiatives have attempted to grapple with interstitial topics – ones that aren’t entirely owned by a single discipline, and that provide intriguing, low-threshold entry points for inquisitive lay-people. Sometimes these projects have tackled subjects as broad as sleep, war, death or dirt (ones in which insights and examples from science and medicine sit comfortably alongside others from art, architecture and anthropology). At other times the curatorial approach has instead begun in such seemingly narrow domains as Japanese outsider art or Mexican votive pictures and from there draw out telling, specific inflections of such universal ideas as creativity, hope and gratitude. Woven throughout all these projects has been a collaborative enthusiasm for finding things out across expert viewpoints and practices, but also, crucially, with the involvement of an active visiting public.

What general characteristics might such museum-based investigations share? To start with, Stefan Collini has helpfully contrasted two epistemological formulae. In one equation ‘skills + information = knowledge’; in the other, ‘experience + reflection = understanding’ ( Collini, 2012, pp 77–78 ). The former has worked exceedingly well in the sciences; but the latter, he suggests, is more illuminating for the humanities, where understanding is recognised as ‘a human activity that depends in part upon the qualities of the understander’, and where the ‘kinds of understanding and judgement exercised…are of a piece with [those]…involved in living a life’. With very few exceptions (scientists working with natural history collections probably being the most obvious), the fresh ideas and thinking that museums create has, in Collini’s terms, more to do with ‘understanding’ than scientific knowledge. No matter what their subject, museum programming is, I believe, properly and primarily concerned with generating the more local, subjective and shorter-lived insights of the humanities. Embracing the fact that those who engage with museums (from curators and researchers through to audiences) are more concerned to think things through than find things out, they should aim to manufacture a type of understanding that is decidedly livelier and more relevant rather than the alternative, drier, but frankly unrealistic promise of enduring objective knowledge.

Museums seem predisposed to guide inquisitive minds toward topics that sit comfortably between established academic traditions, in part no doubt because their collections are so frequently disparate in nature, and so open to potential re-examination from fresh perspectives. Participants who engage with this type of innovative enquiry are also prone to exploit more than one type of experience. To borrow the sentiments expressed in John Dewey’s approach to aesthetics, in welcoming the poetic as well as prosaic, the aesthetic as well as scientific, and expressions as well as statements, museums don’t just lead their guests towards experiences: they genuinely constitute them ( Dewey, 1980, p 85 ). Visitors go to museums in search of enriching experiences and seem to find surprisingly little difficulty in turning from looking at things, to reading a little, to (sometimes) talking, or at least listening, to others, to (almost invariably) watching a film, or playing a game, for example. They also increasingly expect actively to do a thing or two: to make something tangible, or at least a mark or verbal contribution. This experientially varied version of museum thinking will for many recall Howard Gardner’s breakthrough insights into our ‘multiple intelligences’, which added synthetic, creative, empathetic, kinetic and other types of acumen to more traditional forms of logical, factual and linguistic understanding ( Gardner, 2011 ).

There is also something profoundly aesthetic about the self-motivated research that I am advocating. For no matter what their ostensible subject matter or content, or indeed style of presentation, museums are, I believe, always in part about art. Svetlana Alpers identified this as ‘the museum effect’, which is maybe just one specific instance of the distinction John Dewey made between recognition and perception ( Alpers, 1991, pp 25–7 ). The former ‘involves no stir of the organism, no inner commotion. But an act of perception proceeds by waves that extend serially throughout the entire organism’. In an era of ever-shortening attention spans, this entreaty to examine things in museums ‘as if art’ can lead us back to the value of really delving into something, rather than just briefly noticing it. The limiting ‘conception that objects have fixed and unalterable values is precisely the prejudice from which art emancipates us’. And it is the ‘museum effect’ that helps us sidestep the trap of adhering to ‘conventional associations’. Sticking with Dewey just a little longer, his subtly persuasive view of art also encourages us to recognise how thoroughly it is connected with, and yet an illuminating extension of, everyday life. It throws ‘off the covers that hide the expressiveness of experienced things; … [enabling] us to forget ourselves by finding ourselves in the delight of experiencing the world about us’. Applied to museums, these sentiments are a reminder that their aesthetic significance lies not simply in setting off precious things in attractive surroundings, but also rather more fundamentally, in their encouragement to visitors to grasp life-enhancing insights (Dewey, 1980, pp 53, 95, 104).

If museums encourage an active concern with an experience-based aesthetic, they fundamentally do so by directing attention towards special tangible instances (things), rather than abstract propositions. Exhibits have forever been the stuff of museums, and as anthropologist Daniel Miller insists: ‘the best way to understand, convey and appreciate our humanity is through attention to our fundamental materiality’, because this is where we derive ‘the landscapes of our imagination, as well as the cultural environment to which we adapt’ ( Miller, 2011, pp 4, 51 ). The complicated and shifting significance of objects will, of course, be endlessly asserted and reconsidered; but it has been interesting to see recent challenges to the dominant semiotic emphasis on meaning – the idea that museums should principally aim to articulate hidden symbolic significances. Miller asks us instead to linger with the superficial aspects of things, and is joined by literary theorist Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht in reasserting the value of ‘the thingness of the world’: its presence ( Gumbrecht, 2004, p 92 ). With these immediate qualities of things in mind, two other concepts illuminate the power museums can derive from their objects: namely, position and juxtaposition. The art of curating in many ways emerges from a disciplined extension of the very ordinary act of placing something so that it is noticed: a theatrically suspended means of pointing at something. Added to this initial material gesture is the second one of placing other things in proximity to complement, contrast or somehow relate to the first. And as anthropologist Gregory Bateson rather grandly asserts, the ‘word idea , in its most elementary sense, is synonymous with difference ’. Museums allow differences to teach.

The exhibition as experiment

It follows that the rejuvenation of a research agenda for museums may fruitfully be grounded on a core concern with material culture, approached as a series of authentic, singular opportunities for heightened aesthetic delving, and this through a range of experiences, intelligences and disciplines. This may sound rather contrived and convoluted, but it is precisely these convictions that have inspired the best of museum programming over recent decades, and in particular the more effective experimental temporary exhibitions and events that aim not just at reflecting and disseminating established knowledge, but rather at shifting understanding and producing new ideas. It is this type of ‘show business’ that provides museums with their most articulate and attractive means of demonstrating the enhanced epistemological significance that I am claiming for them ( MacDonald and Basu, 2007, pp 2–3 ).

The first step of tackling exhibitions as a means visually to demonstrate rather than just say something is one that has gradually become almost routine, particularly in museums focused on art history and anthropology. But at an altogether more intense level of inventiveness, the short-duration exhibitions that have made greatest impact on our increasingly pop-up culture have come from contemporary art. Curator and exhibition-as-art advocate Hans Ulrich Obrist describes the essence of this highly experimental practice as ‘the attempted pollination of culture, or a form of map-making that opens new routes through a city, a people or a world view’ ( Obrist, 2014 , pp 1, 4, 24, 168, and Obrist, in conversation ). As a form of public artistic deliberation, these temporary shows have been licensed to defy expectations precisely because they are that: short-lived. They are likely to induce less anxiety about whether they can stand the test of extended and repeated inspection: an invitation to play. They have also ushered in more fluid approaches to defining creative roles, with curators taking turns as investigators, artists becoming curators and/or researchers and designers sharing in the task of converting ideas into visitor experiences. Further, as Peter Weibel and Bruno Latour have pointed out, these exhibitions have taken a decidedly ‘performative turn’, with audiences anticipating a form of ‘enactment’ and ‘encounter’ rather than just ‘representation’ ( Weibel and Latour, 2007 ).

The language of performance is suggestive, reminding us of a crucial role taken by one other set of players cast in acting out this form of research – the visiting public. Without them the museum-thinking that I am promoting would be thoroughly anaemic, and maybe just plain meaningless. But it is just as important to be clear that on its own, without curatorial, academic, creative and other professional inputs, the visitor experience would risk being empty. We have recently witnessed a considerable clamour to replace models of passive public dissemination with others based on the active involvement of those who would earlier have been identified as passive recipients. A particularly influential version of this viewpoint is advanced by Nina Simon, who tellingly draws ammunition from the dramatic shifts witnessed in the short history of digital culture, where a ‘broadcast’ mode of engagement characterising older websites and digital platforms has effectively been engulfed by myriad modes of user-participation unleashed by web 2.0. Her book The Participatory Museum provides a powerful justification for going beyond rather limp attempts to let visitors ‘have a bit of fun with the collection… [to much more serious invitations] to make meaningful contributions to museums in ways that improve the experience for staff, participants and visitors alike’ ( Simon, 2010b , p 38; and Simon, 2010a ). What is key is the interaction between these different roles: that is where meaning is created. Museum-based investigations are made real through the infinitely varied ways in which participants bring them to life, but we need to be careful about drifting towards the idea of co-production as a lazy orthodoxy. Wellcome Collection operates with the assumption that its visitors are all likely to be experts in something (themselves, if nothing else); but, and this is crucial, that they are all also going to be ignorant of many other aspects of its content, and that the balance of an average visitor’s expertise and ignorance does not have to be assumed equal in order to foster a rich investigative environment.

One other aspect of museum-research that needs highlighting is the heuristic role of museums themselves – for just by choosing to step over their institutional thresholds provides visitors with one other ingredient likely to induce public thoughtfulness, and that is an environment that positively promotes it. The refined territory occupied by museums profoundly influences the tone and quality of all that goes on within them (all the other ingredients I’ve described so far); but when artfully prepared and imaginatively designed such special houses can possess a thought-inducing value all of its own. Their significance as investigative spaces lies in the potential to support and induce an enhanced thirst for exploration. It is tempting to invoke laboratories, but also artists’ studios, as suggestively analogous spaces, with museums unusually welcoming and indeed thriving on direct visitor involvement. Interestingly, all three charged spaces (laboratories, studios and museums) were invented at roughly the same time in early-modern Europe; and all, arguably, provided those who pursued investigations within them with refined places removed from the distractions of the everyday world on the streets outside, where scientists, artists, curators and visitors could make better sense of it ( Alpers, 1998 ). The particular distinction of museums lies then in their hybrid character, crucially crossed with forms of public display. Even here, further refinement is required, because as Richard Wentworth explains, exhibition spaces need to be distinguished from other displays, occupying something of an ‘exclusion zone… [where things] are laid out for you as they are in a shop, but there’s the possibility of research, of each person exploring it in their own way’ ( Wentworth, 1998, p 6 ). While in museums the creation and dissemination of insights happens almost simultaneously; in laboratories and studios they are sequential, with potentially elaborate preparatory processes and considerable time-lags lying between.

And finally, it is vital to recall that museums are fundamentally public institutions, and that this too considerably influences the nature of our experiences in them. Our ‘public behaviour’ whilst there is, as Michel de Certeau observes, influenced from above by a top-down orchestration of public demeanour defined by official ‘places’ (museums have their written and unwritten rules!), and from below by visitors’ wilful intent to decide for themselves how to act in such ‘spaces’ ( Certeau, 1984, p 117 ). Arriving with our anticipations of what types of behaviour are encouraged, augmented by what, frankly, we think we can get away with, we then set about exploring what is on offer; and this both by indulging our genuinely private imaginations and simultaneously by exercising other strands of thought animated by the exciting, but also potentially dangerous, company of strangers. For as David Carr has said, it is conversations (though as much imagined ones as actual chats we might have with other visitors) that inspire us to gain knowledge in museums: it is ‘the evidence of another intelligence at work next to ours; … [that ultimately enables us] to understand what we might independently become’ ( Carr, 2006, p 16 ). This process of museum-understanding-as-research is undeniably and inevitably complicated (visitors are left to make so many decisions about how they should spend their time), but within these creative tensions museums are set to emerge as richer and more animated places and spaces in which to think out loud.

Ken Arnold is Director of Medical Museion, Program Co-ordinator in the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research and Professor in the Department of Public Health at University of Copenhagen. Until recently, he was also Head of Cultural Partnerships at the Wellcome Trust in London, where earlier he helped establish Wellcome Collection and directed its first decade of programming

Media in article

• Print / Download PDF
• XML version
• Refworks Tagged

Talk to our experts

1800-120-456-456

• A Visit to a Museum - Long and Short Essay

Essay on A Visit to a Museum

We get to see a number of museums all over the world. India itself has several museums. A Visit to a Museum Essay in English is provided below for kids studying in class 5 and above. It is written in an easy to understand language for the convenience of kids. After reading the paragraph on A Visit to a Museum the kids will be able to write a 200 word essay on A Visit to a Museum or A Visit to a Museum 150 words paragraph on their own.

Long Essay on A Visit to a Museum

A building in which the objects of historical, cultural, artistic, and scientific interest are kept for the public display is known as a museum. It is a house of knowledge that makes us aware of the history, civilization, culture, religious practices, lifestyle, architecture, and art of the country. It lets us peep into the ancient socio-political, economic, cultural, and religious life of the people of a country.

A museum is a house of treasures filled with antiques. It holds the archaeological collectibles and artifacts that define a country’s culture and civilization. The historical panorama, the art and architecture, and the religions and relics of a country are curated and displayed in a museum. It can be said that any museum is a miniature reflection of a country’s past and ancient times. A vivid picture of the traditions, customs, and conventions of the country is showcased by a museum. 

I got a golden opportunity to visit the famous historic National Museum in New Delhi. The museum building is robust and majestic. The museum has various departments that have collectibles and artifacts on different subjects and historical periods on display. I saw numerous images, articles, sculptures, and scriptures– palm leaf and rock engravings and many other articles of great value and interest as we entered the ground floor of the museum. The entire museum is divided into different departments like the archaeological division, anthropological division, display section, etc.

On going to the first floor we saw paintings, murals, charts amongst the various other things. There were manuscripts in different languages on display. We saw various ancient weapons, robes, and dresses on display. One of the corners is dedicated to the numismatics section. This section has coins from different periods put on display.

There are the realistic paintings of Ellora caves alongside beautiful replicas of the Ajanta frescoes in one hall. In addition to these, the paintings depicting the lives of Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, and Lord Buddha through scriptures and charts are also put on display. One could truly discover the glorious history of India after having a look at this section.

We saw the remains of the Indus Valley Civilization on the second floor. There are the excavations from Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Lothal, Kalibanga, and Ropar put on display. The broken pitchers, toys, stones, beads, skulls, etc. reflect a lot about the civilization of those times. We were really surprised to find out how advanced that civilization was.

The third floor belongs to the military equipment section. The weapons from the ancient times, such as the spears and pruning hooks, swords and sheaths, shields and helmets, different types of dresses of the commanders and generals from the past ages are showcased. It was a thrilling experience. Seeing all the equipment and attires of the past heroes of our nation was too inspiring for us.

The whole museum is a treasure trove of the history of India. You learn about the history of great men of India and their morals. The laurels, legends, and historical facts are connected with an entire gamut of literature and the life of India. Whether they were poets or prose writers, scientists or galaxy-gazers, dancers or dramatists, musicians or doctors, songsters or sculptors, lawgivers, or lexicographers, you get to experience their lives from the past through the remains curated and put on display.

Short Essay on A Visit to a Museum

A place where old relics are kept on display for the public is known as a museum. A visit to a museum expands our knowledge of the past. I had a chance to visit the National Museum in New Delhi. A friend accompanied me to the museum. It is a huge building divided into different sections. There are various exhibits in each section.

We saw the stars in our galaxy first. The stars are painted on the ceiling of the dome. We felt like we were in the galaxy of stars for real. We then moved on to another section that had weapons of ancient times. They were arranged in a manner to depict the battle scenes. The household goods from ancient times were kept in the adjacent room to display the domestic life of the ancient people. There were a lot of things made by Indian scientists that were on display. Models of dams and hydroelectric projects, solar cookers, solar light systems, etc. that help us understand how far Indians have come after Independence are put on display in this museum. 

We kept moving on to one section from the other and learned a lot about our country’s rich past. We did have a great time at the museum and we are looking forward to our next visit.

Importance of Visiting a Museum

The students should know that visiting a museum now and then is good for many reasons and has many advantages. For instance, a child learns about different things visually and this helps him to remember things vividly. You can go to a museum and it is a source of entertainment for many students who like to learn about things differently. A museum educates a student about different things simply and helps you become smarter. 

Museums also help in inspiring young minds and help them dream of many possibilities. The Importance of Museums: conserving native Culture. Museums play a vital role in conserving native culture. With proper measures for physical object preservation, a culture will be recorded and remembered in spite of its future. It is also supposed to be shared by the people from different groups and thus in a way ends up being understood by those from completely different cultural backgrounds. Museums guarantee understanding and appreciation for varied groups and cultures. They're the establishments charged with preserving, protecting and displaying artefacts from our past and so conserving our wealthy heritage which could well be lost to personal collectors or to time itself. 

Quite evidently, if not for museums, we'd most actually lose the tangible links to our past. Museums are the storehouse of antique items. They are much underrated when in fact, they make great historical, anthropological, and archaeological monuments that impart knowledge about how the world used to be and how it developed over the centuries.

The visit to the museum was thrilling as well as an enriching experience for me. It was one of the richest experiences of my life to have seen and experienced all of that in the museum. It was deeply moving to see the vast storehouse of our country’s ancient glory. This visit to the National Museum has left a lingering impression on my mind.

FAQs on A Visit to a Museum - Long and Short Essay

1. What is a Museum?

A museum is a place that gives us knowledge about the civilizations of the past. Art, antique artifacts, and relics from ancient times are preserved and put on display for the public to see.

2. Why are Museums important?

Museums are a vast repository of information and knowledge from our past. It preserves and showcases all aspects of the ancient civilizations. You get to know how civilizations have evolved over the past years. Without museums, it would be close to impossible to keep a track of our history. The remains from the past would be scattered and not be found under one roof collectively. The public might not have access to all the places holding on to the remains.

3. Where can I get long and short essays on topics like 'A Visit to a Museum’?

The students can find essays on a variety of topics at Vedantu.com. Here, you will find long and short essays on topics most students are unable to find anywhere else. At Vedantu.com , every essay is free to read and the students can understand each word easily because of the simple and uncomplicated tone. These essays are easy to remember for exams and competitions. Also, the Vedantu app brings every topper the luxury of these essays in both long and short formats so you don't have to worry about adjusting any word. Writing a good essay has its own benefits like students getting better at critical thinking, their knowledge in a variety of different topics enhanced, as they grow older this helps in different career sectors or competitive exams due to better reading and writing skills, helps them express their ideas and overall improves their communication skills. This is why Vedantu is here with so many essays to choose from so that you can excel in the art of essay writing as every topper does. For this, regular practice is needed which helps the students to connect their ideas and write them without any hurdles arising. So for essays and study materials, choose Vedantu!

4. How many words should I write for a long or short essay about the topic ‘A visit to a museum’?

The students can write an average short essay about the topic ‘A visit to a museum’ which can vary from 150-200 words. An essay that is supposed to belong to the same topic must be at least 500-600 words. Writing an essay whether long or short helps a student to enhance their creativity and better their writing skills. These essays at Vedantu.com help a student in their exams, competitions or even competitive exams where good writing skills or good English proficiency is required. Reading and writing long-short essays for the students or even a 10 line essay for younger students helps them to enhance their creativity. The students learn about different things and gain more knowledge this way. As they have to search about the topic they are writing an essay on, it helps them to go through different ideas of different people which later on helps them in life too as in the form of skills. The students should make sure to choose a topic that has a lot to offer and write an essay about it if possible. This helps them to interlink one topic with another without any problem and thus, helps them to remember things more vividly. 

• Website Inauguration Function.
• Vocational Placement Cell Inauguration
• Media Coverage.
• Certificate & Recommendations
• Privacy Policy
• Science Project Metric
• Social Studies 8 Class
• Computer Fundamentals
• Introduction to C++
• Programming Methodology
• Programming in C++
• Data structures
• Boolean Algebra
• Object Oriented Concepts
• Database Management Systems
• Open Source Software
• Operating System
• PHP Tutorials
• Earth Science
• Physical Science
• Sets & Functions
• Coordinate Geometry
• Mathematical Reasoning
• Statics and Probability
• Accountancy
• Business Studies
• Political Science
• English (Sr. Secondary)

Hindi (Sr. Secondary)

• Punjab (Sr. Secondary)
• Accountancy and Auditing
• Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technology
• Automobile Technology
• Electrical Technology
• Electronics Technology
• Hotel Management and Catering Technology
• IT Application
• Marketing and Salesmanship
• Office Secretaryship
• Stenography
• Hindi Essays
• English Essays

Letter Writing

• Shorthand Dictation

Essay on “A Visit To National Science Centre” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

A Visit To National Science Centre

The National Council of Science Museum has opened many National Science Centers around the country. The aim of this council is to show different uses of science in different fields with educational point of view. There are many National Science Centres. I was lucky to have a chance of visiting the National Science Centre in Delhi.

During last summer vacation I happened to go to Delhi with my mother to see my uncle. He is a lecturer in a college in Delhi. He has two children. One son and one daughter. I saw many things but a visit to National Science Centre was a memory for me.

I went there with my cousin who was a student of tenth class at that time. We were three. The first thing that hit me was the number of children there. I saw many foreigners also. Children from different states could be seen there. Delhi is in real sense a capital of India. He can see different culture of different states assembling there. So it was a thing of wonder for me to see so many children in different costumes speaking different local languages.

As I stepped into the first gallery , it seemed that I had entered a different world. All around me, there was knowledge available in different and very interesting forms. The first gallery was representing ancient civilizations stepwise. How the early man lived, what he ate, how he thought etc. there were shown many mind puzzling problems which made me thing how difficult was our life living among wild animals. The information on past scientists and mathematicians was also there. Industrial development in the past and the present was also exhibited. The last part of the gallery was full of plant fossils and the stories of extinct animals that had ruled in the past.

The second gallery was about fun with science. Here I could see the children who were participating in the centre’s summer programme having  lots of fun. We could see their 10 to 13 year- olds sawing pieces of wood or hammering them together, to make scientific models. A strange thing, even the parent of the participates were  enjoying themselves.

Principles of science have been used to from simple yet engrossing games. They can occupy one for long. At the end of gallery, there is a tiny planetarium built like an igloo. There is also a Dinosaur Enclave which has four very life-like models of dinosaurs. The third gallery has the details of information revolution. The third gallery has the details of information revolution. The fourth gallery has the knowledge of computers equipped with all the latest machines. In the last of this gallery, information about Noble laureates of the present was presented. The fifth gallery has revolution of the emerging technologies in the world. This was followed by a 3-D, graphic representation of life as we live it today. Man’s space progress was also shown. The practical  knowledge gained in these galleries was more than what I could have learnt in the class room. Always remember to visit this real fun way of science. 

About evirtualguru_ajaygour

commentscomments

Nice writings

this is the only report for class 6 which i can give to my teacher

Very good for writing this . I got gold medal in writing . I shall be thankful to you and also got 10000 rs in the form of scholarship for 6 months . I am very happy . I shall be very very thankful to you

Baooth hi badhiaa essay

I like this essay

Aha! very good description of science museum. Really fantastic. Superb idea of writing. Brilliant!!

This for class 10th to 12th but even though I gave this essay to my teacher although i got 7 out of 10 you know icse board pr aapki koi galti ni hai tab bhi maine class me top kiya or vaise bhi bht badiya essay hai ye bht mehnat ki hai

It was helpful to complete my homework because I did not copied the whole para but only the starting to get some idea

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Quick Links

Popular Tags

Visitors question & answer.

• Jayprakash on Hindi Essay on “Aitihasik Sthal ki Yatra” , ”ऐतिहासिक स्थल की यात्रा” Complete Hindi Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
• Diksha on Official Letter Example “Write a letter to Superintendent of Police for theft of your bicycle. ” Complete Official Letter for all classes.
• Anchal Sharma on Write a letter to the Postmaster complaining against the Postman of your locality.
• rrrr on Hindi Essay on “Pratahkal ki Sair” , ”प्रातःकाल की सैर ” Complete Hindi Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
• Mihir on CBSE ASL “Listening Test Worksheet” (ASL) 2017 for Class 11, Listening Test Audio Script 1

Download Our Educational Android Apps

Latest Desk

• Contemporary Indian Women-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.
• Privatisation: Strengths and Weaknesses-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.
• Greater political power alone will not improve women’s plight-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.
• Casteism and Electoral Politics in India-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.
• Wither Indian Democracy?-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.
• Do Not Put Off till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today, Complete English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11, 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.
• Shabd Shakti Ki Paribhasha aur Udahran | शब्द शक्ति की परिभाषा और उदाहरण
• Shabd Gun Ki Paribhasha aur Udahran | शब्द गुण की परिभाषा और उदाहरण
• Example Letter regarding election victory.
• Example Letter regarding the award of a Ph.D.
• Example Letter regarding the birth of a child.
• Example Letter regarding going abroad.
• Letter regarding the publishing of a Novel.

Vocational Edu.

• English Shorthand Dictation “East and Dwellings” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines.
• English Shorthand Dictation “Haryana General Sales Tax Act” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines meaning.
• English Shorthand Dictation “Deal with Export of Goods” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines meaning.
• English Shorthand Dictation “Interpreting a State Law” 80 and 100 wpm Legal Matters Dictation 500 Words with Outlines meaning.

Essay on A Visit to a Museum

Students are often asked to write an essay on A Visit to a Museum in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on A Visit to a Museum

Introduction.

A visit to a museum is always an enriching and enlightening experience. It offers a glimpse into the past, helping us understand our history and culture.

Last Sunday, I visited our city museum. The building itself was grand, housing countless artifacts.

The first section was dedicated to ancient civilizations. It displayed pottery, coins, and weapons. The next section had paintings and sculptures, showcasing our artistic heritage.

The museum visit was a journey through time. It was a great learning experience, making history come alive in front of my eyes.

250 Words Essay on A Visit to a Museum

The entrancing experience.

Upon entering, one is immediately transported back in time. The hushed silence, the dimly lit corridors, and the meticulously arranged exhibits create an atmosphere of intrigue and reverence. It is a place where time stands still, and history comes alive.

Exploring the Exhibits

The exhibits are a fascinating blend of art, history, and science. From ancient artifacts to contemporary art, from geological samples to historical documents, every object tells a story. Each exhibit is a piece of the puzzle that helps us understand our past and how it shapes our present.

The Learning Journey

A museum visit is not just a visual spectacle; it’s an immersive educational experience. The detailed descriptions and interactive displays provide a wealth of information that enhances our understanding of various subjects. It makes learning tangible, engaging, and enjoyable.

Reflection and Appreciation

The museum visit leaves one with a profound sense of awe and respect for our ancestors’ achievements. It fosters appreciation for the richness and diversity of our cultural heritage. It also underscores the importance of preserving these treasures for future generations.

In conclusion, a visit to a museum is a journey through time, a celebration of human ingenuity, and a learning experience like no other. It is an enriching activity that broadens our perspective, enriches our knowledge, and fuels our curiosity.

500 Words Essay on A Visit to a Museum

The enthralling experience.

The moment one steps into a museum, they are transported into a different realm. The air is heavy with the scent of antiquity and the aura of bygone eras. The artifacts, each a silent storyteller, narrate tales of glory, conquest, innovation, and evolution. The quiet corridors of the museum echo with the whispers of time, and the displays paint a vivid picture of the world’s historical timeline.

Artifacts and Exhibits

Museums host a diverse range of exhibits, from ancient relics to modern art. Paleolithic tools, Neolithic pottery, Egyptian mummies, Greek sculptures, Roman coins, and medieval armor, to name a few, take us back to different epochs. Paintings and sculptures showcase the evolution of artistic styles, while archaeological exhibits reveal the technological advancements of various civilizations. Contemporary art installations challenge conventional thinking and inspire new perspectives.

The Learning Experience

Reflections and insights.

A museum visit often leaves one with a sense of awe and respect for our predecessors. It makes us realize the transient nature of existence and the permanence of legacy. The artifacts bear testimony to human resilience, ingenuity, and the indomitable spirit of exploration and discovery. It also instills a sense of responsibility to preserve our heritage for future generations.

In essence, a visit to a museum is a profound journey into the annals of history and human evolution. It is an enriching experience that broadens our horizons, deepens our understanding of the world, and connects us with our past. Museums, as custodians of heritage, play a vital role in educating society and fostering a culture of learning and appreciation for history and art. As we walk out of the museum, we carry with us not just memories of the visit but also deeper insights into our shared human experience.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

IELTS Essay Task 1: Museums

by Dave | Sample Answers | 2 Comments

This is an IELTS writing task 1 sample answer essay on the topic of a bar chart showing museum admissions in London from the real IELTS exam.

Please consider supporting my efforts to creative high quality IELTS materials for students around the world by signing up for my Patreon (and so you won’t miss out on any of my exclusive IELTS Ebooks)!

The bar chart shows the number of visitors to four London museums.

The bar chart compares attendance figures for museums in London over a period from June to December. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that only the British Museum grew in popularity, while the others saw steep or moderate declines. In terms of overall figures, the British Museum was highest and the National Museum lowest throughout.

In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had similar figures with the National Museum the outlier at just 210,000 visitors. Through July, numbers for all museums declined gradually, with the exception of the British Museum which was stable. August saw a shift in the pattern as the History and British Museum soared to 600,000 and 710,000, respectively. The Science Museum was unchanged but National Museum admissions doubled to 380,000.

By September, figures had fallen back to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum dipped to 200,000. At the end of the period, the History Museum continued to fall (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

1. The bar chart compares attendance figures for museums in London over a period from June to December. 2. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that only the British Museum grew in popularity, while the others saw steep or moderate declines. 3. In terms of overall figures, the British Museum was highest and the National Museum lowest throughout.

• Paraphrase what the graph shows.
• Write a clear overview summarising the major trends and differences.
• Add an extra sentence to be sure that you have covered everything.

1. In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had similar figures with the National Museum the outlier at just 210,000 visitors. 2. Through July, numbers for all museums declined gradually, with the exception of the British Museum which was stable. 3. August saw a shift in the pattern as the History and British Museum soared to 600,000 and 710,000, respectively. 4. The Science Museum was unchanged but National Museum admissions doubled to 380,000.

• Begin writing about the differences.
• Compare as much as possible.
• Move on to the next category to describe.
• Try to include all the data you can.

1. By September, figures had fallen back to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum dipped to 200,000. 2. At the end of the period, the History Museum continued to fall (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

• Write about the rest of the information.
• Make sure you have detailed all the information .

What do the words in bold below mean? Take some notes on a piece of paper to aid your memory:

The bar chart compares attendance figures for museums in London over a period from June to December. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that only the British Museum grew in popularity , while the others saw steep or moderate declines. In terms of overall figures, the British Museum was highest and the National Museum lowest throughout .

In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had similar figures with the National Museum the outlier at just 210,000 visitors. Through July, numbers for all museums declined gradually , with the exception of the British Museum which was stable . August saw a shift in the pattern as the History and British Museum soared to 600,000 and 710,000, respectively . The Science Museum was unchanged but National Museum admissions doubled to 380,000.

By September, figures had fallen back to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum dipped to 200,000. At the end of the period , the History Museum continued to fall (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

compares shows differences between

attendance figures number of people going there

period time

looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that overall

grew in popularity more people went there

steep fast, large

moderate a little

in terms of when it comes to

highest biggest

lowest throughout smallest the whole time

similar figures numbers about the same

outlier exception

through to the end of

declined gradually went down slowly

exception different from the norm

stable unchanged

shift change

pattern trend

soared rose a lot

respectively in turn

unchanged stable

doubled increased 2x

fallen back decreased after increasing before

dipped fell

at the end of the period by the end of the time surveyed

continued to fall kept decreasing

Pronunciation

kəmˈpeəz   əˈtɛndəns ˈfɪgəz   ˈpɪərɪəd   ˈlʊkɪŋ frɒm ən ˈəʊvərɔːl pəˈspɛktɪv ,  ɪt ɪz ˈrɛdɪli əˈpærənt ðæt   gruː ɪn ˌpɒpjʊˈlærɪti stiːp   ˈmɒdərɪt   ɪn tɜːmz ɒv   ˈhaɪɪst   ˈləʊɪst θru(ː)ˈaʊt ˈsɪmɪlə ˈfɪgəz   ˈaʊtˌlaɪə   θruː   dɪˈklaɪnd ˈgrædjʊəli ɪkˈsɛpʃən   ˈsteɪbl ʃɪft   ˈpætən   sɔːd   rɪsˈpɛktɪvli ʌnˈʧeɪnʤd   ˈdʌbld   ˈfɔːlən bæk   dɪpt   æt ði ɛnd ɒv ðə ˈpɪərɪəd kənˈtɪnju(ː)d tuː fɔːl  

Vocabulary Practice

Remember and fill in the blanks:

The bar chart c___________s a_______________s for museums in London over a period from June to December. L__________________________________t only the British Museum g____________________y , while the others saw s______p or m___________e declines. I_________f overall figures, the British Museum was h_______t and the National Museum l_________________t .

In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had s_______________s with the National Museum the o__________r at just 210,000 visitors. T_________h July, numbers for all museums d________________y , with the e__________n of the British Museum which was s_______e . August saw a s______t in the p_________n as the History and British Museum s_________d to 600,000 and 710,000, r____________y . The Science Museum was u__________d but National Museum admissions d_______d to 380,000.

By September, figures had f_____________k to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum d_________d to 200,000. A___________________________d , the History Museum c__________________l (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

Listening Practice

Listen to the related topic below and practice with these activities :

Reading Practice

Read more and use these ideas to practice:

https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

Speaking Practice

Practice with the following related questions from the real IELTS speaking exam:

• Should kids be taught art from a young age?
• Is it important for all people to get the opportunity to make art?
• Should art be sold or kept in museums for the public to see?
• Why is art sold for such large sums of money?
• What is the attitude to art in your country?

Writing Practice

Practice with the related graph below related to film production in 5 countries and then check with my sample answer:

IELTS Task 1 Essay: Bar Chart (Education)

Recommended For You

Latest IELTS Writing Task 1 2024 (Graphs, Charts, Maps, Processes)

by Dave | Sample Answers | 147 Comments

These are the most recent/latest IELTS Writing Task 1 Task topics and questions starting in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and continuing into 2024. ...

Recent IELTS Writing Topics and Questions 2024

by Dave | Sample Answers | 342 Comments

Read here all the newest IELTS questions and topics from 2024 and previous years with sample answers/essays. Be sure to check out my ...

Find my Newest IELTS Post Here – Updated Daily!

by Dave | IELTS FAQ | 18 Comments

IELTS Essay Task 1: Exports Table

by Dave | Sample Answers | 6 Comments

This is an IELTS writing task 1 sample answer essay on the topic of an exports table in Hong Kong. Please consider supporting ...

IELTS Essay Task 1: Horse Diagram

by Dave | Sample Answers | 0 Comment

This is an IELTS writing task 1 sample answer essay on the topic of the evolution of the horse and its hoof. Please ...

IELTS Essay Task 1: Bridges

by Dave | Sample Answers | 1 Comment

This is an IELTS writing task 1 sample answer essay on the topic of 3 different types of bridges. A really odd one ...

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

The bar chart compares attendance figures for 4 museums in London over a five-month period from June to December. The overall popularity for all museums declined over this period of time with the notable exception of the British museum in which more people went there. Furthermore, the British Museum was also the most popular apart from June. The only two groups to see no change in attendance were the British  Museum from June to July at approximately 420,000, and the Science Museum from July to August at exactly 400,000. For the other three months, the British Museum experienced a continued decrease from 720,000 in august to 460,000 at the end of the period. The trend for the History Museum was almost identical, but their numbers of visitors were always smaller as the gap widened dramatically: by 10,000 and 20,000 in the first two months, in turn, to less than 100,000 in august and 200,000 in the two final months. The science museum started at the highest point of June with 430,000 admissions, soaring to precisely 500,000 in September before a pullback to 300,000 in December. Finally, the national museum stayed at around 200,000 for the majority of the time described, remaining the least popular museum despite a peak of 380,000 in august.

Nice writing!

Really good comparison of the data and very accurate as well.

Careful with some slightly informal verbs and capitilization – otherwise really strong!

Exclusive Ebooks, PDFs and more from me!

Sign up for patreon.

Don't miss out!

"The highest quality materials anywhere on the internet! Dave improved my writing and vocabulary so much. Really affordable options you don't want to miss out on!"

Minh, Vietnam

Hi, I’m Dave! Welcome to my IELTS exclusive resources! Before you commit I want to explain very clearly why there’s no one better to help you learn about IELTS and improve your English at the same time... Read more

Patreon Exclusive Ebooks Available Now!

• Vishal's account

A Visit to a Museum Essay for Children and Students

Key Points to Remember When Writing an Essay on Visit to a Museum

10 lines on visit to a museum, a paragraph on visit to a museum, short essay on visit to a museum in english, long essay on visit to a museum, interesting facts about museum for children, what will your child learn from the visit to a museum essay.

The  art of storytelling  has taken many forms over the centuries. One such form is  essay writing , a time-honoured tradition that offers a window into the writer’s world, thoughts, and experiences. Specifically, the essay on ‘a visit to a museum’ for kids evokes a sense of wonder and curiosity, making it a favourite topic among many students. This collection of essays in English offers children the opportunity to articulate their experiences and helps improve their linguistic skills, cognitive development , and  emotional intelligence . As we delve into this topic, we will explore the magic of museums through short and long essays, taking our young readers on a delightful journey of discovery and learning.

Writing about personal experiences can be a thrilling adventure. Delving into memories, especially of an enchanting day spent at a museum, can enrich an essay. While the essence of the experience remains deeply personal, certain guidelines can help structure and refine your ‘visiting a museum’ essay. Here are some essential points to remember:

• Personal Touch: Always begin with a personal anecdote or memory. This grabs the reader’s attention and establishes a connection between the writer and the reader.
• Descriptive Language: Museums are places of visual delight. Use vivid adjectives and descriptions to paint a clear picture in the reader’s mind.
• Historical Context: If you encounter an artefact or exhibit that particularly intrigues you, delve a bit into its history. A small historical context can add depth to your essay.
• Interactive Learning: Highlight any interactive experiences you had, be it a hands-on exhibit, a guided tour, or multimedia presentations. These elements can make your essay more engaging.
• Emotional Quotient: Express how certain exhibits made you feel. Whether an artefact made you curious, sad, excited, or amazed, sharing emotions enriches the narrative.
• Sequential Flow: While describing your visit, maintain a logical flow. Begin with your entry into the museum, moving on to the various halls, and conclude with your exit or overall impressions.
• Concluding Thoughts: Always conclude your essay with a reflection on what you learned or how the visit impacted you. This gives your narrative a wholesome end.
• Grammar and Vocabulary: Ensure your essay is free from grammatical errors. A well-structured ‘visiting a museum’ essay can leave a lasting impression on the reader.
• Relevance: Make sure every detail you include is relevant to the theme of your essay. Avoid diverging into unrelated topics or memories.

For our younger learners, especially those in classes 1 & 2, essay writing can be an exciting journey of expression. Crafting an essay of ten lines is a great starting point to capture the essence of an experience. Here’s a succinct essay for classes 1 & 2 about a museum visit:

• Last Sunday, I went to a museum with my family.
• The building was grand, with huge doors and tall windows.
• Inside, there were many rooms filled with old things.
• I saw paintings, statues, and even old coins.
• The biggest attraction was a huge dinosaur skeleton.
• There was a section with colourful butterflies and birds.
• The displays taught me about people who lived a long time ago.
• The museum had a fun play area for kids like me.
• I enjoyed watching a short film about the stars and planets.
• I had a great time and learned many new things at the museum.

If you are looking for a visit to a museum paragraph, then you are at the right place. Here is an example of “A Visit to a Museum” essay in 100 words: 

Museums are magical places that transport us back in time. During my visit to a, I recall stepping into the grand entrance, surrounded by the whispers of countless stories from the past. As I wandered through the various exhibits, each artefact unveiled a tale, from ancient civilizations to glorious moments of human achievement. I was particularly enchanted by the art gallery, where colours danced and emotions came alive on canvas. The interactive section, designed especially for curious minds like mine, was an enthralling experience. With every step, I felt a deeper connection to the past, and as I exited, I left with a promise to myself to return and unravel more mysteries the museum held within its walls.

Museums, often described as windows to the past, have a unique way of weaving history, art, and culture into a tangible experience. On a sunny day last summer, I embarked on such a journey, visiting our city’s renowned museum. As I stood before its majestic facade, a rush of excitement filled me, anticipating the treasures inside.

Walking through the museum’s vast halls, I was transported to various epochs. The ancient civilization wing showcased relics of bygone eras, where intricate pottery and sculptures whispered tales of daily life, ceremonies, and legends. In stark contrast, the contemporary art section was a riot of colours and abstract thought, pushing boundaries and questioning societal norms.

The children’s section was an arena of interactive wonder. Touch, feel, and experiment stations made learning fun and fostered curiosity. I was particularly intrigued by the World War exhibit, where letters, uniforms, and black-and-white photographs told poignant tales of courage, sacrifice, and hope.

Concluding my visit, I sat in the museum’s lush gardens, reflecting on the whirlwind of emotions and knowledge I had acquired. That day, the museum was not just a place of artefacts but a living, breathing entity narrating the saga of human evolution, achievements, and creativity. It served as a gentle reminder of our shared heritage and the timeless nature of human expression.

Museums are bridges that connect us to epochs gone by, allowing us to walk the annals of history, art, and science. These magnificent institutions are places where time stands still, capturing moments and narratives from diverse cultures and eras. For students, especially those in class 3, writing an essay in 250 words or more on this topic can be an enlightening experience, as it brings forth a blend of personal memories interwoven with factual knowledge. Here’s a deeper dive into the world of museums.

What Is a Museum?

At its core, a museum is an institution designed to preserve, interpret, and showcase items of historical, cultural, artistic, or scientific significance. These places offer a tangible connection to the vast tapestry of human evolution and creativity. For a young learner in class 3, a museum serves as a vibrant canvas on which lessons from textbooks come alive, unfolding tales of wonder and intrigue.

A History of Museum

The inception of museums can be traced back to ancient times. Originating from the Greek term ‘Mouseion’, the word denoted a place or temple honouring the Muses, the celebrated goddesses of the arts, science, and literature in Greek mythology. Initially, these establishments served as epicentres of education and intellectual pursuits. The Renaissance period witnessed a pivotal shift as private collections opened their doors to the general public. Over time, museums metamorphosed from elite sanctuaries to inclusive arenas of learning and enjoyment. Modern museums have further broadened their horizons, embracing digital technology and interactive displays to cater to the evolving interests of the public.

Importance of Visiting Museum

A visit to a museum is not just an outing but an enriching journey filled with myriad benefits:

1. Educational Value

Beyond the confines of classrooms, museums offer an immersive learning experience. They complement academic studies, bringing theoretical knowledge to life and making it especially relevant when crafting an essay for class 3.

2. Igniting Curiosity

Museums are treasure troves of mysteries and stories. Their diverse exhibits, from ancient relics to state-of-the-art scientific wonders, inspire questions and deeper exploration.

3. Fostering Cultural Appreciation

Museums are gateways to various civilizations and cultures. They offer insights into diverse ways of life, promoting cultural appreciation and global-mindedness.

4. Personal Development

Museums inspire individuals by delving into tales of human perseverance, innovation, and creativity. They catalyze personal growth, nurturing empathy, introspection, and a broader worldview.

5. Quality Family Time and Recreation

Museums offer a harmonious blend of enlightenment and entertainment. They are ideal for families to bond, share experiences, and create lasting memories while engaging in collective learning.

Last summer, I visited the big National History Museum with my family. I was amazed to see old statues, shiny coins, giant dinosaur bones, and colourful paintings from long ago. Walking there felt like travelling in a time machine. I even saw a mummy, which was a bit spooky but cool! It was super fun, and I learned so much!

For the curious young minds, museums are like giant treasure chests filled with stories and wonders from the past. They are places where history, art, and science come alive, taking us on exciting journeys. Here are some intriguing facts about museums that will surely astonish and delight children:

• Oldest Museum: The world’s oldest museum was built by a Babylonian princess around 530 BCE in what is now modern-day Iraq ( 1 ).
• Huge Collection: The British Museum in London houses over 8 million works dedicated to human history, art, and culture, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the world ( 2 ).
• Louvre’s Popularity: The Louvre in Paris, home to the famous Mona Lisa painting, is the world’s most visited museum, attracting millions of visitors annually ( 3 ).
• Museum of Broken Relationships: There’s a museum in Croatia dedicated entirely to showcasing items from broken relationships. Each item has a unique story behind it ( 4 )!
• Museum Underwater: The Cancún Underwater Museum in Mexico has a collection of underwater sculptures you must dive to view ( 5 ).
• Space Museum: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., houses the world’s largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft ( 6 ).
• Dedicated to Food: Japan has a museum dedicated to instant noodles, celebrating the invention and popularity of this quick meal ( 7 ).
• Living Museums: Some museums, known as open-air or living museums, are outdoors and showcase historical buildings, crafts, and activities that transport visitors to different eras.
• Night at the Museum: Certain museums worldwide host sleepovers where kids can experience the thrill of spending a night surrounded by exhibits ( 8 ).
• Interactive Fun: Modern museums often have displays where children can touch, play, and learn. It’s not always about “Do Not Touch” signs!

Museums are not just places to view historical artefacts or admire beautiful artworks; they are educational powerhouses. When children write about their museum experiences, the learning extends beyond the institution’s walls. So, what exactly will your child gain from composing a ‘Visit to a Museum’ essay?

• Historical and Cultural Appreciation: Writing an essay compels children to reflect on the diverse cultures, epochs, and narratives they witnessed. They’ll cultivate an appreciation for different eras, civilizations, and the broad tapestry of human history.
• Analytical Skills: Describing exhibits, art pieces, or historical items requires observation and analytical skills. Children hone these critical thinking abilities by analyzing what they see and interpreting its significance .
• Vocabulary Expansion: Museums introduce children to various subjects and terminologies, from ancient civilizations to modern art techniques. Writing about these subjects can expand their vocabulary and linguistic prowess.
• Narrative Skills: Documenting a museum visit in essay format helps children structure narratives, craft a beginning, weaving the central content, and conclude their experiences effectively.
• Enhanced Memory: Reflecting upon and writing down experiences can consolidate memories. Recalling specific details about the museum visit can enhance their memory retention.
• Expressive Abilities: Children can articulate feelings by describing emotions evoked by certain exhibits or experiences, deepening their emotional intelligence and expressive capabilities.
• Value of Research: If children are unsure about the details of an exhibit, they might delve into further research, cultivating a habit of seeking knowledge and ensuring accuracy.
• Understanding Perspective: Museums house a myriad of exhibits from various perspectives—sociopolitical, cultural, or individual. Writing about these can introduce children to multiple viewpoints and the importance of context.
• Personal Growth: Reflecting on the journey, the interactions, and the overall day can lead to personal revelations. Whether it’s a newfound passion for ancient history or a deeper understanding of cultural differences, personal growth is a definite takeaway.
• Appreciation for Arts and Sciences: Whether marvelling at a piece of art or understanding the science behind an exhibit, children develop a well-rounded appreciation for the arts and sciences, recognizing their significance in shaping human civilization.

1. Which one is the biggest museum in the world?

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, is often recognized as the largest museum in the world in terms of the total number of items held. It boasts a collection of over 3 million items. However, if we measure by gallery space, the Louvre in Paris, France, is the biggest, covering an area of around 782,910 square feet (72,735 square meters) of exhibition space. The distinction depends on the criteria being considered, whether the size of the physical structure, the number of galleries, or the volume of items in the collection.

2. What is the world’s most famous museum?

The title of the world’s most famous museum is often contested due to various criteria, such as size, collection, or visitor count. However, the Louvre in Paris often tops the list for its size and iconic collection, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Other contenders for this title include the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, depending on the context of ‘famous.’

3. What are the most visited museums in the world?

Some of the most visited museums that experience heavy footfall year-round are the Louvre Museum in Paris, the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C, the National Museum of China in Beijing, the British Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the National Gallery in London.

Museums are a bridge connecting us to the vast expanse of human history and creativity. Through a visit, one embarks on a journey of discovery, gaining insights into cultures, epochs, and narratives. Writing about these experiences, especially for young minds, not only sharpens their expressive skills but also instils a lasting appreciation for our collective heritage. In essence, museums are treasure troves, and essays about them unlock the wealth of knowledge they hold.

References/Resources:

1. The world’s oldest museums; The European Museums Network; https://museums.eu/highlight/details/105317/the-worlds-oldest-museums

2. About Us; The British Museum; https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us

3. The most visited museums in the world; The European Museums Network; https://museums.eu/highlight/details/105664/the-most-visited-museums-in-the-world?gh_jid=5626008

4. Museum of Broken Relationships; York Castle Museum; https://www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk/exhibition/museum-of-broken-relationships/

5. MUSA; https://musamexico.org/

6. About the Collection; National Air and Space Museum; https://airandspace.si.edu/collections/about-collection

7. About; Cup Noodles Museum; https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/yokohama/about/

8. Sleepovers; The British Museum; https://www.britishmuseum.org/membership/sleepovers

Old Age Home Essay for Kids Essay On Journey By Bus Essay on Visit To a Historical Place Essay on Railway Station for Students and Children

• RELATED ARTICLES
• MORE FROM AUTHOR

Black And White Animals With Their Names and Pictures

15 Best Graphic Novels For Kids To Read

Essay On Homework - 10 Lines, Short and Long Essay

20 Beautiful Fall Poems For Kids

The Story of Elves and the Shoemaker for Kids

10 Beautiful Easter Stories for Kids

Popular on parenting.

245 Rare Boy & Girl Names with Meanings

Top 22 Short Moral Stories For Kids

170 Boy & Girl Names That Mean 'Gift from God'

800+ Unique & Cute Nicknames for Boys & Girls

Latest posts.

Deadpool Coloring Pages - Free Printable Pages For Kids

Yoshi Coloring Pages - Free Printable Pages For Kids

Tractor Coloring Pages - Free Printable Pages For Kids

Avengers Coloring Pages - Free Printable Pages For Kids

• Essay On A Visit To A Museum

Essay on a Visit to a Museum

500+ words essay on ‘a visit to a museum’.

Museums are custodians of the past. These non-profit institutions collect, conserve, research, communicate and exhibit relics of the past. These tangible and intangible objects in the museums offer a fascinating insight into the heritage of humanity, our environment and the world. These institutions, which are in the service of society, are a very important source of knowledge and education.

Last year, my parents and I went on a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It was a very thrilling experience for me to visit such an extraordinary place. I learnt a lot about the history of our country and the environment we live in. The museum had a lot of exhibits on different cultures, animals, birds and even eminent personalities.

My Experience with a Visit to a Museum

The museum, which is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was first opened in 1910. The museum, which is spread over 1.5 million square feet, houses over 145 million specimens. The exhibits include specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and artefacts of human culture from across the world. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is the largest natural history collection in the world.

There are several different exhibitions inside the museum. They include the:

• Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals: The Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals comes under the National Gem and Mineral Collection. The Hall has over 15,000 gems, 350,000 minerals, 45,000 known meteorite samples and 300,000 rock and ore specimen samples. The Hall is also home to the famous Hope Diamond and the Star of Asia Sapphire.
• Hall of Human Origins: This Hall is dedicated to the understanding and discovery of the origins of humans. The exhibit includes over 76 human skulls, an interactive family tree that shows over 6 million years of evolution and more.
• Hall of Paleobiology/Dinosaurs: This exhibit in the Hall of Dinosaurs includes fossilized skeletons and cast models of several species of dinosaurs. I particularly enjoyed watching the T-Rex exhibit and the Triceratops exhibit in virtual motion.
• Hall of Mammals: The Smithsonian’s Hall of Mammals exhibits one of the largest mammal collections in the world. The specimens are displayed as works of modern art in their environment. I enjoyed learning how mammals have evolved and adapted over the years.
• Insect Zoo: The insect zoo is a fascinating place to visit. The hall has been designed to show insects in their natural habitat. It helps you learn about how each insect has adapted themselves to their environment.
• Ocean Hall: The Ocean Hall was one of my favourite exhibits in the museum. The museum has over over 80 million specimens in its collection. It also has a 1,500-US-gallon (5,700 l) aquarium. My favourite exhibit in this hall was the female giant squid displayed in the centre of the hall.
• African Voices: This exhibit is dedicated to the people, the culture, the diversity and the natural environment of Africa.
• Butterflies + Plants: Partners In Evolution: The Butterflies and Plants hall was another wonderful exhibit in the museum. I especially enjoyed spending time in the live butterfly pavilion.
• Hall of Bones: The Hall of Bones is a display of a variety of vertebrate skeletons.

The museum also has an activity room for families and students on the first floor and a bird exhibit on the lower level.

Conclusion of Essay on a Visit to a Museum

I loved visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. It was a treasure trove of information and a wonderful experience for me and my family. I enjoyed discovering and learning more about our world and the environment. I look forward to going to more museums and learning more new things. I feel that a visit to a museum is an enjoyable and enriching experience for everyone.

We hope you found this essay on a visit to a museum useful. Check BYJU’S for more CBSE Essays on a variety of topics.

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

How to Write an Essay about a Museum

At school, college, or university, students are often asked to write essays on a variety of topics. And if you have received a task to write an essay about a museum, you need to understand how to prepare this work.

How to write an essay about museum experience? Before you get the answer to this question, you need to figure out what specific museum you will be writing about. It can be an institution that is in your city or outside of it (even in another country). To know a little about the museum, you do not have to visit it – it is enough to get acquainted with it on the Internet by reading a short description on the official website of the museum.

Nowadays, almost every museum has a specialization. When writing an essay, this fact can be useful, because you will be able to choose the direction of the museum that is most relevant to you. 

Museums can be:

• Scientific and educational. They are intended for the public (most of them).
• Academic, intended for professional communities. They are created in academies and scientific-research institutes and have a highly specialized character.
• Educational – intended for pupils and students. Such museums are often created on the territory of educational institutions for quick access to the exhibits needed for studies.

Museums also differ in their profiles, which are determined by the subject of the exhibits presented for study. Here’s a sample list of what the profiles are:

• historical; 
• contemporary or antique art; 
• memorial; 
• literary; 
• natural; 
• industrial.

In addition, each profile may have certain subtypes. For example, folk art museums and museums of fine arts belong to the category of art museums.

Once you have chosen a profile, you can begin to prepare. One of the main stages of making a plan for future work is to obtain information about the chosen museum. If there is such a possibility, it’s absolutely worth visiting the institution you have chosen. Then, you can write an essay about the museum experience you have received.

Essay visit to a museum

Such an essay will be based on personal experience, which all readers will appreciate. It should be prepared carefully, so before you go to the museum, prepare a notebook and a phone with a camera. The more information you write down the moment you are in the museum, the more detailed and well-reasoned your essay will be.

Here is a typical structure for an essay about museum visit:

• The essay begins with an introduction that highlights the general approach to the topic, in our case, it would be the museum you chose . The introduction should reflect the main idea of the text. The first sentences should be engaging and tell the content of the essay. For example: “During my visit to the museum, I came to the conclusion that it is useful for everyone to visit this institution and I can confirm it with many arguments.”
• The main part of the essay should be structured in such a way as to make the reader believe what is written in the introduction . For the information to be convincing, the essay writer must use strong arguments. In the main part, you must first present the main ideas and facts that will prove the explanation of each of them. In our case – it can be examples of exhibits and their brief description, a story about the tour, etc.
• The museum essay should end with a conclusion . You should summarize all the information written above, confirm the thesis statement, and give your final opinion. The conclusion should consist of several sentences and be clear to the reader.

Of course, the information and structure of the essay may vary depending on the type of museum you decide to visit. But the algorithm suggested above will help you structure your thoughts and express them correctly.

Essay on visit to a science museum

If you decide to write my essay about museums, choose a direction that you will be interested in. For example, it can be a science museum that you have already visited or are planning to visit.

In such an essay, it is very important to convey the benefits that science brings to humanity and how a museum helps in this. For example, you can mention many visitors, which shows the popularity of science among the population. It is also worth referring in an essay on science museums to the accessibility of knowledge concentrated in a small area, the immersion in a special atmosphere, and the feelings that you personally experienced when you were in a particular gallery. 

In such museums, you can find a lot of information about scientists of our time and historical personalities directly related to science. There are also so-called game galleries, where you can immerse yourself in scientific research playfully.

All of this can be described in the main body of the narrative. And the conclusion is an appeal to all people: engaging in science drives humanity to even greater success, and this is especially evident in places where the concentration of science is particularly high. That is why it is worth visiting this museum and experiencing its beauty for yourself.

Essay on visit to a railroad and transportation museum

If you love everything related to transportation, you can write an essay about a visit to a railroad museum. One of the places to write an essay about is the El Paso Rails Museum, which features a restored 1857 El Paso and Southwestern Railroad locomotive No. 1, a rare example of a pre-Civil War steam engine. In addition to this outstanding exhibit, the museum offers much interesting information about the products of this branch of engineering.

As an introduction, you can tell why you are interested in railroad and transportation museums and why you decided to visit one of them. The main body of the essay will, of course, describe the exhibits you saw on your visit and the impression they made on you.

The purpose of essays about visiting museums is to show the reader how exciting and unforgettable a simple trip to a museum can be. And the conclusion of the written will be a summary of all the facts that can make you visit that museum again.

As already mentioned, writing an essay based on your own experience is much easier and more interesting than being based only on theoretical knowledge. Therefore, do not neglect to visit the museum to prepare your own essay.

THE 10 BEST Moscow Science Museums

Science museums in moscow.

• Specialty Museums
• Art Galleries
• Art Museums
• History Museums
• Children's Museums
• Science Museums
• Military Museums
• Natural History Museums
• Observatories & Planetariums
• 5.0 of 5 bubbles
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• District North-Eastern (SVAO)
• Ostankinskiy
• District Central (TsAO)
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Good for Kids
• Budget-friendly
• Good for Big Groups
• Good for Couples
• Hidden Gems
• Adventurous
• Honeymoon spot
• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, number of page views, and user location.

1. The Museum of Cosmonautics

2. State Darwin Museum

3. Experimentanium Museum of Entertaining Sciences

4. Orlov Paleontological Museum

5. Pavilion 34 Kosmos

6. Robot Station

7. Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

8. Vernadsky State Geological Museum of Russian Academy of Sciences

9. Polytechnical Museum

10. Astronautics and Aviation Center

11. The Earth Science Museum

12. Central House-Museum of Aviation and Space

13. Interactive Museum Complex Buran

14. Interactive Project Solyaris

15. Museum of Russian Electricity

16. Smart City

17. Atom Pavilion

18. Coral Reef Center

19. Cryptography Museum

20. Museum of the Bible

21. Timiryazev's Memorial Museum-Apartment

22. V. Williams` Museum of Soil and Agronomy

23. bronebot, 24. lesnaya skazka, 25. museum of optical illusions, 26. kvadrats multimedia gallery, what travelers are saying.

• Science Museum
• National Science and Media Museum
• Science and Industry Museum
• National Railway Museum
• Science and Innovation Park

Photograph: Moscow Colloquium on the EEG of Higher Nervous Activity (1958)

Unknown photographer. Depicts the participants of the Moscow Colloquium on the EEG of Higher Nervous Activity, with names listed on verso. Photograph taken in the courtyard of the House of Science, Moscow.

Browse this archive

• BURD/A/01/GP1 Letter from Geoffrey Parr, 6 July 1941
• BURD/A/01/GP2 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, August 1941
• BURD/A/01/GP3 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, August 1941
• BURD/A/01/GP4 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, November 1942
• BURD/A/01/GP5 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr
• BURD/A/01/GP6 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to Frederick Lucien Golla, 12 April 1943
• BURD/A/01/GP7 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 18 October 1945
• BURD/A/01/GP8 Letter from Geoffrey Parr, February 1946
• BURD/A/01/GP9 Letter from William Grey Walter to Electronic Engineering
• BURD/A/02/01 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 25 July 1939
• BURD/A/02/02 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, 26 July 1939
• BURD/A/02/03 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 27 July 1939
• BURD/A/02/04 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, 28 July 1939
• BURD/A/02/05 Letter from William Grey Walter to S.R. Snodgrass, 31 July 1939
• BURD/A/02/06 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 31 July 1939
• BURD/A/02/07 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, 8 August 1939
• BURD/A/02/08 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 9 August 1939
• BURD/A/02/09 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 10 August 1939
• BURD/A/02/10 Letter from William Grey Walter to Harvey Flack, 21 August 1939
• BURD/A/02/11 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 22 September 1939
• BURD/A/02/12 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 18 October 1939
• BURD/A/02/13 Letter from Edison Swan Technical Services Dept to William Grey Walter, 19 December 1939
• BURD/A/02/14 Letter from Geoffrey Parr to William Grey Walter, 22 June 1940
• BURD/A/02/15 Letter from William Grey Walter to Geoffrey Parr, 10 October 1940
• BURD/A/02/16 Letter from J.W. Ridgeway to William Grey Walter, 8 July 1941
• BURD/A/02/17 Letter from K.D.F. Townend to William Grey Walter, 22 July 1941
• BURD/A/02/18 Letter from K.D.F. Townend to William Grey Walter, 10 March 1942
• BURD/A/02/19 Letter from J.W. Ridgeway to William Grey Walter, 23 March 1942
• BURD/A/02/20 Letter from William Grey Walter to J.W. Ridgeway, 27 March 1942
• BURD/A/02/21 Letter from J.W. Ridgeway to William Grey Walter, 8 January 1943
• BURD/A/02/22 Letter from William Grey Walter to K.D.F. Townend, 1 April 1943
• BURD/A/02/23 Letter from William Grey Walter to K.D.F. Townend, 20 April 1943
• BURD/A/02/24 Letter from K.D.F. Townend to William Grey Walter, 3 May 1943
• BURD/A/2/25 Letter from J.W. Ridgeway to William Grey Walter, 23 July 1943
• BURD/A/02/26 Letter from J.W. Ridgeway to William Grey Walter, 6 August 1943
• BURD/A/02/27 Letter from William Grey Walter to J.W Ridgeway, 11 August 1943
• BURD/A/02/28 Letter from C.C. McCallum to Burden Neurological Institute, 3 September 1943
• BURD/A/02/29 Letter from William Grey Walter to C.C. McCallum, 9 September 1943
• BURD/A/02/30 Letter from William Grey Walter to K.D.F. Townend, 13 March 1944
• BURD/A/02/31 Letter from S. Bulmer to William Grey Walter, 3 December 1945
• BURD/A/02/32 Letter from William Grey Walter to S. Bulmer, 11 December 1945
• BURD/A/02/33 Letter from Norman Ellis to William Grey Walter, 18 February 1946
• BURD/A/02/34 Letter from Norman Ellis to William Grey Walter, 1 March 1946
• BURD/A/02/35 Letter from S. Bulmer to William Grey Walter, 21 March 1946
• BURD/A/02/36 Letter from William Grey Walter to Norman Ellis, 6 April 1946
• BURD/A/02/37 Letter from William Grey Walter to S. Bulmer, 12 June 1946
• BURD/A/02/38 Letter from S. Bulmer to William Grey Walter, 1 July 1946
• BURD/A/2/39 Letter from R. Sessions Hodge to Edison Swan, 20 June 1946
• BURD/A/02/40 Letter from William Grey Walter to S.N. Pocock, 21 August 1946
• BURD/A/02/41 Letter from William Grey Walter to S. Bulmer, 26 August 1946
• BURD/A/02/42 List of EEG orders and enquiries
• BURD/A/02/43 Letter from S. Bulmer to William Grey Walter, 28 April 1947
• BURD/A/02/44 Letter from William Grey Walter to S. Bulmer, 29 April 1947
• BURD/A/02/45 Letter from S.N. Pocock to William Grey Walter, 14 May 1947
• BURD/A/02/46 Letter from S.N. Pocock to William Grey Walter, 4 July 1947
• BURD/A/02/47 Letter from J.W. Ridgeway to William Grey Walter, 10 March 1948
• BURD/A/02/48 Letter from William Grey Walter, 27 April 1948
• BURD/A/02/49 Letter from S.N. Pocock to William Grey Walter, 4 May 1948
• BURD/A/03/01 Note by Geoffrey Parr
• BURD/A/03/02 Letter from C. Carrdus to William Grey Walter, 27 September 1943
• BURD/A/03/03 Letter from William Grey Walter to C. Carrdus, 30 September 1943
• BURD/A/03/04 List of 21 overseas members of the EEG Society
• BURD/A/03/05 Letter from K. James to William Grey Walter, 11 October 1946
• BURD/A/03/06 Letter from William Grey Walter to F.C. James, 16 October 1946
• BURD/A/03/07 Instruction manual for BNI amplifier
• BURD/A/04/01 Charles Clayton Breakell, EEG Course Registration Form
• BURD/A/04/02 Cyril Stansfeld Parker, EEG Course Registration Form
• BURD/A/04/03 Letter from Denis White to William Grey Walter, with EEG Course Registration Form and exam responses
• BURD/A/04/04 Marjorie Jean White, EEG Registration Form with test papers and responses
• BURD/A/05/01 Letter from E.M. Stewart Gibb to William Grey Walter, 16 November 1943
• BURD/A/05/02 Letter from E.M. Stewart Gibb to William Grey Walter, 17 November 1943
• BURD/A/05/03 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.M. Stewart Gibb, 24 November 1943
• BURD/A/05/04 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.M. Stewart Gibb, 14 February 1944
• BURD/A/06/001 Photograph: William Grey Walter and the EEG (1939)
• BURD/A/06/002 Photograph: 3 channel EEG oscillograph (1939)
• BURD/A/06/003 Invitation to the opening of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/004 Photograph: William Grey Walter and Vivian Dovey (c 1943)
• BURD/A/06/005 Photograph: William Grey Walter and a 16 channel EEG (1964)
• BURD/A/06/006 Photograph: William Grey Walter and Vivian Walter (1953)
• BURD/A/06/007 Photograph: Janet Shipton and a 5 channel EEG (1952)
• BURD/A/06/008 Photograph: Stroboscopic picture of a male subject (1958)
• BURD/A/06/009 Photograph: William Grey Walter with robotic tortoise (1953)
• BURD/A/06/010 Photograph: Janet Shipton with 6 channel EEG (1955)
• BURD/A/06/011 Photograph: Janet Shipton with EEG and stroboscope (1955)
• BURD/A/06/012 Photograph: William Grey Walter and Vivian Walter with toposcope (1956)
• BURD/A/06/013 Photograph: Moscow Colloquium on the EEG of Higher Nervous Activity (1958)
• BURD/A/06/014 Photograph: William Grey Walter and Herbert Pask (1939)
• BURD/A/06/015 Photograph: I.R.M.A. (1952)
• BURD/A/06/016 Photographs: Toposcope and EEG (1956)
• BURD/A/06/017 Photograph: Rosa Gladys Burden (1939)
• BURD/A/06/018 Photograph: Robot Tortoise (1954)
• BURD/A/06/019 Photograph: Burden Neurological Institute (1939)
• BURD/A/06/020 Photograph: Staff of the Burden Neurological Institute (1939)
• BURD/A/06/021 Photocopy of the Emergency Medical Service neurosurgical register
• BURD/A/06/022 Photograph: Burden staff party (1957)
• BURD/A/06/023 Photograph: William Grey Walter and Ray Cooper (1964)
• BURD/A/06/024 Photograph: Multifocal leucotomy patient (1959)
• BURD/A/06/025 Photograph: Delegates at the Manfred Sakel Institute (1972)
• BURD/A/06/026 Photograph: Staff of the Burden Neurological Institute (1956)
• BURD/A/06/027 Photograph: Sydney meeting on psychosurgery (1973)
• BURD/A/06/028 Photograph: William Grey Walter's retirement party (1975)
• BURD/A/06/029 Photograph: Walter's tortoise at the Festival of Britain (1951)
• BURD/A/06/030 Photograph: Patient with intracerebral electrodes (1961)
• BURD/A/06/031 William Grey Walter, 'Traps, Tricks and Triumphs in EEG, 1936-66' (1966)
• BURD/A/06/032 William Grey Walter, 'Accomplishments of an Artefact' (1960)
• BURD/A/06/033 William Grey Walter, 'Frontal Lobe Function in Sensory Processing in Man' (1964)
• BURD/A/06/034 William Grey Walter, Report for the Rockefeller Foundation (1938)
• BURD/A/06/035 William Grey Walter and Edison Swan, 'The Ediswan Electroencephalograph' (1939)
• BURD/A/06/036 William Grey Walter, 'Intracerebral Bioelectric and Metabolic Signs of Mental Activity' (1966)
• BURD/A/06/037 William Grey Walter, 'The Effect of Fatigue on End Plate Delay' (1932)
• BURD/A/06/038 William Grey Walter, 'The Genesis of Frenchay' (1970)
• BURD/A/06/039 William Grey Walter, 'The Application of Evoked Response and Slow Potential Studies to Clinical Problems' (1976)
• BURD/A/06/040 Memorandum regarding cost of 4-channel electroencephalograph
• BURD/A/06/041 Notes on contingent negative variation research carried out at Brentry Hospital
• BURD/A/06/042 Chronological list of notable achievements by the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/043 Legal deed for Stoke Park Manor
• BURD/A/06/044 Legal deed on the appointment of the Warden of the NIPRCC
• BURD/A/06/045 NIPRCC minutes concerning the purchase of land
• BURD/A/06/046 NIPRCC minutes, 9 March 1933
• BURD/A/06/047 NIPRCC Warden's Report, 1935
• BURD/A/06/048 Memorandum on the provision of pensions
• BURD/A/06/049 NIPRCC memorandum on the construction of a Medical Research Building
• BURD/A/06/050 NIPRCC minutes, 5 October 1936
• BURD/A/06/051a NIPRCC Warden's Report, 1937
• BURD/A/06/051b NIPRCC Minutes, 8 September 1938
• BURD/A/06/052a NIPRCC Warden's Report, 1936
• BURD/A/06/052b Note from NIPRCC Warden's Report on the appointment of F.L. Golla
• BURD/A/06/053 NIPRCC minutes, 14 November 1939
• BURD/A/06/054 Letter from Albert Mitchell to Bristol University Medical Faculty, 24 April 1938
• BURD/A/06/055 Letter from Albert Mitchell to Dr Hugh H. Carleton, 30 June 1938
• BURD/A/06/056 Letter from Hugh H. Carleton to Albert Mitchell, 2 July 1938
• BURD/A/06/057 Letter from Thomas Loveday to Rosa Gladys Burden, 6 July 1938
• BURD/A/06/058 Letter from Albert Mitchell to Thomas Loveday, 7 July 1938
• BURD/A/06/059 Letter from Rosa Gladys Burden to Thomas Loveday, 7 July 1938
• BURD/A/06/060 Legal deed constituting the Committee of the Burden Neurological Clinic
• BURD/A/06/061 Legal deed constituting the Committee of the Burden Neurological Clinic
• BURD/A/06/062 Legal deed regarding services between the NIPRCC and Burden Neurological Clinic
• BURD/A/06/063 Instrument of Demise between NIPRCC and Burden Neurological Clinic
• BURD/A/06/064 Instrument of Demise between NIPRCC and Burden Neurological Clinic
• BURD/A/06/065 Legal deed of guarantee and covenant between Rosa Burden and the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/066 Warden's report to the NIPRCC, 1939
• BURD/A/06/067 Instructions to counsel for the NIPRCC
• BURD/A/06/068 Will and codicils of Rosa Gladys Burden
• BURD/A/06/069 Minutes of NIPRCC meeting, 30 August 1940
• BURD/A/06/070 Legal deed on pension agreement between Burden Neurological Institute and Dr E.F. Hutton
• BURD/A/06/071 Legal deed on constitution of the Committee of Management of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/072 Legal deed on constitution of the Committee of Management of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/073 Legal deed on constitution of the Committee of Management of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/074 Legal deed of sale of Burden Neurological Institute land to the Ministry of Health
• BURD/A/06/075 Legal deed on the establishment of the Guinness-Burden Research Unit
• BURD/A/06/076 Letter from Hugh H. Carleton to Arthur Mitchell, 2 May 1938
• BURD/A/06/077 Letter from Arthur Mitchell to Hugh H. Carleton
• BURD/A/06/078 Correspondence between Arthur Mitchell to Hugh H. Carleton, 1938
• BURD/A/06/079 Description of Rosa Burden's work at the Stoke Park Colony
• BURD/A/06/080 Minute on the appointment of the Committee of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/081 Proceedings for the inauguration of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/082 Description of the work of the NIPRCC and foundation of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/083 Staff and equipment list, 1950
• BURD/A/06/084 Staff and equipment list, 1954
• BURD/A/06/085 Letter from William Grey Walter to Surgeon Lt. Commander Mallinson, 7 December 1942
• BURD/A/06/086 Memorandum on payment of technical workers at the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/087 Recommendation for F.L. Golla, 1923
• BURD/A/06/088 Report on the temporary housing of Clifton Downs Clinic at the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/A/06/089 Letter from Geoffrey Jefferson to Frederick Lucien Golla, 3 July 1946
• BURD/A/06/090 Letter from Alan Elphick to Dr Mather, 11 November 1980
• BURD/A/06/091 Letter from F.J.C. Herrald to William Grey Walter, 28 November 1940
• BURD/A/06/092 Progress Report to the Medical Research Council, 1940-1941
• BURD/A/06/093a Letter from Albert M. Grass to William Grey Walter, 21 January 1939
• BURD/A/06/093b Letter from Albert M. Grass to William Grey Walter, 20 February 1939
• BURD/A/06/093c Letter from Albert M. Grass to William Grey Walter, 16 August 1939
• BURD/A/06/094 Letter from William Grey Walter to Albert M. Grass, 28 August 1939
• BURD/A/06/095 Letter from Clementine S. Churchill to William Grey Walter, 23 October 1945
• BURD/A/06/096 Letter from William Grey Walter to Clementine S. Churchill, 24 October 1945
• BURD/A/06/097 Correspondence between William Grey Walter to Mabel Johnson, 1945
• BURD/A/06/098 Correspondence between Professor S. Sarkisov to William Grey Walter, April 1946
• BURD/A/06/099 Correspondence between Mabel Johnson and William Grey Walter, May 1947
• BURD/A/06/100 Letter from William Grey Walter to Mullard Wireless Service Company, 22 February 1945
• BURD/A/06/101 Letters from Denis Hill to William Grey Walter, June 1943
• BURD/A/06/102 Letter from William Grey Walter to Denis Hill, 2 July 1943
• BURD/A/06/103 Letters from Denis Hill to William Grey Walter, August - November 1943
• BURD/A/06/104 Correspondence between Denis Hill and William Grey Walter, December 1943 - January 1944
• BURD/A/06/105 Letter from Denis Hill to William Grey Walter, 8 July 1944
• BURD/A/06/106 Letters from Denis Hill to William Grey Walter, May - July 1945
• BURD/A/06/107 Letter from William Grey Walter to Denis Hill, 12 October 1945
• BURD/A/06/108 Evening Standard, "Truth Machine", 10 April 1947
• BURD/A/06/109 Bristol Evening Post, "Aid from Rockefeller Foundation: £12,500 Bristol Research Grant", 23 September 1947
• BURD/A/06/110 Frank George, "Robots on the March", 1956
• BURD/A/06/111 "Gone Begging", n.d.
• BURD/A/06/112 New York Times, "Brain Waves Get a New Yardstick", 11 June 1957
• BURD/A/06/113 "Electronic Patterns of the Brain" / "The Love Machine Tests Compatibility", c 1958
• BURD/A/06/114 Panorama, "¿Muere El Psicoanalysis?", 13 August 1968
• BURD/A/06/115 Sunday Mirror, "What a Sexy Brainwave", 12 December 1971
• BURD/A/06/116 Nations Business, "Careers Could Ride on Brain Waves", June 1972
• BURD/A/06/117 The Gazette, "Photo Review: Burden Neurological Institute", 28 October 1972
• BURD/A/06/118 Evening Post, "Offenders Could Face Brain Wave Tests", 25 July 1973
• BURD/A/06/119 Western Daily Press, "The "Guinea Pig" Girl", 25 July 1973
• BURD/A/06/119a Evening Post, "Top Brains in Talks - On Brain Medicine", 13 August 1973
• BURD/A/06/120 Daily Telegraph, "I Nod Off Watching Radar", 1977
• BURD/A/06/121 Evening Standard, "Wired Up to Break the Boredom Barrier", 20 January 1977
• BURD/A/06/122 Slough Evening Mail, "It's All So Boring... And It Could Save Lives", 3 February 1977
• BURD/A/06/123 Panorama, "Proefkonijn", 1977
• BURD/A/06/124 Photograph: F. L. Golla's 80th Birthday
• BURD/A/07/01 William Grey Walter, 'The Electro-Encephalogram in Cases of Cerebral Tumour', 1937
• BURD/A/07/02 William Grey Walter, 'Electro-Encephalography in the Diagnosis of Cerebral Tumour and Abscess', 1940
• BURD/A/07/03 Vivian J. Dovey and William Grey Walter, 'Location of Cerebral Abscess under Tantalum Plate', 1945
• BURD/A/07/04 William Grey Walter and A.E. Ritchie, 'Electronic Stimulators for Medical and Physiological Purposes', 1945
• BURD/A/07/05 William Grey Walter and Alan A. Brooks, 'A Portable Two Channel Amplifier and Ink Recorder', 1947
• BURD/A/08/W01 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 20 January 1943
• BURD/A/08/W02 Letter from John Walton to William Grey Walter, 25 January 1943
• BURD/A/08/W03 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 2 February 1943
• BURD/A/08/W04 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 3 February 1943
• BURD/A/08/W05 Letter from John Walton to William Grey Walter, 7 February 1943
• BURD/A/08/W06 Letter from John Walton to William Grey Walter, 11 February 1943
• BURD/A/08/W07 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 16 February 1943
• BURD/A/08/W08 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 20 February 1943
• BURD/A/08/W09 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 19 March 1943
• BURD/A/08/W10 Letter from John Walton to William Grey Walter, 23 March 1943
• BURD/A/08/W11 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 1 April 1943
• BURD/A/08/W12 Letter from John Walton to William Grey Walter, 18 April 1943
• BURD/A/08/W13 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 29 April 1943
• BURD/A/08/W14 Letter from William Grey Walter to John Walton, 21 June 1943
• BURD/A/09/01 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 28 June 1939
• BURD/A/09/02 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 11 June 1942
• BURD/A/09/03 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 15 June 1942
• BURD/A/09/04 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 19 June 1942
• BURD/A/09/05 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 8 October 1942
• BURD/A/09/06 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 11 February 1943
• BURD/A/09/07 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 12 February 1943
• BURD/A/09/08 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 16 February 1943
• BURD/A/09/09 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 25 February 1943
• BURD/A/09/10 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 26 March 1943
• BURD/A/09/11 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 2 April 1943
• BURD/A/09/12 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 6 April 1943
• BURD/A/09/13 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 21 May 1943
• BURD/A/09/14 Letter from F.L. Golla to E.D. Adrian, 24 May 1943
• BURD/A/09/15 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 25 May 1943
• BURD/A/09/16 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 11 August 1943
• BURD/A/09/17 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 20 August 1943
• BURD/A/09/18 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 25 August 1943
• BURD/A/09/19 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 2 September 1943
• BURD/A/09/20 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 9 September 1943
• BURD/A/09/21 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 1 December 1943
• BURD/A/09/22 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 5 September 1945
• BURD/A/09/23 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 29 October 1945
• BURD/A/09/24 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 26 November 1945
• BURD/A/09/25 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 14 December 1945
• BURD/A/09/26 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 27 April 1946
• BURD/A/09/27 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 10 May 1946
• BURD/A/09/28 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 20 July 1946
• BURD/A/09/29 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 26 July 1946
• BURD/A/09/30 Letter from E.D. Adrian to William Grey Walter, 8 June 1947
• BURD/A/09/31 Letter from William Grey Walter to E.D. Adrian, 12 June 1947
• BURD/A/10/MME01 Brief specification of apparatus MME 7
• BURD/A/10/MME02 Letter from C. Horne to F.L. Golla, 12 June 1941
• BURD/A/10/MME03 Letter from F.L. Golla to C. Horne, 17 June 1941
• BURD/A/10/MME04 Letter from C. Horne to F.L. Golla, 20 June 1941
• BURD/A/10/MME05 Note by William Grey Walter, 24 June 1941
• BURD/A/10/MME06 Letter from C. Horne to F.L. Golla, 30 June 1941
• BURD/A/10/MME07 Letter from C. Horne to William Grey Walter, 10 September 1942
• BURD/A/10/MME08 Photograph: Marconi ink recorder
• BURD/A/10/MME09 Photograph: Marconi ticker tape recorder
• BURD/A/10/MME10 Photograph: Marconi high speed recorder
• BURD/A/10/MME11 Photograph: Marconi double pen recorder
• BURD/A/10/MME12 Blueprint: E.E.G. circuit, power unit and two channel amplifier
• BURD/A/10/MME13 Blueprint: Electrode Selector Wiring
• BURD/A/11/MB01 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 7 January 1944
• BURD/A/11/MB02 Letter from William Grey Walter to Molly Brazier, 16 February 1944
• BURD/A/11/MB03 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 4 October 1945
• BURD/A/11/MB04 Letter from William Grey Walter to Molly Brazier, 18 October 1945
• BURD/A/11/MB05 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 9 December 1945
• BURD/A/11/MB06 Letter from William Grey Walter to Molly Brazier, 19 December 1945
• BURD/A/11/MB07 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 4 June 1946
• BURD/A/11/MB08 Letter from William Grey Walter to Molly Brazier, 13 June 1946
• BURD/A/11/MB09 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 4 November 1946
• BURD/A/11/MB10 Letter from William Grey Walter to Molly Brazier, 12 November 1946
• BURD/A/11/MB11 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 16 June 1947
• BURD/A/11/MB12 Letter from Molly Brazier to William Grey Walter, 9 January 1948
• BURD/A/11/MB13 Letter from William Grey Walter to Molly Brazier, 13 January 1948
• BURD/A/12/GD01 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 8 August 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD02 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 11 August 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD03 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 26 August 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD04 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 9 September 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD05 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 16 September 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD06 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 24 September 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD07 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 30 December 1943
• BURD/A/12/GD08 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 15 February 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD09 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 22 February 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD10 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 26 February 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD11 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 1 March 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD12 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 17 July 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD13 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 19 July 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD14 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 1 August 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD15 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 12 August 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD16 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 7 September 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD17 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 19 September 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD18 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 24 September 1944
• BURD/A/12/GD19 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 6 March 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD20 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 16 March 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD21 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 12 April 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD22 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 17 May 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD23 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 1 August 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD24 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 7 September 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD25 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 1 October 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD26 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 29 October 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD27 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 12 November 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD28 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 14 November 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD29 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 19 November 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD30 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 20 November 1945
• BURD/A/12/GD31 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 8 March 1946
• BURD/A/12/GD32 Letter from George Dawson to William Grey Walter, 19 September 1947
• BURD/A/12/GD33 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 24 September 1947
• BURD/A/12/GD34 Letter from William Grey Walter to George Dawson, 16 October 1947
• BURD/A/13/WC01 Letter from William Cobb to William Grey Walter, 19 July 1944
• BURD/A/13/WC02 Letter from William Grey Walter to William Cobb, 26 July 1944
• BURD/A/13/WC03 Letter from William Cobb to William Grey Walter, 3 August 1944
• BURD/A/13/WC04 Letter from William Grey Walter to William Cobb, 23 November 1945
• BURD/A/13/WC05 Letter from William Grey Walter to William Cobb, 24 September 1946
• BURD/A/14/RS01 Letter from Robert Schwab to William Grey Walter, 18 October 1947
• BURD/A/14/RS02 Letter from Robert Schwab to William Grey Walter, 6 February 1948
• BURD/A/14/RS03 Letter from Robert Schwab to William Grey Walter, 5 March 1948
• BURD/A/15/RB01 Letter from Reginald Bickford to William Grey Walter, 23 July 1944
• BURD/A/15/RB02 Letter from William Grey Walter to Reginald Bickford, 26 July 1944
• BURD/A/15/RB03 Letter from Reginald Bickford to William Grey Walter, 17 August 1946
• BURD/A/15/RB04 Letter from William Grey Walter to Reginald Bickford, 19 August 1946
• BURD/A/15/RB05 Letter from Reginald Bickford to William Grey Walter, 24 October 1946
• BURD/A/15/RB06 Letter from Reginald Bickford to William Grey Walter, 30 September 1947
• BURD/A/15/RB07 Letter from Reginald Bickford to William Grey Walter, 27 January 1948
• BURD/A/15/RB08 Letter from Reginald Bickford to William Grey Walter, 29 April 1948
• BURD/A/16/01 X-ray tracing: front view
• BURD/A/16/02 X-ray tracing: side view
• BURD/A/16/03 X-ray tracing: partial view
• BURD/B/01 Correspondence regarding sponsorship of 50th anniversary publication
• BURD/B/2 Correspondence regarding writing and publishing of 50th anniversary publication
• BURD/B/3 Handwritten notes on the history of the Burden Neurological Institute
• BURD/C Miscellaneous archive material
• BURD/D/01 Bibliography: 1909-1950
• BURD/D/02 Bibliography: 1950 - 1965
• BURD/D/03 Bibliography: 1965 - 1974
• BURD/D/04 Bibliography: 1977 - 1988
• BURD/E/01 Life Magazine, 'Machines Turn Turtle', 1950
• BURD/E/02 Cartoon of Frederick Lucien Golla
• BURD/E/03 Photographs: Walter's mechanical tortoises
• BURD/E/04 Miscellaneous circuit diagrams
• BURD/E/05 Circuit diagrams for I.R.M.A. and C.O.R.A.
• BURD/E/06 Instruction manuals