Science Museum in London, UK

Visiting the Science Museum in London was something of a pilgrimage. It is one of the largest science museums in the world and also one of the most innovative. It is also a museum of remarkable contrasts that constantly invite visitors to ask questions about science, technology, and the world around us.

For starters, the exterior of the building is fairly traditional and in the style of an old city museum. There is little from the outside to spark the enthusiasm of a curious child. But once inside, the museum opens up to a tall, naturally lighted atrium that invites exploration.

The first exhibits that greet visitors are huge old steam engines of various types. Some are quite old, but they are presented in an open form that invites browsing, with colorful labels that tell an interesting story about each one, setting them in a context where visitors can get excited about the past.

The museum houses some astounding collections that, for an aficionado, can easily raise the heart rate a few points. Examples include the original detector used by Marconi to receive the first transatlantic wireless spark signal in 1901 and the telephone used by Alexander Graham Bell to call the Queen in 1868 to persuade her that the phone was the wave of the future. The Apollo 10 command module is there (this was the flight prior to the first moon landing) as well as

Stephenson’s Rocket – the steam locomotive that achieved a world record speed of 29 mph in 1829, convincing investors that steam locomotives were a better bet than cable-drawn rail systems.

But, in my mind, what is most remarkable about the Science Museum is their commitment to getting people to think critically. Many science museum supporters would like to think they are promoting it, and many science museum directors and staff would jump at the chance to do more of it. Here are some examples of how critical thinking is being encouraged.

1. Antenna Science News. This program brings current science to the public in several ways. A) A new informational feature story is posted every 6 months on a large 4-sided kiosk (current story is about the new collider being built at CERN in Switzerland). B) a pair of smaller kiosks present a controversial topic and invite visitors to learn more, compare their response with those of others, and to enter comments to be read by others (a new feature is posted every 1-2 weeks). C) a website provides a portal to all previous topics and currently is responsible for 25% of all hits to the museum’s web site.









2. Energy Area. In contrast with most museum energy areas, this exhibition does not go into different forms of energy, kinetic and potential energy, source of energy, or other basic scientific concepts such as converting mechanical into electrical energy. Instead, this area focuses on energy choices. In one computer challenge, for example, you are the country’s energy czar and must choose the type and location of power plants to keep up with increasing demand. Given a palette of types (coal, gas, solar, wind, etc.) you plunk down your choice and receive instant feedback from your boss (e.g., that photovoltaic power plant you installed has caused a major stink because of the land area that had to be taken out of agriculture). This area was constzntly in busy and I observed thqt visitors were really engaged with making choices about energy.

3. Issues and Ethics. Another area features several large round tables, each with 8 stations where visitors can interact with a push button and wheel (very iPod-like). A projector from above permits visitors to select an issue ("Should we be able to choose the sex of our children?") and then provides a 10-15 minutes interactive experience where visitors answer questions, receive information, and respond to challenges. Families, single adults, tourists, and teens step up to a station and quickly find themselves engaged into substantive discussions about difficult topics with total strangers who may come from a very different demographic.

An interesting (and very red) exhibition on plastics takes visitor thru a wide variety of types and uses of plastics, including printable plastics, such as are currently being researched at Cornell University.

There’s more: evening science cafes, live science shows, school-based programs. But the thread that runs through much of this is the attempt to encourage visitors to articulate their own views and continue to inquire after the visit.