Pupils' interaction with a Science Centre: Communication perspective analysis

• Main Author: Islam, Md. Khademul
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan Dalarna, Vetenskapskommunikation 2005
• Subjects: science center; science communication; visitor studies; interaction; interviews; pre and posttest; planetarium; exhibits; questionnaires; informal learning
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-2535

The purpose of this study was to investigate pupils’ knowledge about science and what role science center is playing as a medium of communication to increase knowledge among students. This study also tried to find out pupils’ interaction: how they use science center as a source of scientific information, what they learn from their visit to a science center, their pattern of communication with it. This project also measured attraction, holding and learning power of exhibits of the science center at Dalarna University in Borlänge and learning power of planetarium program and slide show of Stella Nova Planetarium at Dalarna University.The subjects of this study consisted of students of class seven and eight and teachers of an urban school in Borlänge, Sweden. To find out students’ learning in a science center a pre and post visit test were conducted through questionnaires. Interview method by questionnaires was also used to explore pupils’ interaction with science center.The results of this study show that students learn by their visit to a science center but learning was not statistically significant (0.05).Girls learnt better than boys. School classes that have better pre-knowledge about science before a visit to a science center learnt worse than other classes having less pre-knowledge. Girls and boys interact with a science center in different ways. Science center is playing important role as a science communicator.