Experiments and contexts in the interactive exhibitions of centers and museums of science

Abstract

Here is described a research that meant to indentify, through analysis of experiments and contexts in interactive expositions held by centers and museums of science, the necessary conditions for grasping the scientific culture in the post-positivist conception. The project was developed with the participation of students in training courses for teachers on a proposal based on the principles and methods of action research, in order to form skills that lead to interferences in the professional future. The results show that the samples of interactive exhibits are organized according to the classic paradigm: they offer opportunities for experimentation that produce observational data supposedly neutral and maintain separate nature and human being. In conclusion, we have those exhibits contribute to bringing the visitors closer to the positivistic science, not contributing to bring them closer to the concept of science based on the contemporary paradigm of complexity.