Investigating an Interactive Science Museum
Non-formal spaces, Science Museum, Teaching learning.
This study aims to investigate non-formal spaces contributions to the learning process, the observations will be conducted at the "Museu Interativo de Ciências do Sul Fluminense", focusing on the interactions betwen groups of students and teachers. In order to that, it will be carried out an extensive literature review over scientific papers, doctorate and master’s theses, books and national learning curriculum documents, which will ground the main ideas they will be proposed. Then, research will be guided about the use of non-formal learning spaces and its contributions to the learning process, going through activities that allow this investigation, problem understanding and research results, identifying potential benefits to the use of the "Museu Interativo" to the learning process. Science teachers recognize that they have issues to teach certain topics of science and believe that those issues could be minimized with the use of labs in schools and other interactive resources. The science-classrooms, the science museums, and the science fairs have motivated and estimulated the interest of students, and therefore have directed teachers to integrate those spaces ass well, to solve the fragmentation of learning current models of schools, therefore, promoting more interaction and a better learning process through the use of several technological resources of information. Hence, I question: What is the understanding of the teachers about the non-formal spaces used as potential learning places? What is the motivation of teachers relating to the defined objectives at those non formal places? How the educator of the Science Museum could deliver a technological learning object, that motivates vistitors to come back, integrating the non formal environment to their culture? In order to answer those questions, I initiated research at the "Museu Interativo de Ciências Sul Fluminense" (MICInense) that have increased formal teachers’ interest to activities carried out in non-formal spaces.