Customer Reviews (13)

My 10 year LOVES this!!!
My daughter loves anything science so this was an immediate hit!!!!Very informative and fun!!!Great buy!!!

Science made simpler
I know my grandson will love this.

Thanks, J. H.

THE book to get the kids
I STILL have this book from when I was a kid and every time I re-find it in my books I pick it up and go through it again. This book is a MUST HAVE for every family with a kid(s)!!!

Klutz books are the best!
These books are creative, educational, high quality, and fun! My children have several versions of Klutz books, and they are all wonderful. They provide a cure for boredom that both kids and adults can appreciate. This one as all the others, is hands-on!

Loved this book as a child.
Similar to a few other reviewers, I loved this book when I was a kid.This is a book I would recommend to any parent or child.I have nothing but fond memories of this book.I hadn't seen this book in years and I still remember being introduced to many fascinating subjects from this book. ... Read more

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A book by the San Francisco Exploratorium museum culls hundreds of scientific experiments, amusements, and tricks for children and instructions and explanations for parents, so they can explain what is happening to their youngsters. Original. 35,000 first printing.Amazon.com Review
The Exploratorium in San Francisco is "a museum of science, art, andhuman perception founded in 1969 by physicist FrankOppenheimer. The mission of the Exploratorium is tocreate innovative learning environments, programs, andtools for exploration that help people of all ages, origins,and geographic locations use their natural curiosity tolearn about the world around them." And if you've ever been there, youknow that this ambitious mission statement is fulfilled in spades.It is an extraordinary place that I try to visit every time I go toSan Francisco.

This delightful book allows you to create your own Exploratorium athome. It's got loads of experiments that, in the best Exploratoriumtradition, are fun and highly educational (as an aside, byfollowing one of the exercises, I was able to make a styrofoam airplane that looks suspiciously like the Amazon.com Bookslogo--and it flies!). Highly Recommendedfor the curious and playful of any age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great book for grade school students
I worked for the summer program at the Boys and Girls Club. This book became very useful when doing science projects with them. They enjoyed the ones I did with them, especially the messy goo ones. It is also a great book to have at home to do fun activities with your children.

Good Fun and Good Science!
Many science experiment books out there either have bad science in them, poorly designed experiments, or unclear directions (or, unfortunately, all three).This book has great experiments that are easy and fun to do.And, the science behind the experiments is accurate and clearly explained.As a scientist, science teacher, and parent, this book is the first one my list of recommendations!

Experiments for "Bring Your Kids to Work" Day
I ordered several books to prepare for the experiments I wanted to present for the "Bring Your Kids to Work" Day.This was, by far, the most useful and most interesting book I received.You can use theexperiments listed in the book, and tailor them for younger or olderchildren very easily.I'm going to order the sequel, "ScienceExplorer, Out and About," today!

The best and easiest book of its kind!
I am an elementary school teacher and the mother of three young children so I have read a lot of books that say they are filled with easy-to-do science experiments butthis is by far the best of itskind that I haveread. Within the first two hours my kids and I did three of the experimentsAND had a great time together AND learned something! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb addition to a library science reference collection.
Museums Of Modern Science is an impressive and unique history and surveyof the role museums play in engendering public interest in the sciences,how exhibitions are affected by multi-media techniques, what role art playsin the process of a science exhibit, and how science museums impact on therelevant and related issues of the day. The contributors draw upon a widediversity of experience and their essays are arranged and presented in fourmajor sections: The Issues (how to explain modern science and how to reachthe indifferent); The Level Of Complexity (the "middle way"between the superficial and the repellent); Virtual Museums (the challengesof new technology); and Controversial Science Issues (neither apologeticglorification nor the "science war". Museums Of Modern Science isa superb addition to any personal, public, academic, and museum libraryreference collection. ... Read more

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A review of one of America's oldest, largest and most comprehensive museums, that of Science and Industry in Chicago. Housed in the only surviving building from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, it has displayed for over 60 years to the public the course of technological change. ... Read more

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For more than ten years, The Science for Conservators Series has provided the key basic texts for conservators throughout the world. Scientific concepts are basic to the conservation of artefacts of every type, yet many conservators have little or no scientific training. These introductory volumes provide non-scientists with the essential theoretical background to their work. ... Read more

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Are Museums Irrelevant?

Museums are rarely acknowledged in the global discussion of climate change, environmental degradation, the inevitability of depleted fossil fuels, and the myriad local issues concerning the well-being of particular communities – suggesting the irrelevance of museums as social institutions. At the same time, there is a growing preoccupation among museums with the marketplace, and museums, unwittingly or not, are embracing the values of relentless consumption that underlie the planetary difficulties of today.

Museums in a Troubled World argues that much more can be expected of museums as publicly supported and knowledge-based institutions. The weight of tradition and a lack of imagination are significant factors in museum inertia and these obstacles are also addressed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, combining anthropology ethnography, museum studies and management theory, this book goes beyond conventional museum thinking.

Robert R. Janes explores the meaning and role of museums as key intellectual and civic resources in a time of profound social and environmental change. This volume is a constructive examination of what is wrong with contemporary museums, written from an insider’s perspective that is grounded in both hope and pragmatism. The book’s conclusions are optimistic and constructive, and highlight the unique contributions that museums can make as social institutions, embedded in their communities, and owned by no one.

Customer Reviews (1)

Museums in a Troubled World - from The Informal Learning Review
Book Review

Museums in a Troubled World

Robert Mac West

Bob Janes, through his writings and public presentations, offers an interesting, useful, and often challenging perspective on the current and future role of museums. Museums in a Troubled World explores the very important relationship between the museum world and the larger world of the natural and social environment of our planet. Janes' view is that museums have figured out how to do some things very well (e.g, exhibitions and collections) and are trying desperately to integrate these functions into the business/corporate world of the 21st Century. He is very concerned that this emphasis does not serve the best interests of museums and their visitors/customers/advocates and that museums are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the major issues that face society today.

The book is a good and entertaining read. Many readers, me included, stop periodically and have to reread a paragraph, asking, in so many words, "How did he come up with that analogy?" or "golly, I never thought of it that way" or "that is complete horses..." This is good, as it means that he is challenging his readers and forcing them to look at their industry/profession through some distinctly different eyes.

We often read of the continued search of museums for relevance. It pervades the writings of Liberty Science Center's Emlyn Koster and is central to John Falk's recent book Identity and the Museum Experience (2009). But what does relevance really mean? Janes asks us to look both at the personal relevance of museums and their offerings as well as the much larger picture--how are museums relevant to the 21st century and its social and environmental challenges?

Other issues that he approaches, often challenging the current activities and value systems of museums, have to do with the economics and operations of museums. Primary here is the metrics by which museum success is measured. Large numbers--attendance, operating budgets, collection size--dominate. Janes contends that these aspects of corporatism divert museums from their primary and essential social and educational roles. The emphasis on ever-larger numbers only requires museums to continue (or try to continue) what they always have been doing. This means more and grander exhibitions, including the feared "blockbusters," new and expanded activities which may or may not be related to or supportive of the museum's mission, and an obsession with fundraising and earned income to support these. Such "corporatism" is a major concern for Janes and permeates this book.

Bob Janes is not at all alone in expressing these concerns and postulating their long-term impacts on the museum as what we would like to think of as an important element of the world's cultural and educational environment. The late Steve Weil approached many of these issues in 2002 in Making Museums Matter. Very recently, in an article in the March-April issue of AAM's Museum (unfortunately self-serving at the end), Maxwell Anderson of the Indianapolis Art Museum explored many of the same issues. Finally, the international museum observer James Bradburne, in a 2004 article in the Informal Learning Review, assessed some of the funding and political issues facing museums worldwide.

Janes' book is an important contribution to the current museum literature and deserves a careful read. Please do so.

Full reference: Janes, Robert R., 2009. Museums in a Troubled World: Renewal, Irrelevance or Collapse? Routledge, New York: 208pp.

References

Anderson, Maxwell L., 2010.A Clear View: The Case for Museum Transparency. Museum, March/April, 89 (2), 48-43.

Bradburne, James M., 2004. The Museum Time Bomb: Overbuilt, Overtraded, Overdrawn. Informal Learning Review, March/April no. 65, 1, 4-13.

Falk, John, 2009. Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA. 301pp.

Weil, Stephen E., 2002. Making Museums Matter. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: 273pp.

Robert Mac West is the editor and publisher of The Informal Learning Review. He may be reached at ile@informallearning.com.
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Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs. He identifies five key types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. Through an understanding of how museums shape and reflect their personal and group identity, Falk is able to show not only how museums can increase their attendance and revenue, but also their meaningfulness to their constituents. ... Read more

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Table of Contents
* In the beginning
* Calendar time
* Sun and stars
* Water, fire and sand
* Early mechanical clocks
* Swing time
* Time at sea
* Super accuracy
* Glossary
* Index ... Read more

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For almost thirty years, the words "Star Wars" have summoned images of spaceships, super-weapons, and futuristic visions of all kinds. But George Lucas's immensely popular, vividly imagined blockbusters of life in "a galaxy far, far away" have often anticipated real-life technology right here on Earth—and this fascinating, visually irresistible book probes the amazing interface between movie magic and practical science.

Today's scientists are taking Star Wars fictions and turning them into fact; travel entrepreneurs are making plans for commercial space flight, and high-tech mag-lev trains defy gravity to zoom along like Luke Sky-walker's landspeeder. As the beloved C-3PO observes in his introduction to the book, robots are now a reality, and microscopic nanobots are already performing surgery internally. In the next twenty years, human soldiers will wear exoskeletal armor like Imperial stormtroopers and carry laser weapons as lethal as any light-saber, while orbiting satellites spy on the enemy and accurately pinpoint targets thousands of miles away. These exciting advances, often fraught with peril, are explored by the book's technological experts, who consider the risky implications and possible consequences of their inventions.

A perfect souvenir for visitors to the exhibition, now on a three-year multi-city tour, as well as the millions who have made Star Wars one of the most successful epics in entertainment history, this is a book guaranteed to delight film fans and the technologically savvy alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very in depth book with great pictures to engage ages 5 to 99
I bought this for my son even before we saw the exhibit it is tied to at the local science museum.He got it in 1st grade and pretty much likes looking at the pictures, but now that he is starting to read it is opening up more information to him.There is a nice balance of science without killing the main attraction to kids (and most people) which is Star Wars.For now he is just reading captions, but if his love of Star Wars continues (as I expect it will), he will end up knowing more than me as he devours books for information on the subject.

In terms of quality, it is softcover so it has gotten some folds and bends from laying on the floor or being slept on in bed, but it is a solid build, great color photos, and tons of information. ... Read more

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Museums and the Public Sphere investigates the role of museums around the world as sites of democratic public space.

• Explores the role of museums around the world as sites of public discourse and democracy
• Examines the changing idea of the museum in relation to other public sites and spaces, including community cultural centers, public halls and the internet
• Offers a sophisticated portrait of the public, and how it is realized, invoked, and understood in the museum context
• Offers relevant case studies and discussions of how museums can engage with their publics' in more complex, productive ways

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Learning in the Museum examines major issues and shows how research in visitor studies and the philosophy of education can be applied to facilitate a meaningful educational experience in museums.

Hein combines a brief history of education in public museums, with a rigorous examination of how the educational theories of Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and subsequent theorists relate to learning in the museum.

Surveying a wide range of research methods employed in visitor studies is illustrated with examples taken from museums around the world, Hein explores how visitors can best learn from exhibitions which are physically, socially, and intellectually accessible to every single visitor. He shows how museums can adapt to create this kind of environment, to provide what he calls the 'constructivist museum'.

Providing essential theoretical analysis for students, this volume also serves as a practical guide for all museum professionals on how to adapt their museums to maximize the educational experience of every visitor.

Customer Reviews (1)

An essential guide to the nature of museum learning.
This book provides an excellent summary of current museum learning theory. Concise and engaging, it includes a compendium of virtually all of the relevant research and concepts in the hot topic of audience-centered andinformal museum learning. This is pursuasively knit together to suggest apowerful approach - the constructivist museum. A must-read for anyoneinterested in understanding how visitors actually make meaning from theirmuseum experiences. ... Read more

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For more than ten years, the Science for Conservators Series have been the key basic texts for conservators throughout the world. Scientific concepts are basic ot the conservation of artefacts of every type, yet many conservators have little or no scientific training. These introductory volumes provide non-scientists with the essential theoretical background to their work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Carol H
An excellent technical book on the subject of adhesives.Well written and easy to understand. ... Read more

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New Museum Theory and Practice is an original collection of essays with a unique focus: the contested politics and ideologies of museum exhibition.

• Contains 12 original essays that contribute to the field while creating a collective whole for course use.
  
• Discusses theory through vivid examples and historical overviews.
  
• Offers guidance on how to put theory into practice.
  
• Covers a range of museums around the world: from art to history, anthropology to music, as well as historic houses, cultural centres, virtual sites, and commercial displays that use the conventions of the museum.
  
• Authors come from the UK, Canada, the US, and Australia, and from a variety of fields that inform cultural studies.

Customer Reviews (1)

Great and Inciteful Book!
"New Museum Theory and Practice" has been a great resource for the Museum Studies course I'm taking in college. This book is a collection of essays that addresses numerous issues that are crucial to the new outlook for museums in the 21st century. Honest and up to date, the book discusses matters such as collection processing, feminism, multiculturalism, and poses questions about the basic foundations of museums as they exist today. ... Read more

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During the past thirty years, museums of all kinds have tried to become more responsive to the interests of a diverse public. With exhibitions becoming people-centered, idea-oriented, and contextualized, the boundaries between museums and the "real" world are eroding. Setting the transition from object-centered to story-centered exhibitions in a philosophical framework, Hilde S. Hein contends that glorifying the museum experience at the expense of objects deflects the museum's educative, ethical, and aesthetic roles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a text to understand the present condition of museums
hein's text makes a general, but intersting and highly complete, overview of the present condition of museums. This texts refers to the past history of these institutions in order to promote a better understanding of them, and the role they play, in our contemporary cultural system. Arguing on the "trascendence of the object" hein makes an excellent analysis on the "museum experience" in order to understand this phenomenon providing a critical perspective on this issue. It is not too philosophical as the tittle claims, so it is not a difficult text to read and understand. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A much-needed addition to critical museology
Williams' book is excellent. While it has been hard not to notice the swell of support worldwide for these memorial museums, no one (as far as I know) has approached them to explore what's in them, why they are being built, and what they mean for the preservation of memory.

The book effectively considers how histories of genocide, terrorism and other terrible events are shown through objects, in photos, and in architectural symbolism. Williams has a sharp critical eye and a fluid, likeable writing style. He asks some broad philosophical questions about what we expect to gain from the construction of museums devoted to the most awful aspects of our shared heritage. Very highly recommended. ... Read more

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