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 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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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

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

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What goes into planning a successful exhibition, and how do we know one when we see it? This book gathers the thinking of leading exhibition professionals in a point-counterpoint format that grew out of an invitational conference at the Exploratorium. Featured are descriptions of "Twelve Noteworthy Science Exhibitions," including budgets and timelines, project goals, participants, and narratives of the exhibition development process. A CD augments these descriptions with color images and several video walkthroughs. The concluding section, "In the Vernacular," suggests strategies for keeping creativity alive while learning from past practice, using three novel formats—a "Creativity Killers" poster to hang by your desk, a "Muzine" full of irreverent ideas, and tear-out "Weed Seeds" cards with tips for encouraging innovation. Sponsored by the Exploratorium. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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The architecture of British natural history museums reveals the complex definitions of nature in the 19th century. "Nature's Museums" allows the buildings themselves to act as a guide to the Victorians' understanding of the natural world.Amazon.com Review
Scientists in the medieval and early-modern eras faced manyobstacles to sharing their discoveries, among them the lack oforganized, comparative collections of specimens. Such assemblages werealmost exclusively in the hands of wealthy individuals, and scholarsof more modest means had to content themselves with "cabinets ofwonder," potpourris of natural curiosities whose message was often nomore profound than "behold, death is near."

One of the signal developments of the Victorian era, observes arthistorian Carla Yanni, was the building of great museums, accessibleto both scholars and the interested public, to house large collectionsof fossils, minerals, and other relics of the natural world. Some ofthese museums, such as London's Pantherion, offered astonishing andsometimes fictitious spectacles: in the Pantherion, for example,"stuffed animals were staged in frightening battles," while a greatartificial swamp filled with sculptures of dinosaurs ringed theSydenham Crystal Palace. Others, such as the incomparable NaturalHistory Museum of London, became clearinghouses for the exchange ofscientific ideas in the age of Darwin and Huxley. By the 1880s,science museums of all kinds had become popular destinations forfamily outings, and also the subject of considerable debate, with somescholars objecting to the supposed vulgarization of knowledge to whichspectacles inevitably led.

But, Yanni notes, in their many forms, these museums also became the"primary places of interaction between natural science and its diversepublics," allowing greater participation in learning and ultimatelyserving science well. Heavily illustrated with period engravings andarchitectural renderings, Yanni's book is a useful and entertainingcontribution to the history of science. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Old curiosity shops
As a rule, when considering whether to buy an academic monograph, I check the endnotes for the introduction for the name of Foucault. If it's there, I don't buy.

I neglected to do this with "Nature's Museums." Foucault is here, but, for a change, architectural historian Carla Yanni and most of the authorities she cites find his categories of space don't fit Victorian natural history museums.

The news is, however, not all good. Yanni is a confessed postmodernist and believer in its theories of science. Basically, that science doesn't exist. That it is "socially constructed" and "gains legitimacy from its local associations."

This is not so, but if it were so, then, if we follow Yanni's examination of the development of four major (and several minor) natural history museums in Great Britain, then she would have hard time explaining why we are not all creationists still. Because creationists, principally Richard Owen, dominated the money-raising, concepts, iconography, choice of exhibits and public face of the museums.

This contradiction is not apparent to Yanni because she misunderstands the outcome of the creationism/evolution contest. She downplays the triumph of Darwinism (which had swept all before it within three years or so, despite what Thomas Kuhn may say about paradigm shifts) and overstates the coexistence of religion and science in Victorian Britain.

True, many, perhaps most, practicing biologists remained Christians and perhaps not merely nominal ones. But Christianity had changed. Darwin forced it to abandon perfectionism and to give up the doctrine of the fixity of species. Paley, cited often here, would not have recognized scientists of the late 19th century as Christians.

Well, so much for the confusions that underlie the analysis. Is there anything interesting left? Not much.

Yanni makes much of a supposed split between artifice and nature, or "God-created" and "man -created," which, according to her, started the century mixed together in collections but ended it each with its own structures, to which architects -- the focus of her interest -- contributed an intellectual framework. This sounds plausible until you compare it with evidence.

Museums, of course, became specialized, but there was and is no particular animus against mixing. The Bishop Museum, contemporaneous with the British Museum (Natural History), which bills itself as the greatest museum in the Pacific, happily combines ethnological, artistic and natural collections. Many state museums, as for example in Virginia and Iowa, do, too. A good example is the Falls of the Ohio museum operated by the state of Indiana at Jeffersonville. And the ultimate refutation -- in origin Victorian, too -- would be what is probably the most popular natural history exhibit in North America (if not the whole world), which combines natural history, art, technology and social history -- the glass flowers at the Agassiz Museum at Harvard University.

There's not much left, even for people who seek out natural history museums and take an interest in their curatorial history. (Which people do. The Peabody, on the opposite side of the wall from the glass flowers, has preserved a whole floor unchanged from the 19th century in order to demonstrate how display practices have changed.)

Science advances on a broad front, and, unlike architecture, it cannot go back. If Huxley rather than Owen had dominated the design of the British museums, which are almost all still in use today, their 21st century uses would not be much different. It may be incongruous that secularized scientists (and tourists) enter the Oxford University Museum through a portal guarded by an angel, but no more so than to see modern-day Christians who no longer believe in, say, the virgin birth, worshipping in churches layered with statues of Mary.

The text of "Nature's Museums" is not long, as the book is copiously illustrated. The illustrations are, however, too small to reveal much. The book might be of some interest to anyone visiting the museums today: the Hunterian, the Edinburgh, the Oxford or the British are examined in detail, with others, like the Dublin, alluded to.

The Hunterian, by the way, also confutes Yanni's theory of museumology. According to her, the explicit science museums did not develop from the "cabinets of wonder" but were novel Victorian establishments, arising from heterogeneous and haphazard collections that were dumped on the universities or nation.

The Hunterian, however, was a thoughtfully amassed collection that included both curiosities and deliberate "preparations," and it was explicitly pedagogical. It also was Georgian, not Victorian.

Furthermore, Yanni is wrong to suggest that the practice of dumping curiosities on the nation was a 19th century innovation. It's true that middle class collectors of the Renaissance, like Worm, kept their collections in their houses (where else?) for themselves, but in classical times, wealthy collectors did what Victorian scientists and patrons did: They put their most spectacular items on display in public buildings. In their case, temples. See my review of Adrienne Mayor's "The First Fossil Hunters."
... 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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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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Long regarded as one the leading texts in museology, "Introduction to Museum Work" in now thoroughly revised and updated. While citing recent changes in the museum world, the third edition of Burcaw's classic work retains its useful philosophical orientation and convenient summary format. All the basics of museology are here-the central issues are discussed and definitions are given for all the terms museum workers need to know. Every chapter includes practical exercises making Burcaw's book ideal for the classroom or for novice museum workers. Accepted by the Documentation Center of the International Conference of Museums as exemplary of museum training, "Introduction to Museum Work" is used as a basic text in museum studies all over the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Introduction to Museum Work
I ordered this book on line through Amazon.com and as of now have not received the book.Your help in expediting the delivery of this book to me would be appreciated.

Museums 101
This is a text book on museum science. It covers all phases of designing, building, financing and operating a museum from the very basics. I have used it extensively to develop policies and procedures for the MinnesotaTransportation Museum as we grow from a trolley ride to a major museumsite. Everyone in the museum/history center/science center business shouldread this and see that other members of the trustees and employees haveread this as well.Most valuable is the discussion of the responsibilitiesof the board of trustees, executive director, curator and other employees.Though the book is small, it gives you a good foundtation to build upon forany phase of museum work. ... Read more

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Museum Informatics explores the sociotechnical issues that arise when people, information, and technology interact in museums. It is designed specifically to address the many challenges faced by museums, museum professionals, and museum visitors in the information society. It examines not only applications of new technologies in museums, but how advances in information science and technology have changed the very nature of museums, both what it is to work in one, and what it is to visit one.

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How, if it all, do museums shape the ways in which society understands difference?

In recent decades there has been growing international interest amongst practitioners, academics and policy makers in the role that museums might play in confronting prejudice and promoting human rights and cross-cultural understanding. Museums in many parts of the world are increasingly concerned to construct exhibitions which represent, in more equitable ways, the culturally pluralist societies within which they operate, accommodating and
engaging with differences on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, class, religion, disability, sexuality and so on.
Despite the ubiquity of these trends, there is nevertheless limited understanding of the social effects, and attendant
political consequences, of these purposive representational strategies.

Richard Sandell combines interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives with in-depth empirical investigation to address a number of timely questions. How do audiences engage with and respond to exhibitions designed to contest, subvert and reconfigure prejudiced conceptions of social groups? To what extent can museums be understood to shape, not simply reflect, normative understandings of difference, acceptability and tolerance? What are the challenges for museums which attempt to engage audiences in debating morally charged and contested contemporary social issues and how might these be addressed? Sandell argues that museums frame, inform and enable the conversations which audiences and society more broadly have about difference and highlights the moral and political challenges, opportunities and responsibilities which accompany these constitutive qualities.

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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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This very practical book guides museums on how to create the highest quality experience possible for their visitors. Creating an environment that supports visitor engagement with collections means examining every stage of the visit, from the initial impetus to go to a particular institution, to front-of-house management, interpretive approach and qualitative analysis afterwards.

This holistic approach will be immensely helpful to museums in meeting the needs and expectations of visitors and building their audience. 

This book features:

• includes chapter introductions and discussion sections
• supporting case studies to show how ideas are put into practice
• a lavish selection of tables, figures and plates to support and illustrate the discussion
• boxes showing ideas, models and planning suggestions to guide development
•  an up-to-date bibliography of landmark research.

The Engaging Museum offers a set of principles that can be adapted to any museum in any location and will be a valuable resource for institutions of every shape and size, as well as a vital addition to the reading lists of museum studies students.

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In a companion to The Science Explorer, both chidren and parents can learn about a variety of objects while enjoying exciting experiments and discoveries inside and outside of the home. Original. 50,000 first printing." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Science Teacher Resource Material
This volume from the Exploratorium in San Francisco is a must resource for all Middle School and Junior High School science teachers.Don't requisition it -- just buy it -- before it's completely out of print and gone!js ... Read more