New science education key to retaining 'charm' of museums

Shanghai residents now have access to museum exhibitions and courses on science in neighboring provinces after a federation of science education venues in the Yangtze River Delta was established on Tuesday morning.

Members of the federation include more than 150 museums, science education sites, companies, universities, scientific research institutes and social organizations from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces, as well as Shanghai.

Eight province or city level museums, who are the initiators of the federation, signed a cooperation agreement which included federation members signing 81 agreements regarding the sharing of courses, exchanging exhibitions and developing cultural and creative products.

"Besides the general collaboration between museums, we also raised the idea of a 'scientific resource package.' The package contains courses developed on the basis of the science education venue's own featured resources," said Gu Qingsheng, deputy curator of Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

Yao Sui, curator of Anhui Province Science and Technology Museum, said the museum will bring its exhibition on ancient structures to Shanghai, while Shanghai's Starry Sky Illumination will go to Anhui.

"Now the big cities all have science and technology museums," Yao said. "However, in three to five years, they will gradually lose public appeal." Yao believes that extracting the science behind exhibitions and then creating new science education is the only way to retain the "charm" of museums.