Abstract This qualitative research explores the interactions of elementary school students during free-choice activity with science museum exhibits. The study participants were 39 students, who visited a science museum on six occasions during a three-year-period (from 4th to 6th grades). Our study showed that most interactions around exhibits are social in nature. Within these social interactions, students mainly discuss the technicalities of operating the exhibits and rarely engage with their scientific content. On occasion, exhibits are no more than settings for social interactions that could equally occur, for example, in the schoolyard. The main implications of this study concern exhibit design and pedagogy. Because students find ways to create their own social interactions in museum settings, museum pedagogy should leverage this social interaction into cognitive engagement with the scientific content of exhibits.

中文翻译：

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参与科学博物馆——社会互动的作用

摘要 这项定性研究探讨了小学生在自由选择活动中与科学博物馆展品的互动。研究参与者是 39 名学生，他们在三年期间（从四年级到六年级）六次参观了科学博物馆。我们的研究表明，围绕展品的大多数互动本质上都是社交性的。在这些社交互动中，学生主要讨论操作展品的技术细节，很少参与其中的科学内容。有时，展品只不过是社交互动的场所，这些场所可能同样发生在校园里。本研究的主要意义涉及展览设计和教学法。因为学生找到了在博物馆环境中创建自己的社交互动的方法，