Chapter 7 is my favorite chapter of Surrounded by Science thus far . While it has been interesting to read about the ways students and people, who are, or in my opinion, should be lifelong students, learn and the ways informal science environments and designers, and those reading assignments have made me more aware of the way people learn, I found Chapter 7 to be most fascinating!

A previous chapter mentioned that science, though considered objective or an objective field because of the importance of facts or well-supported theories, is affected by their cultural values and perspectives: “science reflects the cultural values of those who engage in it,” “the recognition that science is a cultural enterprise implies that there is no cultureless or neutral perspective on science, nor on learning science” (Fenichel and Schweingruber; National Research Council, 20). Chapter 7 addresses the latter point that science and science learning are not unaffected by culture; it points out the ways culture can be limiting when it comes to learning, and the ways informal learning spaces have tried to include those who might be limited by culture. Including translated labels and other translated language options is an improvement that is most important and relevant to me. My parents are both Chinese immigrants, so it can be hard for them to understand the exhibits at museums, which by extension make it hard for them to be interested in and to engage their children in the exhibits. My mom is fairly fluent in English for an immigrant but has trouble understanding all the words and concepts described on labels. My dad is much less accustomed to English so he has a much harder time understanding what’s going on, and my experience has been like Artur’s: explaining and having conversations with my dad about the exhibits can be frustrating because I don’t have a large enough Chinese lexicon to verbalize my thoughts. I’ve found, however, that the language barrier between us is an opportunity to stretch my Chinese limits as it encourages me to learn more about my first language to engage my dad in conversations about the exhibits I drag him to. The language barrier has also sparked interesting conversations about his thoughts and experiences about the exhibits that are unrelated to descriptions on museum labels. He tells me about what certain pieces or works remind him of in China, which is an opportunity for me to learn about his childhood or life in China, and is also a special way for us to bond.

Translated labels and translated language tools such as audio guides are helpful tools for non-English speakers and their children to engage with exhibits and engage in conversations about the exhibits, but there are still opportunities to learn and have interesting conversations without those tools.