Science museum takes live experiments to the crowd in new busking program

The National Science Museum will launch a roaming live science show in October, sending a mobile experiment cart into the exhibition halls where visitors already are.

The program, called Science Busking, breaks with the museum's classroom-based lessons. Staff will wheel out a cart loaded with experiment tools and hands-on materials and work through scientific phenomena on the spot, with experiments and their direction shifting according to visitors' questions and reactions. The museum built the cart itself to carry the equipment and interactive materials, and the program is built around hands-on participation rather than demonstration.

Science Busking will run every Friday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. starting in October, initially around the Science Tunnel before moving to other parts of the museum as visitor traffic, weather and conditions on the ground dictate.

"Interest in science begins with small curiosity and questions," said Lee Eun-young, director of the National Science Museum. "I hope Science Busking becomes a chance for visitors and science to grow closer, and we will keep creating opportunities for anyone to experience science easily and enjoyably."

Depending on how the program performs and how visitors respond, the museum plans to develop the content into a structured curriculum and distribute it to science museums nationwide to widen its use.