Children as curators: how to incorporate young visitors' voices into the elaboration and evaluation of a microbiology exhibition.

Studies of museum publics are relatively recent, and studies of child visitors are even more recent. In this paper we summarize the types of exhibition evaluations mentioned in the literature and present an evaluation process for an exhibition about microbiology developed for and with input from 4-to-6-year-old children. As a case study we analyzed an exhibition entitled "The Giant World of Microbes." Audio and video interviews were recorded with child visitors, and the stimulated recall technique was also employed. The data indicate the importance of interactive activities in enhancing child motivation and providing pertinent routes to follow when preparing an exhibition geared toward children.

Children as curators: how to incorporate young visitors' voices into the elaboration and evaluation of a microbiology exhibition / Crianças como curadores: como incorporar as vozes dos jovens visitantes na elaboração e avaliação de uma exibição de microbiologia

Abstract Studies of museum publics are relatively recent, and studies of child visitors are even more recent. In this paper we summarize the types of exhibition evaluations mentioned in the literature and present an evaluation process for an exhibition about microbiology developed for and with input from 4-to-6-year-old children. As a case study we analyzed an exhibition entitled "The Giant World of Microbes." Audio and video interviews were recorded with child visitors, and the stimulated recall technique was also employed. The data indicate the importance of interactive activities in enhancing child motivation and providing pertinent routes to follow when preparing an exhibition geared toward children.

Resumo Os estudos sobre exibições em museus são relativamente recentes, e estudos sobre crianças visitantes são mais recentes ainda. Este trabalho faz um resumo dos tipos de avaliações de exibição mencionados na literatura e apresenta um processo de avaliação para uma exibição de microbiologia desenvolvida para, e com o auxilio de, crianças entre 4 e 6 anos. Como estudo de caso analisamos uma exibição intitulada "O Mundo Gigante dos Micróbios". Foram gravadas entrevistas de áudio e vídeo com os visitantes mirins, e também se utilizou a técnica de estimulação da memória. Os dados indicam a importância das atividades interativas no fortalecimento da motivação das crianças e oferecem caminhos pertinentes a seguir na elaboração de exibições focadas no público infantil.

Accumulation of organic acids in cultivations of Neisseria meningitidis C.

Aiming at the industrial production of serogroup C meningococcal vaccine, different experimental protocols were tested to cultivate Neisseria meningitidis C and to investigate the related organic acid release. Correlations were established between specific rates of acetic acid and lactic acid accumulation and specific growth rate, during cultivations carried out on the Frantz medium in a 13 l bioreactor at 35 degrees C, 0.5 atm, 400 rpm and air flowrate of 2 l min(-1). A first set of nine batch runs was carried out: (1) with control of dissolved oxygen (O2) at 10% of its saturation point, (2) with control of pH at 6.5, and (3) without any control, respectively. Additional fed-batch or partial fed-batch cultivations were performed without dissolved O2 control, varying glucose concentration from 1.0 to 3.0 g l(-1), nine of which without pH control and other two with pH control at 6.5. No significant organic acid level was detected with dissolved O2 control, whereas acetic acid formation appeared to depend on biomass growth either in the absence of any pH and dissolved O2 control or when the pH was kept at 6.5. Under these last conditions, lactic acid was released as well, but it did not seem to be associated to biomass growth. A survey of possible metabolic causes of this behavior suggested that N. meningitidis may employ different metabolic pathways for the carbon source uptake depending on the cultivation conditions.