Toshiba Science Museum
The Toshiba Science Museum: Bringing the Joy of Science and Technology to Everyone
Both a venue for the staging of cultural activities with the local community and a facility in which visitors are able to deepen their appreciation of science and technology, in the 50 years since its opening in 1961 under the slogan "Bridging People and Science," the Toshiba Science Museum has welcomed a total of 8.7 million visitors.
Visitors to the museum are able to learn about and gain first-hand experience of the evolution of science and technology and industrial culture. In addition to its function in helping to educate schoolchildren, the museum receives numerous visitors for purposes of corporate training, lifelong learning, industrial tourism, and international exchange. The museum also hosts unique programs and events such as experimental science classes and hands-on engineering events.
Museum Visits
From objects associated with Toshiba's founder and important products and technologies that represent the legacy of past industrial technology, to Toshiba's very latest technologies and systems, the Toshiba Science Museum offers a broad and diverse range of exhibits. The museum provides areas in which visitors are able to gain a visual and tactile experience of the wonder of science and technology, for example through hands-on experience of the fundamental laws of electricity. Museum staff offer demonstrations and provide explanations that are easy to understand for visitors of all ages. A variety of programs are available for group visitors, including performances in which museum staff conduct experiments, seminars concerning the latest technologies presented by Toshiba researchers, visits to a recycling plant, and experience of computer disassembly.
Activities outside the Museum
About 40 times per year, the museum offers Classes on Demand at regional elementary and junior high schools and children's centers to provide support for the education of the region's children. Staff members also actively participate in regional science events, increasing the range of opportunities for people to make contact with science.
Personal Computer Classes
More than 80,000 participants, encompassing housewives, senior citizens, businesspeople and schoolteachers, have attended the Museum's PC School since it was begun in 1998. The class offers a wide range of different courses including basic courses for beginners and applied courses in which participants use MS Excel and PowerPoint. On the second Saturday of every other month, the class also offers a "Digital Creator Course" for elementary school students.
Regular events
This year 6,500 elementary school students participated in classes enabling them to experience the joys of science and mathematics.
GEMS Explorers
GEMS is a science and mathematics curriculum developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science of the University of California, Berkeley. Its goal is to help children to develop the ability to think for themselves by making discoveries through experiments. It provides an enjoyable learning environment in which children are able to use their imaginations, working together in groups.
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Galileo Workshop Experiment Classes
These science experiment classes have been held since 1999 in collaboration with Galileo Workshop, a nonprofit organization, and have now been conducted more than 110 times. Galileo Workshop is a group formed by elementary, junior high and high school science teachers who seek to create enjoyable experiments under the slogan "Bringing the joy of science to everyone." Galileo Workshop strives to create experiment classes that are always exciting and new.
Komukai Toshiba Boys and Girls Inventors' Club
Established in June 2004, the Komukai Toshiba Boys and Girls Inventors' Club features the participation of volunteers from the Corporate Research & Development Center and other Toshiba departments and local elementary school teachers as instructors. Over the period of a year, about 100 elementary and junior high school students work to produce inventions brimming with creativity.
Wonder Mathematics Expedition
This is a mathematics class that enables children to learn while enjoying puzzles and games using tools. Two classes are held, for first- to fourth-year elementary school students and for fifth-year elementary to third-year junior high school students, with around 50 students participating in each class each time a Wonder Mathematics Expedition is held.
Atom Workshop
With a volunteer group based in Kawasaki City as the main organizer, this workshop has been offering students in lower elementary school grades the opportunity to make things and conduct experiments since 2004. About 100 children participate each time the workshop is held.
Toshiba Science Museum Science Club
This is an after-school class is held every Wednesday at the Toshiba Science Museum. All students are welcome to drop in on their way home from school to learn about science and technology through games and experiments. Hours are extended during the summer holidays.
Special exhibitions
GEMS Explorers
In fiscal 2010, the Museum held a series of special exhibitions looking towards its 50th anniversary. "The Miracle of Toshiba Color TV: 50 Years of Toshiba Television Technology," focusing on Toshiba's TV business, was presented in July and August. From December 2010 to January 2011, a special event was held commemorating the 25th anniversary of Toshiba's laptop computer business. This event included an exhibition of past Toshiba products and a special lecture by Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba's Chairman.
