I would like to comment on Alan Friedman’s article, “The Evolution of the Science Museum” (PHYSICS TODAY, October 2010, page 45). Colombia has several major science and technology centers that feature interactive exhibits. The Maloka Museum in Bogotá opened in 1998 and the Children’s Museum, also in Bogotá, was established in 1986. Explora, in Medellín, opened in 2008. Still, most of the population in smaller cities and in rural areas will have, at best, only limited encounters with those institutions.

In our experience with the Fundación Museo de Ciencia y Tecnología in Popayán, Colombia, a local science center having occasional budgets and no endowment, we have been able to engage enthusiastic and receptive audiences across socioeconomic and ethnic groups—if we can reach them. In such an environment, science centers have the opportunity to contribute substantially to public education by developing and disseminating projects, demonstrations, and educational materials for science teachers who often work in isolation and for young people who are anxious for hands-on experience.

Although topical education is important, primary emphasis should be given to the promotion of the scientific worldview—careful observation and reasoned analysis. Science centers ought to be careful not to “stray far from the core content interests” of science and technology and present themselves as centers for entertainment; it is as specific channels to understanding the scientific way of thinking that local science centers uniquely serve the public.