In the last two decades, hundreds of hands-on science centres have been opening their doors around the globe, many of them in the developing world. Some of them follow the “philosophy” of the Anglo-Saxon world (e.g. the San Francisco Exploratorium), even replicating exhibits in some cases. This strategy has been adopted to avoid reinventing the wheel. On the other hand, it can happen that cultural issues are not properly considered when importing these models.

This session aims to discuss how much the experience of visiting a hands-on science centre differs (or not) from country to country. We will share experiences from Asia (Thailand), Europe (United Kingdom), North America (United States) and Latin America (Brazil), with different visitor studies perspectives.