Changes in Museums Museums have changed. They are no longer places that one “should” visit, they are places to enjoy and learn. At a science museum in Ontario, Canada, you can feel your hair stand on end as harmless electricity passes through your body. At the Metropolitan (大城市的) Museum of Art in New York City, you can look at the seventeenth century instruments while listening to their music. At New York’s American Museum of Natural History recently, you can help make a bone-by bone reproduction of the museum’s dinosaur(恐龙), a beast that lived 200 million years ago. More and more museum directors are realizing that people learn best when they can somehow become part of what they are seeing. In many science museums, for example, there are no guided tours. The visitor is encouraged to touch, listen, operate, and experiment so as to discover scientific principles for himself. The purpose is not only to provide fun but also to help people feel at home in the world of science. The theory is that people who do not understand science will probably fear it, and those who fear science will not use it to best advantage. One cause of all these changes is the increase in wealth and leisure time. Another cause is the rising percentage of young people in the population. Many of these young people are college students or college graduates. Leon F. Twiggs, a young black professor of art once said, “They see things in a new and different way. They are not satisfied to stand and look at works of art they want art they can participate(参加) in.” The same is true of science and history. When visiting museums nowadays, people can take part in many activities.