The significance of the scientific instruments displayed in museums is usually explained through captions and illustrative panels. Information technologies make it possible to go beyond the limits of traditional explanations, but do not allow the visitor to interact materially with scientific instruments from the past. Since the interactive experience plays an essential cultural and educational role, especially among the young, the Institute and Museum of the History of Science has set up, in the rooms named for Antonio Abetti and Andrea Corsini, two Educational Workshops. The historical, theoretical and material content of these Workshops, periodically renovated, is jointly prepared by historians of science, technicians and educational experts, in collaboration with the Museo dei Ragazzi (Children's Museum). Competent organisers guide the public of young people along the various themed itineraries. The animators explain the principles of operation and techniques of construction of the instruments and their various parts. By handling reproductions of some of the instruments displayed in the Museum, visitors can learn how the most important devices conceived in the past were actually used to investigate and to represent the world.
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