ABSTRACT

The fostering of curiosity as a driver for knowledge has become a major concern within the field of education, as it has turned into an educational tool expected to solve present and future societal needs. This chapter discusses how curiosity emerges as a socio-material phenomenon when seventh-grade students visit a Norwegian Whaling Museum. Insights from the fields of education studies and museology are combined, and the analysis follows the students as they encounter and explore the exhibitions and displayed objects. Key to the argument is that objects have capacities to impact when curiosity emerges, and a gigantic model of a blue whale as well as a preserved, century-old whale foetus will appear in the discussions.