Pandemic and online interactions: Casa da Ciência da UFRJ in the cyberculture

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led several services to an adaptation for the virtual format, including museums and science centers. The production of materials that promote dialogues with different segments of society in these spaces goes through a process of reinvention in cyberspace. This dynamic is part of a new modality, Online Museum Education, proposed by Brazilian researchers, that is also discussed by an initiative that brings together museum researchers from Europe and the United States. Many of these spaces find, in digital social media, a possibility to continue dialoguing with the public, even when they are closed for visitation, such as the Casa da Ciência at UFRJ. In this research, we analyzed the Casa's digital social media, with the aim of investigating how educational activities and science popularization have been developed in the pandemic; discussing the potential of the work; and analyzing the reception of the public. Eighteen posts were selected from Facebook and Instagram, between April and December 2020, with the greater engagement, and the comments received were analyzed, according to Bardin (1977). Therefore, Casa da Ciência continued its educational activities and popularization of science through social networks, maintaining contact with the public and expanding the museum's visibility beyond its physical space.