The Whitby Wizard, situated on the West Cliff in Whitby (sat-nav: YO21 3HT), is built and directed by Dag (pron. “darg”) Hagenaes-Kjelldahl, the well known Norwegian adventurer and educator. He is a qualified teacher and aeroplane pilot, and started Norway’s first science centre in 1986. Dag directed the new museum until he settled in Whitby in 1999.
The Whitby Wizard stands for an important innovation within the field of museum teaching. The exhibits are both participatory and experiments. Interactive exhibits play a new role in informal education by encouraging the use of your senses of smell, touch, hearing, vision and taste.
Museums around the world are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of learning through multi-sensory experiences. North Yorkshire’s new science centre in Whitby is based on the hands-on museum tradition, which started in the USA and Canada in 1969. Truly interactive exhibits, hands-on and three dimensional, without electronic screens used just to represent true reality, provide a very useful extra dimension and balance to the school science curriculum. The Whitby Wizard cater to our in-born need to touch as we learn, and self-directed exploration of the world around us, universally accepted as being the most effective and rewarding way to learn.