The non-formal education in a science center: potentialities and challenges of educational activities in praça da ciência, Vitória – ES (Brazil)

The science centers stand out by the interactive and dynamic process that contributes to the scientific culture’s construction. This work aims to investigate the potentialities and challenges for the development of educational practices in a science center in in the city of Vitória, Espírito Santo - Brazil. This is an exploratory and qualitative study. The evidence being prepared through analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews carried out with six mediators of the center, a pedagogue and two visiting professors. We exhibit several challenges related to the actions and formative process of mediators. Many of them focus on interactive practices on the conceptual explanations of the scientific instruments. The formative process focused on experiences’s sharing between the coworks of the center and the reading of the handbooks that describe the instruments. Teachers indicate as a potentiality the possibility of linking theory with practical situations, related to the scientific instruments of space.