The Valorization Program of the Cultural Heritage of Sebastião e Silva Secondary School, Oeiras

Like so many secondary schools, in Portugal and elsewhere, the Sebastião e Silva Secondary School in Oeiras has important scientific collections. These mainly encompass the Natural Sciences, Physics and Chemistry fields, and their significance is associated both with the memory and identity of the School, and with local pedagogic practices, contributing therefore to the history of sciences and education in Portugal. Moreover, they reflect the value given to these subjects by their host institution, for example, by the selection of materials which integrate the collection. The main purpose of the present essay is to explain the origins and context of the collection and its institutionalization as a museological nucleus of the School. The collection relevance and its immeasurable heritage value is a maker of a collective identity and memory of the School and the educational community. In the present paper implemented strategies of pedagogical interaction are discussed and, ultimately, problems and future perspectives are highlighted. A reflection is made about the relevance of this heritage in an era of digital technologies, as well as the main challenges in its preservation, study, interpretation and dissemination.