L’Aseiste une association au service du patrimoine scientifique des lycées

Schools have many devices designed for teaching physics, but which have become obsolete due to technical developments and changes in curricula. These objects, often abandoned in storerooms, constitute a precious heritage for the history of education and an important resource to motivate students of all levels. This article first presents the ASEISTE, Association for the Preservation and Study of the Scientific and Technical Instruments of Education which, since 2004, year of its creation, helps schools to retrieve, restore and preserve instruments and collections but also to promote these collections by using them in pedagogical projects. The results of these inventories are available to everyone on the association's website (https://www.aseiste.org) which features over 7 000 references, from 70 establishments spread across France, as well as numerous documents showing devices in operation. A second part of this article is devoted to the presentation of various educational uses that the members of the association and their students make of this heritage, how they make it live and value it within the framework of their high school or middle school’s activities. In recent years the association has developed its contacts with associations or European researchers having similar objectives.