- Association of Science

Transcription

Bimonthly
B
imonthly magazine of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
July • August 2013
Developing the
Science Center Workforce
(Details inside on page 11)
2013_JulAug_Dimensions_ESedit 6.12.13.indd 1
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contents
features
24
Professional Development in
the Informal Science Education
Field: A Growing, Diverse
Landscape
By Jamie Bell and Kalie Sacco
An Explainer at the New
York Hall of Science
shows a young girl how
to make giant bubbles.
Photo courtesy the New
York Hall of Science
27
Professional Learning Through
Reflecting on Practice
By Lynn Uyen Tran, Catherine Halversen,
and Maia Werner-Avidon
34
47
53
Recruiting for Inclusion and
Innovation
Science Centers and Zoos:
Creating Public Value
Through Complementary
Strengths
Who Are Floor Staff?
By Laura Huerta Migus
39
Orienting New Team Members
for Long-Term Success
By Charlie Trautmann
42
By John Fraser, Martin Weiss, Beverly
Sheppard, and Kate Flinner
51
By Christine Ruffo
54
Graduate School: A
Pathway to a Science
Center Career
By Kalie Sacco
Taking the Floor
By David Rock
Partnering to Build Capacity in
Indonesian Science Centers
By Kate Barnard and Merryn McKinnon
departments
5
FROM THE CEO
19
what “sustains” us
6
SPOTLIGHTS
staff changes and in memoriam
20
Cover: Interpreters at the Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York,
receive training in how to deliver one of the museum’s
interactive floor programs. Photo by Teresa Bell
WHAT WE LEARNED
cultivating social support at an
Alzheimer’s Café
the Exploratorium’s new home
on the waterfront
10
PEOPLE
NOTES FROM ASTC
57
GRANTS AND AWARDS
CAISE relaunches
InformalScience.org,
Dimensions EXCELS again
58
Q&A
Alejandro Frank on bringing
science to children in Mexico
Dimensions July • August 2013
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Volume
V
l
15
15, N
Number
b 4
EDITORIAL
Anthony (Bud) Rock
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Emily Schuster
EDITOR
Margaret Glass, Larry H. Hoffer, Laura Huerta Migus, Rowena Rae, Christine Ruffo, Kalie Sacco
CONSULTING EDITORS
Christine Ruffo
PHOTO EDITOR
Christopher Lotis
COPY EDITOR
Red Velvet Creative
ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN
ASTC-ACM 2011
Workforce Survey
Report
BUSINESS AND ADVERTISING
David Corson
ADVERTISING MANAGER
To advertise in Dimensions, contact David Corson, (202) 783-7200 x121, [email protected].
Jessica Evans
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
Alejandro Asin
Co-produced by ASTC and
the Association of Children’s
Museums (ACM), this report
is based on a survey of 155 U.S.
institutions and features detailed
data on 14 positions, including
salaries analyzed by museum
size, educational requirements,
benefits provided, and turnover
rates. Salary information for 10
additional positions, as well as
information from CEOs at 25
institutions outside the United
States, is also included. This
source for human resources
planning and management
also includes a special section
detailing staff diversity.
#103-2011
ASTC members/students: $75
Nonmembers: $150
Visit www.astc.org/pubs
to order.
PUBLICATIONS ASSISTANT
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
Ganigar Chen
National Science Museum, Pathumthani, Thailand
Chip Lindsey
ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum, Ashland, Oregon, U.S.A.
Paul Orselli
Paul Orselli Workshop (POW!), Baldwin, New York, U.S.A.
Erika C. Shugart
Erika Shugart Consulting, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.
Julia Tagüeña
Centro de Investigación en Energía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelos, Mexico
Harry White
At-Bristol, Bristol, England, U.K.
CONTRIBUTORS
Kate Barnard, Sharon Barry, Jamie Bell, Kate Flinner, John Fraser, Diane Frendak, Catherine Halversen, Larry H. Hoffer,
Laura Huerta Migus, Merryn McKinnon, Trevor Nesbit, Paula Rais, Anthony (Bud) Rock, David Rock, Christine Ruffo,
Kalie Sacco, Joelle Seligson, Beverly Sheppard, Lynn Uyen Tran, Charlie Trautmann, Martin Weiss, Maia Werner-Avidon
Dimensions (ISSN 1528-820X) is published six times a year by the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, 818 Connecticut Avenue NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006, U.S.A. Copyright © 2013 the Association
of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Dimensions is intended to keep member institutions apprised of trends, practices, innovations, perspectives, and news of
significance to the science center and museum field. Any paid staff member of an ASTC-member institution can request a
free print or electronic subscription at members.astc.org. For nonmembers, print subscriptions are USD 55/USD 65 outside
the U.S. (electronic: USD 35). For students, print subscriptions are USD 35/USD 45 outside the U.S. (electronic: USD 29).
Students also receive a free subscription to the biweekly INFORMER enewsletter. Students must provide a copy of a valid
student ID. Subscribe at www.astc.org/pubs/dimensions.htm or send name, address, and payment in U.S. dollars to ASTC
at the above address, Attn: Dimensions Subscriptions. For help, call (202) 783-7200 or email [email protected]. Dimensions is
included in EBSCO Publishing’s products. ALTERNATE FORMATS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.
Dimensions is printed on 30% postconsumer paper with environmentally friendly inks. By printing this issue on recycled
paper, ASTC has saved the following resources:
1,707 gallons
189 pounds
372 pounds
2,847,075 BTUs
wastewater
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not generated
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not consumed
Follow us on Twitter: @ScienceCenters (twitter.com/ScienceCenters), like our
Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ScienceCenters), and visit www.astc.org.
To submit ideas for features or departments, contact Emily Schuster, editor, (202) 783-7200 x130,
[email protected]. Email letters to the editor to [email protected] (subject line: Inbox) or
mail them to ASTC at the above address, Attn: Dimensions Inbox. Include your name, title, and
institution. We reserve the right to edit letters for publication.
6/17/13 6:58 PM
From the CEO ✺
What “Sustains” Us
Science centers and museums the world over are
successful through the combined efforts of capable
staff, dedicated board members, committed volunteers, supportive community leaders, and a widely
diverse collection of suppliers whose products and
services help us bring exciting and educational
programming to our visitors. ASTC refers to these
suppliers—including individuals, corporations, and
public agencies—as our “sustaining members.”
Together, they support nearly every aspect of our
operations, and they are often the source of the
most innovative and forward-thinking concepts
employed within our institutions.
At a recent professional conference, I met several
of our current ASTC sustaining members (and
a few potential members). I took some time to
discuss not just their products and services, but
also their interests and motivations for investing
their creative energies in the museum field. This
community comprises individuals with the same
diverse experiences and expertise typical of the
staff of our member institutions. They are artists,
engineers, educators, scientists, business people,
marketing professionals, and community experts.
Many began their careers in our museums; others
are on a path to future positions among us. Most
importantly, they are collectively a community of
“thinkers and doers,” dedicated to helping us to
become more creative and efficient.
I believe that ASTC needs to explore more deeply
how to strengthen the role of our sustaining members in our association’s work. We should bring our
sustaining members into the dialogue on future
trends, challenges, and creative directions for our
field. Their perspectives will be extremely valuable
to ASTC’s Communities of Practice, conference
sessions, and other projects. I welcome the views
Photo by Christopher Anderson
of others on this topic, and I look forward to connecting with our sustaining member colleagues
again at future opportunities.
In this spirit, I recommend that participants at the
2013 ASTC Annual Conference in Albuquerque
(October 19–22) take just a few extra minutes to
learn about our exhibitors’ perspectives on the
future of our field. (See the special conference
section in this issue of Dimensions for a list of
exhibitors.) I know that our sustaining members
seek, first and foremost, to form partnerships with
science centers and museums that achieve their
respective programming and business objectives.
ASTC wants to help facilitate these business
opportunities wherever possible. Still, I hope that
we will also acknowledge and explore our shared
commitments and contributions to the field for the
benefit of all those we serve.
Anthony (Bud) Rock ([email protected]) is ASTC’s CEO. Visit www.astc.org/blog/category/ceo to read
more From the CEO editorials.
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spotlights
THE EXPLORATORIUM’S NEW WATERFRONT HOME
Physicist Frank Oppenheimer, who founded San
Francisco’s Exploratorium in 1969, believed that
the opportunity to explore how the world works
should be available to all. That opportunity expanded on April 17, when the pioneering interactive science museum opened the doors of a larger,
brighter, more centrally located building at historic
Pier 15 on the San Francisco Bay waterfront. The
330,000-square-foot (30,660-square-meter) museum (including indoor and outdoor space) is three
times bigger than the previous facility and can
accommodate a million visitors a year—twice as
6
many as before. It features more than 600 exhibits,
150 of which are new. Funding for the $300 million
project came primarily from private individuals
and foundations.
It took nine years to plan and develop the new
museum and about 100 days to move from the
original facility in the Palace of Fine Arts. The
new museum is divided into six main galleries.
The Osher West Gallery focuses on the art and
science of human cognition and social behavior.
The Bechtel Central Gallery explores seeing and
listening. The East Gallery is a working laboratory
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Clockwise from top: This solar power system, installed on the Exploratorium’s roof, is designed to ultimately generate
100% of the facility’s electricity demand; the new Algae Chandelier allows visitors to pump oxygen to nourish tanks
of colored algae, also known as phytoplankton; Fujiko Nakaya’s Fog Bridge stretches across the pedestrian bridge that
spans the water between Piers 15 and 17. More than 800 high-pressure nozzles lining the bridge shroud visitors in mist.
Photos by Amy Snyder © Exploratorium
where visitors investigate living systems. The
South Gallery is a workshop area where visitors
learn by making things and tinkering. The allglass Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery, overlooking
the waterfront and city, enables visitors to study
the science of the bay and the impact of humans
on the landscape. The Outdoor Gallery’s exhibits
and rotating art installations encourage visitors to
observe their natural and urban surroundings.
In keeping with the museum’s expanded focus
on art as a medium for inquiry and discovery,
40 new indoor and outdoor art projects were on
display at the opening. The new campus includes
neighboring Pier 17, where the museum has the
option to expand in the future. The museum has
also set itself the goal of becoming the largest netzero energy use museum in the United States—
perhaps even the world. —Sharon Barry
Details: Linda Dackman, public information director, [email protected], www.exploratorium.edu
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✺
spotlights
SCIENCE FICTION—
OR REALITY?
How many inventions once imagined
by science fiction writers have since
become reality? How many others may
become part of our future? Scitech, in
Perth, Australia, invites visitors to discover the answers in its newest traveling exhibition, Science Fiction, Science
Future.
The exhibition occupies 5,380
square feet (500 square meters) of floor
space and contains 17 interactive exhibits grouped into three thematic areas:
Travel, Body + Health, and Robotics.
The exhibits range from full-body
experiences that provide opportunities
for creative play to computer-based
activities that enable visitors to deepen
their understanding of how science
fiction concepts could become the
science of the future. For example, visitors can watch themselves and their
friends disappear on a large screen in
an interactive on cloaking. They can
move objects on a computer screen
simply by looking. Or they can watch
videos about visionaries who forecast
the future as long ago as 1880.
Since closing at Scitech in early
May, Science Fiction, Science Future
has moved on to the Queensland
Museum in Brisbane. —S.B.
Details: Denham Dunstall, director of
technology development and design,
[email protected] (exhibit
development), and Gary Foxton, manager of
traveling exhibitions, [email protected]
(exhibit rental); www.scitech.org.au
Visitors can test out the concept of teleportation in Science
Fiction, Science Future. Photo courtesy Scitech
8
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spotlights ✺
Above: The Regional Biodiversity wall at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery highlights the four
ecozones in the Fort Collins area: riparian, prairie, foothills, and mountains. Right: The museum
houses live black-footed ferrets. Recovery efforts for this critically endangered species are based near
Fort Collins. Photos by Dave Dahms
THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS
There are science museums. There are history
museums. And there’s the Fort Collins Museum
of Discovery. The new Colorado museum, which
opened last November, blends science and history exhibits to demonstrate how the world works
and what roles humans have played in it. Visitors
can engage in a variety of hands-on experiences
and also view artifacts ranging from ancient fossils to a piano from the 1904 World’s Fair.
The 16,000-square-foot (1,490-square-meter)
main gallery includes six zones: the Music &
Sound Lab; Wildlands & Wildlife; People on the
Move; First Peoples; Food, Forage, and Farm;
and the Exploration Zone. A visit to the Music &
Sound Lab illustrates how the museum interweaves science and history. Visitors can learn
about the physics of sound as well as the history
of the Fort Collins music scene. They can play
a variety of instruments or compare a 1904
home phonograph with a 1988 portable cassette player. In Wildlands & Wildlife, a cast of a
42-foot (13-meter) plesiosaur (an ancient marine
reptile) hangs from the ceiling, telling a global
story through a local lens: A plesiosaur was
discovered not far from the museum. The museum also houses a digital dome theater, a large
traveling exhibition gallery, and two classrooms
complete with glass garage doors that allow for
open-air educational experiences.
The $27 million museum was developed
through a collaboration between two museums
that merged in 2008—the Fort Collins Museum,
and the Discovery Science Center—and funded
through a $6 million city tax renewal and a $20
million capital campaign of public and private
support.—S.B.
Details: Co-executive directors Annette Geiselman, [email protected], and Cheryl Donaldson,
[email protected], www.fcmod.org
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notes from astc
INTERSECTIONS PARTNERSHIP
AWARDS ANNOUNCED
CAISE RELAUNCHES INFORMALSCIENCE.ORG
In May, the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education
(CAISE) launched a new and robust informalscience.org website to provide a one-stop shop of resources and connections for everyone working
in the informal science education (ISE) field.
This major rebuilding consolidates five previously separate websites:
informalscience.org, insci.org, informalcommons.org, caiseconveningwiki.
org, and iseevidencewiki.org. Informalscience.org now makes it possible
for all ISE professionals to come together in one online location for the
benefit of the entire field.
In this new integrated platform, users can search project descriptions, evaluation reports and instruments, research reports and briefs,
instructional materials, exhibit case studies and reviews, citizen science toolkits, open source software, articles, and reference materials.
Users can also disseminate findings and connect to our community of
professionals from across the ISE field.
Informalscience.org pulls together resources contributed by
colleagues in the ISE field and from projects represented by the
CAISE-convened Infrastructure Coordination Roundtable (ICR). The
site was rebuilt by project contributors at CAISE, Ideum, Inverness
Research Associates, and the Lawrence Hall of Science, University
of California, Berkeley, and with funding from the (U.S.) National
Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math) Learning program. The team wishes to thank
all of our advisors and colleagues who provided input on the project.
For more information, contact CAISE staff at caise@
informalscience.org or (202) 783-7200.
10
On April 1, the National Writing Project
(NWP) and ASTC announced the winners of
the first round of Intersections partnership
awards. Through the Intersections initiative,
science centers and museums will partner
with NWP sites to design innovative programs that integrate science and literacy.
The five winning partnerships are
the Central Arizona Writing Project
and Arizona Science Center, Phoenix;
the Montana Writing Project and spectrUM Discovery Area, the University of
Montana, Missoula; the San Diego Area
Writing Project, San Diego Natural History
Museum, and the Fleet Inquiry Institute at
the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San
Diego; the University of North Carolina–
Charlotte Writing Project and Discovery
Place, Charlotte, North Carolina; and the
Western Pennsylvania Writing Project and
Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh.
The Intersections initiative is funded
by the (U.S.) National Science Foundation
(Grant No. 122461). The NWP/ASTC
partnership will foster the creation of new
program models able to reach a diverse
range of youth and educators, resulting in
an infusion of literacy practices in informal
settings, as well as increased exposure of
formal educators to STEM-rich learning
experiences. The program will build on recommendations in the Common Core State
Standards and the (U.S.) National Research
Council’s 2012 publication, A Framework
for K–12 Science Education: Practices,
Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas.
Dimensions
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notes from astc ✺
DIMENSIONS RECEIVES ITS SECOND
CONSECUTIVE EXCEL AWARD
10-YEAR ON-SITE ATTENDANCE
SURVEY
On June 10, Dimensions was honored with its second consecutive
EXCEL Award from Association
Media and Publishing, which
cited the magazine’s “superior
quality and innovation.” The
March/April 2012 issue (at right)
was recognized with a Bronze
EXCEL Award in the category of
Magazines: Cover Photography.
The judges noted that the
“image does a good job speaking to the audience, and it
guides your eye to the deck [‘Where Art and
Science Meet.’]”
The prestigious EXCEL Awards are bestowed upon the
finest publications and media products in the association
industry. Nearly 1,000 entries were submitted this year, and a
total of 166 EXCEL Award winners, representing 83 nonprofit
organizations and associations, were chosen in 72 categories.
Now is the time to secure your own free subscription to Dimensions at members.astc.org. By the end of 2013,
ASTC will no longer be mailing a packet of five copies of
Dimensions to each institution’s main contact. Main contacts
will still receive one copy, and in addition, any paid staff
member at an ASTC-member institution can request his
or her own free print or electronic subscription. Electronic
subscribers are the first to receive each issue, and also gain
immediate free access to all issues published in the past year.
Visit www.
astc.org/blog/
category/astcdimensions to
access extended
Dimensions
content and
archived back
issues, which are
available for free
one year after
Emily Schuster (center), editor of Dimensions, accepts an
publication.
EXCEL Award from Association Media and Publishing’s Gary
In November 2012, ASTC asked its science
center and museum members to submit
annual on-site attendance data for calendar
years 2002–11. The goal of the survey was to
collect consistent, long-term data and try to
determine if there has been a clear upward
or downward trend. In all, 155 science centers and museums responded; 107 of those
provided data for all 10 years.
Attendance increased overall from 2002
to 2009, but declined somewhat in 2010 and
2011. Large institutions showed the flattest
attendance across the years—2011’s median
attendance was only 2% higher than 2002’s.
For more information, download the full 10year on-site attendance report at www.astc.
org/about/pdf/ASTC10YearAttendance.pdf.
Rubin (outgoing board president) and Sarah Patterson
(executive director). Photo by Christine Ruffo
11
6/17/13 6:58 PM
✺ notes
from astc
WELCOME TO ASTC
The following new members were approved by the
ASTC Board in October 2012. Contact information is
available in the About ASTC section of ASTC’s website,
www.astc.org.
SCIENCE CENTER AND MUSEUM MEMBERS
• Children’s Museum of South Carolina, Myrtle
• The Living Arts & Science Center, Lexington,
Beach. This museum first opened in 1994, occu-
Kentucky. This center was founded in 1968
pying a modest 1,200-square-foot (110-square-
to provide opportunities for exploration and
meter) retail space in a local mall. By 1998, the
education in the arts and sciences. Last year, the
museum had moved and expanded to include
center launched a $5 million capital campaign
8,700 square feet (810 square meters) of build-
to renovate its current home and more than
ing space for its 20 exhibits.
double its size with a new planetarium, digital
• Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor
Center, Newport, Oregon. Located on Yaquina
Bay and open since 1965, this center is part of
media studio, interactive exhibits, and additional
classroom and meeting space.
• Pensacola MESS Hall, Florida. Wind tubes,
Oregon State University. Exhibits feature live
marble runs, and a harmonograph are part of the
marine animals and interactive games that
permanent exhibits at the Pensacola MESS Hall,
demonstrate current marine science research.
which had a trial opening in 2012 before its grand
• Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York. The
opening on April 26, 2013. Visitors can also cre-
Yonkers Museum, founded in 1919 at City Hall,
ate experiments, engage in complex reasoning,
became the Hudson River Museum in 1948.
and tinker with “MESS kits,” which change daily
The multithemed museum complex includes
and include electronics, automata, chromatogra-
the Andrus Planetarium, six art galleries, the
phy, and more.
environmental gallery Hudson Riverama, and the
Glenview Mansion (built in 1876).
• The Johnson GEO CENTRE, St. John’s,
• Planetarium Science Center (PSC), Alexandria,
Egypt. The PSC is an affiliate center of the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, designed to encour-
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Open
age curiosity, imagination, and creativity
since 2002, the GEO CENTRE houses exhibit
through interactive activities presented in the
galleries related to our planet, oil and gas explo-
planetarium, history of science museum, and
ration, space exploration, the Titanic disaster,
ALEXploratorium (a hands-on science facility).
and the geology of Canada’s easternmost
• Strategic Air & Space Museum, Ashland,
province. The center is mostly underground
Nebraska. This museum not only preserves
and features exposed 550 million-year-old rock
and displays historic aircraft, nuclear missiles,
walls.
and space vehicles, but also provides educational resources in its 300,000-square-foot
(28,000-square-meter) facility.
12
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notes from astc ✺
Clockwise from far left: Photos courtesy the
Living Arts & Science Center, the Planetarium
Science Center, the Pensacola MESS Hall, and
Strategic Air & Space Museum
SUSTAINING MEMBERS
• Abruzzo Associates, Hoboken, New Jersey.
James Abruzzo has convened a team of consultants specializing in nonprofit strategy, compensation, and executive coaching.
• Eureka Exhibits, LLC, Greer, South Carolina. A
returning member, this company is dedicated to
developing traveling exhibits, offering consulting services, and providing affordable exhibit
components.
• Fly to Learn, Powered by X-Plane, Ormond Beach,
Florida. This group develops educational materials that enable students of all ages to design,
build, and fly their own virtual airplanes.
• RedBox Workshop, Ltd., Chicago. RedBox
Workshop is a full-service studio offering design,
fabrication, and project management services.
• Xcentuate Ltd., Dundee, Scotland, United
Kingdom. Paul Jennings is managing director of
this consultancy, which provides services including institutional planning, rebranding, fundraising,
and community engagement.
• X PRIZE Foundation, Playa Vista, California. This
nonprofit organization creates and manages
large-scale, incentivized prize competitions in five
areas: Education, Global Development, Energy
and Environment, Life Sciences, and Exploration.
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6/17/13 6:58 PM
✺ notes
from astc
NEW GOVERNING MEMBERS APPROVED
The ASTC Board approved two new Governing Members in March.
The Cincinnati Museum Center of Natural and
Cultural History and Science, Ohio, traces its
origins to the Western Museum Society, founded in
1818. John James Audubon, hired as a taxidermist,
was the first paid employee. In 1990, the center
moved to the Union Terminal, the city’s Art Deco
train station. With 153 full-time staff and a $17.6
million budget, the center operates a multimuseum
complex that explores science and regional history
in 152,250 square feet (14,140 square meters) of
interior exhibit space. The center comprises Duke
Energy Children’s Museum, Museum of Natural
History & Science, Robert D. Lindner Family
OMNIMAX Theater, Cincinnati History Museum,
and Cincinnati History Library and Archives. The
center is also a founding member of the steering
committee for southwestern Ohio’s only STEM
high school and an executive member of the
Southwestern Ohio STEM Learning Network. Last
year, the center had more than 1.4 million visitors.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural
Sciences, Raleigh, is a collections- and researchbased museum. Begun in 1879, its purpose is to enhance understanding of the environment in ways
that emphasize North Carolina and the southeast
United States in global contexts. Structured around
questions of “What do we know?” and “How do
we know?”, the exhibits and programs feature
live animals and investigation labs; there are also
citizen science opportunities and weekly science
cafés. In the new Nature Research Center, the Daily
Planet Theater is an immersive multimedia space
that presents research by resident and visiting
scientists, covers scientific breakthroughs, and connects with schools across a wide region. Externally,
the theater is shaped like a globe, complete with
NASA-accurate imagery. Admission is free to the
museum and its satellite venues. Propelled by 150
full-time staff, 55,000 annual volunteer hours, and a
$17 million budget from public and private sources,
this museum is North Carolina’s most popular
school and family destination.
Left: In the Naturalist Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, visitors place a specimen
on one of the “magic touch tables,” which display a variety of information about each object. Photo by Chris
Adamczyk. Below: Historic Union Terminal, home to Cincinnati Museum Center. Photo courtesy Cincinnati
Museum Center.
14
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notes from astc ✺
OUR BOARDS IN ACTION: SAMMY REDD
Each “Our Boards in Action” column highlights a board member at an ASTC-member institution,
who shares his or her insights and experiences. In this edition, we feature Sammy Redd, who just
completed his term as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Museum of Natural
History, Martinsville, on June 30. As coordinator of college access at New College Institute, also
in Martinsville, Redd partners with schools, community organizations, and families to create a
college-going culture in Southern Virginia.
How did you get involved as a board
member of the Virginia Museum of
Natural History (VMNH)?
The museum’s trustees are political appointees. I was appointed by Governor
Tim Kaine in 2006. I grew up in
Martinsville, so I’ve been familiar with
the museum since its inception in 1984.
In what ways is VMNH’s work meaningful to its community?
VMNH is a state museum with a national reputation located in a small town.
The museum plays an outsized role
locally as a focus of community pride,
family entertainment, and learning. It
is an economic driver, providing high
quality professional jobs and purchasing
most of its goods and services locally.
As you complete your term as board
chairman and look back on your experience, what accomplishments are you
most proud of?
My leadership priority when I became
chairman was to develop a clear and
communal answer to the question: What
is success?
We looked at all aspects of the
museum’s operations to develop a twoyear vision plan, A Museum Without
Walls, consisting of 12 goals and 36
objectives in support of the goals. We
reoriented our board meetings around
ongoing discussion and refinement
of the goals, and we now evaluate the
executive director based on his progress
toward the objectives.
We kept the time period of the vision
plan short (two years) to maintain a
sense of urgency and focus. We were
intentional in not calling it a strategic
plan, as we wanted it to be a living,
flexible working document and not just
a binder to put on a shelf to collect dust.
The primary goal of A Museum
Without Walls is to focus more intentionally on stakeholders beyond our
home in Martinsville. As a state agency, we have a responsibility to serve all
Virginia citizens. We have revamped
our website to include a virtual tour,
multimedia, and an online store. We
have established off-site exhibits at
Virginia state parks and highway visitor
centers, and we are ramping up our
traveling exhibit program. We now have
museum educators located in Central
and Eastern Virginia. Long-term, we
hope to explore possibilities for branch
facilities in other parts of the state in
partnership with local governments and
nonprofits.
Sammy Redd, immediate past chairman of the Virginia
Museum of Natural History Board of Trustees.
What do you think science center executives should do to create good working relationships with their boards?
Successful board/executive relationships come down to one thing: communication. The challenge is that board
members are often museum amateurs
who may have difficulty articulating
clear objectives. The executive director
should continually engage the board in
dialogue about institutional priorities
and the board’s expectations.
Do you have a board member you’d like to see profiled in a future “Our
Boards in Action” column? Please send their name, position, and contact
information to [email protected] (subject line: Boards).
15
6/17/13 6:58 PM
✺ notes
from astc
At the Models for Science Centers as STEM Conveners workshop, from left to right: Ann Metzger, Henry Buhl, Jr., co-director, Carnegie Science Center; Anthony (Bud) Rock, CEO, ASTC; Rich
Fitzgerald, Allegheny County executive; and Ron Baillie, Henry Buhl, Jr., co-director, Carnegie Science Center. Photo courtesy Carnegie Science Center
MODELS FOR SCIENCE
CENTERS AS STEM CONVENERS
On November 28–29, 2012, ASTC and
Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, partnered to host a workshop entitled Models
for Science Centers as STEM Conveners.
The workshop introduced leaders in the
field to Carnegie Science Center’s new
Chevron Center for STEM Education and
Career Development initiative, which
places the science center as the primary
convener of STEM stakeholders in the area.
Proceedings include recordings of presentations, documentation of the planning
conversations, and a framework for other
science centers interested in pursuing
similar initiatives in their own communities.
The proceedings can be found at the
ASTC website at www.astc.org/resource/
STEMConveners.htm.
16
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE NEWS
Since May, the Public Engagement with Science (PES) Community of
Practice (CoP) has held two webinars investigating a variety of issues
and program models. In May, Kate Brandes of the Nurture Nature
Center, Easton, Pennsylvania; Jen Kretser of the Wild Center/Natural
History Museum of the Adirondacks, Tupper Lake, New York; and
David Sittenfeld of the Museum of Science, Boston, shared three different program models for engaging the public on science-related issues
of local importance. In June, Dan Kahan of the Cultural Cognition
Project at Yale University shared research on how members of the public
process science-related information, and strategies for leveraging this
knowledge for positive science engagement.
On July 9, the PES CoP will host a webinar by Dietram Scheufele
of the University of Madison–Wisconsin. Scheufele will share research
on scientists’ views of engaging the public and how these views are
shaping new ways of sharing findings. To participate in this webinar, or
to access archived recordings of previous webinars, visit www.astc.org/
blog/2013/04/30/upcoming-pes-community-of-practice-webinars.
For more information, or to join any of ASTC’s CoPs, email
[email protected].
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:58 PM
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6/17/13 6:58 PM
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people
After two years as director
of the (U.S.) National
Science Foundation
(NSF), Subra Suresh
stepped down in March
to accept an appointment as Carnegie
Mellon University’s president, effective
July 1. Cora B. Marrett, NSF’s deputy
director, is serving as acting director.
Lin Erickson began her
second tenure as
executive director and
CEO of the Da Vinci
Science Center,
Allentown, Pennsylvania, on March 18.
She previously led the science center
from 1997 to 2005. Erickson spent the last
eight years in Ohio, where she held
development positions at Wittenberg
University and the Air Force Museum
Foundation. Erickson succeeds Troy A.
Thrash, who is now president and CEO
of the Air Zoo, Portage, Michigan.
MaryAnn Woods Przekurat had served
as interim CEO.
Yoshihiro Hayashi
became the new director
general of Tokyo’s
National Museum of
Nature and Science on
April 1. He was formerly director general
of Yamashina Institute for Ornithology.
Hayashi succeeds Shinji Kondo, who had
led the museum since 2009.
In April, Mat Sinclair
began work as executive
director of the Terry Lee
Wells Nevada Discovery
Museum, Reno. Sinclair
spent 15 years at Portland’s Oregon
Museum of Science and Industry,
including six years as vice president of
education. Sinclair was also executive
director at Portland’s Hoyt Arboretum.
After 30 years, Jeffrey
Kirsch retired as
executive director of San
Diego’s Reuben H. Fleet
Science Center in June.
Kirsch’s next role will be
as consulting producer
on a film about the
Panama Canal. The Fleet
has chosen Steven
Snyder as its new executive director.
Snyder was most recently vice president,
exhibit and program development, at
Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute.
ASTC welcomed five new staff members
in April and May:
Bradley Brookens,
ASTC’s new accountant,
recently graduated from
Virginia Commonwealth
University with a degree
in accounting. He previously worked as a
junior accountant at the American Forest
& Paper Association. Brookens succeeds
Binaya Dhakal, now general ledger
accountant at the World Resources
Institute.
Jessica Evans has joined
ASTC as member
services coordinator,
supporting both membership services and the
ASTC Annual Conference. Evans
recently received her master’s degree in
folklore from Indiana University,
Bloomington, and has interned at the
Tennessee State Museum and the West
Baton Rouge Museum.
Mary Mathias, association services coordinator,
supports ASTC’s work
in policy, outreach,
development, and
professional development. Mathias has a
degree in aerospace engineering from
Washington University in St. Louis and
has held internships/temporary jobs at
the California Science Center, Los
Angeles, and the Saint Louis Science
Center, Missouri.
Kathy Pasley has joined
ASTC as director of
development. She has
held development
positions at organizations including the International
Women’s Forum, the SIR Foundation,
and Safe Kids Worldwide. Pasley
succeeds Katherine I. Goodall, who is
now chief operating officer at the S&R
Foundation.
Korie Twiggs, now
ASTC’s program
specialist, is responsible
for supporting two major
U.S.-wide collaborative
projects: Learning Labs in Libraries and
Museums, and Intersections. Twiggs was
previously director of education at the
Association of Children’s Museums.
In Memoriam
Janet Anne Kamien, 64, passed away on March 11, after battling
bone cancer. As a beloved mentor, consultant, and coach for museum
planning and exhibit development, she worked with dozens of
museums worldwide. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kamien developed
Photo by Anibal Cicardi groundbreaking exhibitions at the Boston Children’s Museum,
including What if You Couldn’t? (about disabilities) and Endings
(about death and loss). She later helped reshape the exhibition program at Chicago’s
Field Museum of Natural History. This year, the National Association for Museum
Exhibition honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award. The Janet A. Kamien
Fund will support the education of exhibition creators (name-aam.org/about/news).
19
6/17/13 6:58 PM
what we learned
Above: The convivial atmosphere at the Alzheimer’s Café is welcoming for first-timers and regular visitors
alike. Right: The author (at left) enjoys time with a visitor to the Alzheimer’s Café. Photos by Zach Foote
Cultivating Social Support at
an Alzheimer’s Café
By Paula Rais
The Alzheimer’s Café program at the Children’s Museum of
New Hampshire (CMNH), Dover, provides a safe, supportive,
nonjudgmental setting for people dealing with dementia and
their caregivers to enjoy a community outing together. Few
social activities for this population include both people living
with the disease and their caregivers. In addition, these families often face isolation and stigma due to the unusual behaviors associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Our Café attendees
often form friendships that extend beyond the museum.
The first Alzheimer’s Café was launched in 1997 in the
Netherlands. These programs are now held worldwide at a
variety of venues, including museums, theaters, and restaurants. CMNH’s Café is based on a program at the Santa Fe
Children’s Museum, New Mexico, and follows the U.S. model
with a focus on socialization and a celebration of the individual beyond the disease. Our Café now regularly hosts more
20
than 20 visitors each month.
The New England Museum Association honored our work
with the Café with the 2012 Leaders in Innovation Award. We
received so many requests for information that we hosted
a Nuts & Bolts of Starting an Alzheimer’s Café workshop
in April, attended by nearly 40 people from around New
England. Here are a few lessons we shared at the workshop:
1. Establish a convivial atmosphere. It’s important to host
an Alzheimer’s Café in a nonclinical setting where attendees feel welcome. Museums are ideal settings because they
are usually vibrant, multigenerational community spaces.
To create a friendly atmosphere, we provide nametags,
serve refreshments, use tablecloths, play music (sometimes live!), and laugh and talk a lot. Visiting the exhibits is
always an option, as well.
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:58 PM
what we learned ✺
2. Enlist a diverse group of partners. Assembling a team of
advisors is a critical step. Rather than limiting partners to
senior services providers, draw from a variety of sectors in
the community to ensure more support, a wider perspective, and broader marketing.
3. Be clear about your event’s parameters. The Café
model is designed for people caring for a loved one with
dementia at home. One afternoon, a van from the local
nursing home arrived for the Alzheimer’s Café. My valiant
volunteers scrambled to make space for wheelchairs and
gracefully integrate a dozen extra visitors. This incident
highlights the importance of specifying the program’s
intended audience. It’s also necessary to be a gatekeeper
to protect attendees from representatives of the many
legitimate businesses associated with older people who
see the Café as a marketing opportunity.
4. Know that support may come from unexpected places.
Our Alzheimer’s Café programs are free to the public and
inexpensive to produce. We solicit donated refreshments,
use volunteer help, and advertise through free channels.
Because of the low cost, CMNH committed to hosting the
programs before securing any funding. However, we ended
up receiving unsolicited funds from a variety of sources.
Alzheimer’s and dementia can affect anyone, so you never
know where support, financial or otherwise, will come from.
Paula Rais ([email protected]) is community engagement director at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, Dover.
If you would like to write about what your institution has learned from a project in exhibit development, education, finance,
and/or operations, contact us at [email protected] (subject line: What We Learned).
Exhibits.nl is a leading supplier
of interactive exhibits,
operating worldwide to the
highest quality standards.
Our exhibits are innovative,
fun, educational and above all,
of a world class built quality.
6/17/13 6:58 PM
The Science Center
Professional
This issue of Dimensions looks at the science
center and museum workforce and professional
development through a broad lens. What are
effective ways to hone the skills and expertise
of individual staff members, build capacity and
cohesion across an institution, and professionalize our broader field? How we can we recruit the
most diverse, talented, and innovative workforce
possible? How do professionals from different
sectors of the field—whether they work on the
gallery floor or in an office, in a science center or a
zoo, in a developed or developing country—come
together to improve their practice and serve their
publics? The articles in this issue present trends,
strategies, data, and practical guidelines to help
explore these questions.
An Explainer at the New York Hall of Science shows a young girl how to make giant
bubbles. Photo courtesy the New York Hall of Science
6/17/13 6:58 PM
6/17/13 6:58 PM
Lee Gutkind (left) from Arizona State University shares his “To Think, to Write, to Publish” professional development project with national grant writer Carol Inman at the CAISEconvened 2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) Informal Science Education (ISE) Program Principal Investigator (PI) Meeting, held last March in Washington, D.C. Photo by
Risdon Photography
Professional Development
in the Informal Science
Education Field: A Growing,
Diverse Landscape
By Jamie Bell and Kalie Sacco
As the field of informal science education (ISE) expands and diversifies, a growing number of initiatives are raising the levels of quality and professionalism of ISE practitioners. These efforts include a
variety of strategies and models to help professionals, staff, and volunteers “get better at getting better,” in the parlance of Inverness Research principal and Center for Advancement of Informal Science
Education (CAISE) evaluator Mark St. John.
24
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:58 PM
Over the past two years, CAISE has been convening
professional development (PD) project leaders from
across the field, including those working in science
centers, museums, broadcast media, and out-ofschool time programs. A total of 40 professionals
have met both in person and through conference calls
to share and examine the strengths and challenges
of their PD models and to identify opportunities for
further improvement. These CAISE efforts are funded by the (U.S.) National Science Foundation (NSF)
Advancing Informal STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math) Learning (AISL) program.
CAISE has found that mixed groups of principal
investigators (PIs), project staff, and evaluators are
eager to identify and grapple with shared issues that
arise in the course of designing, implementing, and
evaluating PD projects. The need to match approaches to outcomes, collaborate effectively, evaluate
impacts, and plan for sustainability have provided
common ground for rich dialogue and resource sharing. Below are some of the key issues, themes, and
trends that have emerged from these discussions.
• Professionalization of the field. One major
issue that has been discussed in the convenings
is the desire of informal science educators to
be more visible as professional contributors to
the U.S. national STEM learning ecology. This
desire has emerged as current directions in formal science education (e.g., the recent release
of the Next Generation Science Standards)
increasingly embrace values and approaches
traditionally associated with the informal world,
such as science practices and cross-cutting
concepts. The need to create the conditions for
informal science educators to develop identities
as professionals raises issues of credentialing
(see article beginning on page 54), trending of
PD projects toward fee-based sustainability, and
building communities of (PD) practice.
• “Unlearning to learn.” Participating in PD
often requires audiences to “unlearn to learn,”
but in doing so, one develops dimensions of
professionalism in and respect for new areas of
expertise. A good example can be found in the
Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network
(NISENet) Sharing Science workshop and practicum for early career researchers. The “Really
Bad Demo Demo,” contributed by the University
of Madison, Wisconsin, Materials Research
Science and Engineering Center, exaggerates a
heavy-handed, pedantic approach to presenting
a science demonstration, thereby showing how
not to present engaging science to the public
in an informal setting (www.nisenet.org/sites/
default/files/catalog/uploads/8600/sharing_
science_workshop_guide-2nd_ed_0.pdf).
• Sustainability. The sustainability of PD efforts
has loomed large over the CAISE-convened
discussions. Participants have agreed that a
community of practice approach makes sense,
because it can make PD less top-down, more
peer-directed, less costly, and potentially more
sustainable as participants begin to see its value.
CAISE has found that at the root of discussions
about sustainability is the issue of motivation,
i.e., the perceived reward for participating in a
PD program needs to be greater than the cost. To
make the case to their institutions and funders
for support and sustainability, projects need to
generate more practical wisdom and evidence
about what works in PD and what doesn’t.
• The importance of case studies. Because of
the heterogeneity of the ISE field, CAISE is
finding that case studies can provide a variety
of entry points for PD project leaders to access
resonant issues and challenges from the experiences of others.
• Incidental learning. CAISE has found that
designing for and capturing moments of “incidental learning” is a challenge that resonates
throughout the field. Karen Watkins from the
University of Georgia, Athens, and Victoria
Marsick from Teachers College, Columbia
University, define incidental learning as unintentional, tacit byproducts of some other activity, such as accomplishing a task, interacting
with other people, absorbing an organization’s
culture, or learning from mistakes. One practical example shared by Mike Petrich and Karen
25
6/17/13 6:58 PM
Meena Selvakumar (center), director of Portal to the Public at Pacific Science Center in Seattle, leads a professional development discussion group at
the 2012 NSF ISE Program PI Meeting. Photo by Risdon Photography
Wilkinson from the Playful Invention and
Exploration (PIE) project at San Francisco’s
Exploratorium was the notion of helping staff
who facilitate tinkering and making activities to
embrace the two “F words”—failure and frustration—which are integral parts of the incidental
learning process involved in those activities.
CAISE has found that there is an ongoing, fieldwide need for resources to help participants
in PD programs to reflect on and apply the
knowledge, skills, and values that they learn
“incidentally.”
To learn more, or contribute to future CAISE discussions on PD in ISE, please contact the authors at
[email protected] or [email protected]. ■
RELATED RESOURCES
Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education:
cadrek12.org
Exploratorium’s Institute for Inquiry: www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/
Girl Scouts of Western Washington: www.girlscoutsww.org/Pages/
default.aspx
Marsick, J., Watkins, K., Callahan, M.W., & Volpe, M. (2009).
Informal and incidental learning in the workplace. In M. Smith & N.
DeFrates-Densch (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Adult Learning
and Development (pp. 570–600). New York: Routledge.
Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISENet)
Research Center—Informal Science Education Partnerships
(RISE): www.nisenet.org/rise
Portal to the Public Network (PoPNet) at Pacific Science Center:
popnet.pacificsciencecenter.org
Reflecting on Practice at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University
of California, Berkeley: cos-rop.net/rop/. (Also see the article
beginning on the next page.)
Science Education at the Crossroads conferences:
www.sciedxroads.org
Vexation and Venture (an innovative exercise for sharing PD case
studies): physics.weber.edu/johnston/research/JSTE_profdev.pdf
Jamie Bell ([email protected]) is Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) project
director, and Kalie Sacco ([email protected]) is CAISE program manager. Meena Selvakumar, director of
the Portal to the Public initiative at Pacific Science Center, Seattle, and Stephanie Lingwood, project director of Girl Scouts of Western Washington, also contributed to this article. Founded in 2007 with support
from the (U.S.) National Science Foundation (NSF), CAISE is a partnership among ASTC and co-principal
investigators at Oregon State University (OSU), the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-ofSchool Environments (UPCLOSE), the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, and KQED, San Francisco.
Inverness Research Associates serves as evaluator. CAISE is housed at ASTC’s offices in Washington, D.C.
26
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:58 PM
Professional Learning Through
Reflecting on Practice
By Lynn Uyen Tran, Catherine Halversen, and Maia Werner-Avidon
The opportunity for informal science educators to engage in professional learning is a critical part
of professionalizing the field. Professional learning is the ongoing learning for and about one’s practice that practitioners engage in to increase their expertise and skills. This learning involves reflecting
on our practice because gathering and discussing evidence about what we do and how our learners
respond helps us understand and improve our interactions with them.
At the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University
of California, Berkeley, we designed a professional
learning program called Reflecting on Practice
(RoP) to contribute to advancing the informal science education (ISE) field (cos-rop.net/rop). The
results that emerge when educators across an entire
institution reflect together in a professional learning
program can be far-reaching, long lasting, and sometimes surprising. They also confirm the importance
of this investment in building educator and institutional capacity. Here we share our design framework,
evaluation findings, and lessons learned.
ABOUT REFLECTING ON PRACTICE
We developed the RoP program in 2009 and
field-tested it throughout the United States. Now
implemented with more than 360 informal science educators at over 25 institutions in the United
States and one in Canada, the program offers all
educators in an institution the opportunity to learn
together as they explore pedagogical and practical content pertinent to their practice. Institutions
using the RoP program are diverse in education
staff size (from 3 to more than 30); type (e.g., zoo,
aquarium, natural history museum, science center,
and children’s museum); geographic location; and
audiences served. We are also working toward having ISE institutions in other countries adopt the
RoP program.
Institutions initiate their involvement in RoP by
sending two mid-career educators (facilitators) to
a three-day RoP Coaching Workshop to learn how
to implement the program. We offer this fee-based
workshop annually in Berkeley and regionally based
upon interest. The facilitators then implement the
program with other educators at their home institutions over 6–12 months.
The program comprises 14 interactive sessions (2.5
hours each) in four modules focused on major ideas
underlying informal science educators’ practice:
1. The nature of science and learning
2. How learning happens
3. The role of conversations in learning
4. Teaching with objects.
The sessions engage participants in discussions and
activities about their ideas on and understanding of
how people learn, habits and traditions within their
practice and their institutions, and implications of
research for educators’ practice. Reflective activities before, during, and after the sessions encourage
participants to critique their thinking and practice
over time.
PROGRAM DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The program is based on current research on learning and teaching science, how professionals learn,
and learning in informal environments. Four principles frame its design:
27
6/17/13 6:58 PM
At a Reflecting on Practice coaching workshop, Tanya Stum, education specialist at the Oakland Zoo, reacts to the “cup and card” activity. This activity helps
participants reflect on their beliefs about how learning happens. Photo courtesy the Lawrence Hall of Science
1. Model and build practice. Participants are active
learners as they engage in a shared experience to discuss pedagogy. Facilitators lead interactive activities
that model practice while challenging participants to
reflect on their own learning of science concepts.
2. Key ideas from research. During each session,
facilitators model how to apply research into educational practice. Participants review and discuss
implications of key research ideas and receive recommended readings.
3. Talk and try out practice. Participants are given
time and tasks to help them think about pedagogical
strategies they currently use and generate strategies
they would like to try.
4. Reflection and tools. Participants engage in
activities to reflect individually and as a community.
Facilitators encourage them to examine their teaching preferences, as well as consider the approach and
philosophy of their team, department, and institution. Tasks and tools include:
• Making videos of their teaching to watch and discuss with colleagues
• Using observation instruments to guide review of
videos
• Having in-person and online discussions about the
relevance and application of research and theory to
their practice
• Writing blogs or learning journals.
28
EVALUATION FINDINGS
Educators commented that the program has helped
them modify their educational approaches and
affected their departmental culture, including:
• Incorporating more social interactions in programs and asking more open-ended questions
• Building on visitors’ prior knowledge to engage
them in learning
• Adapting interactions and teaching strategies to
meet visitors’ needs
• Allowing learners to explore objects and make
their own observations.
Educators also acknowledged being more thoughtful and deliberate about their interactions. One
participant said, “I am more [aware] of my approach
toward creating a learning experience . . . and am
more open to trying new approaches . . . in communicating complex science topics.”
Facilitators reported tremendous value in thinking and sharing ideas as a group. One facilitator
explained, “It’s the whole opportunity to be together
in one room and work cooperatively . . . on some sort
of higher-level information than we ordinarily do. It’s
a chance to reflect individually and reflect together
and hopefully get a better look at what other staff
people do and what they think.”
Continued on page 33
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:58 PM
October 19–22 • Albuquerque, NM
6/17/13 6:58 PM
Special Conference Section
ASTC 2013: Get Ready for Liftoff!
Plan to join nearly 2,000 of your colleagues from around the world in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico,
October 19–22, as Explora, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, and the New Mexico
Museum of Natural History and Science host ASTC’s 2013 Annual Conference, the premier professional
development opportunity for the global science center community.
ASTC and the three host institutions are committed to delivering a powerful and valuable experience, one
for which you will see a repeated return on your investment. With more of what you love about ASTC’s Annual
Conference, plus some new and exciting features, you’ll find this will be time well spent.
And don’t forget: This year, Museum Open House Day, Big Screen Day, and the Digital Planetarium
Demonstrations, along with an all-new Science in the Park public festival will take place on Tuesday, so make
your travel and hotel plans accordingly.
Why should you attend the ASTC Annual
Conference?
• You’ll learn from the field’s leading experts—and
each other.
• You’ll have numerous opportunities to build and
burnish connections with colleagues from all over
the world.
• You’ll get the chance to strengthen the capacity of
your institution, your staff, and yourself.
ASTC 2013 by the numbers:
• Choose from more than 100 conference sessions
geared toward a range of professional experience, from
entry- and mid-level to senior management and CEOs.
• Concurrent sessions will focus on 15 core areas of
informal science education practice, including
community and member relations, education and learning, exhibits and experience, finance and development,
management, research and evaluation, and visitor/customer service.
• You and your staff will walk away with practical tips,
tricks, and resources you can implement immediately upon your return home.
• Get a jumpstart on learning with 12 preconference
workshops offered on Friday, October 18.
• You’ll benefit from onsite exposure to the three host
museums’ operations, programs, and teams.
• Enjoy the beauty and history of Albuquerque, Santa Fe,
and the surrounding area with three preconference
tours and three postconference tours.
• Three keynote sessions—on Saturday and Sunday
mornings, as well as Monday evening—will feature
thought-provoking, insightful, and intriguing speakers on
a variety of topics.
• Experience two full days of the ASTC Exhibit Hall,
jam-packed with a wide range of products and services.
• Tuesday’s Museum Open House Day will allow you to get
up close and personal with all three host museums.
• Connect with nearly 2,000 people from all over the globe!
Above: Visit Acoma Pueblo, the oldest
continuously inhabited U.S. settlement, on a
preconference tour. Photo by Lynn Baker
Right: A postconference tour includes a ride on
the Sandia Peak Tramway. Photo by Michael Hayes
6/17/13 6:59 PM
Conference Features You Won’t Want to Miss
More Value for Your Money
Sustained Learning Team Discussion Groups
Your ASTC conference registration fee includes breakfast at Saturday’s opening keynote session, the Saturday
Evening Party, and networking receptions on Sunday
evening, as well as Museum Open House Day, Big Screen
Day, the Digital Planetarium Demonstrations, and Science
in the Park on Tuesday. But this year, your registration fee
ALSO includes breakfast during Sunday’s keynote
session, as well as two additional lunches—Saturday’s
Leadership and Awards Luncheon and Sunday’s box
lunches in the Exhibit Hall. It’s the best value yet!
Date: Saturday, October 19
Time: 10:00–11:00 a.m.
These discussion groups will provide an opportunity to
meet new people, diversify perspectives in the field, and
contribute in a personal way to each other’s interests and
concerns. Attendees can sign up to participate in small
group discussions and will be randomly assigned to learning teams of 10–12 members. The teams will provide participants an opportunity to hear voices and points of view
they may not previously have heard, in a small, personal
format that encourages participation. The first meeting
for Learning Team members will be in the Exhibit Hall.
Each group will decide where and when subsequent meetings will take place during the conference. The individual
groups will also determine the topics of their discussions,
which could include conference sessions, field trends,
ideas, inspirations, advice, challenges, and more. You can
sign up to participate in these groups as part of the conference registration process.
Fantastic Keynote Presentations
Saturday’s opening keynote session
will feature Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for
Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit
membership organization of scientists,
teachers, and others that works to imScott.
prove the teaching of science as a way of
knowing, the teaching of evolution, and
the teaching of climate change. A former
college professor, Scott is an internationally known expert on the creationism and
evolution controversy, and is called upon
Stephenson.
by the press and other media to explain
science to the general public.
Sunday morning’s keynote presentation
will focus on whether Brazil’s Museum of
Tomorrow (Museu do Amanhä) represents the future of science centers. Luis
Oliveira, the museum’s scientific director,
Finn.
will lead the presentation, which also will
feature commentary from Sebastian Chan, director of digital and emerging media at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum in New York City, and Maria
Isabel Garcia, curator of the Mind Museum in Manila,
Philippines.
The keynote presentation on Monday evening will
feature a dialogue between best-selling author Neal
Stephenson (whose books include Snow Crash,
Cryptonomicon, and The Baroque Cycle) and Ed Finn,
founding director of Arizona State University’s Center for
Science and the Imagination (CSI). Stephenson has been
collaborating with CSI on Project Hieroglyph, which hopes
to use science fiction as a tool to inspire scientists, technologists, and others.
Creating a Great Conference Session
(Brown Bag Lunch)
Date: Monday, October 21
Time: 1:00–1:30 p.m.
Want some practical advice on how to make your session
proposal stand out from the crowd? Want to share your
innovative practices, programs, and partnerships? Learn
about the updated guidelines and key factors that will
strengthen your session proposal.
Development Brown Bag Lunch
Date: Monday, October 21
Time: 1:00–2:00 p.m.
Join Marla Cornelius (CompassPoint) and Greg Simoncini
(Simoncini Strategies) for an informal lunch discussion.
Bring your own lunch and your questions about donor communication, creating a philanthropic culture, and more.
Luncheon speakers sponsored by the Arizona Science
Center and the Franklin Institute
Science in the Park/Outreach Live
Date: Tuesday, October 22
Time: 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
See what happens when science centers and museums
from all over the world share their best outreach activities
and demonstrations with students from the Albuquerque
area, in a science festival to be held in Tiguex Park, a community park near Explora and the New Mexico Museum of
Natural History and Science.
6/17/13 6:59 PM
Registration Instructions
2013 ASTC Annual Conference Sponsors
New for 2013: You can register online
via our new registration system!
You can apply discounts such as the
Group Registration rate, register multiple
people, make changes, etc. Confirmations
and receipt of payment are now available
upon completing your online registration.
Visit conference.astc.org to begin your
registration.
(As of May 1, 2013)
Corporate Partners
Gold Sponsors
Register by July 31 and save $100!
Registration Fees
Early Bird registration deadline:
July 31, 2013
ASTC Member
Nonmember
$575
$795
Silver Sponsors
Advance registration deadline:
September 20, 2013
ASTC Member
Nonmember
$675
$895
On-site in Albuquerque
(after September 20, 2013)
ASTC Member
Nonmember
$775
$955
Jade Sponsors
MIKE MULLANE
former Astronaut
Bronze Sponsor
2013 Conference Exhibitors (As of May 1, 2013)
Visit our website at conference.astc.org for an updated list of 2013 exhibitors.
Action Moving Services, Atlas
Van Lines
ALCHEMY Studio
American Museum of
Natural History
Available Light
Benee’s Inc.
Blackbaud
Blue Telescope
Brad Larson Media, Inc.
Budd Wentz Productions
(Wentzscope Microscopes)
BWC Visual Technology,
Spherical Systems
California Science Center
Catawba Science Center
Chicago Scenic Studios Inc.
Children’s Discovery Museum
of San Jose (CDM)
Children’s Museum of
Indianapolis
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Creative Discovery Museum
D3D Cinema
Digitalis Education
Solutions, Inc.
Dinosaurs Unearthed
Discovery Dome
Evans & Sutherland
Evergreen Exhibitions
Exploratorium
Explorer Systems, Inc.
EyeTech Digital Systems, Inc.
The Field Museum of
Natural History
The Franklin Institute
Gateway Ticket Systems
Giant Screen Cinema
Association (GSCA)
Grande Exhibitions
GRANDSTAND
Gunther Von Hagens’ BODY
WORLDS
Haizlip Studio
Ideum
Imagine Exhibitions, Inc.
Institute for Advanced
Sustainability Studies
Jack Rouse Associates, Inc.
Kubik Maltbie, Inc.
Liberty Science Center
Minnesota Children’s Museum
Minotaur Mazes
MultiTouch
Museum of Science
and Industry
National Center for Interactive
Learning at the Space
Science Institute
National Geographic
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA)
The Natural History Museum
NISE Network
NRG! Exhibits
nWave Pictures Distribution
Ontario Science Centre
Outbound Software—Epson
Pacific Studio
Premier Exhibitions, Inc.
Richard Lewis Media Group
Roto
Science First/STARLAB
Science Museum of Minnesota
Science North
Sciencenter
ScienceWorks Museum
Seiler Instrument/
Zeiss Planetariums
Siriusware
Sky-Skan
Tessitura Network
TRIOTECH
Unified Field
Weather Underground
West Office Exhibition
Design, Inc.
Wood Street, Inc.
Want to be included on this list? Contact David Corson at (202) 783-7200 x121 or [email protected].
Bolded companies are sponsors.
6/17/13 6:59 PM
Continued from page 28
Facilitators related that a common language
and a culture of reflection and learning among colleagues emerged from the experience. Additionally,
they said that the RoP program has had broader
impacts on institutions, leading to improvements
in student programs, teacher professional development, and volunteer training, and even inspiring
some departments to refine their visions.
LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT PROGRAM
DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY
1. Secure initial staff buy-in. Participating educators must recognize the value and relevance of the
program for their professional growth. Therefore,
build interest in the program in advance, clearly
define program goals, involve educators in integrating the program into their schedules, and
make explicit connections between the program
and their work.
2. Allow time and support for learning and growing. Changing ones’ practice is not easy; it takes
time, space, and support. Over the short-term,
allow dedicated time for educators to think about
how to apply lessons learned, and over the longterm, expect noticeable changes to take time
to develop and become standard procedure.
To share ideas and try new methods, educators
also need to feel safe and supported. “Critical
friend” groups offer a way to review and discuss
practices without judgment. Freedom to break
from “the way things are done” helps educators
overcome the mental hurdle of institutional traditions and try a different approach.
3. Ensure institutional commitment. We
observed three factors that contributed to successful implementation and sustainability of the
program: an institutional commitment to professional learning, an institutional culture open to
change, and a program champion in the institution’s leadership.
Participants in a Reflecting on Practice coaching workshop listen intently
as their partners talk about the differences between formal and informal
science education in a Thought Swap activity. Photo courtesy the
Lawrence Hall of Science
The institution’s leadership and RoP program facilitators must understand and agree on the program
goals, relevance of the professional learning to
institutional goals, and time commitment required.
Garner this senior-level support by having senior
management attend sessions, conduct internal
evaluation to document change and integration, and
observe the community of educators talk about their
work with others inside and outside their institution.
REFLECTING ON THE FUTURE
Opportunities for professional learning based on
research, the importance of reflection, and the
application of new learning to practice are integral
to building capacity and contributing to advancing
the ISE field. The Reflecting on Practice program
is one such professional learning effort. For institutional investments in professional learning to yield
positive returns, institutions must go into the experience whole-heartedly; those that fully engage have
found their staff and institution improved by the
experience. ■
Lynn Uyen Tran ([email protected]) is a research specialist, Catherine Halversen is director of the
Communicating Ocean Sciences series, and Maia Werner-Avidon is evaluator at the Lawrence Hall of
Science at the University of California, Berkeley. The U.S. field test and dissemination of the RoP program
was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Science Foundation. Please
contact Lynn Uyen Tran to learn about participating in the program.
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
Recruiting for Inclusion
and Innovation
By Laura Huerta Migus
“It is diversity that drives innovation: a diversity of perspectives, of industries, of cultures. When we
bring together these different perspectives, we have a far better chance of breaking new ground.”
—Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect
Over the past two decades, the United States and
other countries have experienced major demographic
changes in race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic
distribution, paired with rapid development of new
technologies. In response to these changes, many
corporations have positioned recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce as a core strategy for relevance and innovation. Many of the lessons learned
are easily translated to science center and museum
staffing practices. In particular, writing clear and
inclusive job descriptions, advertising job opportunities in new channels, and ensuring a fair and balanced interview process are the pillars for recruiting
for inclusion and innovation.
Here are a few tips on writing a clear and inclusive
job description:
WRITING A GREAT JOB DESCRIPTION
• Differentiate clearly between essential job functions and non-essential functions, especially with
respect to any physical activity required. Include
clear descriptions of these physical activities (lifting, standing, verbal communication, etc.) and
their frequency as important cues for applicants
with physical challenges.
Readings from human resources and recruitment
professionals (see resource list on page 36) emphasize concise, concrete job descriptions that focus on
essential and necessary skills and qualifications. It
is critical to review the list of skills and qualifications with an eye toward inclusion: Are these items—
including minimum degree requirements, content
area knowledge, and previous museum experience—unintentionally prohibitive or narrow? As a
point of reference, according to the ASTC-ACM 2011
Workforce Survey Report (co-produced by ASTC and
the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM)),
nearly half (46%) of U.S. science center CEOs’ original field of study was not science or engineering (see
Figure 1), and 30% do not have graduate degrees.
34
• Outline 5 to 10 day-to-day responsibilities and
expectations in performance-based language (e.g.,
“Responsible for leading 5 to 7 field trip groups for
up to 30 students each per week.”) This is a clearer
way to communicate the experience necessary for
adequate performance than traditional qualification statements centered around years of experience or degree attainment. For positions that
require function across multiple areas, provide
some guidance on the proportion of time or number of hours per week/day expected to be spent on
each task.
• Avoid using field-specific jargon and abbreviations when possible (especially in job titles). If jargon is unavoidable, include explanatory language
to clarify the job description for candidates that
may not be familiar with the field or the organization. An effective job description should appeal
to candidates already in and/or familiar with the
field, as well as to highly skilled newcomers.
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Figure 1
U.S. Science Center CEO Fields of Study
60%
54%
50%
40%
30%
20%
20%
22%
17%
11%
10%
0%
Science/Engineering
Art/History
Educaon
Business
Communicaons
Source: ASTC-ACM 2011 Workforce Survey Report
• If you work with diverse constituencies and are
looking to recruit staff with skills that facilitate
building relationships with particular audiences,
list these items explicitly as a requirement for the
position rather than a preference.
• Do not let the application process itself be a barrier.
The American Library Association’s guidelines
recommend providing contact information for
human resources staff that can assist individuals
with disabilities who may need accommodations
to complete the application process.
ADVERTISING FOR FLEXIBILITY AND
INNOVATION
According to the workforce survey data, U.S. science centers and museums have some work to do
to ensure that the workforce reflects national demographic diversity in terms of gender, race/ethnicity,
and disability. Women are generally overrepresented
in almost all positions except in exhibits (67% of
exhibit directors and 94% of exhibit designers in science centers are men) and as CEOs of large institutions (87% of CEOs in institutions with budgets
over $10 million are men). (See Figure 2 on page 36.)
Racial/ethnic minority representation in middle to
senior management (6–29%, depending on position)
lags behind national statistics, as 32% of the U.S. population comes from minority backgrounds.
The majority (72%) of respondents indicated positive feelings about how well their floor staff reflects
their communities’ demographics. (See page 53.)
This is great news: It means that some institutions
have found techniques that work for diversifying
what are likely entry-level positions. Institutions
have the opportunity to leverage these strategies for
diversifying the pool of candidates for all positions.
It is essential to create relationships and find communication channels that will give employers the
greatest chance of attracting a diverse and talented
pool of candidates. Post job descriptions not only
to the traditional museum-centered job listings, but
also through local community-specific media outlets, community partners, professional societies, and
universities that are known for successfully serving
and supporting diverse constituencies. Ideally, all
opportunities should be advertised in a consistently
inclusive way, regardless of seniority or content area.
Don’t forget to encourage current employees to spread
the world as well—they are your best advertisers!
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
Figure 2
Gender Diversity by Position at U.S. Science Centers
50%
CEO (n=54)
50%
33%
VP/Director of Educaon (n=42)
67%
67%
VP/Director of Exhibits (n=39)
33%
44%
VP/Director of Visitor Services (n=36)
0%
10%
20%
56%
30%
Male
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Female
Gender of U.S. CEOs by Operating Expenses
7%
<$500,000 (n=27)
93%
Operaon Expenses
$500,000–$999,999 (n=24)
71%
29%
$1 million–$3 million (n=32)
44%
$3.1 million–$5 million (n=29)
56%
34%
$5.1 million–$10 million (n=19)
66%
32%
68%
>$10 million (n=15)
0%
87%
10%
20%
30%
Male
40%
13%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Female
CREATE AN EQUITABLE HIRING PROCESS
Once you’ve succeeded in writing and disseminating a job description that attracts an optimal talent
pool, it is essential to structure effective processes
for interviewing and hiring. Assemble a diverse
interviewing or selection panel with colleagues of
varying levels of seniority and at least one representative from a different department. The panel should
be given a standard set of questions to work from,
along with clear direction on selection criteria and
minimum expectations. Keep interview environments as consistent as possible with respect to time
allotted for interviews, the structure of the interview,
and the individuals participating in the process.
The science center and museum field celebrates
the diverse and surprising pathways that bring
employees into the workforce. A well-written job
description and well-designed hiring process that
give all qualified candidates an equal chance is beneficial to both job seekers and employers. ■
RELATED RESOURCES
Adler, Lou. Ban job descriptions and hire better people, www.ere.
net/2013/02/13/ban-job-descriptions-and-hire-better-people
American Library Association. Recruitment for diversity,
www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/workforcedevelopment/
recruitmentfordiversity
The Bridgespan Group. Recruiting diverse talent, www.bridgespan.
org/getattachment/1818328a-4a46-4ea6-8df0-c563225f6897/
Recruiting-Diverse-Talent.aspx
Diversity Central Toolkit: Recruiting, www.diversitycentral.com/
tools_and_resources/mtb/6.php
Pritchard, Kenneth H. Non-prejudicial language for ADA-compliant
job descriptions, www.hrtutor.com/en/news_rss/articles/2004/
ADALegalJobDescriptions.pdf
Laura Huerta Migus ([email protected]) is ASTC’s director of professional development and inclusion.
Christine Ruffo, ASTC’s manager of research, contributed to this article.
36
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:59 PM
The 2012 ASTC Diversity and Leadership Development Fellows (left to right): Jennifer Jenkins, Julie Johnson (program facilitator), Katie Velazco, Ann Hernandez, Joshua Kemper, Siva
Ramakrishnan, Megan Stewart, and Veronika Nunez. Photo by Wayne MacPhail
.
THE ASTC DIVERSITY AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FELLOWS PROGRAM
As the centerpiece of ASTC’s equity and diversity efforts, the ASTC Diversity and Leadership Development
Fellows Program is dedicated to supporting the professional growth of staff from minority backgrounds at
ASTC-member museums. The program, which was launched in 2000 as an extension of ASTC’s YouthALIVE!
(Youth Achievement through Learning, Involvement, Volunteering, and Employment) Initiative, helps Fellows
develop leadership skills and also promotes a more diverse representation of the field at ASTC Annual
Conferences.
Below are a few key highlights of the program’s impact on the field:
• A total of 124 Fellows from 71 ASTC-member
often identify with more than one group. LGBT
museums across the United States and Canada
and Persons with Disabilities categories were
have completed the program, representing all
added in 2009.)
sizes of institutions and all areas of museum
work.
• Fellows represent a diverse range of backgrounds
• 53% of Fellows are still employed at ASTCmember institutions, one has become an
executive director, and a significant percentage
and experiences: 49% African-American/
of those no longer employed at science centers
Black; 27% Hispanic/Latino; 12% Asian/Pacific
continue to work in informal education.
Islander; 3% American Indian/Alaskan Native;
8% Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender
(LGBT); and 2% Persons with Disabilities. (Note
• 94% of Fellows have gone on to chair or present
at sessions at ASTC annual conferences after
their Fellows experience.
these add up to more than 100%, as Fellows
To view the personal impact of the Fellows program, watch the “In Their Own Words” slideshow at www.astc.
org/about/awards/conference_fellow.htm.
—L.H.M.
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
Orienting New Team
Members for Long-Term
Success
By Charlie Trautmann
“Well begun is half done.”
In hiring, this adage offers an important insight: The first day of work is the most teachable moment for
someone starting a new job. By taking advantage of this fact, we can launch new team members into
more effective, loyal, and productive careers at our science centers. Similarly, the first week provides
an extended learning period with potential impact that will rarely, if ever, be repeated. How can science
centers use these brief, one-time opportunities to best advantage?
At the Sciencecenter—a small center in Ithaca, New
York, with 40 employees—our goal in orienting new
team members is to create a solid foundation that
will help them over time reach their fullest potential,
while getting them up the learning curve as far and
as quickly as possible. This means steeping them
in our mission, culture, strategy, and organizational
structure; connecting them to the right people;
ensuring they have the right tools and knowledge to
be successful; and removing roadblocks to success.
THE ORIENTATION PROGRAM
Our orientation program includes four components
(also available at www.museumtools.org).
1. Prearrival: Preparation
During the hiring process, we assign an orientation
manager, most often the new team member’s manager. Several weeks before the start date, this person
reviews our orientation checklists and assignments
with relevant staff. We aim to complete all support
tasks, such as setting up a computer, server access,
email account, and keys, before the start date. During
this preparation, we establish a detailed schedule for
the first week.
2. The first day: An energizing, high-level
experience
Because first impressions can last a lifetime, we provide a memorable first day. The new team member’s
manager welcomes them at the front door, and we
have fresh flowers and a hand-written welcome note
on their desk. Our goal is to make a strong impression that, whatever their title, they are a valued member of the team.
As executive director, I meet individually with the
new team member and their manager for two hours
to provide an overview of the organization. We start
by discussing our mission, vision, values, and core
audience. Drilling down, we then discuss our organizational strategy, culture, decision-making process,
organizational chart, and position in our community.
We touch on our annual staff review process, discuss
the relationship between staff and trustees, describe
our quarterly staff climate survey, and distribute our
staff handbook and a CD course on interpersonal
communications. All materials are organized in a
three-ring binder and introduced by a personal welcome letter from me.
A friendly welcome at the front door creates a positive first impression for staff about to start their first day on the job. Photo by Teresa Bell
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
The first day for all new staff at the Sciencenter begins with an overview of mission, vision, culture, and strategy by the executive director.
Photo by Teresa Bell
New hires and their manager go for lunch together on the first day, with no particular agenda other
than getting to know each other. Only after lunch do
we begin administrative paperwork, assignment of
keys, security codes, telephone access, etc. Rarely do
we task new staff members with any “real” work for
at least two days, which allows them time to absorb
the big-picture context that forms the framework for
their own individual efforts.
3. The first week: Highly structured orientation
and training
Using a detailed schedule managed closely by the
hiring manager, new team members meet with
many people during the first week to learn all about
the museum. Typically, they have 6–8 meetings per
day for the first few days. For example, they receive
customer service training from our director of guest
relations and operations, and they learn about the
importance of membership and fundraising from
our director of advancement. Also scheduled is time
40
to become familiar with the exhibits in each gallery
and how they work. Our view is that, regardless of
whether team members are building exhibits, processing memberships, working at the front desk, or
writing grant proposals, an intimate knowledge of
the museum benefits their enthusiasm, dedication,
and productivity.
4. The first three months: Setting goals,
mentoring, and evaluating
Managers work with new team members to establish
goals for the first three months. At the end of this
time, which we call the “provisional employment
period,” new team members have a formal performance review using the procedure subsequently
used for their annual review. This process begins
with a review of the position description, and if
the new team member feels it is inaccurate, they
are required to mark it up for discussion and possible updating. The next step is a self-assessment
of impact—regardless of job title—on the experience
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
Regardless of whether team members are building exhibits, working at
the front desk, or writing grant proposals, an intimate knowledge of the
museum benefits their enthusiasm, dedication, and productivity.
of our guests. The manager then reviews the threemonth goals and accomplishments, in addition to
typical dimensions such as job competence, communication, and teamwork.
After one month, I take each new team member
out for lunch to check on their work experience with
us. We find that this helps staff know that their work
is valued from the top down.
We assign each new team member a mentor—
someone at their level or above, but not their manager or even another member of their department.
We cover the cost of several lunches during the first
six months and encourage new team members to
use their mentor to broaden their base of contacts
within the museum and get an alternative perspective on any questions or issues they have. Mentors
help new team members learn our culture and how
we function as an organization, and they provide
another point of contact during the often busy
workweek. The mentoring relationship is informal,
with no reporting or formal goals. Many staff members continue the connection long afterward, and a
recent survey showed that some friendships have
continued for years.
• “Since I established a working relationship and
understanding of each person’s work, I know
whom to go to when I need information.”
• “It communicated the importance of values
and substance and a culture of caring and good
communication.”
While the orientation program is expensive in
terms of time, we believe that the long-term benefits outweigh the initial costs. Our team members
remain with us for 5.5 years on average, and a significant number go on to leadership positions in
other museums. ■
FEEDBACK
Our orientation program has been a work in progress for nearly two decades, with continual additions,
improvements, and updates. In reflecting on the process, team members have offered comments such as:
• “It made me feel part of the team from the start.”
• “I had the chance to learn more about how my
position would interact with the different departments within the museum.”
On the first day of work, flowers and a personal welcome note can set the
stage for a culture of friendly collaboration. Photo courtesy the Sciencenter
Charlie Trautmann ([email protected]) is executive director at the Sciencenter, Ithaca, New York.
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
Agung Wahyudi of Taman Pintar, Yogyakarta, tests the wind turbines of his prototype exhibit during a
professional development workshop for Indonesian science center staff. Photo by Graham Smith
Partnering to
Build Capacity in
Indonesian Science
Centers
By Kate Barnard and Merryn McKinnon
In developing countries, science centers actively contribute to objectives like the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Cape Town Declaration of the 6th Science Centre World Congress
in South Africa in 2011 noted that centers with programs linked to the
MDGs have contributed significantly to promoting universal education, combating HIV/AIDS, and fostering environmental sustainability.
(The declaration is available at www.6scwc.org). To develop and
maintain quality science centers that can make these contributions,
it is crucial for staff to receive training and professional development.
Partnerships between universities and science centers can excel at
providing the necessary high-quality science communication training.
42
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Above: Author Kate Barnard (third from left) and the female participants get to know each other during an ice breaker
activity on day one of the workshop. Below left: Adiyanto of PP-IPTEK, Joko Santoso of Puspa Iptek Sundial, and Mohamad
Ichsan of PP-IPTEK begin to build their exhibit on solar energy. Photos by Graham Smith
In November 2012, Questacon, Australia’s
National Science and Technology Centre,
and the Australian National University’s
Centre for the Public Awareness of
Science (CPAS), both in Canberra, partnered to run a professional development
workshop for staff from science centers
in Indonesia. The workshop was created
through an Australian Government initiative to build broader ties across all sectors
in the Asia Pacific region. Indonesia is
one of Australia’s closest neighbors, and
the two countries work together in many
areas, including contributing to science
education to help develop Indonesia’s scientific future.
The November workshop was envisioned as part of a comprehensive
engagement between Australian and
Indonesian science centers. Ties already
exist between Indonesia’s national
science center, Pusat Peragaan Ilmu
Pengetahuan dan Teknologi (PP-IPTEK)
in Jakarta, and Questacon. PP-IPTEK
currently displays some of Questacon’s
original exhibits, and the two centers
have been sharing traveling exhibits for
more than 15 years.
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
Right: Workshop participants work together to demonstrate cohesion of water.
Below: Workshop participants discover the fun of science shows; simple demonstrations are still some of
the best. Photos by Graham Smith
INDONESIA’S SCIENCE CENTERS
Indonesia’s science centers play an important role in attracting people to science
and raising awareness of issues like influenza pandemics. However, their target
audiences are in a population of over 242
million living on 6,000 islands. More than
44% of the population is younger than
24, making science centers an important
44
resource for schools, particularly since
reforms to the elementary school curriculum coming into effect in 2013 will see
science removed as a stand-alone subject.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and
Culture felt that the curriculum was too full
and also wanted more emphasis on civic
and social responsibilities and religious
instruction in their education programs.
As a result, and despite criticism, science
will be integrated with other subjects such
as Indonesian language.
Currently, Indonesia has eight science centers varying in size from a
handful of exhibits in a small room to
over 300 exhibits and 300,000 visitors
annually. They are all located on the
two most populated islands (Java and
Sumatra) and most in large cities. Only
PP-IPTEK has the resources and infrastructure for outreach to other islands.
PP-IPTEK has taken a traveling exhibition to North Sulawesi and Kalimantan,
but outreach to other islands and remote
areas is not extensive.
Indonesia’s science center staff members are professionals with degrees
and years of experience in the sciences,
engineering, marketing, and other areas.
However, most of them don’t have formal
science communication qualifications.
The centers realize the need to build
capacity among their staff and provide
ongoing professional development, with
the benefits of exposing their staff to
new information, ideas, and methods in
science communication and of allowing
their staff to find value in their contributions. Therefore, PP-IPTEK hosted last
November’s professional development
workshop with the Australian team,
which has been providing science communication training in Australia and
internationally for more than 25 years.
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Although science can be considered a universal language, a country’s context remains
vitally important. The workshop was conducted with the assistance of locally sourced
interpreters with science knowledge. The interpreters were invaluable in ensuring content
was culturally and contextually relevant.
THE WORKSHOP
Twenty-five staff, including directors,
presenters, promotions staff, education
programs staff, exhibit designers, and
operations and administration managers,
from five Indonesian science centers came
together for two weeks. Most participants
were from PP-IPTEK, with other centers
sending one or two representatives. The
workshop’s objective was to provide an
understanding of all facets of exhibition
development and how each section of a
science center contributes to the overall
success of both the exhibition and the center as a whole.
The workshop’s structure and content
were developed collaboratively with the
Indonesian science centers to address
the topics and skill sets they wished to
include. Some sessions were also given
by Indonesian presenters, including
science communicator Tjempaka Sari
Hartomo, who spoke about her view of
the role of science communication in
Indonesia, and Hendra Suryanto, head
of PP-IPTEK’s operations division, who
spoke about his center’s role.
Workshop sessions included:
• The purposes of science centers within
an Indonesian context
• The concept of successful science
communication, including elements of
effective demonstrations and exhibits
• How to define audiences and best
reach them with educational and communications strategies
• The use of formative and summative
evaluations to strengthen and enhance
a center’s offerings
• A one-day science show presentation
class.
The workshop was structured to allow
participants to gradually build their knowledge and then apply it. Each morning, participants reviewed theory and techniques,
which they then applied each afternoon as
they worked in groups of five to develop
a proposal for an exhibition on climate
change. Proposals were to include exhibit
prototypes with science content, an education program, media strategies, and indicators of success. At the end of the workshop,
each team presented their proposal.
By the end, participants had gained a
good understanding of the diversity of
skills used to run a science center and a
greater appreciation for aspects outside
their area of expertise.
LOCAL RELEVANCE
Although science can be considered a
universal language, a country’s context
remains vitally important. Topics relevant
in one country may not be relevant in
another. For example, with Indonesia’s
geography, an exhibit about volcanoes
would be appropriate, whereas with only
two seasons in the country, one about
autumn would not. Similarly, some demonstrations must be altered or substituted;
for example, thermal touch boards work
poorly in warm climates.
The workshop was conducted with the
assistance of locally sourced interpreters with science knowledge, who also
translated the workshop materials. The
interpreters were invaluable in ensuring
content was culturally and contextually
relevant, and they helped clarify and reinforce ideas and concepts.
The timing of sessions was intentionally flexible so presenters could adapt to
participants’ needs, including recognizing the need for daily prayers by Muslim
participants. The participants themselves
extended great hospitality and opportunities for presenters to explore the local
culture, allowing them to better understand the cultural context of Indonesia’s
science centers.
OUTCOMES
Workshop outcomes went beyond providing specific knowledge and skills,
although participants did list these as
valuable. The workshop provided a fantastic networking opportunity and resulted in participants starting the Indonesian
Science Centre Network (ISCN), which
aims to link with science center networks
throughout Asia and beyond. (ISCN has
an active Facebook page.) Workshop participants also explored the potential for
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The strength of university–
science center partnerships
for professional development
comes from the complementary
skill sets at each institution. The
dual focus on theory and day-today science center operations
ensures that the material is
relevant and applicable.
Ihsan Surur of PP-IPTEK works on a demonstration for his group’s water show. Photo by Graham Smith
connecting with local science teachers,
universities, and other networks.
After the workshop, PP-IPTEK staff
formed a team to further develop a climate change traveling exhibition and
programs. Workshop participants also
identified their desire to gain a deeper
grounding in science communication, so
some of them will complete further training in Australia later in 2013.
THE VALUE OF PARTNERSHIPS
University–science center partnerships can
offer cutting-edge exhibitions, innovative
programs, and high-quality science communication training. These kinds of linkages are increasingly important, especially
for science centers in developing countries,
like Indonesia, that face additional challenges. The strength of such partnerships
comes from the complementary skill sets
at each institution. Either one by itself
could offer effective professional development, but the dual focus of translating
theory and research into best practice and
coordinating the reality of day-to-day science center operations ensures that material is relevant and applicable in the “real
world.”
Taking this combined expertise to
the developing world can achieve great
things in the science communication
industry by helping science centers
build their capacity to produce quality
exhibitions, programs, and marketing.
These elements can then lead to a more
scientifically skilled and engaged society
able to tackle contemporary challenges.
Though not a quick fix, it is a step in the
right direction. ■
Kate Barnard ([email protected]) is an early childhood program development officer at Pusat Peragaan Ilmu Pengetahuan
dan Teknologi (PP-IPTEK) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her role is part of the Australian Volunteers for International Development
program, an Australian Government AusAID initiative, www.ausaidvolunteers.gov.au. Merryn McKinnon (merryn.mckinnon@
anu.edu.au) is a research associate at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian
National University in Canberra.
46
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Science Centers and Zoos:
Creating Public Value
Through Complementary
Strengths
By John Fraser, Martin Weiss, Beverly Sheppard, and Kate Flinner
Educators at science centers, zoos, and other informal science education institutions (ISE) work in
distinct traditions. Yet, funders often lump them into a single class of ISE environments. Even science
centers and zoos themselves may imagine that they compete for funds and visitors. This tendency to
think as competitors creates cultural silos in the field. However, what happens when two institutions in
the same community focus their resources simultaneously on a shared topic?
Our team at New Knowledge Organization
(NewKnowledge) and the New York Hall of Science
(NYSCI), both in New York City, sought to answer
this question. We see that science centers and zoos
have professionalized separately and have complementary strengths. With several partners, we have
been researching the plurality of voices in the ISE
field and what can be gained by honoring them.
ISE institutions tend to address science literacy and
environmental issues in isolation rather than integrate
learning moments for fieldwide impact. We often hear
how various institutions accomplish change through
their missions, but we seldom reflect on how each
type of institution contributes to larger, aggregate
public value. We rarely consider if and how a community develops shared knowledge by sampling from
the range of institutions that independently focus on
similar science topics from different perspectives.
Results from our study of complementary exhibitions mounted simultaneously in a science center
and a zoo in the same community suggest value in
approaching ISE and community engagement as a
collective force to enhance public value. When two
institutions reach beyond brand competition to leverage their individual strengths, they can achieve allied
goals. They have the potential to expand science
literacy in their community, cross-promote to one
another’s audiences, and develop their staff by learning from the approaches taken at other institutions.
MOUNTING WILD MINDS, THE EXHIBITION
To pursue our research question, NYSCI led development of Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think,
an exhibition about animal cognition. Collaborators
included Hunter College, New York City; the
Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), Edgewater,
Maryland; NewKnowledge (ILI’s successor on the
project); and Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science
and Industry (OMSI) and Oregon Zoo.
The exhibition was designed to be mounted in
two institutions in the same community at the same
time. The exhibition started at NYSCI and Staten
Island Zoo, New York City, in 2010, and then traveled to OMSI and Oregon Zoo for February–August
2012, and California Science Center in Los Angeles
and Santa Barbara Zoo in 2012–2013. Wild Minds is
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
After witnessing firsthand the challenges facing floor staff, senior staff has
found opportunities to help ease these positions of their inherent difficulties.
at Science Central and Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo,
Indiana, for April–September 2013, and will visit COSI
and Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Ohio, in 2013–2014.
The exhibition invites visitors to engage with current research on animal cognition that shows humans
are not the only inventors, planners, and empathizers. While the goals for the exhibition remain the
same for each host institution, the strategies for
communicating content differ to suit the resources
unique to each type of institution. For example, at the
science center, an exhibit enables visitors to watch
a video of a chimpanzee solving a puzzle and then
try to solve the same puzzle themselves (often more
slowly). Meanwhile, at the zoo, an interpretive sign
offers similar information, and volunteers explain to
visitors the cognitive enrichment puzzles offered to
resident primates and how these puzzles reveal information about animal thinking.
48
RESEARCH STUDY AND RESULTS
The goal of our study was to explore how to deepen
public value in science learning by simultaneously
leveraging the unique types of learning at a zoo and
a science center. To understand the strengths and
challenges of distinct pedagogies in these two types
of institutions, we looked at training and communication techniques of interpretive and education
professionals. In Oregon, we expanded the study
to include data from an experimental component
of “cross-training,” where volunteers from Oregon
Zoo and OMSI received training together and then
served as interpreters at both their own institution
and their partner institution. (See sidebar on page 50.)
We found that teams at the science center and
zoo differed substantially in their pedagogical styles.
Zoo personnel focused on affective experiences that
encouraged visitors to develop connections with
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With the help of Explainers at the New York Hall of Science, visitors explore
animal cognition at the exhibition Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think.
Photo courtesy the New York Hall of Science
these institutions, science literacy and learning were
leveraged by much higher staff-to-visitor ratios. Staff
used information in the exhibits to build on personal
encounters with visitors and to support visitors’ critical thinking and inquiry skills. They sought to mentor visitors in reasoning about science as a pathway
to knowledge.
In our study, no one suggested that zoos and science centers elicit different learning outcomes. The
science center and zoo personnel we interviewed
agreed that both offer pathways to science knowledge
development. But stereotypes emerged for describing
the visitor experience. They uniformly described zoo
visitors as visiting for fun with learning on the side
and science center visitors as purposefully seeking
learning that happens to be fun.
COLLABORATING BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS
animals and their natural habitats. Their goal was to
promote science inference that would support conservation behaviors. Science center personnel, in contrast, tended to focus on increasing science literacy
and process knowledge to support a more general
ability to use data for decision-making.
At zoos, observation of animal behavior and storytelling are considered two of the central tactics
for promoting an understanding among visitors of
animal-human connections. These experiences are
used as tools to achieve conservation outcomes. Zoo
personnel viewed science literacy as a serendipitous
outcome of these conservation-learning experiences.
The zoos prioritized learning by providing strong
messages about animal and habitat conservation and
welfare through environmental science knowledge.
On the other hand, science center personnel prioritized learning through process and method. In
The collaborative aspect of this project was more
than an end in itself. Rather, collaboration was
intended to develop a richer exhibition experience
with programs that build on one another to create
deeper public value. We proposed that partnering
on a project would enable institutions to leverage
their relative strengths and rely more on partners
in complementary domains to expand the usefulness of the science for visitors. In pursuing this idea,
we learned that zoos felt science centers are more
nimble at adapting their exhibits and addressing
timely topics, whereas animal exhibitions take years
to develop. In contrast, science center personnel felt
they could learn from zoos’ deliberate focus on conservation decision-making.
How do we go about collaborating? Deep programmatic and exhibition collaborations are new territory
for many ISE institutions. From our work with Wild
Minds, we are developing a free online curriculum—
to launch in July 2013 on www.newknowledge.org—to
help communities of institutions build a collaborative
muscle with the potential to magnify public value and
socially productive outcomes.
Here are a few suggestions to help institutions start
imagining how to work together to achieve greater
public good:
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6/17/13 6:59 PM
• Know your strengths and identify the strengths of
other institutions that can complement your work.
• Identify the potential for interaction on exhibitions, special events, programming, school programs, etc.
• Cross-train interpretive staff so they can help visitors link specifics in an exhibition to larger questions in their community.
• Evaluate the differences between the impacts of
partnership and those of going it alone.
• Share what you’ve learned with staff and volunteers as well as the larger community of informal
science educators. Our online curriculum will provide a way to share information.
We’ve learned from the teams involved in this project that when two institutions cooperate willingly,
they can identify new possibilities for developing
professional strengths that generate public value.
For the past few decades, ISE institutions have started to adhere to a corporate model of competition
for resources. Yet many of these institutions either
started as part of the nonprofit, non-governmental
sector or separated from government ownership to
join this sector, and therefore they aim to achieve
public good. This public good targets the same
local community audience for all brands of science
learning. Thus collaboration holds the promise of
strengthening our impact if we redefine our narratives away from competition and think as parts of a
broader learning community. ■
John Fraser ([email protected]) is
president and CEO, Kate Flinner manages communications and evaluation programs, and Beverly
Sheppard directs city learning initiatives at New
Knowledge Organization Ltd., New York City. Martin
Weiss ([email protected]) is senior scientist and
principal investigator for Wild Minds: What Animals
Really Think at the New York Hall of Science,
Queens, New York City. This research was supported
by a (U.S.) National Science Foundation grant.
50
CROSS-TRAINING INFORMAL SCIENCE
EDUCATORS
A creative interpretive team, led by OMSI’s
Marilyn Johnson and Sean Rooney and Oregon
Zoo’s Charis Henrie, developed a cross-training
program for the exhibition Wild Minds: What
Animals Really Think. The program was designed
to increase shared content knowledge for their
front-line volunteer interpreters and create a
peer-to-peer sharing forum for volunteers at both
institutions. A similar program could be designed
to cross-train interpretive and education staff.
The program involved in-person sessions at each
institution and included:
• Zoo volunteers mentoring science center
volunteers about handling animals
• Volunteers from both institutions working
together to develop strategies for guiding visitors through the exhibition’s science content
• Volunteers receiving training and developing
skills to lead visitor learning at the other
institution.
Following the training, zoo volunteers were paired
with science center volunteers at each institution so they could interact with visitors together.
Volunteers were also given the opportunity to
promote their own institution with visitors.
A recent report by NewKnowledge’s Rupu Gupta
and Karen Plemons revealed that cross-training
was an enriching experience for the volunteers,
who discovered shared educational goals and felt
that co-programming benefitted the community.
The full study, titled “Volunteer Perceptions of
Public Value from a Co-hosted Museum-Zoo
Exhibition,” is in Informal Learning Review No. 117,
available at www.informallearning.com/archive.html
—J.F. and K.F.
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Patrick Weeks, vice president of operations, performs a demonstration with liquid nitrogen. Photo by David Rock
Taking the Floor
By David Rock
Last November, Arizona Science Center President and CEO Chevy Humphrey could be found standing before an excited group of schoolchildren as she undertook her first floor demonstration, focusing
on plate tectonics and volcanoes. Over the next three days, Humphrey and her office staff spent their
time working in the science center as interpreters, interacting with families and explaining science
concepts to multitudes of students.
ANTI-BUREAUCRACY WEEK
The exercise was modeled after “anti-bureaucracy
week,” a concept introduced by Ikea founder Ingvar
Kamprad, wherein all executives must spend a week
working on the floor of an Ikea store. They may be
pushing carts or working as cashiers or sales representatives, but they are all required to work on a
weekend, when the crowds are in and the pressure
is on. Ikea reports that this practice has kept their
executives in touch with the company as a whole and
has reduced unnecessary bureaucracy that can hold
back progress.
GIVING IT A TRY
Arizona Science Center took an opportunity that
arose this past November for the office staff to try
their own version of Ikea’s idea. The education team
had organized three full days of training to help gallery interpreters (the guest experience team) learn
more ways to interact with and impact visitors. To
fill the void created by this sudden (if temporary)
depletion of floor staff, the entire office staff was
challenged to take up the roles of gallery interpreters and continue to provide the high-quality experience that our visitors have come to expect. We hoped
that the experience would give office workers a more
personal view of the visitor base and a more in-depth
understanding of the challenges floor staff members
encounter in their daily work.
The office staff was organized into teams among
the different galleries. Prior to assuming their temporary roles, each office employee spent several hours
with the interpreters over a few days, learning how
the exhibits function, how to interact with visitors,
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Sharon Kortman, vice president of learning, explains different parts of the
brain to a group of students. Photo by David Rock
relationships with the floor staff, ensuring that the
classic “open-door policy” is in full effect to improve
communication. Now, after some time has passed, a
tentative plan has been proposed to repeat the exercise on the same week exactly one year later, in order
to reinforce all of the positive outcomes.
TIPS FOR TRYING THIS AT HOME (YOUR
INSTITUTION)
and how to perform science-themed demonstrations. Although the training period was short, the
interpreters noted the dedication and enthusiasm of
their new apprentices in roles so different from their
typical daily routines.
For three days, all office work was put aside (a
challenge in its own right) as office staff members
set their minds to their new roles—and it was good
that they did, as busloads of schoolchildren and
visiting families streamed through the door. At any
given time, one could find the development team
explaining the basics of digital technology, the marketing team giving facts about some of the world’s
largest dinosaurs, the facilities team performing
demonstrations on the basics of physics, and much
more. It was at times chaotic and challenging, but
nonetheless rewarding for everyone to be on the
front lines engaging with visitors.
After three days, the guest experience team had
completed a series of focused training exercises and
returned to their jobs on the floor of Arizona Science
Center. The office staff also returned to their usual
routines, but at an all-staff meeting held shortly after
the exercise, many office staff members reported
a much greater appreciation for the job of the gallery interpreter and a better perspective on the “big
picture”—the meaning and purpose of the science
center. After witnessing firsthand the challenges
facing floor staff, senior staff has found opportunities to help ease these positions of their inherent
difficulties. The most immediate, visible response
from the senior staff was an effort toward more direct
Other museums, including the Children’s Discovery
Museum of San Jose, California, have conducted
similar exercises. The key to the success of this sort
of endeavor lies in the planning and the enthusiasm
of the participants. It takes quite a bit of courage for
an employee who spends a typical day in the finance
department to switch into a role interacting with
visitors on the floor. An initial, well-articulated message about the ultimate goals of the challenge can
go a long way toward bettering the experience of the
employees who will be placed in situations so far outside their own comfort zones.
The planning process must also include time
spent on the floor with the existing interpreters,
shadowing and learning not only the science content and exhibits, but also the processes and procedures necessary to ensure the visitor experience is
safe, enjoyable, and educational. Office staff members were educated in lost child and lost adult floor
policies, as well as the day-to-day necessities, from
setting the demonstration schedules to radio communication. With proper planning and foresight, the
office staff managed to deal with all of the major scenarios that the interpreters typically handle as part
of their responsibilities.
At Arizona Science Center, the office staff greatly
enjoyed the opportunity to interact more with
visitors, although there can be no doubt that many
found themselves better educated in how difficult
an interpreter’s job can be. In the end, however, there
was one unanimous feeling expressed by everyone
who took up this challenge, summed up by Senior
Vice President of Development Kristin Priscella:
The experience was “a reminder that we are here to
inspire an interest in the world around us.” ■
David Rock ([email protected]) is curator of historical collections at Arizona Science Center, Phoenix.
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WHO ARE FLOOR STAFF?
By Christine Ruffo
Floor staff members serve a vital role in our institutions’ hands-on learning environments. The ASTCACM 2011 Workforce Survey Report (co-produced by
ASTC and the Association of Children’s Museums
(ACM)) includes a chapter that profiles floor staff in
U.S. institutions. These workers interact with visitors
daily and often are the public face of our field.
Highlights from the report include:
•Almost 90% of the 136 U.S. institutions that
responded to the survey reported having full- or
part-time paid floor staff.
• The minimum educational degree required for
permanent full-time floor staff was a high school
diploma or GED at 71% of institutions; 44%
preferred that full-time floor staff hold bachelors’
The average breakdown of institutions’ floor staffs
by gender was 69% female and 31% male, but that
varied greatly by institution type. At children’s museums, on average, 80% of floor staff members were
women. At science centers and “all others,” floor
staffs were 60% female, 40% male on average.
The overall floor staff race/ethnicity demographics line up fairly closely with U.S. population demographics. (See chart.) The majority of respondents
(72%) responded positively when asked how well
their floor staff reflected the diversity of their community. It is encouraging that 47.5% of respondents
fell into the “somewhat well” category. This could
reflect acknowledgement of progress, but also
recognition that this is an area that requires constant
attention and nurturing.
degrees.
• The median “typical” wages paid (per hour) were
$12 to full-time permanent, $9 to part-time
permanent, and $8.75 to seasonal floor staff.
Christine Ruffo ([email protected]) is ASTC’s manager of research. To order the ASTC-ACM 2011 Workforce
Survey Report, visit members.astc.org and select Bookstore from the Resource Center drop-down menu.
Institutions that contributed data to the report may contact [email protected] to request a free copy.
Race/Ethnicity Diversity of Permanent U.S. Floor Staff Compared with Total U.S. Population
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
71% 72%
11% 13%
1% 1%
African-American/
Black
American Indian/
Alaskan Nave
11%
4% 5%
Asian/Pacific
Islander
Permanent U.S. Floor Staff
16%
3% 3%
Caucasian/White
Hispanic/Lano
Multi-ethnic
U.S. Population
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Graduate School: A Pathway
to a Science Center Career
By Kalie Sacco
Science center and museum professionals enter the field through a variety of pathways, hailing from
diverse backgrounds that may or may not include formal training in museum work. While the skills
unique to science centers and museums can be and are gained on the job, graduate programs may
offer one useful way for emerging science center professionals to enter the field or for current professionals to advance in their careers.
This article discusses issues facing prospective students who are considering whether to pursue
an advanced degree related to the museum field—including trends in graduate school applications
and enrollment, how to choose a graduate program, and the value of an advanced degree compared
with work experience.
54
APPLICATION AND ENROLLMENT TRENDS
CHOOSING A GRADUATE PROGRAM
U.S. graduate school enrollment surged during the
global recession in 2008 and 2009 as job openings
fell. In the last few years, however, enrollment numbers have declined for certain types of graduate
programs. According to the Council of Graduate
Schools, graduate programs in Education and Arts &
Humanities (two categories under which museumrelated programs may be classified) saw some of the
largest declines among the fields surveyed in both
application and first-time enrollment rates between
2010 and 2011. This may suggest that prospective
students are carefully weighing their options in a
time of prolonged economic uncertainty and declining financial aid.
Although there are no fieldwide data available
for museum-related programs, Carol Stapp and
Kym Rice, directors of the Museum Education and
Museum Studies programs, respectively, at George
Washington University in Washington, D.C., report
little change in the number of applicants since the
beginning of the recession. In addition, there are
frequent posts on museum professional society
LinkedIn pages asking about museum studies programs. Such anecdotal evidence suggests that students still see these programs as potential ways to
enter into or advance in a museum career.
There are several options available for current or
aspiring science center professionals interested in
pursuing a graduate degree. Museum studies programs often give an overview of different aspects
of museum work, and then allow students to pursue
concentrations or electives. Some degree programs
focus on a specific area, such as museum education,
museum leadership, or museum exhibition planning
and design.
For students who would like to pursue a science
center career, some museum studies programs may
be a better fit than others. Look for programs that
have strong relationships with excellent local science
centers and museums and that offer coursework that
is particularly relevant to science centers’ work (e.g.,
courses in informal education may be more relevant
than courses in collections management or material culture). Other considerations could include
job placement records, strength and breadth of the
alumni network, and how well the faculty’s expertise
matches the potential student’s areas of interest.
Prospective students interested in a science
center career may also consider programs focusing on informal science education, such as Oregon
State University’s Free Choice Learning in Math
and Science program. Numerous schools, including
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the University of Washington, Seattle, and King’s
College, London, offer science education graduate
programs with concentrations in informal learning.
Particularly outside of the United States, students
may choose to study science communication at
schools including Imperial College London and the
University of Queensland, Australia.
In addition, potential students should consider
the financial implications of pursuing a degree.
Many museum studies programs offer night or
online classes to accommodate students working
full-time, while still providing interaction with classmates and professional development experiences.
For example, the Museum Studies program at Johns
Hopkins University is primarily online, but requires
students to attend a two-week, in-person seminar
and to work or intern at a museum in their area. In
addition, some programs offer graduate certificates,
which can save time and money.
GRADUATE SCHOOL VERSUS WORK
EXPERIENCE
Certainly, graduate programs recognize that credentialing is not the golden ticket to a well-developed
science center or museum professional—work experience is key. As in many fields, hiring employees
with diverse experiences—from inside and outside
the field—makes for a creative and flexible staff.
While a graduate program can provide both practical experience and theory-based training, entry into
or advancement in a science center career path does
not require a graduate degree. Also, a degree does
not guarantee its holder a job in the field or a higher
salary, though according to Cynthia Robinson,
director of Museum Studies at Tufts University in
Medford, Massachusetts, a degree “may allow [graduates] to move up more quickly than people who
have no related schooling.”
A recent analysis found that only about 33% of
jobs posted to the ASTC Job Bank (www.astc.org/
profdev/jobs/jobs.htm) between September 2012 and
April 2013 “preferred” or “required” an advanced
degree. Interestingly, many of the jobs that required
or preferred a graduate degree were midcareer level
Conservator Chris Mathias (center) discusses paper conservation and
handling with Tufts University Museum Studies students. Photo by Cara
Iacobucci
and/or specialized (e.g., content development for a
particular subject). Approximately 40% of directorlevel postings specified a certain number of years of
experience rather than education.
According to Robinson, museums “persist in
believing that candidates can only learn about them
through [work] experience. This is no longer true—
Tufts Museum Studies students gain a far greater
understanding of the function, context, and potential of museum work through classroom discussions
and readings than they would get by working in a
single museum.” She adds, “Many of our students
[have] multiple internships that add up to significant work experience.”
Robinson and GW’s Stapp both believe that a
museum studies degree can be beneficial to students who are new to the field as well as those with
museum experience. Robinson notes, “Students of
different ages and backgrounds enjoy the contact
with each other, and tell us that they benefit from the
variety of experiences and perspectives.”
The American Alliance of Museums offers a
resource list for current and aspiring museum professionals considering going back to school (www.
aam-us.org/resources/careers/career-management/
professional-education).
ASTC is compiling a list of graduate programs
that partner with or include courses on science centers and museums. Visit www.astc.org/about/pdf/
GraduatePrograms.pdf and email mmathias@astc.
org with suggestions for additional programs. ■
Kalie Sacco ([email protected]) is Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)
program manager.
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grants and awards
On May 8, the Institute of Museum
and Library Services awarded the
2013 National Medal for Museum and
Library Service to 10 U.S. museums and
libraries, including two ASTC members: Boston Children’s Museum and
Discovery Science Center, Santa Ana,
California. The National Medal is the
United States’ highest honor conferred
on museums and libraries for service to
the community. It celebrates institutions
that make a difference for individuals,
families, and communities. Earlier
this year, 33 institutions, including 17
museums, were announced as finalists for the National Medal. An additional five ASTC members were among
the finalists: Amazement Square,
Lynchburg, Virginia; the Museum of
Discovery, Little Rock, Arkansas; the
North Carolina Museum of Natural
Sciences, Raleigh; Omaha Children’s
Museum, Nebraska; and Yale Peabody
Museum of Natural History, New
Haven, Connecticut.
• Chabot Space & Science Center,
Oakland, California: $446,000 in
support of science professional
development for San Francisco Bay
Area elementary school teachers
that focuses on scientific concepts
related to energy and climate
change and related pedagogical
activities that engage children in
science learning.
The Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation has awarded grants to the
following ASTC members:
• The New York Hall of Science,
Queens: $250,000 to support the
initial design of a tool to assess and
document the Making process, an
accompanying platform for a performance-based assessment repository
for young Makers’ project work,
and a U.S.-wide symposium on
assessment of science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM)
learning in Making activities.
• The California Academy of
Sciences, San Francisco: $163,000
to design, implement, and evaluate
a scientific research internship
pilot program for San Francisco
Bay Area teens to conduct authentic research and be mentored
by academy scientists and their
research teams, and $80,000 to
develop and implement a collaborative San Francisco Bay
Area Informal Science Learning
Community focused on design,
research, and evaluation of science
learning experiences.
• The Exploratorium, San
Francisco: $473,000 to expand the
Exploratorium’s “tinkering” activities and programming to elementary-aged children participating
in community-based out-of-school
time programs.
• The Field Museum of Natural
History, Chicago: $1,636,588 to
implement a rapid inventory in the
Cordillera Escalera Manseriche
region of Loreto, Peru, and train
Amazonian scientists in the use of
rapid inventories for conservation
planning and zoning.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, Massachusetts:
$2,423,000 to explore the consequences of microbial communications on bloom dynamics and
nutrient cycling in the North
Atlantic Ocean; $1,923,758 to investigate dissolved organic matter
in the oligotrophic ocean; and
$883,441 to identify and quantify
new markers of microbially mediated nutrient flow in the ocean.
In May, Kidspace Children’s Museum,
Pasadena, California, announced that it
has met a $2 million matching challenge
put forward by Chicago-based Galvin
Family Foundations. The Galvin Family
pledged $2.5 million if the museum
could raise $2 million in new funds.
Since the announcement of the matching challenge last April, the museum
has received 29 gifts from individuals
and organizations. The funds from
the challenge move the museum past
the $8.9 million mark in its $13 million
capital campaign.
Museum of the Earth at the
Paleontological Research Institution,
Ithaca, New York, has received an
Award of Merit from Museumwise:
The Museum Association of New York
for its recent traveling exhibition, Did
Dinosaurs Poop?
The Denver Museum of Nature &
Science has been awarded two honors
from the Colorado Distance Learning
Association (COLODLA). Mark
Widdifield, the museum’s distance
learning assistant coordinator, received
the Teacher of the Year Award, and
the museum’s Virtual Heart program
received the Program of the Year
Award. Virtual Heart enables students
to observe a sheep heart dissection
through interactive video conferencing.
57
6/17/13 6:59 PM
Q&A
Alejandro Frank
Interviewed by Joelle Seligson
Alejandro Frank had been a nuclear physicist for around 25
years when, as he explains it, he “turned toward the children.”
Eight years ago, Frank, professor of physics at the Nuclear
Science Institute of the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM), joined colleagues to determine science’s
most important contribution to the country. Their conclusion: Science must be brought to the children. Frank and
fellow scientists are now working to achieve this goal through
PAUTA, which stands for “Programa Adopte un Talento”—the
Adopt a Talent Program. Frank discussed the challenges and
triumphs of this innovative project, which he’ll present in a
daylong workshop before the ASTC Annual Conference in
Albuquerque this October.
Tell me a bit about PAUTA.
In Mexico, few children have the opportunity to access science, and thus the country loses its main natural resources.
We’re attempting to bridge the science community and the
children and teachers. The most important step is a series of
workshops both for kids and for teachers, where the emphasis is on abilities and reasoning. The materials have been
designed by scientists in different fields.
The second step is to select children, which we thought
would be difficult, but in fact the children almost select themselves. The ones that are motivated remain. The third part
is the most difficult, which is the follow-up. In Mexico most
children, even if they are interested, would be lost; they would
stop studying because they have to work. Adopt a Talent to us
means that once we find these children we want to give them
the means to [pursue] their careers. We want to take them all
the way to higher studies.
Photo by Naixieli Castillo García/AMC
What successes have you seen? Have you faced unexpected
challenges?
We have been happy to find many children asking their
parents to take them to workshops because they are fun. We
try to incorporate the parents—all of them want their children
to be educated, to have a chance to grow. The teachers see the
workshops as a way to participate in something more than
staying inside a classroom for years and years.
We are now in five states of the country. In every state,
we design some of our workshops differently based on the
interests of the people, and we are very respectful of the local
customs and the local ways.
The challenges are economical in many respects, but we’ve
been quite successful. The national university and the education ministry are supporting us. We have found help from
some foundations, and we have motivated some people to
consider giving more.
How many people have you reached?
We have already worked with thousands of teachers. With
children, we’ve been working more slowly because we don’t
want to open a door to these children and then close it. We
are just beginning to get enough support to believe that we
will survive as an association. PAUTA has received a couple of
prizes. People are noticing us.
For a podcast and full transcript of this interview, visit www.astc.org/blog/category/astc-dimensions/q-and-a.
58
Dimensions
6/17/13 6:59 PM
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Just a few months until lift off!
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6/17/13 6:59 PM

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