ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Hi Eric et al,

I'm happy to reply offline.  It might be worth a more detailed article for folks rather than a private communication.  I would tend to include the NySCI in the second wave as well.  Ontario was the Exploratorium's closest kindred spirit in many ways.  The LHSci also was a newly launched contemporary institution as well but with a vastly different flavor.  Boston, Chicago, LA, and the Franklin comprised the primary cast of continental players.

To be inclusive, we also had an on-going cooperative in SF called Project Artaud, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, which involved lots of craft activities and audience participation, and the free form Art Institute, along with the back to the land and nature movement.  All fueled with ample supplies of illicit drugs and youthful enthusiasm, rock'n roll, a bunch percolating home  brew computer enthusiasts, nascent biotech,  and a crappy job market.

The PFA was originally proposed as a center for the arts. And then the SF film festival happened, and Frank and Jackie came to town.

The largest exhibit in the past and current Exploratorium are the exhibit creation facilities:  machine shop, electronics lab, graphics lab, and bio lab.  Visitors, staff, explainers, all have and had varying degrees of access.  It's more restricted and formalized now, but its roots were and are in co-developing the skills of all.  Volunteers built exhibits, explainers built exhibits, visitors of all sorts engaged in the process of creating a museum, some got paid.  The shops speak directly to visitors as places of creation and engagement.

Exhibits got lots and lots of informal assessment, modification and revision.  Assessment was democratic in nature and process, not at all formalized.  And the very whiff of front end or summative hadn't crossed anyone's olfactory receptors, and neither had charging people an admission fee.  That was to come within a few short years.

Let me stop here.  Some of the most reflective insight might be provided by Frank himself.  There are clips of him describing the role of explainers.  Jackie, who started the store and subsequently ran the graphics department had no formal training in either field.  None of the staff were bonafide exhibit developers, except perhaps Evelyn Shaw, from AMNH (my boss), and she was all scientist at the time, and she had happened to make a career at a museum.

I'll send more under separate cover.

C



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On Aug 3, 2013, at 3:26 PM, Eric Siegel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> explo opened in 69 (NY Hall of Science opened in 64!).  There were no traditional science museum people to doubt the explo's strategies. there are only two or three science museums...franklin, msi, and ontario of that vintage (NYSCI practically closed for a decade or more after the fair, so we don't really belong to the first wave.)
> 
> The computer quotation is probably a misremembering of a misquote attributed to Thomas Watson, who led IBM in the 50's-60's.  He never said what is often attributed to him "there is a worldwide market for perhaps 5 computers."  
> 
> FWIW, NYSCI is devoting about 1/3 of its exhibition space to Design Lab, which is all facilitated maker-style activities.  We are leading a grant funded collaborative with several other museums to share strategies and resources around design based learning, the Tech, Boston, Minnesota, Explora, TELUS Spark.  We host World Maker Faire.  We are completely restructuring our Explainer training to support this kind of learning. So we are all in.  
> 
> It was a funder who was wondering if this is a fad--not me-- and while I wish it were adequate to tell this funder "no, it isn't,"  I don't think that will work.  Rather, I suggested that s/he look for proposals that are about people and skill building, rather than about equipment, as I think this is an effective proxy to distinguish between those who want to make a sustained go of this approach, and those who are superficially engaged.
> 
> I do find what charlie says, that interactive exhibits were a "compromise" between the desire to make the whole explo a tinkering space and the exigencies of running a museum very interesting.  Charlie, if you could send me some more documentation or description of that offline, I'd really appreciate it.
> 
> e
> 
> On Aug 3, 2013, at 10:50 AM, Eli Kuslansky <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>> *****************************************************************************
>> 
>> Calling these lab a fad reminds me of a bank VP who was a mainframe guy
>> thought PCs were a fad. I wonder what the traditional science museum people
>> were saying in 164 when the Exploratorium opened? In this challenging
>> environment with science centers struggling to retain their relevance and
>> expand their audience beyond younger kids, experiments like this are
>> essential even if the final version looks a lot different. The sustainable
>> model for these labs are not evident yet.
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 8:29 AM, Eric Siegel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>>> institutions.
>>> 
>>> *****************************************************************************
>>> 
>>> Thats an interesting historical note, charlie.
>>> 
>>> e
>>> 
>>> On Aug 3, 2013, at 12:45 AM, Charles Carlson <[log in to unmask]>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Its a fad that comes and goes periodically.   It will ultimately prove
>>> too costly to operate  on a continuous basis, but is well worth the passing
>>> investment of time and energy.  I reflect that demonstrations and
>>> mentorship are not far from this domain of hands on museum activity.
>>>> 
>>>> It may more than anything reflect the current job market for young
>>> people, and shifting social dynamics, and a lack of vocational and lab
>>> opportunities in schools.  It's a valuable component of hands on engagement
>>> via exhibits.
>>>> 
>>>> In any case, it's heartening that museums can foster extended learning
>>> and tinkering.  It falls well within the current emphasis and interest in
>>> engineering in schools, and is lots of fun.
>>>> 
>>>> The Exploratorium would have been a large tinkering space but was
>>> limited by resources.   Hands on exhibits were a compromise solution to the
>>> original problem, but they also found traction and efficacy with respect to
>>> learning.
>>>> 
>>>> C
>>> 
>>> 

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