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I went to a few way back in the mid-eighties when I worked for Ed Schlossberg.  We had booths in the show hall but I didn't get to any programs.  Even as the young turk New York City designer I felt completely at home with all of the other science geeks.  And I use that term with the warmest regards. You know it takes one to know one.

Sorry to miss Honolulu, it must have been mighty nice!  Lord, what a contrast Baltimore will be.  In fact I think one of those conferences from the 80's was Baltimore...

Erich Rose

Erich Rose Design
807 The Living End
Austin, TX 78746
512-626-9930; [log in to unmask]

> On Oct 21, 2010, at 1:47 PM, Jonah Cohen wrote:
> 
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>> *****************************************************************************
>> 
>> With 2010's festivities in Honolulu, I realize that I have now been to
>> 10 Annual Conferences of ASTC. There are two conclusions to draw from
>> this:
>> 
>> 1) I am old. Really old.
>> 2) Especially for someone at a small museum, like mine, it has been
>> unbelievably valuable to meet up with and exchange ideas with my cohorts
>> from the science center world. So to everyone I say, as they would in
>> Hawaii, Mahalo.
>> 
>> And now, a trip down memory lane. Here are a few of the things I recall
>> from the hosts of our last 10 shindigs:
>> 
>> 2001, Arizona Science Center: the freaky psychology exhibit, the video
>> display with the 3 second delay
>> 
>> 2002, Discovery Place: an awesome chemistry demo area, the terraced
>> exhibit space, lots of robots
>> 
>> 2003, Science Museum of Minnesota: Cell Lab, Experiment Gallery,
>> Collector's Corner, the terminator pigs, the demo where they dropped
>> stuff off of a balcony
>> 
>> 2004, The Tech Museum: The Tech Challenges, the drawing robot, the
>> high-tech kids area, The Revolver
>> 
>> 2005, Science Museum of Virginia: The earth + moon kugels, Newton in
>> Space, rat basketball
>> 
>> 2006, Louisville Science Center: World We Create, the waterless stream
>> table, maze-like design of every building in town
>> 
>> 2007, California Science Center: Big Lab, the rose garden, Tess the
>> giant robot, the chick hatchery
>> 
>> 2008, Franklin Institute: the heart, the sports exhibit, pirates, the
>> kids area
>> 
>> 2009, Fort Worth Museum of Science & History: the noise-making pinball
>> game, the activity rooms, the construction
>> 
>> 2010, Bishop Museum: meet me at the hot spot, the ocean/volcano exhibit
>> combo, the main hall in Hawaii Hall
>> 
>> And a few superlatives, IMHO, from the last decade:
>> 
>> BEST NEARBY MUSEUM: Have to fudge + go with a tie - The Exploratorium
>> (close to San Jose) & The Sonora Desert Museum (close to Phoenix).
>> Honorable mentions to Monterey Bay Aquarium/SJ Children's Discovery
>> Museum/Lawrence Hall of Science (San Jose), the Baaken Museum (St.
>> Paul), Louisville Slugger Museum (Louisville) & The Mutter Museum
>> (Philadelphia)
>> 
>> BEST FOOD: Philadelphia, hands down. Thank you, Reading Terminal Market.
>> 
>> BEST CONFERENCE SPEAKER: Has to be Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem
>> Children's Zone. (Los Angeles). Honorable mentions to astronaut Mike
>> Melville (Richmond), biologist EO Wilson (Louisville), author Steven
>> Johnson (Philly) + the Mythbusters (LA)
>> 
>> MOST NOTABLE WEATHER: Holy smokes, it was cold in St. Paul.
>> 
>> BEST TOYS IN THE EXHIBITOR HALL: I liked the hurricane booth, that
>> buffeted you with 80 mph winds. Props also to the strobe-powered OI that
>> made it look like water was dripping upwards.
>> 
>> BEST ANIMAL GUEST STAR: Close call. Smithfield the painting pig
>> (Richmond) had artistic talent, but like all artists was kind of
>> temperamental. Sticker the longhorn steer (Ft. Worth) was friendlier,
>> but had some drool issues.
>> 
>> BEST ENTERTAINMENT: They Might Be Giants (Ft. Worth.) I'm impressed.
>> 
>> BEST SMELLING PARKING LOT: Science museum of Virginia. Really, it smells
>> like cookies.
>> 
>> BEST CONVENTION SWAG: In Philadelphia, everyone's conference tote
>> included one of the plushes from Giant Microbes. I got the T-4
>> Macrophage.
>> 
>> WILDEST DEMO: OK, a few contenders---
>> 	Sherry Marshall of the Oklahoma Museum Network, whose LN2/ping
>> pong ball explosion in Honolulu won't be forgotten soon
>> 	The London Science Museum, their outreach live presentation in
>> LA on the digestive system wowed everyone with actual footage from
>> inside the human body, and made jokes I didn't know you were allowed to
>> make in a school
>> 	Steven Walvig of The Baaken, for the Thunder-house demo he set
>> off in Fort Worth
>> 	The traveling science crew of The Franklin Institute, who added
>> to their host-party with an extended, fire-and-LN2 affair dubbed Random
>> Acts of Science
>> 	William Katzman of the Catawba Museum, who fascinated/frightened
>> attendees in Richmond by walking barefoot on glass shards
>> 
>> BIGGEST SERENDIPITY: As ASTC'ers were enjoying open house at The Bishop
>> this month, they were treated to a huge rainbow above Honolulu.
>> 
>> My friends, thanks for all the Manao (sharing of thoughts), and I hope
>> to see you next year in Baltimore.
>> 
>> Jonah Cohen
>> Outreach & Public Programs Manager
>> The Children's Museum
>> 	
>> 
>> ***********************************************************************
>> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
>> 
>> Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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> 
> Beryl Rosenthal, PhD
> Executive Director, Waterworks Museum
> [log in to unmask]
> www.waterworksmuseum.org
> 617.277.0065
> 
> 
> ***********************************************************************
> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
> 
> Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
> 
> The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
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