ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Well, the dust has cleared on the latest science-pallooza, and as always
it was great to meet/re-meet so many of my science center cohorts. I
always learn a lot from everyone; so to share a bit of that, and pay
tribute to some of LA's local musicians, at your own risk you read...
 
DANI CALIFORNIA
A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM 
THE 2007 ASTC CONFERENCE
 
FREE: Our host institution, the California Science Center, is an arm of
the state government, so no cost to get in.
 
PATIENCE: In one session, I learned about the >25 year< plan that CSC
has for its development, with the key areas of the science center, their
affiliated charter school and professional development for teachers.
Thinking ahead (way ahead) seems to be paying dividends for them.
 
POWER OF EQUALITY: I feel safe in saying that everyone was blown away by
the Saturday keynote speech from Geoffrey Canada, CEO of the Harlem
Children's Zone. I wish I had a dollar for every person in subsequent
sessions who cited him. He challenged ASTC to take a stand and make a
real difference. In the case of the HCZ, he was clear that the mission
is a stark one: saving the urban poor children from a path that
ultimately leads to drugs, prison or violent death. And he took a big
picture perspective, saying how efforts must be continuous ("What's the
most important phase in a child's development? Right now!") and urging
us to look at what needs to be done and how to do it, rather than what
we have the ability to do now. He saw this as a pragmatic approach;
compare the costs of working with a child now, to those of incarcerating
an adult later. I really, really hope this speech is available on the
line-up of conference tapes, because if you weren't in LA, you should
hear it.
 
JESUS PLEASE FORGIVE ME (FOR THE THINGS I'M ABOUT TO SAY): Every
conference features the "graffiti wall" (think of it as a really low
tech blog) where attendees can write thoughts, pose questions etc. It
wasn't a good year for the GW. First, someone started by penning a
personal "give me a call" message to one other person... in giant block
letters that took up about a third of the wall. Then, kids who were at
the convention center attending a revival defaced the wall with tributes
to themselves, lots of profanity, racist language + misogyny. Hmmm, the
graffiti wall hit by actual graffiti - how ironic.
 
CLASSIC GIRL: My favorite part of CSC was, oddly enough, an automated
show called BodyWorks. It mixed video, cartoons and a theater styled
with the trappings of an industrial factory. And Tess, a robot with
exposed muscles, veins, bone, nerves and internal organs. Tess talks a
lot about homeostasis. She moves more than I expected. Did I mention
she's 50 feet long?
 
ROSES GROW: And CSC is located in Exposition Park, home to several other
museums, the LA Coliseum, and right behind their building, a tremendous
rose garden. Lunch hour must be pleasant.
 
HOT FOR TEACHER: Offering training and professional development for
teachers seems to be a very hot topic for science centers. The best
session I went to showed some museums that are really elevating this
practice by making a long term committment to teachers, rather than "Ok,
you paid for your workshop, you've logged your professional
developmentment hours, seeya when you need to renew." The North Carolina
Museum of Life & Science talked about how they've establiushed
themselves as an ongoing resource center for teachers, complete with
staff devoted to this area. Explora has started a pilot program (a
7-year program!) with to partner with a single school to help teachers
and students alike, and evolve long term changes. The Louisville Science
Center has just begun a project that does for teachers what the Outreach
Live session at the conference does for outreach folks at science
centers. Props to all those museums for taking a longview, and their
willingness to experiment.
 
THE GARDEN: A converted armory next to CSC houses classrooms, a library
and The Big Lab. All told, it's about 55,000 square feet - only
available for use by school groups, not the public. The Big Lab itself
is a cavernous area with 4 main "platforms" for inquiry-heavy
experiments, including a bamboo-laden garden for bio/ecology
experiments. You can't tour this area without thinking of your own
experiments that would be cool to try there.
 
GEEK STINK BREATH: You'd have to be nuts to be Sunday's keynoter and
fopllow Geoffrey Canada. Fortunately we had Adam and Jamie rom
Mythbusters, and they wowed the crowd as well. Without any presumptuous
jargon, they talked about their show, and it waa clear that they involve
everything we try to do at science centers. (But with bigger explosions
that we can manage.) They showed us footage of a show that Discovery
Channel refused to air - all about myths about farts. The finale
involved Adam testing whether a fart really can be lit on fire. (You bet
it can.) Their handlers whisked them away after the speech without
letting them sign autographs, alas, but that was probably a canny move.
They'd have been there an extra 2 hours, dealing with drooling fanboys
(mea maxima cupla on that count!)
 
BAD S--T: It wasn't just Adam's flammable flatulence. Disgusting bodily
functions seemed to be a running theme of this conference. One of the
highlights of the Live Demonstration Hour was Brian Priesman of the
Omaha Children's Museum getting a volunteer to help model the creation
of poop - which was completely edible. (The model, that is.) Did they
eat this concoction of Oreos, cream cheese + brown sugar? You bet. Then
at Outreach Live, Beth Linfield + Andy Richmond of the London Science
Museum ratcheted up the gross-out factor - way, way up - with their show
about the digestive system. The ASTC attendees were awestruck that Beth
was able to sell lines such as "If you made a poop today - well done!"
and the kids were equally awed. Declared one: "That's tight!" All in
all, it was some good sh---- you know.
 
Fellow attendees, feel free to share your impressions. I hope to see
many of you next year in Philly, and you're a big nerd if you know which
of these categories is from Berkeley not LA.
 
King of nerds,
Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
The Children's Museum
 
"A children's museum sounds like a good idea, but I would imagine it's
not easy to breath inside those little glass cases."
       -George Carlin
 

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