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

Maria,

Thank you for taking the time to consider helping!  I appreciate your feedback on the website.  We will take a look and see how we might refine it.

You are exactly right about what we are looking for regarding science.  Your example of your gardener friend would be a great person to interview.  Regarding your question about technology, if a person feels they know a lot about software or hardware then we want to know how they came to know what they do.  Many interviewees list personal experience (trial and error) along with resources such as books, friends and the internet.  The goal is to find out what resources people use to learn about science and technology.  We are not necessarily interested in a specific task such as learning to use an iPhone for the first time unless that person feels that they have become an expert at the iPhone.

Finally, regarding LinkedIn and Facebook we do have pages on both sites.  Also, if the Exploratorium or anyone else feels moved to, please help us with this endeavor by conducting interviews and spreading the word!

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2597840&trk=anet_ug_hm
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=248841046912

On behalf of the CAISE Informal Infrastructure Inquiry Group...

Thank you,
Madlyn Runburg
Director of School Programs
Utah Museum of Natural History
801.671.7713 cell
[log in to unmask]





On 2/8/10 2:09 PM, "Maria Mortati" <[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.
*****************************************************************************

Hi Madlyn,

I find myself having to read through the site and word documents just to
determine if this is something I could help with (let alone forward it on to
other like-minded folks) and what the goals are of the project. For me, it
would be easier if the home page had that more succinctly spelled out. This
wording from the Interview page I found helpful in terms of framing:

"We're defining science and technology very broadly so that it includes
typical school topics like biology, chemistry and geology but also practical
things like how to fix a car, knowing what plants will grow in a particular
area or what the causes and treatments are for a particular ailment. That's
what we mean by science and technology."

So you're asking us to ask people we know to look at things they do in their
life and inquire as to how and where they get their informal "scientific"
data? For example, I have a friend who is a gardener, and I want to know
where does he get his info to know which plants to plant where?

However, in terms of technology, are you asking people to include in that
bubble "How did you figure out how your iPhone works" to "How did you get to
be an expert at editing videos for YouTube!"? Or do you mean hardware and
not software?

Towards the goal of reaching 500 by end of the month, (and again, forgive me
if I'm saying something you're already doing) you could put the word out to
like-minded groups via LinkedIn or like-minded individuals and institutions
on Facebook aside from ASTC. Other existing networks you may have already
directly considered reaching out to are: Citizen Science such as Cornell's
Lab, Exploratorium type Explainers (sorry Explo not volunteering you), etc.

Best,

Maria Mortati

--
curator: http://www.sfmobilemuseum.org/
blog: http://museums-now.blogspot.com/
work: http://www.gyroscopeinc.com
site: http://mortati.com


On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 7:07 AM, Madlyn Runburg <[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.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
>
>
>
> Colleagues,
>
> Thank you for the help you have provided thus far with our project,
> however, we still need your help to learn more about the myriad ways people
> engage learning resources in their community to inform themselves about
> science and technology.  We are meeting soon to begin looking at the initial
> results and would love your help in getting at least 500 more interviews
> done by the end of February.  Will you help????????????
>
> As a reminder, this project is an effort of the Center for the Advancement
> of Informal Science Education's (CAISE) Infrastructure Inquiry Group.  This
> Inquiry Group, on which I serve, is committed to trying to better understand
> what has been called an "invisible infrastructure" of science education -
> the rich diversity of places and pursuits that ignite our curiosity and
> support lifelong learning about science.
>
> We would like to encourage each of you to join this national effort by
> interviewing at least one person for this project.  It can be someone you
> know in any capacity.   As you have time, we would also like to ask you to
> conduct additional interviews and/or help us to find more people willing to
> serve as an interviewer, too.  Simply go to www.scienceinterviews.org and
> review the 'guidelines' and 'the interview' links to get started.  You can
> also download Word documents of the guidelines and interview from this site.
>
> This is a great opportunity for the entire science education community to
> take part in a simple, bottom-up national research effort that will allow us
> to better understand the needs of the public as it relates to science
> learning.  The more people that get involved, the clearer will be our
> picture of the scope and scale of the American science education
> infrastructure.
>
> Thank you in advance for your participation and help in spreading the word!
>
> Madlyn Runburg
> Director of School Programs
> Utah Museum of Natural History
> 801.671.7713 cell
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> ***********************************************************************
> 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
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***********************************************************************
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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To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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[log in to unmask]



***********************************************************************
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
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]