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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In the interest of sharing (hopefully) useful information with the
science center community, including those unable to attend, I humbly (and
probably overly verbosely) submit

        STUFF I LEARNED AT THE ASTC CONFERENCE BESIDES THE FACT THAT MINNESOTA =
COLD

1) One recurring theme I noticed in a wide variety of sessions was the
need to integrate one's facility with the programs that go with it, and
not regard such programs as a simple "value add-on". This was touched on
from many angles: the actual exhibits + programs, the staffing, the
planning/design. I wholeheartedly agree with this, and it's an especially
relevant one for centers like mine.

2) IMNSHO, the best session was, go figure, "The Best Damn Things We've
Ever Done, Period". The events and programs described here were just
wonderful. As I was taking notes, I often thought "We have GOT to find a
way to do something like that". Props to all the presenters at this one,
and their institutions. (If memory serves, that'd be Discovery Center,
SciCenter, Reuben Fleet, Ontario science Center + Ann Arbor Hands-On
Museum... sorry if I forgot someone).

3) Props also to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Not just for hosting -
their museum is all that and more. The Cell Lab part of their human body
exhibit was one of the best museum exhibits I've ever seen, and it was
hardly the only very cool thing they had. Experiment Gallery, the vast +
varied collection (especially the trading station and the museum of
questionable medical devices - first nod to skeptics I think I've seen in
a museum), the Perception theatre, the demo where staffers dropped stuff
off a 50' balcony. Oh yah, SMM rocks.

4) In perhaps an unintentional lesson from one session... teams of
session attendees were given some props, given a list of criteria about
demonstration content and told to come up with a demo to be performed.
The props very obviously suggested specific and well established
demonstrations. We all came up with the same format, ticking off the same
kinds of facets from the checklist and doing exactly what the props
suggested. It struck me at some point that, for all the dissing of
standardized tests and the way they force education into narrow
parameters... when under pressure, we too proceeded (in the context of
the session, anyway) to do exactly what "the system" seemed to expect of
us and dared not veer outside the box in our thinking. I took this as a
somewhat humblin/cautionary lesson.

5) Finally, in the days following my own presentation at the Live
Demonstration Hour, at least 50 people asked me "How'd you do that thing
with the soda cans?" [Buy "Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic" if you
want to know.] I took this as a very moving and uplifting lesson - namely
that my peers also place great value on making a big mess.

TTTTT*
Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
Science Center of Connecticut

* Ta Ta Til The Tech

"Too many whites are getting away with drug use.
The answer is to... find the ones who are getting away with it, convict
them,
and send them up the river."
      -Rush Limbaugh


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