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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Charlie,

I like it.

What I say to explain what a science center is at its' core, to a person
who has never been -- "it's a place filled with big toys you can't fit
in your own house, and you can learn or re-learn something when you're
there."

Jeff Rosenblatt
Director, Science City
 
Union Station Kansas City, Inc.
30 W. Pershing Rd.  Suite 850
Kansas City, MO  64108
Office:  816-460-2218
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-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Charlie Carlson
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 12:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: science staff

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

With respect to science staff versus other staff, I would suggest that
museums and science centers should seriously rethink the notion of their
place within the educational frameworks, and staff composition.  Museums
are and should best represent the muse of science perhaps best summed as
the expression of human curiosity and exploration.  Museums are physical
communication devices and mechanisms of sharing.  

Evidence tends to indicate they are at best mediocre and inefficient
constructs for direct didactic, highly organized teaching vehicles.  "No
one ever flunk a museum," but few have passed them, either.  They don't
have that metric.

As learning constructs are unlikely to be places of new discoveries in
teaching mechanisms, or radical redefinitions of teaching pedagogy.
People have been learning for 100,000's of years and more.   The
re-discovered "hands-on learning" was probably the very first type of
learning.  It may have evolved before language.

In the broadest sense museums are about stuff, the natural world and
people that are passionately interested in it. (They also reflect social
cultural values; another subject.)  Sporadic visits by the vast majority
of visitors to museums are complex enjoyable human social events.  The
science content and presentation can have positively affective benefits
and positively engage a diverse array of visitors.  These are starting
points.  The muse springs from science, scientists, engineers, builders,
and artists.  To the extent affordable, the staff needs to reflect the
process of science and the associated human interest, passion, history,
and discipline.

Charlie
On Aug 16, 2010, at 2:53 AM, Lynn Baum wrote:

UNITY.LSOFT.COM.

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