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

Thanks Jonah.

 From one who was not able to get to the conference, it would be great
if others who went can provide us some insight and surprising new
knowledge that you gained at the conference.  I don't want to speak for
everyone who didn't get the chance to go but who is on this listserv,
but I would certainly find this helpful.

Regards,

Stephen

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.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>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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