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We have a very successful program entitled FAST (Family Adventures in 
Science and Technology).  It is held on the last Sunday of the month 
during Sept., Oct, Jan.-March.  The FAST program provides our family 
visitors with opportunities to explore current science topics and 
technologies that include engagement and active conversation with MIT 
students and researchers. We contact groups and departments at MIT 
whose faculty, researchers and students  develop demonstrations that 
illustrate their current research and related activities that involve 
family groups.  Each FAST offers a completely new set of learning 
experiences and creates an exciting learning atmosphere.  The 
programs are 2 hours long, and have low impact on 
scientist/engineer/researcher time.   We sell the project to the 
faculty, researchers and students in a number of ways:  (1) late in 
the summer, I send a note to the Dean of the School of Engineering 
with the request for departmental participation (couching it of 
course in terms of MIT's goals for community outreach) and he sends 
it out to department heads - that gets it vetted institutionally; (2) 
I tell researchers that their NSF grants require public 
dissemination, and we're their logical in-house venue; (3) students 
need to be able to communicate in nontechnical terms to a general 
audience about what it is that they do - it's a public understanding 
of research piece.  When they ask why that is important, I ask them 
to remember one word: semiconductors.

I cruise our (MIT's) website, particularly the News Office pages to 
find out who is doing what.  I do the same with individual 
departments.  I particularly ask the News Office folks who can give a 
good talk.  Pitfalls include someone occasionally not showing up.  I 
had a grad student do that once, he sent his wife who knew nothing 
about the subject and our visitors weren't too keen about it.

We've conducted surveys to find out what people want/don't want, 
like/dislike, subjects they are interested in, etc.

Thanks,
Beryl

>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>Hi Folks,
>
>We are looking to pilot a program that would bring 
>researchers/scientists into our exhibit hall to make informal 
>presentations ( about 10-20 minutes long) about their work to the 
>public.  I've seen several styles of this "ask the expert" kind of 
>program.
>
>I'm looking for ideas and advice from those of you who have seen or 
>run successful programs that aren't simply a "stand and deliver" 
>style. What works, both for the public and the scientists? What 
>pitfalls should we be aware of? Since we're at a university, we're 
>thinking of  offering training in public speaking/interpretation to 
>a cadre of graduate students, in exchange for them making their 
>research work more accessible to the public.
>
>Any  comments or suggestions would be welcome!
>
>Lisa
>--
>********************************************************
>Lisa Borok ([log in to unmask])
>Visitor Programs Manager
>Seymour Center, Long Marine Lab, Univ. California Santa Cruz
>100 Shaffer Rd., Santa Cruz, CA 95060	  Phone: 
>(831)459-5548        	  Fax: (831)459-1221
>web: http:/seymourcenter.ucsc.edu
>
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>More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
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-- 
Beryl Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs
MIT Museum
265 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139
Tel: 617-452-2111
Fax: 617-253-8994
[log in to unmask]
"A great place to explore ideas, invention, and innovation: 
http://web.mit.edu/museum"

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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
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
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