Trekaroo, a blog focused on traveling with children as well as child- and family-friendly activities, recently released their list of the top 10 U.S. science and technology museums for children, based on user reviews from their site. The Exploratorium, San Francisco, was ranked the number one overall museum; the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, California, was ranked the number one technology museum; and the American Museum of Natural History, New York, was ranked the number one natural history museum. All 10 museums on the list, as well as the seven awarded honorable mention, are ASTC members. Learn more: blog.trekaroo.com/2012/04/18/top-10-science-and-technology-museums/.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is accepting applications in the Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums program, jointly funded by IMLS and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The program is managed by ASTC and the Urban Libraries Council (ULC).

Applications are due June 15, 2012.

These grants will support the planning and designing of Learning Labs in libraries and museums throughout the country. The Labs are intended to engage middle- and high-school youth in mentor-led, interest-based, youth-centered, collaborative learning using digital and traditional media. Grantees will be required to participate, in-person and online, in a community of practice that will provide technical assistance, networking, and cross-project learning. Projects are expected to provide prototypes for the field and be based on current research about digital media and youth learning.

To learn more about the program, ask questions, and listen to the questions and comments of other participants, you are invited to participate in one of two pre-application webinars. These webinars have been scheduled for:

Wednesday, May 9 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. ET (12:00-1:00 p.m. PT)
Thursday, May 23 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. PT)

The ULC/ASTC team will also offer “office hours” to pose final questions closer to the application deadline. The “office hour” schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, June 5 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. PT)
Monday, June 11 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. PT)

To register for the May 9 webinar, visit https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/274016350. The link for the May 23 webinar and the two “office hour” sessions will be available at this same address one week prior.

The Learning Labs guidelines can be found at http://www.imls.gov/applicants/learning_labs_guidelines.aspx. For questions or more information, please contact Margaret Glass at (202) 783-7200 x 129 or mglass@astc.org.

Interviewed by Joelle Seligson

This interview appeared in the May/June 2012 issue of Dimensions magazine.

Transmedia, or storytelling across multiple platforms, is the biggest trend in media today, according to Jennifer Stancil—which would make her a trendsetter. Before signing on as executive director of education at the Pittsburgh public television station WQED in 2010, Stancil had already experimented with an array of media over nearly 15 years in the museum field, including five years as executive director of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center. Her goal: to engage youth, especially girls, with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Here, Stancil discusses media’s fast-paced path and how museums and science centers can keep up to speed.

Read the full transcript, or listen to the podcast.

Photo by Sharon Ellman

This is an extended discussion of the question that appeared in the Viewpoints department of the May/June 2012 issue of Dimensions magazine.

There are more ways in which a science center can be seen to be advocating a position than by just saying it outright. If you call yourself a science center, for example, your audience is likely to draw a conclusion as to where you stand in the evolution/creationism debate. The International Centre for Life leases space to a cutting-edge stem cell research lab, and however much we may hold debates on the ethics of stem cell research, by doing this we are clearly implicit supporters of the research

Ian Simmons, science communication director, International Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom
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I begin this column with a confession of sorts. I am not a science fiction (SF) reader. And yet, I am intrigued by the recent commentary of renowned SF writer Neal Stephenson in World Policy Journal. Stephenson laments the loss today of the “techno-optimism” of science fiction’s Golden Age—from Tom Swift’s photo telephone, to radiotransporters and robots in the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, to James Bond’s inventive gadgetry.

Where are those sources of imaginative innovation today? Where is the counterbalance to the apocalyptic tones of so many writers (and game designers) and the scientific skepticism and innovation risk aversion emerging in the general public?

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