This is an extended version of an article that appears in the January/February 2012 issue of Dimensions magazine.

We map our audience’s attitudes, knowledge base, and expectations—not in order to meet those expectations, but rather to overcome them, to surprise our visitors, and to create the aha! of the Heureka experience. More than designing objects, we design the actions and interactions of the audience. This is closer to dramaturgy than playwriting. As on a stage, we direct the spotlights to bring up details that will illuminate parts of the whole and wake up the curiosity of the visitor. The visitors will always have the leading roles in this play; leaving their personal trace in the exhibition will make it their story.
Mikko Myllykoski, experience director, Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre, Vantaa

At the heart of our exhibits are stories that connect visitors to nature in personally meaningful ways. We are place based, meaning all stories begin and end in the Adirondack region. Within this larger story, we search for surprising solutions that whisper to visitors, “Come here—let me show you something cool,” then move them to explore, and leave them ready to be amazed by the wild places right outside our doors. To achieve this, we create multiple levels of entry and connection for visitors by weaving stories, poetry, meanings, and ideas into vibrant sensory experiences designed in an original voice that feels different every time visitors encounter it.
Stephanie Ratcliffe, executive director, The Wild Center, Tupper Lake, New York

Our educational goal is to create curious, confident, and collaborative learners who are empowered to use science in shaping a better future. We strive to attain this goal through both our onsite and traveling exhibitions, by designing and constructing exhibits that are: (1) inviting and fun—to invoke curiosity, (2) fully interactive and open-ended—to inspire confidence, (3) engaging for multiple individuals—to promote collaboration, and (4) scientifically accurate and relevant—to empower individuals to value and apply science to improve environmental, societal, and economic sustainability.
Tim Scott, director of exhibits, Sciencenter, Ithaca, New York

We are using RFID identification and server technology to:
• Enhance the experience: Visitors feel, “I am a part of this experience and I can add my opinions to it.”
• Extend the experience: Visitors continue the learning process at home or in school.
• Share the experience: Visitors have the opportunity to express themselves and be heard in the science center and outside on social media.
Bjørn Winther Johansen, CEO, INSPIRIA Science Center, Grålum, Norway

Our exhibits are generally small-scale with transactive qualities, enabling both the exhibits and their users to change in unexpected ways. We try to make exhibits accessible to everyone regardless of their economic status, schooling, ethnicity, age, physiology, home language, or personal history. For that reason, we base our exhibits on fundamental human experiences, such as moving air or gravity. We put people’s learning in their own hands. Exhibits are materials-rich, and offer multiple outcomes depending on a visitor’s chosen investigation. Exhibit activities reside in comfortable, semi-private spaces that encourage focus and conversation. Materials, staff, and exhibit environment all work together to support visitor learning.
Betsy Adamson, exhibits and operations director, Explora, Albuquerque, New Mexico

We encourage an interest in and curiosity about the physical and natural worlds by giving visitors the opportunity to become engaged with real objects and real phenomena. We value direct experiences, particularly those involving a kinesthetic connection to a phenomenon, the ability to observe a live creature, or an experience that allows a visitor to make a connection to the world outside. Our most successful exhibits are less about imparting information and more about creating opportunities for rich and memorable interactions and conversations.
Bob Raiselis, exhibits director, Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, Vermont

Our vision for our exhibitions centers not on the exhibits, but rather on those who use them. We provide experiences that encourage visitors to freely frame their own questions and to organize the exhibitions in their own ways. The act of organizing sometimes prompts a personalized understanding and encourages further inquiry. Our exhibitions succeed when they help our visitors understand their world better, or even when visitors simply have fun in a place filled with scripted bits of scientific wonder. And what of the phenomena themselves? Most must be seen, touched, heard, or even smelled to be understood. Otherwise, why would we need exhibits at all?
Wolfgang Guthardt, director, Phaeno, Wolfsburg, Germany

When we design an exhibition, we ask ourselves: Is each exhibit authentic? Interactive? Explorative? Transparent? Can a variety of visitors access the content in different ways over multiple experiences? We value creativity and authenticity. We develop our exhibitions in-house because this creative collaboration inspires our staff, volunteers, and board, and infuses our entire organization with ingenuity. Our exhibitions engage visitors with natural phenomena, making science more perceptible and intriguing. To facilitate accurate observations of those phenomena by visitors, we provide genuine materials rather than models and we make evident the inner workings of all of our exhibits.
Karen Miel, director of research and innovation, CuriOdyssey, San Mateo, California

Our exhibitions have their starting point in the technology and design of the real world and include industrial machinery both in full and model scale. The approach in the exhibitions is holistic, creating wholeness and context and engaging all the senses. This concerns the exhibits themselves, the setting, the stage design, and the “spaces in between.” The reality-based concept of our exhibitions creates an inspirational learning environment that helps children and adults to put pieces of complicated processes together and explore the technology and science behind them.
Olle Nordberg, director, Teknikens Hus, Luleå, Sweden

When developing new exhibitions, we always take the following principles into account:
• The content should be about science and technology in the broad sense.
• The main goal is education, but we also want visitors to have fun.
• Interactivity is important. We aim for a mix of different types of interactivity (from bodies-on to brains-on) and the use of different senses.
• We offer the visitor a unique experience, but with links to daily life.
• Visitors should be challenged, but should always leave with a positive feeling about themselves.
Patricia Verheyden, experience director, Technopolis, the Flemish Science Centre, Mechelen, Belgium

Three core beliefs guide our exhibitions. First, the visitor perspective informs all phases of our projects. In addition to front end, remedial, and summative evaluation, our extensive prototyping process allows us to mock up, evaluate, and revise all of our interactive ideas through an iterative process. Second, design truly matters. We believe an exhibition is more than a set of interactives. Our approach integrates individual exhibit components into a larger, designed, immersive experience. Finally, we question, change, or abandon ideas throughout the entire process to ensure that the final exhibition successfully meets our goals.
Rita Mukherjee Hoffstadt, assistant director of traveling exhibits and special projects, the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

Two central themes provide the foundation for our exhibition philosophy: (1) Exhibits are most effective when they present science in a multidisciplinary context of everyday human experience, and (2) Visitors learn about science by doing science. We believe that exhibits should:
• Inspire visitors’ curiosity, encourage their sense of play, and reward their participation with understanding.
• Make objects “come alive” and help visitors build connections between those objects and associated ideas, issues, and phenomena.
• Allow for modification to accommodate new discoveries and perspectives.
• Involve visitors informally but directly in the experimental process of science.
• Engage visitors in considering relevant issues and ethical questions related to science.
Joe Imholte, program director, special exhibits & exhibit services, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul

Image courtesy Heureka

Interviewed by Joelle Seligson

From collaborations to chopped-up mannequins, Clarence Sirisena, assistant chief executive in projects and exhibitions at Science Centre Singapore (SCS), finds innovative approaches to traveling exhibitions. His research on this topic—and his efforts to share knowledge with other science centers—earned him ASTC’s 2011 Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Experienced Leadership in the Field. Between his work at SCS and with institutions worldwide, Sirisena found time to discuss his discoveries.

Read the full transcript, or listen to the podcast.

This interview appears in the January/February 2012 issue of Dimensions magazine.

About the image: Clarence Sirisena (far right) with Lim Tit Meng (left), chief executive of Science Centre Singapore, and Christoph Rahofer, president and CEO of EMS Exhibits, at the opening of Dinosaurs—Live!, on display at SCS through February 26, 2012. Photo courtesy SCS

This is an extended discussion of the question that appears in the Viewpoints department of the January/February 2012 issue of Dimensions magazine.

Science centers and museums should adopt overarching gift acceptance and ethical fundraising policies that should be approved by their governing boards.  In addition, in order to ensure accountability and informed decision-making regarding corporate sponsorships, institutions should develop written and board-approved policies and procedures to protect their assets and reputation and to guide institutional actions consistent with their mission. The American Association of Museums (AAM) has developed a document on this topic: Guidelines for Museums on Developing and Managing Business Support, which is available on the AAM website; the Association of Fundraising Professionals provides additional resources, including the Donor Bill of Rights; and Board Source provides sample policies and a variety of white papers related to this topic.

Erik G. Pihl, vice president for development, Pacific Science Center, Seattle

Unlike philanthropic donors, corporate sponsors exchange funds for benefits that advance their marketing objectives. Inherently, the goals of the sponsor and the institution will be different, but they don’t have to be in opposition. From my experience, there are countless ways to fulfill sponsor benefits without surrendering a museum’s integrity or control over its content.

Experienced sponsors respect a “content firewall” that prevents even the appearance of their intrusion into the substance of museum exhibitions or programs. Indeed, most sponsors acknowledge the “value” of working with a museum is maximized when such a barrier is discussed, understood, and carefully expressed in a sponsor agreement. This does not require the creation of new ethical guidelines for sponsorships, especially as most museums already have an ethics statement guiding employee behavior and all its programs.

Charles L. Katzenmeyer, senior vice president for external affairs, Adler Planetarium, Chicago

At Sciencenter, we recognize that corporate relationships and sponsorships serve as an important source of support for our mission-based educational activities.  We also feel strongly that our sponsor relationships must support the core values of our organization.  Thus, we have in place a board-adopted policy that establishes guidelines for such relationships to ensure that Sciencenter maintains independence, acts with ethical integrity, and avoids actions that could compromise its relationships with members, donors, the media, and the public.  Our policy not only includes a description of our process for entering into a sponsorship arrangement, but also specifically spells out how we manage potential conflicts of interest, priorities and exclusions, sponsor recognition, documentation procedures, public accountability and legal, tax, and accounting issues.

Lara Litchfield-Kimber, deputy director, Sciencenter, Ithaca, New York

Many years ago, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a white paper accusing science centers of being little more than shills for corporate marketing interests.  It caused quite a stir!  The next ASTC annual conference was devoted to discussing the subject, and the CSPI author came to debate the issue.  After the conference, many ASTC members created or revised guidelines for sponsorship in order to create more distance between exhibit content and the sponsor’s interests.

Science centers need corporate partners, for intellectual as well as financial support.  Many of these companies believe strongly in our mission, and many are doing important work that can form the basis for great exhibits.  Precisely because that is true, we need to make sure that we have clear and unambiguous guidelines in place, and that we know how far we are willing to go to adjust content in response to donor concerns.

Chuck Howarth, vice president, Gyroscope, Inc., Oakland, California

IN THIS ISSUE
November/December 2011

At the 6th Science Centre World Congress in September, science center and museum leaders from 56 countries resolved through the Cape Town Declaration to promote awareness of the value of Indigenous knowledge. In this issue, we examine how science centers and traditional and Indigenous communities are exploring commonalities and differences between traditional knowledge and Western science, building mutually respectful partnerships, and creating content that resonates with and empowers diverse communities. By championing science literacy while embracing differing worldviews, they are working toward a vision of science centers and museums as places where all voices can be heard.

Contents

• Shifting Paradigms: Embracing Multiple Worldviews in Science Centers, by Laura Huerta Migus
• Collaborating with Integrity: Reflections from Cosmic Serpent, by Nancy C. Maryboy, David Begay, Laura Peticolas, Jill Stein, and Shelly Valdez
• Many Voices, One Exhibition, by Anton van Helden
• Using Known Villains to Introduce Unknown Heroes, by Ramdas Iyer
• Can Indigenous Knowledge Help Communicate Science? by Mdumiseni Nxumalo
• Promoting an Understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine, by Hongzhou Wu
• Native Science Field Centers: Integrating Traditional Knowledge, Native Language, and Science, by Helen Augare and Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer

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By Laura Huerta Migus
From Dimensions
November/December 2011

Science centers and museums fill a unique community role as centers of learning, research, entertainment, and community congregation. Beyond teaching scientific concepts, the underlying motivation for all science center activities is promoting the value of science and scientific thinking to the general public. Science centers and museums face a number of challenges in fulfilling this mission, not the least of which is working to achieve this goal across cultures and worldviews.

This article will explore the particular challenges and opportunities for science centers in working on a relationship between the Western science paradigm and traditional knowledge systems (TKS). As defined by the International Council for Science, traditional knowledge systems are the “cumulative bod[ies] of knowledge, know-how, practices, and representations maintained and developed by peoples with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment.”

This particular dialogue about negotiating worldviews is relevant to all institutions, whether or not they work with traditional or Indigenous communities. Many of the strategies employed in this arena are applicable to working with any cultural group, and many of the key questions (e.g., equity and relevance) are the same.

Differing cultural values

The first challenge for science centers and museums is the sometimes contradictory cultural values of TKS and Western science. Science can be considered a culture unto itself, with its own set of practices, behaviors, and expectations, including critical questioning, objectivity and honesty, recognition of previous knowledge, and the pursuit of knowledge that will benefit society.

The cultural underpinnings of science narratives become especially visible when compared with TKS, particularly when it comes to the notion of objectivity. Traditional knowledge holders often do not separate knowledge of the physical world from spiritual practice and lived experience. In addition, the nature of TKS tends to be intensely local, built upon multigenerational observation of and adaptation to the local environment. This holistic and localized approach results in unique ways of seeing the world, including ways of organizing knowledge that often differ greatly from those generally accepted in Western science settings. For example, some groups might conceptually link plants and animals together based on the time of year that they are active, in contrast to the Western science model of categorizing by genus and species.

Rather than seeking to supplant these knowledge systems, science centers can be powerful partners in promoting respect for Indigenous and traditional knowledge. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recognized the value of these systems as repositories of the diversity of human knowledge and key resources in understanding the environment and working toward sustainable economic development.

The challenge for science centers and museums then becomes how to promote science while still respecting traditional cultural values and individuals’ cultural identities. Some key principles to keep in mind include:

• Don’t rush to the content. When engaging across worldviews, it is important to take the time to understand cultural norms or protocols to better conceptualize how a program or exhibition should be adapted or designed for success.
• Move beyond a deficit mindset. Traditional knowledge systems are complete ways of knowing, and individuals who live in them don’t see themselves as lacking knowledge or assets.
• Create true partnerships. Be prepared for your paradigm to shift. Any successful cross-cultural work is a two-way endeavor—don’t assume that the learning will be one-way.

A fraught history and modern tensions

In addition to finding the balance point between respecting TKS and advancing a culture of science, centers and museums can also face the challenge of overcoming the perception of museums as colonial institutions. Traditional and Indigenous knowledge holders have historically been marginalized from participation in majority society, and their knowledge systems either have been ignored or treated as an object of anthropological study in museums. In particular, there is a long history of museums improperly obtaining and displaying sacred objects and human remains.

To overcome this legacy, modern science centers and museums must recognize the historical context in which they are situated with respect to Indigenous and traditional communities. We are now past the time of representing Indigenous people in dioramas of the natural world, but the legacy of this practice in museums is still present for many Indigenous and marginalized peoples. In particular, science centers and museums—whether or not they are collections-based—must be cognizant of this history as an “invisible” barrier that may need to be addressed in order to establish a relationship built on mutual trust.

Additionally, the role of TKS in science innovation is often invisible in mainstream science narratives. It is common knowledge that many new medicines have been derived from rainforest plants, but somehow the traditional knowledge holders who work with researchers are not recognized as active agents in discovery, but as background players. Indigenous peoples are now gaining more support from the UN and an increasing number of nongovernmental organizations and governments for acknowledgement of their intellectual property rights.

As Science Museum of Minnesota President Eric Jolly has said, museums are places of story. Science centers must reflect on whose stories of science they are telling. As public spaces that engage the public in critical thinking, science centers should incorporate questions of equity to empower not only Indigenous and traditional communities, but also mainstream audiences in creating a more civil global society.

Looking ahead

Despite the real challenges of bridging divergent and sometimes contradictory worldviews, there are a number of institutions—some of whom tell their stories in this issue of Dimensions—who have dedicated themselves to working on these issues, each developing strategies tailored to their specific contexts.

In September, the field convened around this topic at the 6th Science Centre World Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, and resolved in the Cape Town Declaration to “continue to develop programs that promote awareness of the multicultural roots of science and the value of Indigenous knowledge systems.” We look forward to learning how science centers, dedicated to equitable access to science knowledge, are advocating for equity and justice in scientific practice and communication.

Laura Huerta Migus is ASTC’s director of professional development and inclusion initiatives.

Resources for Further Reading

Aikenhead, G.S., and M. Ogawa. “Indigenous Knowledge and Science Revisited.” (PDF, 618 KB.) Cultural Studies of Science Education vol. 2, 2007, pp. 539–591.

National Research Council. “Diversity and Equity.” Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Committee on Learning Science in Informal Environments. Bell, P., et al., eds. Board on Science Education, Center for Education. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2009, pp. 209–247.
 
Quigley, C. “Globalization and Science Education: The Implications for Indigenous Knowledge Systems.” International Education Studies vol. 2, no. 1, February 2009, pp. 76–88.

Von Thater-Braan, R. “Explorations into Native Science: A Journey into the Spirit and Nature of Science.” The Native American Academy.

About the image: On the spring equinox, the sun casts a shadow that resembles a serpent descending the stairway of El Castillo at the Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Photo courtesy NASA/Barbara Lambert