This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the May/June 2013 issue of

Science center and museum professionals from around the world share their experiences using technology—including smartphones, barcodes, and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags—to personalize the visitor experience.

The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) opened in New York City in December 2012. From the beginning, founder Glen Whitney had a strong vision of bringing math to the masses in a new way, but critical to that vision was the ability to tailor the experience for individuals in ways that would be meaningful to each person. And that meant customization—at many levels.

Static signage found in most museums was set aside, replaced with “smart” electronic kiosks. Using RFID tags, exhibits “recognize” visitors, displaying information in their language and at their desired level and depth of mathematical content. The first stop at a kiosk allows data entry; from that point on, visitors are addressed in a way that makes sense to them.

The electronic signage has additional benefits. Content managers have the ability to modify signage on the spot, incorporating great ideas from visitors or even correcting errors. What better way to customize a visitor experience than for a visitor to see his or her feedback incorporated immediately into the fabric of the museum?

The concept is in its infancy, and there are still kinks to be worked out. RFID antennae need to be exposed or repositioned for some exhibits, and visitors need to be oriented to a new way of interacting with information. But after two months of experience, MoMath remains committed and energized.

Cindy Lawrence, associate director and chief of operations
National Museum of Mathematics, New York City

At NorthernLight in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we often design a virtual online “layer” that connects to every part of an exhibition, including exhibits, objects, and labels. Visitors can use this digital layer to create personalized online environments, customized to their personal demands, interests, social contexts, and knowledge level.

Even before visiting a science center or museum, the prospective visitor can use an app or website to connect to this digital layer and customize a planned visit. Inside the science center or museum, visitors can work with the digital layer in one of two ways. The first is through a personal (or borrowed/rented) device, such as a smartphone, which can scan tags or use a global positioning system (GPS) to establish a location-based experience. The second option is to let visitors identify themselves at each exhibit with a biometric identifier (e.g. fingerprints or irises) or a personalized tag (e.g., radio-frequency identification (RFID)). After their visit, visitors can retrieve and edit their personalized results on the internet and share their creations through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

Here are a few examples of some of our personalized experiences:

• With the app we are currently developing for the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (reopening in April 2013), visitors can choose their own preferred route or receive a fully customized route based on a “Love It or Lose It” quiz to determine their personal preferences.

• Our web-app developed for the Innovation Gallery at Amsterdam’s Science Center NEMO allows visitors to retrieve information by scanning Quick Response (QR) codes at exhibits with their smartphones. The web-app includes questionnaires where users can explore their sustainable lifestyle choices.

• For the Centre of New Enlightenment (TCoNE) at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, we have developed a digital adventure quest. Students ages 10 to 14 use a smartphone on a journey through the museum to discover their own strengths. Evaluation showed that the experience increased students’ awareness of their traits. As they exit, students watch a movie personalized to their group, incorporating their results and photos taken as they were participating in the experience.

• We are now exploring ways to use in-classroom technology to personalize field trip preparation. Most Dutch classrooms are now equipped with digiboards. Connecting interactive digiboards to the virtual environment of the science center could allow teachers to make use of orientation programs and arrange field trip logistics. In addition, students could be invited to ask their own questions, prepare their own reports, and design their own plans for exploring the science center. Our trial of such a digiboard application is showing promising first results.

Esther Hamstra, content manager
NorthernLight, the Experience Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

In the 8,070-square-foot (750-square-meter) traveling exhibition Imitation, exhibits range from robots that imitate human behavior to counterfeit objects to spare parts for humans. The exhibition is a co-production of Museon, the Hague, the Netherlands; VilVite, Bergen, Norway; Expology, Oslo, Norway; and Technopolis, the Flemish Science Centre, Mechelen, Belgium.

Visitors taking part in the exhibition receive a wristband with unique RFID chip. The first time the wristband is used to activate an exhibit, visitors choose a language and type in their name, age, gender, and email address. From then on, each RFID-equipped exhibit recognizes the visitor. (In some past exhibitions, we used wristbands with a unique barcode to personalize the experience. For Imitation, we chose to work with RFID wristbands because they are a lot easier to scan.)

Visitors can keep track of their results in various experiments and activities and compare them with those of other visitors; this challenges them to do their best. Some exhibits encourage visitors to be creative and to produce their own images, sounds, and videos. Those are stored on a personal webpage that enables people to continue their experience at home and share their results with friends (e.g, through Facebook and Twitter). This sharing also generates free publicity for the exhibition.

An added advantage of the personalization is that we can track visitors to determine how many people took part in each exhibit, the average dwell time, and how these factors correlate to age and gender.

We strongly believe personalization is an added value for the visitor as well as for the science center and, although it is quite an investment, we intend to expand its use in our exhibitions.

Patricia Verheyden, experience director
Technopolis, the Flemish Science Centre, Mechelen, Belgium

The Natural History Museum of Utah, located along a popular hiking trail in the foothills of Salt Lake City, is a place where awe-inspiring views of the city’s built environment, the Wasatch Mountains, and the Great Salt Lake converge. The physical setting, as well as metaphorical ideas about trails, permeated our thinking during architectural design and exhibit development. We created an overarching trajectory through the building and exhibits, but we also offer myriad byways that invite audiences to choose their own trails each time they visit.

To enhance this personalized experience, we developed a set of digital tools that come together as the Trailhead to Utah—an award-winning smartphone guide that enriches experiences inside the museum, links to a personal portal on the museum’s website, and offers connections beyond the museum’s doors to sites throughout the state.

We opened the museum in November 2011 with four thematic “trails” in the system, to which visitors can link as they move through the museum. Each theme includes nearly 20 stops across all 10 permanent galleries and other public spaces. Early audience testing showed that the majority of users enjoyed the personalized experience and liked using their own devices. However, because the smartphone guide is nonlinear, the notion of “trails” inside the museum can be confusing. When visitors understand the broader Trailhead to Utah concept—an invitation and information to guide exploration throughout the region—enthusiasm is high. We believe the Trailhead has enormous potential for rich and authentic personal connections, and our evaluation and remediation is ongoing.

Becky Menlove, director of exhibits and public programs
Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City

Upon entering the 2,500-square-foot (230-square-meter) traveling exhibition Black Holes: Space Warps & Time Twists, visitors are prompted to create their own Black Hole Explorer’s Card. This system is intended to enhance visitor motivation and learning by promoting active engagement, increasing the personal significance of the material, and supporting continued learning beyond the museum visit. The exhibition was developed by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Each visitor selects a nickname, such as Galactic Seeker or Techno Genius, from a list of 12 first names and 12 second names. As they move through the exhibition, visitors scan their cards to collect and record images, movies, and their own predictions and conclusions, via barcode technology. They also see their nickname and an avatar or their own photo at each networked station. An automated web-content authoring system creates a personalized online journal of their experience that they can access at home.

The Explorer’s Card system also facilitates evaluation by capturing the duration and depth of visitors’ participation at each station and a database of artifacts that visitors have created. In addition, the first and last interactive exhibits present visitors with a single, random, multiple-choice survey question from a bank of 25 items, thereby providing a source of pre- and post-visit responses.

Here are a few of our results, compiled both from the traditional summative evaluation and from our ongoing analysis of the visitor database:

• Visitors who use an Explorer’s Card spend nearly twice as much time exploring the exhibition as non-card users and show evidence of significantly higher enjoyment and learning outcomes.

• Visitors who self-identified with the nicknames Boy or Girl consistently spent significantly less time exploring the exhibition, while those who self-identified with the nicknames Eco, Techno, or Seeker consistently exhibited well-above-average dwell times. In addition, students who are given preprinted Explorer’s Cards with preselected nicknames and images demonstrate significantly less engagement compared with those who personally choose their own identity.

• Overall, 10% of Explorer’s Card users visit their personal web journal, a high “take-up rate” among projects similar to this, but a rate that does prompt questions about better linking the physical exhibition to later reflection.

When exhibitions use technology both for personalization and for research data collection, these two goals can sometimes compete with each other. My two cents: err on the side of promoting visitor experience goals in your design decisions.

Mary Dussault, science education project manager
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Heart Smart, a 1,500-square-foot (140-square-meter) exhibition, focuses on common risk factors associated with cardiovascular health. It includes opportunities for visitors to measure their blood pressure, take their waist circumference, calculate their body mass index (BMI), and take a lifestyle quiz. Other components explore heart-healthy behaviors, including stress management and physical activity. The exhibition was developed by the Miami Science Museum in Florida, working with the University of Miami and Jeff Kennedy Associates.

At a check-in station, visitors anonymously enter their own gender, age, and ethnicity/race information. Each visitor then receives a card with a unique barcode to activate each interconnected interactive station. They also construct a personal nickname like “Happy Girl” that identifies the unique user at each station.

Tailored personalized health feedback is a distinctive feature of this exhibition. Each of the four health interactive stations provides visitors with brief health risk appraisals, constructed using algorithms based on gender and age. The visitor is able to view personal results and feedback immediately or later on via our website by entering a coded number from their card.

The personal health risk appraisals make results salient for each visitor. Research shows that combining tailored feedback with health risk appraisals may influence one’s decision to make a behavior change. In a two-year follow-up, 86% of high school students who visited Heart Smart reported that the visit prompted them to think about making or actually make a lifestyle change. Fifty-five percent of students reported making at least one healthy lifestyle change because of their visit to the Heart Smart exhibition.

Sean Duran, vice president of exhibitions and design
Miami Science Museum, Florida

At the grand opening of VilVite in Bergen, Norway, in 2007, we could already invite our visitors to personalize their experiences. Based on a system platform developed with Expology of Oslo, Norway, visitors can use an RFID card to register, get a unique visitor ID, initiate experiments, and retrieve the experience on the VilVite website after the visit. The information is also available on terminals in the exhibition area. Video clips, pictures, and other data generated by the visitor are thus available after the visit for educational purposes or for sharing on social media.

Use of the personalization is optional in many of our approximately 40 educational programs. In our oil field exhibit, you can use the system to identify your own oilfield under the sea bed, exploit it by drilling, and then check out production costs and the value of the oil produced. Making your own weather forecast and watching the video clip afterwards is another popular exhibit using the system.

In one school program about energy production, students pedal a bicycle in order to produce the power needed to pump water through a turbine. The mechanical energy from the cycling is transformed into electrical energy. Both types of energy are measured and presented on a screen in real time as well as on a personal webpage. The students use the data to solve both physics and math problems back at school after the museum visit. All teachers surveyed gave the postvisit activities a score of 5 or better, on a scale of 1 to 6.

Svein Anders Dahl, managing director
VilVite, Bergen, Norway

Image courtesy the National Museum of Mathematics

“It was a case of professional schizophrenia—but a very useful one,” laughs Ilan Chabay about his varied career path. He has dabbled in the natural sciences, exhibition design, museum administration, and higher education. Currently professor and senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, Chabay advocates taking a similarly multidimensional approach to addressing global change. Here he advises on how science centers and museums can become key partners in transdisciplinary research for sustainability, as he’ll discuss at the 2013 ASTC Annual Conference in Albuquerque this October.

Read the full transcript, or listen to the podcast.

This is an extended discussion of the question that appeared in the Viewpoints department of the May/June 2013 issue of Dimensions magazine.

Scitech has been running adults-only nights twice a year since 2009, the year we turned 21. We started doing these evenings as we realized that there must be an increasing number of young people who had experienced Scitech as children, but most likely hadn’t returned as they were either not yet parents, or felt that the center was just for kids, and they wouldn’t feel comfortable visiting during normal opening hours where they would be bumping shoulders with 5- to 12-year-olds. These nights have been a marked success with an average of 800 people visiting during the Saturday night opening from 6 to 10 p.m., and with regular inquiries about the date of the next event. Even though families with young children will continue to be our primary target market, we believe it’s still valuable to engage young adults at our center, as it helps foster an increasing appreciation of the value and impact of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in the Western Australian community, regardless of whether these young people work in a STEM field.

Kate Elder, director of communications and marketing
Scitech, Perth, Australia

There’s nothing wrong with science centers that focus on children—we need more children to feel competent and be interested in science. However, adults view science museums as reliable sources of science information, and it would be a shame to ignore the needs and interests of adults who, as citizens and voters, are asked to make decisions that increasingly involve complex science. Science centers that don’t focus exclusively on children should make an effort to provide science exhibits and programs relevant to adults who visit with or without children. Science centers suffer from a public perception problem; they are seen as “for” children, much more so than natural history museums. Perhaps a concerted, “industry-wide” effort on the part of science centers to prioritize, even temporarily, adult-oriented programming and exhibits could combat this perception and invite adults to view science centers as valuable community resources for lifelong science learning.

Winifred Kehl, Museo Collective Museum Consulting
Seattle, Washington

How do we evaluate Return On Investment (ROI) for adult programs in science centers? Certainly not by numbers of participants or by revenue. So why struggle to develop new formats that do not appeal to our “core” visitors at a time of economic crisis? Is it the need to respond to changes in society? Is it to meet the challenge to be a major player in public discourse? Is it the opportunity to be more relevant in our community?

When we talk about adult-oriented programs, we need to be more specific. Which public are we aiming for? Young adults? Mothers? People in mid-career? Retired people? All of the above? We believe these are still open questions and we are still in the development phase, an experimental arena for issues of science in society.

Maya Halevy, director, and Dea Brokman, deputy director
Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has a long history of producing lectures, classes, and events marketed to adult audiences with great success, with a monthly series of Science Cafés being among the most recent popular additions. A recent survey of AMNH’s adult members and public program attendees found that demand for adult education opportunities is high, with the overwhelming majority of respondents indicating their interest in taking an adult learning class at AMNH and/or in becoming more scientifically literate.

The challenge for this institution and perhaps for the field at this point is how to produce programming that is more intentional in learning goals for adults, tied to the critical issues of the day that impact our society and our world. To this end, AMNH is instituting adult learning classes in a series of scientific disciplines and across modes—on-site, online, one-day to multi-week. Some even have homework!

Samara Rubinstein, senior manager, Sackler Educational Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Human Origins
American Museum of Natural History, New York City

I think that the dissemination mission of science museums can be especially effective when applied to one particular segment of the adult population: professional scientists. Nowadays, many scientists work daily on extremely specific scientific issues. There are many aspects of science that they do not know, and this situation may hinder them. Science museums can help them understand science as a broad and continuously growing discipline.

Guillermo Fernández, science museums consultant, science museology professor
IDEC Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Children’s exhibits within science centers have been addressing the challenge of effectively reaching their adult audiences for years. Many of us have seen a rise in visitation of families with young children who see museums as a great place for their kids to learn, but not necessarily as a learning opportunity for themselves. Many children’s exhibits have successfully engaged this “lost audience” in scientific thinking by integrating adult-centered programming, signage, and exhibits about the science of child development alongside exhibits for younger visitors. By using the science of how children learn as a vehicle to engage this captive adult audience in scientific inquiry, we meet our educational mission and impact the family members who will ultimately decide whether or not they will become repeat visitors.

Marta Biarnes, professional development associate, National Living Lab
Museum of Science, Boston

Prioritize? No. However, programming for adults should be a part of every science center’s public program schedule. Science centers exist to communicate science and technology to the population regardless of age, culture, or education. Having some form of programming for adults—be they just over 18, parents of school-age children, or grandparents—results in a community that is more aware of and more likely to discuss issues of science and technology.

Our Science Time program for children ages 3 to 6 is designed just as much for the attending adults. It is all about influencing the influencers. The aim is to create a household comfortable with science where a child who talks about studying science in high school and university is encouraged and engaged rather than misunderstood and ignored.

Jared Wilkins, visitor programs manager
Questacon—The National Science and Technology Centre, Canberra, Australia

As cultural repositories of learning, it is not only the role of the science center, but also its moral obligation, to educate the adult public with science, for the lives of future generations depend on it. We are living in an era of seismic change—weather patterns are more erratic, the ice caps are melting, and biodiversity is dwindling.

In a culture of limitless distractions, the real challenge is to capture the attention of adults. Adults model behavior for their children and ultimately create future science center visitors, so it is their patronage that is essential.

Science centers need to incorporate programs of interest to adults like digital media labs, cultural mash-ups, young entrepreneur centers, games for social change, and legible cities projects. The challenge for science centers will be to develop these new models without losing their existing audience and while leveraging their current assets.

Eli Kuslansky, founding partner and chief strategist
Unified Field, New York City

The Koshland Science Museum’s mission is to help teens and adults use science to solve problems. Our exhibits and programs are based on the work of the (U.S.) National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council. We were intentional about selecting our audience and felt that we could help fulfill an unmet need. Over time, our core audience of educated adults between the ages of 20 and 30 has increased, with many repeat visitors to programs and events. Benefits of this approach include the length of engagement and the quality of conversation. Our audience often spends a few hours or more participating in substantive discussions and in-depth workshops. Challenges include facilitating discussions about complex issues, such as climate change, to foster critical thinking and decision making.

Amy Shaw, community relations manager
Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Science centers should absolutely prioritize adult-oriented programming. The evidence lies in changing visitor demographics! This is an opportunity to cultivate interest and relationships with new audiences.

Adult programs can generate significant revenue efficiently, in a three-hour block in the evening, for example. Having local businesses as guest experts and experience providers furthers relationships with community partners.

It can be challenging, particularly in a smaller community, to predict audience participation. We’ve enjoyed success by ensuring visitor “buy-in” with popular topics, and by getting to the root of what people want from their experience. Sustaining that interest is also key to successful adult programming.

Our recent findings show that adults of all ages want more opportunities to enjoy an intellectual evening out with friends embedded within a social environment. An adult evening at a science center provides a dynamic and new dimension to visitor experiences.

Lora Clausen, staff scientist
Science North, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Many adults feel that science centers are just for children. When we hold cool events for adults, where kids aren’t allowed, we send a strong message that says we want grown-ups to feel welcome too.

In today’s world, adults need to nurture their own curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking skills as much as kids do. Adult programming, designed just for them, keeps them actively engaged in figuring out how they like playing with science, developing a passion for it, and discovering science’s purpose in their lives—with the option to have a beer while they do!

At the Museum of Life and Science, we love these programs because we’ve discovered an entirely new audience of people who are hungry to reconnect with us after forming fond memories of museum experiences as children. We’ve also discovered a new source of revenue. In our most recent adult-oriented program, Museum After Hours: The Science of Eats, we sold over 700 tickets and grossed over $10,000. Everybody wins!

Adrienne Testa, master teacher, and Troy Livingston, vice president for innovation and learning
Museum of Life and Science, Durham, North Carolina

The above statements represent the opinions of the individual contributors and not necessarily the views of their institutions or of ASTC.

About the image: Visitors enjoy a Scitech After Dark adults-only event in Perth, Australia, in connection with the exhibition Rescue. Photo courtesy Scitech

Digital media is increasingly present in our daily lives, as well as on the floor of the science center. In this issue, we look at how informal educators and designers are using digital media and gaming to create compelling, interactive learning experiences. Whether by tackling science-based challenges on a mobile device, designing their own digital dome productions, or gaming in the real world or a virtual one, audiences are using the flexibility of new technologies and the power of play to engage deeply with science.

Features
• Learning Labs: Transforming Youth from Digital Consumers to Creators, by Margaret Glass
• Designing Digital Interactive Experiences that Promote Learning, by Leilah Lyons
• Virtual Worlds: Avatars as Avenues to Advance Science Learning, by Lindsay Bartholomew and Judy Brown
• Reinventing Dome Production for Community Storytelling, by Dave Pentecost
• Legs, Not Fingers: Why Physical Games Are a Better Bet for Museums than Digital Projects, by Margaret Robertson
• Games and STEM Education: Building Knowledge Through Play, by Jodi Asbell-Clarke

Online Departments
• From the CEO
• Q&A with Ainissa Ramirez

Subscribe/order back issues

Today’s youth grow up in a digitally networked world. With cell phones, laptops, and tablets, via social media platforms, videos, and podcasts, they connect to each other and to their world like never before. Yet with only a few exceptions, the digital signal gets dropped at the door when teens go to school; youth get most of their exposure to new digital media outside of school.

This reality raises some important questions: How do youth learn to move across the digital landscape, choosing tools and platforms? Who are the adults that help to mediate this experience? What about teens in communities with a persistent digital divide? How do young people transition from being passive consumers of new media to becoming innovative thinkers and doers?

These are some of the questions behind the Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums, a program funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the (U.S.) Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) and ASTC collaborate to provide technical assistance to grantees and to help them form a national network.

The goal of the program is to support museums and libraries as vital community institutions where youth can explore their interests while developing 21st-century skills like critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.

Since the Learning Labs program was announced in 2011, there have been two rounds of grant competitions that have resulted in 24 grants to museums and libraries across the United States. These awards support the planning and design stages for Learning Labs, intended to engage middle and high school–aged teens in youth-centered, interest-based, mentor-led, collaborative learning using digital and traditional media. This article provides an overview of the Learning Labs program to date, including a summary of related research and some snapshots of current projects.

From research to practice

The Learning Labs is a research-to-practice program, drawn from the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning (DML) initiative, which was established in 2006 to study the ways in which digital media are changing how young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. The research of Mizuko (Mimi) Ito of the University of California, Irvine, is central to the design principles behind the Learning Labs. Interviews and observations derived from a three-year ethnographic investigation of over 700 youth led Ito and her research team to identify three modes of participation that describe how teens engage with each other and with digital media.

“Hanging Out” describes the desire of teens to be with and socialize with their peers. Often when today’s youth get together, this contact involves digital connections—browsing social networks, instant messaging, or texting. “Messing Around” marks the beginning of a more deliberate engagement, perhaps purposefully seeking information on a specific activity, experimenting with something new, or starting to customize digital experiences. “Geeking Out” describes a more intense, focused mode of engagement. Interests become specialized, teens develop expertise in digital skills, and they may join or create social groups around these domains. Geeking out can include equally intense commitment to more traditional, offline pursuits.

These modes of participation, collectively termed HOMAGO, correspond to the kinds of learning contexts anticipated at a Learning Lab. Following the example of YOUMedia at the Harold Washington Public Library in Chicago, Learning Labs try to include physical spaces that accommodate the modes of HOMAGO and are equipped with digital and traditional media to support youth’s self-directed learning.

The programs-in-planning encompass science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); language, visual, and graphic arts; video and audio production; spoken word projects; maker spaces; and virtual worlds. But while activities may vary, the underlying design principles of these labs should be consistent. They are expected to include active experimentation and production, and be networked with other learning contexts within a community. Programs should be driven by the interests of the youth participants and relevant to them and their peers, yet linked to their intellectual growth and academic success.

Mentors are another key element to supporting learning in these spaces. The core set of characteristics for mentors includes expertise in new media, social/cultural capital as creators in their own right, basic pedagogy skills, and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to connect to and inspire youth while respecting their voices.

This set of design features firmly embeds the Learning Labs in Connected Learning, a broad model of learning emerging from the MacArthur Foundation’s research and related investments in a suite of programs including YOUmedia sites, including in Chicago; at ARTLab+ at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and at the North Dade Public Library, Miami, Florida); pioneering schools like Quest2Learn; and the Dreamyard Project, a community-based arts education provider in the Bronx in New York City.

Meet the Learning Labs

Distributed across 18 states, the 24 Learning Labs will reach youth in inner cities, suburbia, medium-sized cities, and rural communities. Each site will serve its community’s unique needs while following the basic design principles of the program. (A full list of grantees is available here.)

By the numbers, 15 sites are led by libraries and nine are museum-led. However, this simple summary masks the rich array of partners collaborating in these projects. Museums (13 of which are ASTC members) include science centers and art, natural history, and children’s museums. Other partners represent colleges or universities, public broadcasting affiliates, parks and recreation departments, school districts, afterschool and out-of-school organizations, and youth advocacy groups.

In many ways, this program is an especially good fit for science centers, capitalizing on their strengths as places for visitor-centered, hands-on, social learning in a technology-rich setting. In other ways, participating museums are stretching themselves in new directions. For example, while many science centers engage youth through employment training, dedicated teen spaces, like those presented in a Learning Labs model, are rare in these institutions. In addition, Learning Labs provide new opportunities for museums to work more closely with libraries and community partners, actively include youth in the planning and design of new programs and spaces, and engage adults as mentors in new ways.

What are these projects up to now? Learning Labs grantees have an 18-month period of funding to plan and design their facilities, based on their proposed ideas. Each site is on its own trajectory with respect to piloting and implementing activities, training mentors, and seeking support for post-grant sustainability. Grant funding for the first cohort of sites runs until the end of June; the second cohort of awardees officially began on January 1. Because of this timetable, and the nature of these as planning grants, summary statements made about these sites now would be premature. Nevertheless, it is possible to spotlight a couple of public examples.

A hive pop-up in San Francisco

The Learning Lab project at the San Francisco Public Library involves a team of partners: San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences, KQED, and the Bay Area Video Coalition. While details of the physical space at the San Francisco Main Library are still in progress, the Learning Labs team held its first collaborative public event—the San Francisco Hive Pop-up, a two-day maker/hacker media jamfest for teens—in October 2012 at the Ortega Branch Library.

The “Hive” label for this event comes from the fact that it involved a range of organizations—including such diverse partners as the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, WritersCorps, and the Children’s Creativity Museum—united by a focus on youth and digital media. This model is similar to the Hive Learning Networks in New York and Chicago, also supported by the MacArthur Foundation. All of the activities were transportable and installed on site for the event—hence the “pop-up” description.

The project’s Youth Advisory Board decided the theme (“Save the Earth”) and directed the kinds of activities to feature. These activities blended traditional creative skills with technology components, unified under an environmental message. Youth had the chance to experiment with video editing, claymation, 3D printing, and webpage development, and many participants uploaded videos of their creations to Tumblr.

The event gave the lab’s core team the chance to try out some new activities with their targeted youth, and helped to build relationships with other cultural organizations serving youth in the San Francisco area. A blog post about the Hive Pop-up by KQED’s Matthew Williams is available here.

A virtual lab in Pennsylvania

The Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, has a unique environment for its Learning Lab. The Virtual Studio lives on an educational island on the NewWorlds grid, a virtual world similar to Second Life, but with content appropriate for youth. The grid is open to Pennsylvania school students and teachers.

A pilot program took place in this virtual space during June and July of 2012, with a group of 15 teens participating in the Healthy YouthPeer Education (HYPE) summer camp at nearby Muhlenberg College. Youth entered the Virtual Studio, created their own avatars, learned how to build architectural structures, and designed their own digital art creations. These installations are three-dimensional constructions that include photos, images, or other digital representations following the theme “The Best Part of Me.” A webinar recorded in December 2012 provides a “flythrough” visit to the Virtual Studio, with closeups and verbal descriptions of some of these digital artifacts (available here.)

Next steps for this site involve drop-in afterschool events hosted at the Allentown Public Library, another project partner. This will provide an opportunity for a broader range of teens to experiment in the Virtual Studio, as well as to participate in additional activities of their own design. The location of the library, on the walking route between a large high school and residential areas, promises a high level of visibility and use by local teens.

How do science museums fit into today’s landscape of digitally mediated experiences for youth? The Learning Labs program allows participating grantees to explore this question, using the partnerships and resources they develop in the course of their planning periods. As they adapt to meet the unique needs of their own communities, Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums may provide new models for teen engagement, recognizing the challenges youth face as they connect to each other, identify and pursue their interests, and seek to become lifelong learners in today’s digital world.

Additional Resources

The DML Research Hub’s DML Central (resources about digital media and learning).

Connectedlearning.tv: an affiliate website of the DML Research Hub, with community resources about Connected Learning.

Ito, M., et al. (2013). Connected learning: An agenda for research and design. Irvine, CA: Digital Media and Learning Research Hub.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning, including:

• Herr-Stephenson, B., et al. (2011). Digital media and technology in afterschool programs, libraries, and museums

• Ito, M., et al. (2009). Living and learning with new media: Summary of findings from the Digital Youth Project

• Ito, M. (2009). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out.

Margaret Glass is ASTC’s program manager for professional development. David Smith (Da Vinci Science Center), Matthew Williams (KQED), Puja Dasari (California Academy of Sciences), and Jon Worona and Jennifer Collins (San Francisco Public Library) contributed to this article. U.S. science centers and museums are invited to participate in a related project, the National STEM Video Game Challenge.

About the image: The New York Hall of Science Learning Lab in Queens hosts “teen hangouts” in the institution’s new Cognizant Maker Space. Here, Jon Santiago (standing) from HTINK (an educational services cooperative) advises teens on Arduino programming.

In thinking about these historical testimonials, it occurs to me that so many fascinating individuals have passed through the doors of our science centers and museums and experienced so much. If we are judged by the company we keep, then we are no doubt judged favorably for the company of so many curious and inspired folks who have chosen to spend their precious time with us.

Too often and too easily, we refer to these knowledge seekers in generalized numerical terms more associated with revenue streams and statistical trends. Though the numbers are indeed impressive, we should remember that these are individuals who have consciously selected science, however briefly, as their domain of interest. And their visits to our institutions often yield new experiences and lasting memories. For some, science center visits inspire lifetimes of exploration, satisfaction, and even significant contributions to the global good.

ASTC would like to translate these personal experiences of our visitors into a collective expression of the inspirational value of our entire field. To emphasize this point, we are particularly eager to obtain testimonials from the “high achievers” in our society who can trace their interests, and maybe even their successes, back to profound science center and museum experiences.

If you know individuals who would be willing to share such testimonials for our wider communications efforts, please send their names and contact information to yourstory@astc.org, or ask that they do this themselves. We will reach out to them in brief, recorded telephone interviews. It is our hope that you will give some thought to those whose testimonials might carry the most power and weight.

To start us off, here is a quote drawn from a testimonial by actor and writer Kate McGroarty, reflecting on her experience living at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry for a month in 2010: “I learned that science is beautiful, engaging, and just about everywhere. It amazes me, intrigues me, and excites me. I’m sure this is the beginning of a lifetime relationship with science and everything that comes along with it.”

This interview appeared in the March/April 2013 issue of Dimensions magazine.

Whether it’s the world’s biggest wardrobe malfunction or MacGyver meets Survivor, Ainissa Ramirez knows that generating interest in science requires a hook. A professor at Yale University, Ramirez prefers the title “science evangelist”—in her words, a person who “takes the call” to ignite curiosity in kids of all ages. She spoke with Dimensions about the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education—the topic of her TED Talk last year—and how to put science in unexpected places.

Read the full transcript, or listen to the podcast.

Recognizing the need for greater awareness of water-related issues, the UN declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation (IYWC). In this issue of Dimensions, we discuss how science centers can support the goals of the IYWC and efforts to provide water, sanitation, and hygiene to people worldwide. We also take a look at plans in several countries to establish water-themed museums; projects to engage youth in water issues and solutions; and ways to create water exhibits that encourage visitors to think, play, and explore.

Features
• Building Peace and Sustainable Development Through Water Cooperation, by Lucilla Minelli
• Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: A Global Crisis with Real Solutions, by Elynn Walter
• A Science Center that Floods, by Ed Grusheski
• Build a Water Exhibit and They Will Come, by Stephen Pizzey
• Making Connections Through an Asia Pacific Water Museum, by Ganigar Chen and Alexander Otte
• Bringing Youth’s Ideas About Water to Rio+20, by Ling Ling Chew
• Exploring Water’s Path on Reunion Island, by Marine Soichot

Online Departments
• From the CEO
• Viewpoints
• Q&A with Denise Amyot

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Water is critical for sustainable development and indispensable for human health and well-being. With this in mind, and to accelerate the implementation of internationally agreed goals relating to water, the UN General Assembly declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation (IYWC). The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was appointed by UN-Water to lead preparations for the IYWC, as well as for World Water Day on March 22, 2013, also dedicated to water cooperation. (UN-Water is the UN’s interagency coordination mechanism for all issues related to fresh water. Currently, it has representatives from 30 UN member states.)                                             

“Water cooperation” refers to the peaceful management and mutually beneficial use of water resources among various players (e.g., governments, international organizations, academic institutions, businesses, and the public) and sectors (e.g., agriculture and industry) at local, national, regional, and international levels. Water cooperation encapsulates cultural, educational, and scientific elements, as well as religious, ethical, social, political, legal, institutional, and economic dimensions. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach is essential in order to grasp an understanding of the many facets implied by the concept and blend them into one holistic vision.

In this article, I present the objectives for the IYWC, the messages we aim to publicize throughout the year, and some ideas for science centers and museums that are interested in being involved.

Objectives for 2013

We know that our planet abounds in freshwater resources—both on its surface and deep beneath its soil—and that most of these resources lie in transboundary basins and aquifers. Therefore, cooperation among sectors and nations is essential. The IYWC will raise awareness of both the potential for increased cooperation and the challenges facing water management in the context of greater demand for water access, allocation, and services.

The objectives for the IYWC are to
• raise awareness about the importance, benefits, and challenges of water cooperation
• enhance knowledge and build capacity for water cooperation
• spark concrete and innovative action toward water cooperation
• encourage partnerships and dialogue around water cooperation.

Our messages

The key message of both the IYWC and World Water Day is that “water cooperation is a foundation for peace and sustainable development.” Following from this statement are four submessages that we want to emphasize throughout 2013.

1. Water cooperation is key to poverty eradication, social equity, and gender equality. Access to clean water is the foundation for the fulfillment of basic human needs and contributes to the achievement of all eight Millennium Development Goals. Water is also central in the debate for a post-2015 development agenda and the elaboration of a new set of international objectives, the Sustainable Development Goals. The agreement to develop these goals is an outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), which was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

Inclusive and participatory governance of water and cooperation between different user groups can help to overcome inequity in access to water and thus contribute to poverty alleviation and improve living conditions and educational chances, especially of women and children. For example, an international movement to improve access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools in over 100 countries is helping to decrease the number of days children are absent from school due to waterborne illnesses and other sanitation and hygiene issues.

2. Water cooperation creates economic benefits. All economic activities depend on water. Cooperation can lead to more efficient and sustainable use of water resources, creating mutual benefits and better living standards. For example, investing in safe wastewater collection and treatment can mean avoiding the costs of pollution and the use of contaminated water by downstream users.

3. Water cooperation helps preserve water resources and protect the environment. Sharing scientific knowledge and data and exchanging information about management strategies and best practices are fundamental to sustainable development. For example, UNESCO’s International Shared Aquifer Resources Management Initiative contributes to implementing a UN resolution that encourages UN member states to agree on how to manage their transboundary aquifers (Resolution A/RES/66/104: The law of transboundary aquifers). The first international agreement inspired by this UN resolution was signed in 2010 by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay for management of the shared Guarani Aquifer.

4. Water cooperation builds peace. Access to water can be a source of conflict, but it is also a catalyst for cooperation and peace building. Cooperation on such a practical and vital issue as water management can help overcome cultural, political, and social tensions and can build trust between different groups, such as communities, regions, or states. For example, after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the rise of several new sovereign states introduced complex transboundary issues involving water use and water sharing for power generation, agricultural and domestic uses, and other purposes among bordering countries. In 2010, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro began working together in a postconflict context to jointly manage shared groundwater resources in the DIKTAS project (Protection and Sustainable Use of the Dinaric Karst Transboundary Aquifer System).

Conveying the messages

To achieve successful and sustainable water cooperation requires a common understanding of the needs and challenges surrounding the issue of water, and this understanding requires a societal mind-shift in the way we respond to a range of global challenges—including climate change, demographic growth, economic crises, poverty, political instability, and social unrest.

Achieving common understanding is no simple undertaking, but many organizations and groups worldwide are involved in the effort. For example, UNESCO has a network of water-related centers, which promote knowledge sharing and education in their area of expertise, such as a center in Iran dedicated to qanats—an ancient technology that taps into underground water resources.

Among the organizations promoting a wide understanding of water issues and other global challenges are science centers and museums. For example, the planned Asia Pacific Water Museum in Thailand aims to promote a wider understanding of water interactions and foster regional cooperation. Science centers and museums are natural partners in the 2013 campaign for water cooperation. Exhibitions, fairs, school programs, workshops, and other events to share knowledge about water are all concrete contributions to the IYWC. We at UNESCO can help with publicizing water-related events and can also provide information and educational materials for various audiences, like children, youth, and teachers.

We are planning several official UN water events during 2013, kicking off with an event in Paris on February 11. World Water Day, celebrated worldwide on March 22, and World Water Week, held in Stockholm, Sweden, from September 1 to 6, will both be dedicated to water cooperation. We invite science centers and museums to participate in these events or organize other events to mark the IYWC. For those interested in promoting the IYWC, our website has campaign materials available, including our official logo in different patterns and languages, posters, and web banners and buttons.

Achieving sustainable development is not a sectoral effort. If we want to succeed in making the world a better place for today and for the future, we need a coordinated, cooperative, and interdisciplinary effort on a global scale. Such an effort will spring from the realization that a mindshift is possible and that development of fair and inclusive societies begins in the minds of men and women. We believe that water can be the common denominator to spark this revolutionary process. The International Year of Water Cooperation 2013 offers 365 days to come together and shape a peaceful future based on the sustainable management of our freshwater resources.

Lucilla Minelli is a consultant at UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme, Paris. For further information about the International Year of Water Cooperation 2013, contact Alice Aureli, and for information about World Water Day, contact Léna Salamé. 

About the image: “Groundwater Resources of the World—Transboundary Aquifers Systems” © BGR, Hannover/UNESCO Paris/2008. The World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Programme (WHYMAP) contributes to worldwide efforts to better understand, manage, and protect aquifer resources, providing information on hidden groundwater resources. The collecting, collation, and visualizing Transboundary Aquifers Systems (locations indicated by circles) was possible only because countries and institutions cooperated by providing and processing data. The map demonstrates the benefits of this cooperation as well as the further cooperation needed to manage these many transboundary aquifers systems.  (Click here to see a larger (3.6 MB) image.)

This blend that defines UNESCO is mirrored in the work of science centers and museums all around the world. Recognizing this, ASTC has formed a strong partnership with UNESCO during the past two years that has, in turn, given greater visibility to a wealth of activities within our field to help raise local awareness about sustainable development, youth empowerment, greater access for women to careers in science, and many more topics that are precisely the issues defined as UN global priorities.

It is no surprise, therefore, that we should join with UNESCO in celebrating this new “international year.” It offers another important opportunity to highlight all that we do to educate and inform, in his case about the importance of collaborative action for water management in the face of increasing global water demand. Today, 780 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion lack access to sanitation.

Few topics impacting humanity today are so deeply rooted in and so critically dependent upon the tools of science and technology. Having spent a considerable portion of my own public service career devoted to the topic of “water diplomacy,” I learned quickly that scientists and engineers often proved to be my most valued colleagues. On one occasion, I recall asking our then–Middle East peace negotiator why a topic as important as water was not included centrally in the highly charged policy exchanges underway at the time. He responded that the water deliberations were far too essential and immediate in their impact to be included in these unpredictable and volatile rounds of policy negotiations. Rather, a critical compromise on water would best be achieved through the dedicated (and objective) efforts of scientists, engineers, and a public that understood the important variables at stake. This, in my view, is another example of science at its highest calling.

While much has already been said, written, and even undertaken to meet the critical challenges of global water access and management, the year ahead is specifically dedicated to fostering greater global cooperation. As we elevate this topic in our own communities, let’s also find ways to be voices for communities of greater need, sometimes far from our own. I hope that we will be able to achieve cooperation through the heightened awareness and collective voice that we bring to this important topic.