ASTC is excited to announce that Dr. Eugenie Scott will give the keynote presentation on Saturday, October 19 at ASTC’s 2013 Annual Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. Scott spoke at the 2005 annual conference in Richmond, Virginia and we are very pleased to welcome her back!

Dr. Eugenie C. Scott is Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc., a not-for-profit membership organization of scientists, teachers, and others that works to improve the teaching of science as a way of knowing, the teaching of evolution, and the teaching of climate change.

A former college professor, Dr. Scott lectures widely, and is called upon by the press and other media to explain science and evolution to the general public.

Scott is the author of Evolution vs Creationism: An Introduction, co-editor (with Glenn Branch) of Not In Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong For Our Schools, and the author of many articles in science journals. She has served as President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and has been honored by both scientists and educators in having been awarded the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the National Science Board Public Service Award, the AIBS Outstanding Service Award, the Geological Society of America Public Service Award, the AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, the California Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service Award, and the National Association of Biology Teachers Honorary Membership award, “the association’s highest honor.” In 2009, Scientific American named her “one of 10 outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology.” She holds honorary D.Sc. degrees from McGill University, Ohio State University, Mt. Holyoke University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Rutgers University, the University of New Mexico, Colorado College, the University of Missouri, and Chapman University, and was awarded the University Medal from the University of California-San Francisco.

The Sunday, October 20th keynote presentation at the ASTC 2013 Annual Conference will focus on the plans for the Museum of the Tomorrow, currently under construction in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Pier Maua as part of the Porto Maravilha waterfront revitalization project. Sustainability will be at the center of both the Museum of Tomorrow’s exhibits and the building itself, as designed by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava. This presentation will be followed by a discussion of the implications the museum’s design will have on the future of science centers worldwide.

This is sure to be a “can’t miss” keynote program, presented by Professor Luis Oliveira, Scientific Director of the Museum of Tomorrow, Maria Isabel Garcia, Curator of The Mind Museum, and Sebastian Chan, Director of Digital and Emerging Media at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

Best-selling author Neal Stephenson will participate in a dialogue called Science and the Imagination as a part of the keynote session on Monday, October 21, during ASTC’s 2013 Annual Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Stephenson is an author of historical and science fiction, a technology consultant, and a video game designer. He is perhaps best known for his novels Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, and Snow Crash, which presented compelling, socially and culturally rich visions of human futures while also prefiguring the development of major technologies such as social networking, nanorobotics, and 3D printers. He also penned The Baroque Cycle, a sprawling three-volume work (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World) about the history of ideas in 17th and 18th century Europe, and co-created The Mongoliad, a collaborative work of transmedia fiction produced in collaboration with filmmakers, martial artists, computer programmers, and video game designers. His most recent novel, REAMDE, transforms the now-quotidian realm of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) into a global minefield of criminality, religious extremism, and geopolitical intrigue.

Stephenson will be joined by Ed Finn, founding director of Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination. Finn is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English. His research and teaching explore digital narratives, contemporary culture, and the intersection of the humanities, arts, and sciences. He is currently working on a book about the changing nature of reading in the digital era titled The Social Lives of Books. He completed his PhD in English and American literature at Stanford University in 2011. Before graduate school Ed worked as a journalist at Time, Slate, and Popular Science.

With three host institutions for the first time ever—Explora, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, ASTC’s 2013 Annual Conference will have triple the value and excitement!

We’re making some changes—like Tuesday’s all-new public Science in the Park Festival (along with Open House Day at the host museums, Big Screen Day, and the Planetarium Demos)—and bringing more of what you love about ASTC’s annual conference, like Monday’s Super Session Day, featuring more concurrent educational sessions than ever before!

Here’s a can’t-miss special offer: Register by May 31 using the code SAVETD2013, and you’ll be eligible for one additional complimentary conference registration AND a free, three-night hotel stay during the conference! But you have to register by May 31 to have a chance!

Register at conference.astc.org and keep up to date with the latest news and information.

Don’t get left in the clouds…join us in Albuquerque!

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced November 8 that three ASTC-member institutions—the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, California; Madison Children’s Museum, Wisconsin; and the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation, Richmond—were among the second round of winners of a U.S.-wide competition to design 21st Century learning labs in museums and libraries around the country.

The winners—five museums and seven libraries—will receive a total of $1.2 million in grants to plan and design the labs. Inspired by YOUMedia, a teen space at the Chicago Public Library, and innovations in science and technology centers, these labs will help young people move beyond consuming content to making and creating it.

In addition to the three ASTC members that received Learning Labs grants, four additional ASTC members—Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Nevada; Lied Discovery Children’s Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada; and Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, Texas—will partner with awarded libraries in their communities.

Each Learning Lab will be designed to facilitate a research-based education model known as connected learning–one that promotes discovery, creativity, critical thinking and real-world learning through activities and experiences that bring together academics and young people’s interests, often facilitated by digital and traditional media. The labs will connect teens to mentors and peers, as well as anytime, anywhere access to information through online social networks, so they can pursue their interests more deeply and connect these new skills to academics, career, and civic engagement.

ASTC CEO Anthony (Bud) Rock remarked, “We are very excited about the continued success of the Learning Labs program. Science centers and museums nurture the innovative spirit so crucially needed for success in today’s world, and using digital media to further ignite the excitement of our nation’s youth about lifelong STEM learning will ensure that future generations cultivate the skills they need, such as problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. The fact that three of the five museums named as grant recipients are science centers is an exciting testament to the strength of our field as an incubator of innovation in our communities.”

The 12 recipients of this round of grants were selected out of a pool of 105 applicants from 33 states. Applications were evaluated by professionals with relevant expertise in digital media and learning. Winners will participate—in-person and online—in a community of practice that will provide technical assistance, networking, and cross-project learning. In addition to the Lawrence Hall of Science, Madison Children’s Museum, and the Science Museum of Virginia Foundation, those institutions selected as grant recipients include: University of Alabama/Alabama Museum of Natural History, Tuscaloosa; Rochester Public Library, New York; City of Lynn, Massachusetts (Lynn Public Library); Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, Nevada; Parmly Billings Library Foundation, Inc., Billings, Montana; Pima County Public Library, Tucson, Arizona; and Poughkeepsie Public Library District, New York.

These grantees join 12 other communities also planning new learning centers in libraries and museums as a part of the Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums project. The initiative was first announced in September 2010 in response to President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign, an effort to foster cross-sector collaboration to improve America’s students’ participation and performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Since then, MacArthur and IMLS have committed to invest $4 million to support knowledge-sharing activities for museums and libraries nationwide, and work together to create new Learning Labs across the nation.

For more information about the Learning Labs project, visit www.imls.gov or www.Youmedia.org.