ASTC’s Youth Inspired Challenge is one year old, so what better way to celebrate than by having a birthday party in the 2011 ASTC Annual Conference Exhibit Hall? Amid party hats and cake, conference attendees met science center youth program participants from the New Jersey Academy for Aquatic Sciences, Camden; Pacific Science Center, Seattle; the Philadelphia Zoo; and the National Aquarium, Baltimore. Libby Redda from Pacific Science Center and Jeremy Martinez from the National Aquarium addressed the crowd, sharing their experiences and describing how they personally have benefitted from the institutions’ youth programs.

ASTC’s Youth Inspired Challenge is designed to expand the impact of science centers and museums to assist our youth to become the innovative and creative thinkers needed for the 21st-century workforce. ASTC-member institutions will offer valuable science education and youth employment programs outside the classroom to engage youth in a minimum of 2 million hours of science enrichment through STEM-centered youth development programs. In the program’s first year, nearly 14,000 youth across the globe were reached during more than 702,000 out-of-school hours. Click here to learn how your institution can join the program.

ASTC would like to thank the chaperones and youth participants for joining our celebration!

About the image: Libby Redda, Pacific Science Center, and Jeremy Martinez, National Aquarium. Photo by Christine Ruffo

The Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Awards are presented annually to ASTC members and/or their employees in recognition of extraordinary accomplishments that not only enhance the performance of their own institutions, but also significantly advance the mission of science-technology centers and museums. This following awards were presented at the 2011 ASTC Annual Conference in Baltimore on Saturday, October 15.

Leading Edge Award for Business Practice

The International Centre for Life, Sustainability Through Diversity
The Centre for Life has rendered itself sustainable for the foreseeable future by developing a business portfolio that provides funds for the center’s dual missions of public science engagement and support for world-class scientific research. The science centre runs on revenue generated from two onsite cafés, a parking garage, a conference and banqueting business, and leases not only to university laboratories, but also to popular bars and nightclubs.

Philippine Science Centrum, Typhoon Ondoy: Rapid Response & Recovery

On September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ondoy sent nine-foot-high flood waters into the science center, submerging its exhibits and traveling exhibitions. Within 24 hours, the center’s staff and trustees met and immediately started the first steps of rebuilding, launching a fundraising campaign called Project 926 with the goal of raising 9 million Philippine pesos (about USD 210,000) in two ways (cash and in-kind assistance) within six months. The center reopened to the public less than six weeks after the typhoon hit, and was fully restored after four and a half months.

Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience (small center)

Amazement Square, Amazing Adventures of Scorpy Bug
The Amazing Adventures of Scorpy Bug is a curriculum-based cartoon series designed to help educators take an interactive and interdisciplinary approach to teaching challenging concepts. The series has been made available free-of-charge to teachers and families through publication in the regional newspaper and through a comic book series that addresses specific scientific topics. Scorpy is integrated across all museum platforms: exhibitions, outreach programs, website, and community and school partnerships.

Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, Wetland Outreach
Migratory birds depend on wetlands, and many species are endangered due to wetland destruction. In the past three years, the center fostered public awareness among students and educators across a vast geographic area on the value of wetlands through several outreach programs. The “Wetlands On-the-Go” team delivered programs to 56,000 students in 2,500 classrooms in over 100 communities in three Canadian provinces. The center also held eight workshops for teachers in six Caribbean locations and provided educational resources to underserved communities.

Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience (large center)

Chabot Space & Science Center, Bill Nye’s Climate Lab
Bill Nye’s Climate Lab is a media-rich, hands-on exhibition that explores the effects of climate change on Earth’s interconnected systems and offers activities that increase climate and energy literacy. Each visitor receives a “Climate Scout ID”—an RFID card that is automatically detected as the visitor moves from station to station, achieving solutions to climate challenges and earning points. Exhibit activity is stored on the ID, which can be taken home and used to log in on BillsClimateLab.org.

Museum of Science & Industry, Science Storms
Science Storms, a 26,000-square-foot (2,400-square-meter) permanent exhibition, features dynamic large-scale experiments that explore nature’s most powerful phenomena. Visitors can manipulate the vortex variables of a 40-foot tornado, unleash a tsunami in a 30-foot wave tank, trigger an avalanche, and pit fire versus water to see how flame reacts to different conditions. The more than 50 hands-on exhibits are joined by 200 important artifacts that help visitors to further understand the basic science behind the forces of nature.

Leading Edge Award for Experienced Leadership in the Field
Clarence Sirisena, Assistant Chief Executive in Projects and Exhibitions of Science Centre Singapore
For his research on newest approaches in traveling exhibitions and sharing his discoveries with other science centers.

To see all the Leading Edge Award nominees, visit the ASTC YouTube channel.

On Saturday, October 15, Colin Johnson became the newest recipient of ASTC’s highest honor, the ASTC Fellow Award for Outstanding Contribution. At the 2011 ASTC Annual Conference in Baltimore, ASTC immediate past president Lesley Lewis presented the award to Johnson, former director and CEO of Techniquest in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, “for his distinguished career as a chemist and educator, from the classroom to the museum. Colin’s determined advocacy, tactful diplomacy, and persuasive compositions have helped build bridges within the field and between science centers and the people they serve. His generosity and dedication know no limits.”

As he accepted the award, Johnson urged science centers to stay true to their missions, citing the Saint Louis Science Center’s mission statement to “open every mind to science.” He also stressed the importance of science center networks and collaborations, saying “We are truly a global family, grasping similar opportunities and meeting similar challenges.” Johnson concluded by reminding attendees that “the [staff] in your science center will always be your greatest asset. Look after them well.”

The ASTC Fellow Award for Outstanding Contribution, first presented in 1974, is bestowed upon individuals who merit special recognition for their significant contributions to the advancement of public understanding and appreciation of science and technology or of ASTC itself.

Photo by Wayne MacPhail

U.S.-based ASTC member institutions are encouraged to participate in an exciting program with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) gives teams of 25 or more high school students the chance to work alongside professional engineers to build and program a robot to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. More than 50 regional events across the United States will take place in March and April 2012.

ASTC partner jcpenney is making available $6,500 grants to cover the full cost of registration and initial materials for the FRC program. Additionally, jcpenney FRC grant recipients are paired with a jcpenney store, providing a source of support and partnership.

Dubbed a “varsity sport for the mind,” FRC combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. It’s as close to “real world” engineering that a student can get, and volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. Check out FIRST live on its YouTube channel.

The deadline for applications is October 15.

Interested institutions should contact their local FIRST regional director (www.usfirst.org/regionalcontact.aspx) for details. And for more information on this exciting program, visit www.usfirst.org and click on “FRC” at the top of the page.

Offered as a part of ASTC’s Youth Inspired Challenge, Engaging Youth in STEM Outside the Classroom is a three-part webinar series devoted to an in-depth analysis of the field of STEM out-of-school-time education. Led by Jamie Alonzo of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and Irene Porro of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, the first webinar in the series took place on Wednesday, July 27, and engaged participants in an interactive discussion on the field of STEM education in out-of-school-time and its role within the broader educational landscape, as well as the need and potential for unification of the field. The recording of the webinar is now available online at www.anymeeting.com/astc/E950D8858149. Please note that due to bandwidth issues, some slides in the presentation may be slightly blurred. Handouts of the slides are available.

The next two webinars in the series will explore the relationship between formal and informal education sectors and the relationship between STEM in out-of-school time and workforce development. Please contact Laura Huerta Migus at lhuertamigus@astc.org for presentation handouts and to register for the remaining webinars in this series.