On March 3–5, the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), hosted the biennial Informal Science Education (ISE) Summit in Washington, D.C. The nearly 450 participants in the ISE Summit—which took the theme “Surrounded by Science”—included principal investigators of NSF grants and others engaged in strategic issues that cut across the informal science education field.

“Informal science education reaches millions of people every year in out-of-school settings with an extraordinary array of opportunities to explore, discover, and learn,” said Wendy Pollock, director of CAISE. “This is our opportunity to celebrate our work, explore emerging issues, and strengthen connections across the informal science education community.”

Summit plenary speakers included Tom Kalil, deputy director for policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, and host of NOVA scienceNOW; and Bruce Lewenstein, professor of science communication at Cornell University and co-chair of a U.S. National Research Council (NRC) Committee that produced a 2009 consensus report Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits.

Building on the momentum from the NRC report, CAISE initiated a nationwide effort to focus attention on critical issues impacting the informal science education community. They included the infrastructure that supports science learning outside of school, the policies that support and constrain opportunities in informal science education, and the nature of the learning that results across the lifespan. The results of these special Inquiry Groups were unveiled at the conference, and attendees were encouraged to participate in robust discussions and provide direction for the 21st century.

“We are just now developing a critical mass of evidence about how people learn through informal experience,” said Kevin Crowley, CAISE co–principal investigator and co-leader of the CAISE Learning Inquiry Group. “We are seeing exciting new theories about the ways that knowledge, skills, interest, and motivation can keep citizens engaged as science learners across the lifespan. There is great potential for strong research/practice collaborations across the spectrum of informal science education, and we hope the ISE Summit will catalyze continued innovation in the field.”

Other events included a luncheon on Friday, where several federal agencies highlighted collaborative efforts and underscored their ongoing support of informal science education, and the unveiling of Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments, a new book published by the NRC that builds on the findings of the 2009 report and supports the essential role of informal science education.

About the image: Tom Kalil, deputy director for policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, speaks at the CAISE Summit opening plenary. Photo by Christine Ruffo

On February 23, 2010, Anne-Imelda M. Radice, the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) director, and Susan Sher, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, presented the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries, at a Washington, D.C., ceremony. The National Medal is awarded each year to five museums and five libraries that have demonstrated a long-term commitment to public service through innovative programs and community partnerships. Three ASTC members were among the honorees—Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), Tampa, Florida; and Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), Ohio.

The ceremony highlighted how the museums’ programs have benefited individual community members. Brittani Brown participated in the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s YouthALIVE! after-school program from the sixth through eighth grades, became a museum volunteer in high school, and was later promoted to a paid position as a youth puppeteer in the YouthALIVE! Puppet Troupe. Faith Anne Brown is a graduate of CMC’s youth leadership program, where she facilitated interactive programs for families at CMC’s Duke Energy Children’s museum. She recently completed her undergraduate degree with honors in chemistry at Howard University. At age 14, Vivian McIlrath joined MOSI’s YES! Team, a leadership development/mentorship program for teens facing multiple risk factors, and her program scholarship stipend helped to financially support her family. She went on to gradauate from the University of South Florida and was the first scholarship recipient of the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year Award. Today, McIlrath heads the YES! Team program, helping to share with students the same opportunities she was once offered.

In addition to the National Medal and a $10,000 award, each Medal recipient will have the option of a three-day visit by StoryCorps, an independent, nonprofit, oral history project that records conversations with community members that can be shared through a free CD and are preserved at the Library of Congress.

About the images: Anne-Imelda M. Radice, IMLS director, and Susan Sher, First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, present the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service to Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati Museum Center, and MOSI. Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, top, left to right: Sher; Brittani Brown, community member; Jane Werner, museum director; Jennifer Broadhurst, museum board member; Radice. Cincinnati Museum Center, center, left to right: Sher; Douglass W. McDonald, museum director; Elizabeth Pierce, museum vice president of marketing and communications; Radice. MOSI, bottom, left to right: Sher; Judith Lombana, museum vice president; Vivian McIlrath, head of the museum’s YES! Team program; Wit Ostrenko, museum director; Maruchi Azorin Blanco, board member; Radice. Photos by Earl Zubkoff

On February 20, over 5,000 visitors flocked to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., for Discover Engineering Family Day. The celebration featured dozens of interactive activities, from building gumdrop geodomes to experimenting with natural and nano-manufactured materials that show properties like water resistance. The activities were provided by local engineering chapters, national organizations, and museums, including the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISENet) and the National Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C. The event also included a presentation by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Anna Lee Fisher.

Discover Engineering Family Day marked the end of this year’s Engineers Week, a global annual celebration presented by the National Engineers Week Foundation to raise public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society. Other events included Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and the finals for the Future City Competition.

About the image: The National Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.,  presents Builder Bill and the Bewildering Bucket at Discover Engineering Family Day. Bill (also known as Matt Baldoni) shows kids how to construct a museum with pulleys, levers, and all sorts of machines. Photo by Christine Ruffo

On January 12–13, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), St. Paul, participated in a two-day symposium, “A New National Dialogue on Race,” in Washington, D.C. The event, co-sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Congressional Black Caucus, consisted of four panels of experts from academia, civil rights organizations, and museums, designed to look at race through the lenses of science, history, and lived experience. In the opening panel, Johnetta Cole, executive director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, urged leaders to “define their diversity vision, not focusing on what they’re against, but articulating what they’re for.”

Portions of RACE: Are We So Different?, a traveling exhibition developed by SMM in collaboration with AAA, were on display during the symposium and provided a basis for discussions. The exhibition tells the stories of race from biological, cultural, and historical points of view. Eric Jolly, president of SMM, also moderated a panel on “Racial Disparities: Are U.S. Policies Addressing or Entrenching Disadvantage?”

About the image: SMM staff members brought RACE: Are We So Different? to Capitol Hill for “A New National Dialogue on Race.” Photo by Christine Ruffo

Last week, ASTC joined 937 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15). In addition to a 200-booth exhibition, the conference featured hundreds of side events focusing on issues ranging from how climate change affects women to clean development mechanisms in developing countries.

One such event was an International Clim’Way Competition, organized by ASTC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). ASTC brought together youth and educators from the Museum of Science, Boston; Experimentarium, Copenhagen; Cap-Sciences, Bordeaux, France; and COSI, Columbus, Ohio, to share their experiences playing Clim’Way, a free online climate change game designed by Cap-Sciences.

The science center participants discussed what they learned from the game with a panel of climate science and policy experts that included Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Walter Staveloz, ASTC; Ned Gardiner, NOAA; Eric Gorman, Cap-Sciences; David Noble, 2DegreesC; Bjørn Bedsted, Danish Board of Technology; and Hans Gubbels, Ecsite Executive Committee.

Perspectives on the game and on climate change differed from site to site, but all participants agreed on one thing: finding a solution to climate change, though difficult, is a challenge we must meet.

Photo by Ned Gardiner