The Live Demonstration Hour has long been a highlight of the ASTC Annual Conference, and this year’s wowed the audience once again. If you missed it (or want to watch again!), videos of each demonstration are available through the links below.

Niki Hord, Maryland Science Center, Baltimore

Adiel Fernandez, New York Hall of Science, Queens

Jonah Cohen, The Children’s Museum, West Hartford, Connecticut

Eddie Goldstein and Jodi Schoemer, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Colorado

Steve Spangler, Steve Spangler Science, Denver, Colorado

About the image: Jonah Cohen launches an air pressure rocket. Photo by Christine Ruffo

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

Attendees from across the globe are arriving in Baltimore for the 2011 ASTC Annual Conference. This year’s theme, Knowledge that Works—From Theory to Practice, is tremendously appropriate given the collective body of knowledge the science center community possesses. The conference is our best opportunity to share our knowledge and put it to work for all.

We invite you to follow the 2011 ASTC Annual Conference online. The conference blog will be updated regularly through Tuesday. Follow us on Twitter (@ScienceCenters) and join in discussions using hash tag #ASTC2011. Photos and videos will also be posted in our Flickr pool and on our YouTube channel.

Thank you for joining us in Charm City for another fantastic ASTC Annual Conference.

About the image: A ship in Baltimore‘s Inner Harbor. Photo by Christine Ruffo, ASTC

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.

Three ASTC-member institutions were among those museums awarded grants as part of the 2011 Museums & Community Collaborations Abroad (MCCA) program by the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Recipients of the nine grants included California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA; Maloka in Bogota, Colombia; and Sci-Port: Louisiana’s Science Center in Shreveport, LA. The MCCA initiative pairs museums in the U.S. with museums abroad for a cross-cultural exchange that brings people, especially youth, together to open a dialogue through community projects, partnerships with local or tribal governments and schools, and local events.

“The open dialogue that is established by this museum exchange initiative strengthens people-to-people relationships,” said Ann Stock, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. “With stronger relationships and greater collaboration, the Museums & Community Collaborations Abroad initiative will achieve shared goals for the benefit of the global community.”

Further details about the 2011 museum-based exchanges can be found after the break.

Rainforest Leadership Academy: Cross-Cultural Teacher Training and Mentoring (California Science Center and Maloka)
To empower teachers with the resources, skills, knowledge, and the confidence to deliver inquiry-based science lessons to their classes, the California Science Center and Maloka will enlist mentor teachers from local public schools to collaboratively develop materials for teacher professional-development trainings and student activities. Teachers will be selected from urban-based school districts in both countries as well as from the Yurok Reservation in the temperate rainforests of Northern California and the Amazon in the tropical rainforest of Southern Colombia. As the mentor teachers train their colleagues to implement the lessons in the classroom, cross-cultural teams of students will communicate via email and Skype to share the information they are learning about the diversity of the rainforests and cultures in their regions.

Not Just Another Building on the Street (Sci-Port: Louisiana’s Science Center and Infini.to, Pino Torinese, Italy)
In 2009, after struggling to attract a teen audience, planetariums in Shreveport, LA and Pino Torinese, Italy, decided to try a different approach. The planetariums empowered gifted high school students in each country to create their own planetarium dome show, and the planetariums benefited from increased audience engagement. As teens developed skills in technology use and project management, friendships were also forged between the two countries. Now, the institutions are reconnecting to engage new audiences of local astronomy teachers in developing a planetarium program that addresses educational needs in their high school classrooms and provides students with formal and informal learning opportunities related to science and culture. The students, who are from a variety of different schools, will once again work together to create a planetarium show that reflects their values, cultures, and priorities.

For more information about the MCCA program, visit www.aam-us.org/mcca/ or follow MCCA on Facebook. To be added to the emailing list for the next cycle, contact MCCA staff at mcca@aam-us.org.