Explainers & visitor services
The idea of “access” to science centres is often seen as synonymous to physical access to its facilities. While providing for such access is extremely important, efforts have seldom been made to ensure cognitive access to the science centres’...
Outreach
What happens when a) you ask an angry visitor to solve the problem they’re complaining about?; b) when you ask young people who never visit the museum to guest curate the entry feature of your newest high-profile gallery?; c) when...
Explainers & visitor services
Increasing numbers of science centres are asking themselves what extra things they can do to support and inspire talented students. Whether during a daytime visit, or as an after-school programme, there are number of opportunities to be grasped...
Science in Society
What are the risks, opportunities and effectiveness of tackling HIV/AIDS in science centres? This session will start with the projects and perspectives of South Africa, and communities with the highest HIV prevalence figures in the world, and...
Marketing & communication
The session will be devoted to educational webpages of science centres. Which educational goals can we meet using webpages related to interactive exhibitions? What do schools expect and what can we provide? Are science centres and museums’...
Media
More and more questions are raised by society to scientists. Some of them relate to risky topics which regularly hit the news. How can science centres tackle them? One way is to create a dedicated space in their institutions and produce science...
Education
When children come to a science centre they learn something from their experience. But what they learn and how learning is optimised are complex questions. Parents can play an important role in this, especially when very young children are...
Collections
Natural history museums and science centres stress that biodiversity deserves protection. Many museums display old specimens, sometimes of extinct species. Can they take the risk of using those “unfortunate ambassadors of biodiversity” to engage...
Research, theory & evaluation
This session will discuss recent ideas and strategies on the complex topic of obtaining evidence of impact. An underlying aim is for us as a field to work together, rather than in isolation, to define, to determine, and to communicate to funders...
Education
One-stop leisure locations where visitors can enjoy different kinds of recreation are becoming more popular. A number of science centres are preparing or have already undertaken an expansion of the science centre with other activities in order to...
Operations & finance
A maintenance insight. Have three different institutions found a good process? How is the key human factor involved and motivated in their task? Do they really understand what they are repairing? Are they sharing the same objectives than the...
Operations & finance
Are we sometimes too cautious and colourless during the design process? Can a deliberately ‘risky’ approach sometimes enhance our creativity and produce a better visitor-experience?” In this session we will explore various...