Education
Mathematics: Queen of Sciences or poor relation? In this reverse session, three organisations show how they have used three different methods to engage three different audiences with mathematics. What they have in common is that they all make...
Operations & finance
The actual economic crisis has an impact in every sector of activities and our field has also been impacted but effects depend also on the degree of the financial self-supporting of our institutions and on the way we have reacted. This session...
Explainers & visitor services
Today, educational research is facing a complexity of personal and physical aspects associated with the learning process. Therefore, instruments for gathering data, such as questionnaires or mind maps, become more elaborate and specific in order...
Explainers & visitor services
The aim of the session is to share and discuss manifestation of humour in our science communication activities, our science centres and museums. Does humour help in any way? It adds a “fun factor” to the visitors’ experience and makes people...
Exhibit development
In this session, speakers have five minutes to propose one thing they would like to ban from science centres and museums for good. Maybe it’s the one exhibit that they’d love to see the back of, or the one lazy idea that they are sick of finding...
Technology
Mobile applications offer a wide range of new ways for discovering complementary content, before, during and after the visit. Some of them work on dedicated systems, others on standard devices. Some carry content, some bring interaction. This...
Exhibit development
The biodiversity crisis, climate change, and major environmental changes create uncertainty and anxiety concerning our future. We now live with the threat of disasters that could profoundly affect our lives. Yet it is important to avoid passivity...
Outreach
Science LinX, the University of Groningen science centre, links formal to informal education and addresses a target group usually considered risky or difficult, 14 to 17 year old teens, using the BètaMentality Model. This model maps the drives of...
Education
Produced and published by science centres in an appealing format, science popularisation books, especially those meant for children, reveal science centres’ concerns. Their purpose is to get youngsters informed about topical issues, to provide...
Education
The public’s perception of chemistry is mixed and misconceptions are rife e.g organic food is good; ‘chemicals’ in food are bad. In this session we look at different approaches museums and science centres are adopting to engage visitors in a two-...
Explainers & visitor services
While death is the ultimate fate of every one of us, confronting it is difficult and often avoided. Should science museums deal with this topic? If so, how? What would be the rationale for deciding to approach this challenging topic? What would...
Operations & finance
In the last months a number of new science centres have opened. Each of them has its own concept and theme. In a Pecha Kucha session you can get a quick overview of these new projects. Pecha Kucha means the each speaker has 20 Powerpoint slides...