Science is an essential literacy
Turn on the science:
realize the potential of policymakers, educators, and individuals to achieve full civic and economic participation in the world.
Introduction to Museum 2.0
Welcome to the planning pages for Museum 2.0, the Science Museum's vision for inspiring and educational exhibitions and related programs we plan to develop and operate over the next five to seven years. Some of the projects described here represent important initiatives that we have already begun or that will grow out of programs we have been working on for some time. Others are new.
This wiki is intended to involve our staff, stakeholders, and collaborators in thinking about the key ideas in our new program plan and to allow them to make improvements and suggestions on what they see. The resulting pages will become the final program plan and serve as a resource for the writer(s) of the case statement for our upcoming capital campaign.
Key Science Initiatives
Humans have set in motion global changes that will unfold for millennia. The struggle to reconcile human needs and aspirations with the capacity of our planet to support them will be an enduring challenge of the 21st century. Public awareness of and concern about global environmental issues is rising swiftly. Our audiences increasingly appreciate that these issues will directly impact their lives and want to know what they and their families can do and what should happen in their communities, their state, nationally, and internationally.
Our experience of living — as individual organisms and within diverse communities — is captivating and complicated. It is the central fact of biology, psychology, material culture, and our social experience. Exhibits and programs in this cluster will feature biological specimens and experiments and activities illustrating basic scientific principles, compelling personal narratives, and first-person interpretation of powerful objects.
As part of its commitment to furthering science, math, and technology education, the museum is mounting an array of new exhibits and programs to help young people and their families understand the goals, techniques, and social contributions of design and engineering, and their broad potential as a career choice. The museum will showcase projects and inventions by teens and adults, created at the Museum in programs and classes, and created through community organizations.
Cross-Cutting Initiatives
An important goal of the museum is to help families integrate science, technology, engineering, and math learning into their lives. This initiative is based on a vision of intergenerational learning experiences that emphasizes conversation, identity, and STEM content and processes. New and refined methods for studying the role of the museum in family life will reframe knowledge, theories, and approaches for the field. See the Vision for Family Learning.
To challenge visitors' perception of museums' role in addressing today's science issues, we need to integrate up-to-the-minute science news with interactive experiences and object-based displays. We will put researchers and their work in the public eye and allow visitors to interact with them. And while we're presenting science headines, emerging research, and phenology, we will also be cultivating "scientific habits of mind---critical thinking and dialogue about the news we all hear, read, or see everyday.
This interdisciplinary programmatic initiative seeks to engage new and existing audiences in dialogue about the role and impact of science in our communities and our world.
Live program presentations nurture visitors' curiosity, encourage their sense of play and wonder, enhance learning by stimulating conversation and social interaction, and reward participation and experimentation with understanding. They feature "superlative" experiences - things that are really beautiful, gross, sad, scary, funny, startling, unexpected, odd, dramatic. They make objects "come alive" and help visitors build connections between those objects and associated ideas, issues, and phenomena. Programs are responsive to the audience in a way that no exhibit, no matter how innovative, can be.
WOW! Initiatives
Fresh, relevant, and exciting programming drives attendance and repeat visits to the museum and is essential to our financial health. One of the most effective ways to attract and serve a large and diverse audience is to provide special exhibitions that present a variety of new topics, introduce new objects, and explore new issues important to our visitors. These exhibits also afford the museum opportunities to forge strong links with its neighboring communities. Special exhibits developed and produced by this museum are highly valued by other institutions and can have a long life traveling to other cities. In producing traveling exhibits, we profit not only financially, but also intellectually from the knowledge and experience we gain.
The museum could benefit from one or two salient, exciting, physical attractions that entertain and involve visitors and provide them with memorable science experiences.