Science Museum Outreach

Abstract

As long ago as 2001, the director of the Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond, USA, in an article for ASTC Dimensions, described his institution as a “community powerhouse.” He rightly pointed out that science museums and science centers have many roles to play in serving their communities, many of which can only be fulfilled through “outreach.” Outreach is capable of many definitions, but one which applies well here is “any systematic effort to provide unsolicited and predefined help to groups or individuals deemed to need it.” This is not a new form of education: as early as 1891, the “science demonstrator” to the Birmingham School Board in England had adopted an outreach program which circulated science teaching equipment and samples to schools in a handcart. The motivation, then as now, was to provide resources where they were most needed – economically and efficiently and in a timely manner. Science museums and science centers embraced outreach from their early years. Museum loans of natural history specimens to schools were common during the twentieth century, and early-established science centers like the Ontario Science Centre were taking programs to remote areas (and, in the specific case of OSC, education programs for students and teachers in the schools for Canadian Forces based in Germany). In the succeeding years, the reasons for conducting science museum outreach have become more subtle. A process which may have begun as a profile-building exercise or for meeting a resource deficit has evolved into a developed sense of responsibility for promoting community engagement – in ways that are similarly practiced by orchestras, football teams, opera houses, and theater companies. Such engagement may be socially motivated (e.g., in using outreach programs to promote social cohesion) or driven by a wish to take science directly to the public. An important element in science museum outreach activity is engagement with the formal education system through visits to primary and, less frequently, to secondary high schools. Examples from around the world are now chosen to illustrate the various methods and motivations for delivering outreach programs from science museums and science centers. The broadcast media and online activity are excluded from this account, as they are treated separately elsewhere. The Shell Questacon Science Circus claims to be “recognised as the most extensive and longest running touring science centre outreach program in the world.” Using a large vehicle and a team of presenters, it offers school shows, professional development for teachers, a traveling science center for the community, and extension activities for senior high school students. This is a model which has been adopted worldwide and indeed was being used, e.g., by the Ontario Science Centre, as early as 1971. The Australian science circus has another purpose; however, it is a core component of the training of future science communication professionals who are following a Master’s program at the Australian National University, Canberra. It has also undertaken an “ambassadorial” visit to China. Science on the move, using vehicles ranging in size from caravans to tractor-hauled multi-wheel trailers can now be found on every continent. Heureka, the Finnish science center, has even offered science shows on cruise ships in the Baltic. PROMUSIT is the traveling museum program from MCT-PUCRS, the interactive Museum of Science and Technology run by the Catholic University of