First: an opening for Outreach Coordinator at the Imaginarium in Anchorage is very tempting. There's a Center for the Performing Arts right across the street. Maybe they need a Theater Technologist?
Anyway, the conference continued to be a source of good inspiration. We dragged ourselves down into mucky areas as we debated the "what comes next" question, how do we move beyond the grant and into sustainability and all that. Our Collaboration of museums work well together on sharing ideas for how to do things during the grant, but because the museums are so different, we all have our own needs and ideas about how the exhibit becomes self-sustaining, or even if it can.
Also, our museum was the stand out of how we ran the program this year, and the only one with a change in direct management of the exhibits between years. Those are our challenges. I don't feel like I have the information and data necessary to make good choices in venues for next year, and I plan on using this year to experiment, collect data and make good choices for the following year. Everyone else had reached more of the types of venues they needed to for their data, and have information for making choices this year.
We also got a chance to hear more about the Imaginarium's Outreach program. They take planes to the villages, sleep on mattresses on gymnasium floors, pack in their own food (so they don't have to eat smoked fish dipped in seal oil), and get to reach entire families with programs and science they'd never see otherwise. Dog sleds, snow mobiles, the Alaska Ferry system, and lots of snow - all to bring science to some of the most rural villages imaginable. And totally worth it.
It was a good day. I've made good contacts for future collaborations. Got to know a guy from the Exploratorium who invited us down for Maker Faire in May. Sounds awesome, and would help me make even MORE contacts at Exploratorium - a very good place to have science museum contacts.
Summary - interesting discussions, great brainstorming, fun conversations and dinner, and an overall good time.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Day 1: OTS Conference
Despite my hestitancy in taking over this program, nothing can stop that instinctual desire to improve, control, brainstorm, research, etc, etc that makes me the perfect person for (most of) this program. The presentations and discussions yesterday helped prove that. I couldn't help but be interested in hearing their experiences and ideas for improvement. I couldn't help but start getting excited about how I could improve what I had seen in our exhibit set up and implementation. We've been missing the boat (shuttle) on this one.
I'm still not excited about the extra hours, the truck driving, the dealing with venues, the crowds, the set-up/tear-down. It's a lot more manual labor and organization then education - and I'm too good at teaching to spend so much time on it. That's always been one of the things I really like about teaching through a museum - a higher percentage of time is spent on actually developing curriculum and teaching it then on the bureaucracy and administrative responsibilities of classroom teaching. But, there's a chance I could do this, with minimal suffering.
I'm still not excited about the extra hours, the truck driving, the dealing with venues, the crowds, the set-up/tear-down. It's a lot more manual labor and organization then education - and I'm too good at teaching to spend so much time on it. That's always been one of the things I really like about teaching through a museum - a higher percentage of time is spent on actually developing curriculum and teaching it then on the bureaucracy and administrative responsibilities of classroom teaching. But, there's a chance I could do this, with minimal suffering.
Monday, September 15, 2008
OTS - Anchorage
Headed to Anchorage for a two-day conference for the Outreach to Space exhibit. Unsure what to really expect when I get there, just a general outline of Day 1 - talk about exhibits; Day 2 - talk about how cool Outreach is when you need dog sleds to get you to your schools.
It should be an interesting experience. It is the first of what I hope will be many conferences and professional development opportunities for me this year. I've been teaching science outreach for several years, learning from those who have done the job before me, from research and websites, from experience. And now I'm starting to see it from other perspectives, expanding the resources of experience that I can call on when looking for solutions to problems. It can be overwhelming - there are thousands of educators in the world, hundreds who do outreach. Trying to gain the sum knowledge available from their experiences is more than an lifetime of work.
I was talking to one of the museum's many volunteers this weekend. He comes from the Silicon Valley and the technology-insanity with years of attempting to just keep up with the tons of knowledge that are being produced every day. And now, retired and comfortably living in a calmer world here in Oregon, we were contemplating the value of always being so concerned about knowing what everyone else is learning and doing. If you're always reading the new information, the reviews of the new discoveries, and the debates about them, how much time are you leaving yourself for learning something new yourself? On the flip side, without knowing what's out there, what opportunities do you miss out on? How do you find the balance?
Coordinating the exhibits for the next year or so was not necessarily an opportunity I sought out, but there is a good feeling involved in bringing science out to the community. Perhaps being here and talking with other people who work with these exhibits will help me find something to be excited about.
It should be an interesting experience. It is the first of what I hope will be many conferences and professional development opportunities for me this year. I've been teaching science outreach for several years, learning from those who have done the job before me, from research and websites, from experience. And now I'm starting to see it from other perspectives, expanding the resources of experience that I can call on when looking for solutions to problems. It can be overwhelming - there are thousands of educators in the world, hundreds who do outreach. Trying to gain the sum knowledge available from their experiences is more than an lifetime of work.
I was talking to one of the museum's many volunteers this weekend. He comes from the Silicon Valley and the technology-insanity with years of attempting to just keep up with the tons of knowledge that are being produced every day. And now, retired and comfortably living in a calmer world here in Oregon, we were contemplating the value of always being so concerned about knowing what everyone else is learning and doing. If you're always reading the new information, the reviews of the new discoveries, and the debates about them, how much time are you leaving yourself for learning something new yourself? On the flip side, without knowing what's out there, what opportunities do you miss out on? How do you find the balance?
Coordinating the exhibits for the next year or so was not necessarily an opportunity I sought out, but there is a good feeling involved in bringing science out to the community. Perhaps being here and talking with other people who work with these exhibits will help me find something to be excited about.
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