Update 4, September 2005

What contributions are science centres and museums making in your community? What best-practice approaches by science centres and museums make a difference to important government agendas such as increasing young people's interest in science careers or communicating challenging science topics to the public? This is a monthly update on a project focusing on such questions in the APEC region.

Challenging topics and priority audiences

One of the priority areas identified by this project’s scoping meeting in December 2004 was to look at how science centres and museums tackle challenging topics – topics that are intrinsically complex or difficult, topics where the current science knowledge is changing very rapidly, or controversial science-based issues. We have made a simple online survey, with just a few questions. Please make a contribution by clicking on one of the links below and complete the survey.

Please complete a short online survey for museum staff or government officials.

Public attitudes to new technologies

Craig Cormick and Sharon Ding from Biotechnology Australia.

If you are thinking about exhibits or programs on new technologies, a paper presented at the June 2005 PCST Working Symposium in Beijing will provide useful background. Craig Cormick and Sharon Ding outlined how research by Biotechnology Australia has identified five key factors that influence the acceptance of gene technologies – factors that may also be relevant to other new technologies. These five factors relate to information, regulation, consultation, consumer choice and consumer benefit.

Go to the Biotechnology Australia website.

Download Biotechnology Australia’s PCST paper.

Science and Development Network – the latest in news and views

Keeping up to date with science news and issues is an important challenge. SciDev.Net’s free-access website provides the latest in news, views and information about science, technology and the developing world. The site features ‘gateways’ to six regions, including Southeast Asia, China and Latin America – with regional news and perspectives – as well as dossiers which provide ‘a concise and authoritative overview to topics at the heart of international debate over the role of science and technology in the developing world.’ These topics include biodiversity, climate change, GM crops and indigenous knowledge.

Check out the SciDev.Net website.

ASTC conference on partnerships

Is anyone from your institution going to the 2005 ASTC Annual Conference in Richmond, Virginia USA in October? If so – and if we have not been in touch about this already – please let us know, so that we can make sure to seek you out and say ‘hello’! Details of the conference are here.

Contact us by e-mail.

New on our website

As well as more information about the items above, our website has other new pages this month, including a link to the latest newsfeed from SciDev.Net and several case studies on how science centres and museums interact with varied audiences: older visitors, indigenous audiences in remote parts of Australia, teenagers in rural and urban disadvantaged schools in USA.

More on what’s new.

Contact

APEC Science Centre Impact Project Secretariat
Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre
King Edward Terrace, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
E apecproject@questacon.edu.au