Update 13, July 2006

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.

The challenges of representing global warming in science museums

This thesis by Shelly Ryan (384 kb, pdf) examines how science museums in the United States and Canada are creating socially responsible programming, using global warming as a case study.

The research focuses on the challenges inherent in exhibiting global warming and other contentious issues, and the creative ways such difficulties have been addressed by various types of science museums. In particular, this paper describes exhibition techniques found to be successful in imparting motivational conservation messages to museum visitors.

Partnering between museums and with major environmental organizations is shown to be effective in bringing climate change information to the science museum audience, and inspiring and equipping those visitors to make a difference.

Engaging science

A new book entitled Engaging Science: thoughts, deeds, analysis and action has been published by the Wellcome Trust. Featuring essays from leading researchers, practitioners and commentators, this book examines what we have learned about the relationships between these groups and what the implications are for future practice. Topics include public attitudes to science, how audiences form attitudes about emerging technologies, and a guide for successfully evaluating science engagement events.

The Engaging Science book is available for free from the Wellcome Trust (as chapter downloads or in hardcopy).

New on our website

For a summary of what’s new on the website each month, check on the main news page of the site.

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