AMEL 2022, ASPAC ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2022, A PHOTO COMPETITION and "From Lawyer to Chief of Exhibition" April 22, 2022
MASTERCLASS FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATORS: The ASPAC Masterclass for Emerging Leaders (AMEL) for 2023 will be for science communicators and will be held virtually on July 28 and 29 and will be FREE for participants of ASPAC members of good standing. AMEL Registration will be launched next week. This AMEL will be facilitated by a special group of science communication masters, led by our very own ASPAC science show guru, Graham Walker (Australian National University) as our Troupe Master. Please do not miss this chance to be even better masters of your craft! SAVE THE DATE FOR THE ASPAC ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN BURSA, TURKEY!: This year will be in Bursa Science Center inTurkey from October 5-7 (with Oct 4 as the pre-conference and Oct 8 for the field trips). The theme is "The Role of Science Centers and Museums in Culture and Change." We encourage everyone to consider going in this first in-person annual conference since 2019! If you can come, it will be our form of strong affirmation that amidst all the very tough challenges in the world now on all fronts, the work we do will help us change ourselves and the world for the better and therefore, worth all the time, energy and resources we devote to it. The website and registration for the ASPAC Conference will go live by the end of April. Please stay tuned! A SPECIAL NOTE to ALL ASPAC members: PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE PAID YOUR MEMBERSHIP DUES TO ASPAC SO THAT YOU CAN REGISTER FOR THE AMEL AND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. FOR INQUIRIES ON YOUR DUES AND PAYMENTS , PLEASE EMAIL: lens.lemos@themindmuseum.org JOIN AN INTERNATIONAL PHOTO COMPETITION HOSTED BY AN ASPAC MEMBER: THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THAILAND
"From Lawyer to Chief of Exhibition" by CHEN Chi Hsia My big shift
My name is Chi-hsia Chen and I work at the Exhibition Division of National Science and Technology Museum, Taiwan. Our museum is a museum of applied science which is dedicated to the conservation and introduction of important technological development and its influence.
I majored in law at college. In the 20 years before I came to work at the Museum, my job had been to deal with legal administration, that is, I was more inclined to deal with administrative and legal-related work.
But unexpected opportunity opened up and I seized it. Fast forward and I have been the Chief of the Exhibition Division where my core work is to promote social science and technology education through science and technology-related exhibitions.
To be honest, this is very different from my previous training, so I spent a lot of time to figure out and learn. For example, I keep learning new knowledge by linking with industry, government, academia and research opportunities. I also take advantage of all kinds of opportunities to visit different museums to learn more experience. Regarding exhibition, I try to consider the way to present exhibitions from the audience's point of view. After all these years of learning, I feel even more attached to the museum and I am also happy than I can contribute to public science education by organizing exhibitions.
Below are two exhibitions that I developed with my colleagues. I enjoyed and learned a lot having made my "big shift" decision 20 years ago. Maybe some of you in the ASPAC family have had similar stories of "big shifts" like the one I had. I hope you can also share with us your story.
Introducing Si-Cheong Leong from the Macau Science Center
When the ASPAC Conference 2018 was held in Taipei, Taiwan, we made a presentation about our self-organized “Explore IOT (Internet of Things) Exhibition”. This exhibit captured the interest of Si-Chong Leong, the Education and Exhibits Controller of Macau Science Center.
Si-Chong was impressed on how the science behind IOT is explained by the exhibit but even more, he was interested in the virtual-real integration of audience opinion survey mechanism designed to understand the actual experience of the visitors of the exhibition.
Si-Chong worked to bring our IOT exhibition (photos below) at the Macao Science Center in order to understand visitor acceptance of the “Explore IOT Exhibition” which would help in planning for future exhibitions. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, our museum staff was unable to travel to Macau to help set up the exhibition in person. To solve this problem, our exhibition organizer spent a lot of time carefully writing the detailed exhibition setup manual. Then, we set up video conferencing to guide the Macau team. It took many days to complete this task. This “distant exhibition setup” experience has also become a new form of cooperation for both museums as I am sure it also is for many other museums and science centers in ASPAC and other networks. Both our museums benefitted from the collaboration and we were very happy that this is a result of the ASPAC family spirit.
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OH and IF YOU LOVE TO WRITE...: Whatever your role in your organization, if you love to write, please send me your article on whatever it is you think would be worthwhile to share with ASPAC. I cannot predict or limit what that will be as there are so many connections between our work and the rest of what others in the world are doing, This is especially ripe in these strangest of times. We are excited to see your insights! Please send me your piece and we will see how it fits in our ASPAC human story. We are excited to unearth the evolving pool of ASPAC writers! Thank you!