Audio Transcript

Published: 6 October 2017
APA 7 Citation: Newsome, B. (Host). (2017, September 9). How the ASTC helps science centers shine! [Audio podcast transcript]. Fizzics Education. https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/podcast/fizzicsed/how-the-astc-helps-science-centers-shine/

Ben Newsome CF is the recipient of the 2023 UTS Chancellor’s Award for Excellence and a Churchill Fellow. He is a global leader in science communication and the founder of Fizzics Education.

[00:00:01]
Ann Hernandez: It’s a sense of membership, a sense of ownership, and a sense of that you’re kind of at equal levels. It’s not just about the expert PhD scientists talking to the public, which is wonderful when you get that in its own way, but it’s about communities now working next to the science holders and knowledge holders, working through ideas together.

[00:00:28]
Ben Newsome: And this is something that museums and science centres have been working very hard on to get the public to understand how science really works and not have it to be some form of ivory tower. Today we’re going to learn about just how museums can learn from each other through the Association of Science-Technology Centres.

[00:00:43]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome.

[00:01:00]
Ben Newsome: Yes, welcome again to another Fizzics Ed podcast. Hey, this week I’ve got a great interview with Ann Hernandez. She is the programme manager for professional development at the Association of Science-Technology Centres, which is out of Washington, DC, but looks after over 600—yes, you heard that right, 600 different science-technology centres around the globe.

[00:01:23]
Ben Newsome: And you better believe she’s having lots of fun because she gets to visit many of these museums herself to help them out with their exhibitions and their programmes and workshops they deliver to the public, which has got to be unreal fun. And yes, I have to admit I was a little bit jealous about some of the things she gets to do too, but hey, what else are you going to do as a science communicator but want to go to science centres? So let’s find out what she gets to do.

[00:01:45]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed podcast.

[00:01:48]
Ben Newsome: Ann Hernandez, welcome to the Fizzics Ed podcast.

[00:01:50]
Ann Hernandez: Thank you. Thanks Ben. I’m glad to be here.

[00:01:53]
Ben Newsome: I’m really, really happy to have you here and so bright and early for you. What time is it over where you are?

[00:01:58]
Ann Hernandez: It’s just a little after 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon.

[00:02:02]
Ben Newsome: No worries. Now, for listeners, I’m talking at 5:00 AM because I’m partly a masochist, but also Ann and I have known each other for a number of years and we’ve got a meeting coming up for one of the PLNs that we have with ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education. That’s coming up in about half an hour or so, so we thought we’d squeeze this in before I ran off to somewhere else. Okay, Ann, I probably should just ask, what do you do? Why are you on this podcast?

[00:02:28]
Ann Hernandez: Sure. So I work for the Association of Science-Technology Centres. We call ourselves ASTC. My role here is on the professional development team. I work mostly with inclusion efforts, but also because my background is in education, I work a lot on things that have to do with education and projects in that field.

[00:03:00]
Ann Hernandez: Our organisation is based in Washington, DC, but we are a global organisation, so we have about 600 members that are across the world. These members are science museums, science centres, or like institutions. Some are even individual independent consultants that help out out-of-classroom or informal science organisations.

[00:03:22]
Ben Newsome: Just listening to that and knowing what you’ve done, I think that you probably have the most perfect job if someone wants to geek out on seeing all the museums around the world. That’s awesome.

[00:03:32]
Ann Hernandez: Yeah, it is pretty nice. You can go to any city basically around the world and one of our members, at least one of our members, is there.

[00:03:39]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, I bet, because over 600 members, I mean, you’ve been going on for quite a while. What sparked this network?

[00:03:48]
Ann Hernandez: So it’s an organisation that’s been around for decades and it was really about support. All these science centres were kind of doing their own thing, museums were trying to find their path and educate their staff, and try to find the best ways to talk to their communities. And some people said, “Well, let’s put this together and let’s support each other and let’s make this an association.”

[00:04:22]
Ann Hernandez: And it just grew over time to this massive global organisation that we have now. We continue to grow, especially globally. We continue to think about what are the organisations that we can add to our membership and help support as things change across the globe and as new science centres and museums are formed in all sorts of different areas.

[00:04:43]
Ben Newsome: Now, you work in professional development, so obviously going around the museums, you’ve got to share expertise and share what other people know and do and all that type of thing. You used to work in the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, right?

[00:04:53]
Ann Hernandez: Yes.

[00:04:54]
Ben Newsome: How’d you find that?

[00:04:55]
Ann Hernandez: So the museum I found because I actually started as an educator in a formal classroom. I taught second grade very briefly for about a year. I went through my schooling in that, but I also studied in the arts. So I studied music and I studied theatre.

[00:05:32]
Ann Hernandez: And when I was in Michigan, I really decided to let my curiosity roam with going into the informal or out-of-classroom education world and started just kind of doing any education job they had at the museum, moved up into starting doing video conferencing, so I was able to use my arts backgrounds with doing some really creative things on camera to teach classrooms across the world.

[00:05:50]
Ann Hernandez: And just kept getting excited about all these different levels in the museum world and this informal or out-of-classroom world. And then eventually came this direction to DC to work for the association so I could have that big view of what’s happening in the informal or out-of-classroom science education field.

[00:06:08]
Ben Newsome: Got it. So obviously you get to visit individual museums to consult and work with them directly, but also you’ve got major conferences that you do. Actually, you just described before we went on this, you’ve got a major conference not far away from now.

[00:06:23]
Ann Hernandez: Yes. Yeah, in a month, my whole office will be in California in San Jose, and we’re hosting our annual conference. It’s around 2,000 people, again from across the world, from our membership that come, partners who come, there may be federal agencies, there may be corporations, but it’s a full conference with lots of different sessions on different topics related to our field and in education in general.

[00:06:56]
Ann Hernandez: We have an exhibit hall, we have poster sessions, we have all sorts of activities happening day and night. And a vein of my work is also in inclusion, equity, and diversity work. So I’m going to be running several sessions and events around that work at conference. And I also have a fellowship that I run that is about diversity as well and leadership development.

[00:07:24]
Ben Newsome: Okay, so you’re saying you’ve got lots of time.

[00:07:26]
Ann Hernandez: I have nothing to do really.

[00:07:29]
Ben Newsome: Right. That’s really interesting. I’m actually just curious, obviously there’d be a lot of people listening in who are directly working in science museums and centres. I know we have a lot of teachers—hi teachers everywhere, I know you’re out there as well. People would expect that there would be about here’s an experiment, here’s how we teach it, here’s best practice, blah, blah, blah. It was just interesting you talking about the equity side of things. Tell us more about that.

[00:07:54]
Ann Hernandez: Yeah, a big movement right now is to understand the cultures in your community. Understand the culture in your organisation or in your school. So a lot of the work that I do works internally at organisations to build cultural competency among staff or the main players, volunteers, board members that are supporting that organisation.

[00:08:30]
Ann Hernandez: And then it’s also about community engagement and providing access. And access can look in a lot of different ways. Often we think about, “Oh, let’s have free memberships or free trips,” or whatever to our organisations, to museums. But it goes way beyond financial access and inclusion efforts. So it’s educating the people in the organisations about that and it’s also teaching them some skills and tools, giving them some tools of how to go into the community and just listen, see, talk to the people, see what their interests are, see how they connect to science, what is their ways of knowing science.

[00:09:00]
Ann Hernandez: You can think about it from anything from communities that are right outside your museum or your school, or the membership that’s already coming, to a little further outreach. And organisations like Fizzics that are reaching and going into communities all across the world, you guys have to think about cultures across the world and how you’re going to connect to their ideas.

[00:09:34]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely. And actually, when connecting with people across the globe, just because they speak English doesn’t mean they speak your English. It makes it very interesting with certain nouns. Go get this particular material and people have got no idea what you’re talking about, and vice versa. It makes for very interesting discussions too.

[00:10:05]
Ben Newsome: I almost feel like it would be remiss of me, and I feel like I’m really throwing you on the spot, but you’ve got this unique position to be able to go to all these different science-technology centres everywhere. I mean, dare I say, once you leave I want your job, that’d be really cool. But going all these different places, there’d have to be some real standout exhibits or activities that you have seen, and not necessarily the ones that cost a million dollars to put together. Because let’s be honest, you see the high end and you see the low end as well. What are some of the things that you go, “Wow, that is just unique, cool, and the public are clearly engaging with it”?

[00:10:32]
Ann Hernandez: Yeah. You know, and I think that last part there of the public engaging in it, and that’s those are the kinds of exhibits that really stand out to me. Is when you can see different generations working together on an exhibit, interacting with an exhibit. When you can see different groups of visitors, like maybe it’s groups of people that did not come together but are collecting around an exhibit and interacting with it.

[00:11:05]
Ann Hernandez: I think interaction is a big one, so we’re not just talking about looking at things in glass cases. We’re talking about things you can pull and push on, we’re talking about things you can write and respond to, or video back a conversation and your reaction to that.

[00:11:35]
Ann Hernandez: There’s a great exhibit called the Race exhibit that gets into that equity and diversity conversation and understanding the scientific look at race, where it’s 99.99% that we are the same scientifically, and busting some myths on that. And that’s a travelling exhibit that has gone to many different museums and started many different conversations in these different cities that it’s visited in the community. And I think there’s something beautiful about that. But there’s also some museums that have really embraced prototyping and just putting out whatever rough idea they have and letting people, their visitors, react to it.

[00:12:10]
Ben Newsome: I absolutely agree. In fact, approaching late September, we only just put out, I think it was episode 20 or 19, something like that. But we spoke with Devin and Jamie Cook, who run three organisations, one’s Dissection Connection, one is Rockhounds which are outreach or sending out materials to schools to use. But they are very much doing prototyping of a bone museum in regional Queensland in Gympie, the Gympie Bone Museum.

[00:12:45]
Ben Newsome: And so they just did their very first exhibit. In fact, they don’t even have the walls yet, they’re actually just borrowing space. And the bone museum was, “We refuse to have glass cabinets, all they do is collect dust, they’re really good for the cleaners, that’s about it.” But they were putting together, having kids, they were building full-size camels and whatever else out of bones and bits. And people really, I think there’s something to be said about it being gritty where people can watch it get built, which means they can actually feel an ownership to that site because they got to see it happen in the first place. That’s a good thing.

[00:13:14]
Ann Hernandez: Yep, exactly. And that’s another way to get your community involved, right? And you’re right, it’s a sense of membership, a sense of ownership, and a sense of that you’re kind of at equal levels. It’s not just about the expert PhD scientists talking to the public, which is wonderful when you get that in its own way, but it’s about communities now working next to the science holders and knowledge holders, working through ideas together when you have those very simple prototype down-and-dirty kind of ideas out on the floor.

[00:13:56]
Ben Newsome: Well, one of the things that certainly comes up in science communication for sure is the question that comes up is, is what we do talking to the converted? You know, is it just an echo chamber where the same people turn up to see the same exhibits, and then they go to the next museum and see the next exhibit, then they go to the next lecture series or they do whatever it is.

[00:14:15]
Ben Newsome: And I suspect there’s a real change where people are trying to work out how do we reach groups who don’t particularly care about STEM or STEAM, or whatever the acronym is these days. But it’s certainly tough. I mean, what have you seen with the organisations that you work with trying to break down those barriers to groups who are somewhat marginalised, somewhat not engaged with STEM?

[00:14:38]
Ann Hernandez: Yeah, so the term that you see pop up on grants and other things in the field right now is broadening participation. So it’s getting beyond the middle class or higher class individuals, often white—this is for the US at least—often identified with the race of white that are participating in museums historically. Right, we’re trying to break down some of those barriers to broaden into our community.

[00:15:15]
Ann Hernandez: And I think it’s actually not necessarily that people don’t care about science, it’s that people don’t realise that they’re already connected to science. That they may be doing science or seeing science in areas that are affecting their life. And so it’s finding different ways to get them to enter the conversation.

[00:15:35]
Ann Hernandez: And so there are a lot, there’s a big movement, I know, in citizen science, which a lot of museums participate in that as well, or science centres participate in. Citizen science means normal people contributing to scientific conversations or contributing to data collection to help this bigger picture.

[00:15:52]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely. I mean, even just right now, just stop what you’re doing listeners, if you can, pause the recording and do whatever you have to do, type in citizen science into your favourite Google type thing, and you’ll find there’ll be an association nearby. And if it’s not nearby in your country, you no doubt be able to connect with ones globally because there are so many apps that are free that’ll help you contribute to real science. And that’s a serious thing, I love that thing.

[00:16:16]
Ann Hernandez: Yes. And now come back! So we hope you enjoyed looking up citizen science.

[00:16:25]
Ben Newsome: We make this interactive, right?

[00:16:28]
Ann Hernandez: Now let’s talk about what you found.

[00:16:31]
Ben Newsome: Yes, that’s right. Actually, just while you collect your thoughts because I kind of interrupted you, but we actually spoke with one of the main managers in Australia, Jackie Randles, from Inspiring Australia. Their job, their remit is to, funnily enough, inspire Australia in different ways. And one of the things they do that is very much through citizen science associations, and it’s a big deal down here as well.

[00:16:54]
Ann Hernandez: Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, and there’s a grant project that I’m on that I’ve been working with for just three years, we’re going into our very last year of the grant, and it’s out of the National Science Foundation. It’s about, the subject is citizen science. The research is actually studying partnerships between science centres or museums, or even zoos, partnered with another community-based organisation. And it’s how do those partnerships work to broaden participation while the community or these people are participating in citizen science projects.

[00:17:35]
Ann Hernandez: So what this project is supposing, is hypothesising, is that the best way to reach people in your community is to actually see where they’re going, see what other organisations are attracting them, do have the means to reach out and seem more accessible to those community members. And then try to partner with each other, talk to each other, learn from each other.

[00:18:05]
Ann Hernandez: Especially if we’re talking about big organisations versus small organisations, then you often kind of get caught up on some bureaucracy things or processes that are not the same. But it’s trying to not only learn about your community, but learn about the other organisations in your community and be flexible, try to understand how to work with them so that together you can reach more people and you can find where the assets are between your two organisations with science.

[00:18:37]
Ben Newsome: That’s what I love about what ASTC does. It’s not just a ‘Hey, this is the cool thing I do, what’s the cool thing that you do?’ and that’s about it. It’s well more, it’s far more meaningful than that. And I love the fact that you’ve got the Centre for Advancement of Informal Science Education at your site. I mean, that’s all based in research, right?

[00:18:54]
Ann Hernandez: Yes. Yeah. So we have kind of in our office and our realm, we have research going on. We do a lot of work with understanding connections, which is really what I love about my job, is understanding how these different communities, how these different organisations can come together. And we try to foster that sense of community between our members and our members and other organisations that we think would help support them.

[00:19:23]
Ben Newsome: Now you’ve got some fun special projects that you also run on the side, like actually your organisation as a whole because it’s not just you, there’s quite a few people there. And I can see there’s you got the Fund-a-Bus mini-grant programme, you got FabSlam, you got a few things going on there.

[00:19:37]
Ann Hernandez: Yeah, we have a lot, we have a lot of programmes here. Um, we have a project that’s been running for many years now that is just in that research realm, the Centre for Advancement of Informal Science Education. That’s a great resource for those people who are looking for more of that research side and evidence.

[00:20:00]
Ann Hernandez: But yeah, we have mini-grant programmes, many of our members add us to grants that they’re applying for and we help with that community and that connection or professional development realm of their projects. It’s a lot. I mean, I alone, I’m just one person and I have seven projects at a time. Multiply that by 25 people and you got a lot of projects.

[00:20:26]
Ben Newsome: Don’t we all? I mean, everyone from teachers to people running in the back house of a lab have always got more than one thing to do, that’s for sure without a doubt. Hey, I’m going to throw you on the spot because look, you have worked at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, you’ve worked in science for quite a few years. If you had kids outside your doors, something had gone wrong, weirdly they’ve turned up at ASTC instead of the Smithsonian or something in DC and they’re like going, ‘Look, can you run a lesson for us? Have you got anything hanging around?’

[00:20:55]
Ben Newsome: If you had to suddenly just drop everything and go out there and settle them down and get a desk and run something, what would be a quick go-to experiment that you know would just hold their attention?

[00:21:08]
Ann Hernandez: It’s funny because immediately I thought, ‘Oh, I have a couple coworkers who have young kids and they sometimes come around the office.’ And I literally grab whatever’s on my shelf, whatever kind of random toy or whatever it is, I immediately grab it and just make up a lesson on the spot. But I would say the lesson, especially at Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, the science experiment that I taught the most was talking about states of matter while making slime. Two different kinds of slime. So that would definitely be, if I had some ingredients, that would be my go-to. I could do that in my sleep, talking about states of matter and making slime.

[00:21:54]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, I’d imagine you’ve done more than just several hundred demonstrations.

[00:21:58]
Ann Hernandez: Yes. You know, we had a special, and they still run it, a special Halloween slime programme and I think it was like 100 slime programmes just in the month of October, something like that.

[00:22:14]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. We are heavily involved with various museums around Australia through Virtual Excursions Australia and we run special events often monthly. And one of the popular ones is slime day. And slime day inevitably means the science centres just bring out their slime and off they go. But you can do all sorts of weird stuff with slime. For example, the aquariums were talking about slime that’s on fish and why is it there in the first place?

[00:22:45]
Ben Newsome: Other people were using slime in like modern history centres where they were talking about the slime that were on convicts’ toes due to lack of cleanliness on voyages to go overseas to prison camps. It’s kind of weird how you can just grab one topic and just run with it.

[00:22:57]
Ann Hernandez: Yes. Yeah.

[00:23:00]
Ben Newsome: And that’s a nice way to finish up, isn’t it? Just the visual for everyone as you walk the dog or whatever you’re doing right now.

[00:23:08]
Ann Hernandez: It reminds me actually, we were talking about citizen science and I’m looking around my office now thinking about, okay, what am I going to teach? And I have a citizen science little kit that came from the Oakland Museum of California. And they are so into citizen science projects there that they made their, they’re working on or making, a vending machine of citizen science kits that you can take a little bag with you. And I have one right now that’s about mites on your body, like in testing your mites in your armpits and things and you can send it off. And, um, yeah. That’s fantastic. A lot of gross things in science but they’re cool.

[00:23:49]
Ben Newsome: That was a discovery that came out that people didn’t realise that there were facial mites living amongst your eyelashes and things like that that come out at night and feed on your dead skin and it’s kind of whoa, is that right? Actually, Derek, we interviewed Derek recently from the Museum of Human Disease out of the University of New South Wales. And mind you, mites are a natural thing in case everyone’s listening and wondering, ‘Is that real?’ Yes, it’s real and it’s quite normal actually, part of your biota. But just talking about the weird stuff that goes on on your body, you’d be very surprised.

[00:24:22]
Ann Hernandez: Yeah, and they were, you know, when we were talking about this kit with them, they were talking about how to trace back your mites to your parents and perhaps they’re the same mites that your parents had and like, how does that work if you’re adopted and all these things and it was just so, it was fascinating and I was like, ‘I want to learn more and more about mites.’

[00:24:45]
Ben Newsome: We might, might do that. And yes, I did that. Sorry. Oh dear. That’s awesome. Look, there’ll be undoubtedly people who want to get in touch with you. So Ann, how how do we do that?

[00:24:57]
Ann Hernandez: Sure. So the easiest way to get in touch with me probably is through email and that’s ahernandez@astc.org. So ahernandez at astc dot org.

[00:25:11]
Ben Newsome: Fantastic. And we’ll put links up in the show notes and especially I think for that, you know, Oakland will be loving this but I definitely think that link to that mite project, why not? Let’s get some details off that and any other ones that you might have too. Well now you’ve seen that your job is about equity, now how do you equitably produce something for 600 centres? Maybe it’s just the best way is go to astc.org and just check everything out, probably the best way to go I reckon.

[00:25:40]
Ben Newsome: But look, thank you very much Ann, much appreciated for coming on. And funnily enough, we’re going to sign off from this and I’ll just catch you in the next Zoom meeting room.

[00:25:50]
Ann Hernandez: Sounds good. Thanks so much Ben for having me on.

[00:25:53]
Ben Newsome: No, I’m really, really stoked to have you Ann and much appreciated for your time.

[00:25:56]
Ann Hernandez: All right. Thanks everyone.

[00:25:58]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed podcast. We’re all about science, ed tech and more. To see 100 fun free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s Fizzics spelled F-I-double Z-I-C-S and click 100 free experiments.

[00:26:18]
Ben Newsome: Yes, and if anyone does get down to San Diego for that conference, drop me a line. I’d love to find out just what it’s like to attend a conference organised by the Association of Science-Technology Centres. It sounds like a blast and I’m sure it’s really good value for people who turn up.

[00:26:35]
Ben Newsome: Hey, top learnings for this week. Certainly, if you’re a museum or cultural site, how are you addressing diversity and equity of access? If you need a little bit of help in this area, I’d suggest reaching out to some professionals like Ann who’ll be able to point you in the right direction, which is really critical especially when we’ve got such a diverse range of audiences who do attend these sites.

[00:26:50]
Ben Newsome: Learning number two: Don’t worry about being perfect. Now, I’m fairly sure I’ve said this on this podcast before and I’ll probably end up saying it again. It’s okay to be a little bit messy and it’s okay to have people watch you do a work in progress. And you know what? It really helps you with the ownership of a site, especially if the audience not only watches you build something, can you get them involved as well? I tell you what, they’ll love you for it. You’ve just got to be able to find a spot where it’s safe and they get to do something that’s of genuine value to them and to your site.

[00:27:15]
Ben Newsome: And number three, reach out to community organisations wherever you can. It’ll certainly help you broaden participation without a doubt. And tell you what, maybe follow the advice of both Ann Hernandez and Jackie Randles from a previous episode from Inspiring Australia where they talked about citizen science. It’s certainly awesome and tell you what, public love doing science. You’ve just got to get the tools in their hands.

[00:27:47]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Fizzics Ed podcast. Love your science? We do too. Here’s this episode’s education tip of the week. Grab your pencil and get ready to make some notes.

[00:27:57]
Ben Newsome: This time I’m giving you a bit of a challenge, something that can’t be done instantly but certainly will be worth your time if you put the tools in place. And what I mean by tools is genuinely real tools, because what I’m talking about is actually setting up a maker site. Now, there’s all sorts of listeners who are into this. We’ve got people from schools all the way through to museums. So a definition of a maker space can be different for different people.

[00:28:20]
Ben Newsome: But here’s the deal. When it comes down to what is a maker space about, it’s simply the fact that we are all makers. We all like to create things, we all like to build things, we all like to personalise things. All the maker movement is about is just providing an avenue and almost a permission to act on these fundamental drivers, the ways that we actually think as human beings ourselves.

[00:28:40]
Ben Newsome: So how on earth could you set up a maker space without breaking people’s arms and hurting them in some way, shape or form? Well, that just means you’re going to have to do a bit of risk assessment. What are the things that you’re prepared to have on your site that people can tinker with and play with? So do a bit of risk analysis and have a chat with some different people about what are the things you can have.

[00:28:55]
Ben Newsome: Now, maker spaces can be pretty industrial. They can have drills and lathes and 3D printers and all sorts of things, or simply they could just be craft glue and cardboard and bits of pipe and plastic and rubber. It’s all up to the way you feel is safe for your environment. So in no way am I saying this is the way to do it, I’m simply saying giving the tools, the materials for kids to have a go at building something.

[00:29:20]
Ben Newsome: Now notice it’s a little bit open-ended. Maker spaces are by their very nature about exploring for yourself. Yeah, it might be handed out to show them how to use the tools safely and maybe how to wire up a circuit or something, but giving the people a chance to actually spend time with their own objects, their own things they want to create is critical for a maker movement because it’s all about them personalising their ideas.

[00:29:50]
Ben Newsome: So there is a bit of a challenge. Actually, if you want to get into it a bit further, type in maker movement or maker room or maker site or maker something into Google or some other version of a search engine, you can go find things on the internet and see the way other people are getting into this. It can involve all sorts of things, it can be DIY electronics or old phones that they can pull apart. It could be 3D printing or playing with Arduino and Raspberry Pi and doing a bit of coding. It’s all up to you.

[00:30:20]
Ben Newsome: But hey, if you get into the maker movement, if you find a space somewhere on your site somewhere where people can tinker, everyone is going to benefit. I’d love to hear about people who might put things together, especially if you get the people who make the things to create a festival. So, jump on our website, type in maker movement, you’ll find a blog about establishing a maker movement. There’s a number of videos from Dale Dougherty and a few others about the sort of things you can create. I really, really think it’s worth your time and you’ll be joining a major global movement. Go be a maker.

[00:30:48]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed podcast. We’re excited about science. Grab a copy of our new book, Be Amazing: How to Teach Science the Way Primary Kids Love from our website. Just search Be Amazing book. It’s available in hard copy and ebook. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s Fizzics spelled F-I-double Z-I-C-S.

[00:31:10]
Ben Newsome: In a recent episode, I got to speak with Karen Taylor-Brown, who is from Refraction Media, which has been producing an awesome array of STEM publications, including the recent Careers with STEM and Careers with Code. Let’s find out a bit more.

[00:31:23]
Karen Taylor-Brown: So in Australia, 28% of STEM professionals are women. So there’s a bit of a way to get to that equity there. And a lot of the reasoning behind that is what I call you can’t be what you can’t see. There weren’t a whole lot of role models within STEM professions that were going to be connecting with young girls.

[00:31:50]
Karen Taylor-Brown: So we really wanted to create really dynamic visual publications that uncovered a real diversity of talent doing amazing things. And we wanted to shoot them in locations that were really surprising and unexpected. So for example, I remember when we did Careers with Code 2014 we shot this amazing software developer who is also a trapeze artist on the weekends. So we did a photo shoot while she was doing her trapeze.

[00:32:04]
Ben Newsome: Yes, head on over to the Fizzics Ed podcast on your favourite podcast catcher and have a listen to hear about trapeze artists doing STEM and all sorts of things with Karen Taylor-Brown from Refraction Media. And by the way, why not hit subscribe or even better share it with a colleague or friend. I’m sure they might get a kick out of some of these stories. We’ve been hearing about it. It’s certainly been a lot of fun to produce for you.

[00:32:25]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Fizzics Ed podcast. Sign up now for our fortnightly email newsletter. It’s loaded with details on new experiments you can do, STEM teaching articles, new gadgets, exclusive offers and upcoming events. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au, scroll to the bottom and add your email.

[00:32:43]
Ben Newsome: And that just about brings us to the end of yet another Fizzics Ed podcast. However, we still have more coming next week. We are speaking with Sibylle and Heike from Little Scientists. Who are Little Scientists? They are a group that’s come out of Germany and they have certainly taken the preschools in Australia by storm. And so we can certainly hear a lot about how they did that.

[00:33:05]
Ben Newsome: And until then, keep making your STEM classes as awesome and as fun and as informative as possible to grab your students’ imagination. You’ve been listening to me, Ben Newsome, from the Fizzics Education podcast. And yes, I am from Fizzics Education. I will catch you next week. All the best.

[00:33:18]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Association of Science-Technology Centres (ASTC) and what is its reach?
ASTC is a global organisation representing approximately 600 science museums, centres, and informal science education institutions. Based in Washington, DC, the association provides a support network for staff, professional development opportunities, and research to help institutions better engage with their local communities across the globe.

How is the concept of “access” to science centres evolving beyond financial considerations?
While financial access (such as free memberships or school trips) remains important, the focus is shifting toward “broadening participation” through cultural competency. This involves organisations looking internally at their own cultures and externally at their communities to understand how diverse groups already connect with science, ensuring that STEM feels relevant and accessible to everyone regardless of their background.

What role does prototyping play in modern science museum exhibits?
Prototyping involves placing “rough” or “down-and-dirty” exhibit ideas on the museum floor for visitors to test. This approach breaks down the “ivory tower” perception of science by allowing the public to interact with a work-in-progress. It creates a sense of ownership and membership, as visitors work alongside “knowledge holders” to refine ideas rather than just observing a finished product behind glass.

What is citizen science and why is it a significant movement in STEM?
Citizen science involves everyday people contributing to real scientific data collection and conversations. By using free apps or specialised kits—such as the body mite testing kits mentioned by Ann Hernandez—individuals can help professional scientists gather large-scale data. This empowers the public to see themselves as active contributors to the scientific field rather than passive consumers of information.

How can a maker space be established without a large budget or industrial equipment?
A maker space is defined more by the “permission to create” than by expensive hardware. While some sites use 3D printers or lathes, a highly effective space can be built using simple materials like cardboard, glue, plastic pipes, and rubber. The key is to perform a risk assessment to ensure the environment is safe for tinkering while still allowing kids the freedom to build and personalise their own projects.

Extra thought ideas to consider

The Shift from Expert to Co-Creator
Consider how the dynamic of science education changes when the “expert” (the teacher or scientist) steps away from the pedestal and participates in “messy” prototyping alongside the student. Does allowing the public to see the failures and iterations of a scientific project increase their trust in the scientific process, or does it diminish the authority of the institution? Discuss how “gritty” learning environments might foster higher levels of community ownership than polished, finished exhibits.

Identifying “Invisible” Community Science
Ann Hernandez suggests that people often don’t realise they are already connected to science in their daily lives. Educators and museum curators might consider “mapping” the science already present in their specific local cultures—whether that be through local industry, traditional cooking, or community hobbies. How can institutions bridge the gap between formal STEM terminology and the practical, everyday science that people are already performing without knowing it?

The Ethics and Engagement of Citizen Science
With projects like the body mite study, science is becoming increasingly personal. Explore the potential of using the “gross” or “weird” aspects of human biology as a hook for broadening participation in science. Is the future of engagement found in moving away from abstract concepts (like planetary motion) toward more immediate, personal data collection that involves the visitor’s own body and history?