Programs

In the past eight to nine years, you will certainly notice an increasing appearance of sessions, workshops, pre-conference trainings and more recently whole strands of conference days and a so-called MakerSpace dedicated to Tinkering and Making. The same goes for museums and other learning contexts worldwide increasingly investing in Tinkering and Making. But why? What are their contribution to museums’ work, STEM learning, practice and research? Can they really change the learning paradigm?

I am sure all Spokes readers know what STEM stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, a term deeply integrated in the research and practice of the formal and informal education fields. But for some time already, a new acronym has emerged - STEAM ('A' means the Arts) - increasingly aspiring to take the place of STEM.

Science engagement professionals think that ready-formed children magically appear out of the blue when they’re 3 or 4. At least that’s what our organisations’ public offers seem to indicate: despite an almost sector-wide plea to be family-friendly or even family-focussed, very few science centres, museums, festivals etc offer programmes or exhibitions for under 3s.

The closure of science centers and museums due to the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many institutions to move their programs online. An ad-hoc international research program, HandsOnLine examines two questions: What are the crucial differences between traditional and online museum activities from the museum educators' perspective? How can we measure the quality of engagement for these online programs?

For science engagement, two trends are driving its convergence with edutainment and, thus, malls. The first is competition; all leisure offers are ultimately trying to capture the same free time in people's busy schedules. The second is social inclusion and outreach; if you are serious about reaching diverse audiences, you need to go find them where they already are.

The expression public engagement with science is increasingly looking like a metro carriage at rush hour: stuffed with so many different people and meanings that it is sometimes difficult to understand where we are and what we are really talking about. Let us take a historical look back on the birth and evolution of science festivals, then discuss what the main challenges awaiting the growing science events community are.

While it is not uncommon to still come across performances wrongly advertised as ‘hands-on’ that actually string together disconnected demonstrations with little thought for learning and participation, the field is evolving. Conscious of the format’s limitations in terms of audience involvement, dialogue or enquiry-based learning, willing to break stereotypes and conduct more thorough evaluation, our interviewees tell us how science shows are evolving.

The above, listed randomly, are only some of the new terms I have come across in the past few years when studying academic literature, reading policy documents or attending professional discussions on learning and education. All these terms convey a clear intent to catch the essence of contemporary changes in education and society. But does any of them represent a ground-breaking pedagogy today?