iSCAN
Newsletter
Vol. 4 December 1997
iSCAN Special Meeting
Dr Mike Gore, Director of Questacon in Canberra, was the speaker at a special meeting at Dunsink Observatory on Friday, 30 August. The talk took the form of a demonstration lecture in which Mike showed his skill and experience in getting young (and old) minds interested in science. The audience also learnt about Questacon's outreach programme to all parts of Australia and about the many new centres being developed in the southern hemisphere.
iSCAN Autumn General Meeting
The iSCAN Autumn Meeting was held at Dunsink Observatory on Friday, 26th September with six Irish speakers in the morning and two overseas speakers in the afternoon. Brigid Roden and Ann Scrooge spoke about Phase 2 of the Historic Science Centre at Birr; Peter Wilson reviewed the history of Dublin Zoo and its exciting redevelopment programme; Tom Simpson of Sonairte outlined the National Ecology Centre's mission and facilities; Caroline Nolan spoke about the Exploris aquarium and the proposed Seal Sanctuary and Dr Sheila Gilheany described the aims of the Irish Centre for Talented Youth at Dublin City University.
In the first part of the afternoon session, Ian Russell of Interactive Science Ltd., in Derbyshire spoke on 'Hands-on, minds-on, hearts-on' i.e. doing, learning and feeling science. He outlined the principles behind his famous Exploding Custard Show - the most important being to leave his audience puzzled and curious rather than bored with tedious explanations. He described some of the exhibits he has designed for a number of successful hands-on science centres and he gave some intriguing demonstrations which involved water in plastic bottles.
The second talk was given by Prof. Jorge Wagensberg of Museu de la Ciència in Barcelona on 'Regular scientific research as a tool for creating unique new exhibits'. Prof. Wagensberg cited four case studies which had led to innovative exhibits:
.iSCAN is grateful to the British Council for sponsoring Mr Ian Russell's visit to Dublin.
Irish Centre for Talented Youth
Conducting potency tests on penicillin, discussing rocket technology with a NASA astronaut, analysing animal bone fragments from medieval times - these are just some of the activities which occupy the time of students at The Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI).
CTYI was established at Dublin City University in 1992 in close co-operation with the internationally renowned Centre for Talented Youth at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, with the aim of identifying young students with exceptional academic ability and then to provide services for them, their parents and teachers. Such students have special educational needs, particularly as many may feel very isolated in their usual surroundings and also if not given appropriate challenges they may never reach their true potential. CTYI aims to provide a highly stimulating academic experience in an atmosphere supportive of both social and emotional needs.
Three-week residential summer courses, Saturday classes, intensive study weekends, Discovery Days and correspondence courses all form part of CTYI's work with young people aged 8-12 years and 12-16 years. Students have the opportunity to study over 20 subjects ranging from Archaeology, Biotechnology, Electronics, Astronomy and Global Economics to World Geopolitics, Chaos Theory, Philosophy and Creative Writing. These classes correspond to approximately first year university level for the older group of students (12-16 years) and are all designed to allow the students to work at the pace and depth most appropriate to their ability.
To date over 2500 students have participated in the programme. There is also an international dimension to CTYI with over 20% of the students coming from overseas. Most of this group are American but they also include students from Britain, Europe, Venezuela and the Far East which gives the course a very special flavour.
Many of the students return to the program each year and in fact some of the original 1993 students are now coming back as course assistants. Indeed, a frequently heard comment from both parents and students is that "CTYI has made such a difference". As one young student put it, "not only have I discovered the excitement of research in biotechnology, but I have also found a whole new group of friends".
Contact
Details:
Director, Dr. Sheila Gilheany
CTYI, Dublin City University, Dublin 9
Tel (01) 7045634
Fax (01) 7045693
email: gilheanys at dcu.ie
www: http://www.dcu.ie/ctyi/index.html
Ireland's Historic Science Centre
Brigid Roden, Project Director and Ann Scroope, designer, outline the plans for the second phase of Ireland's Historic Science Centre at Birr Castle Demesne, to be opened in July 1998.
Ireland's Historic Science Centre will celebrate Irish achievement in astronomy, engineering, electricity, photography and botany. The aim is to create a tourist attraction for the midlands and to demonstrate that our scientific heritage is on a par with our well recognised heritage in music, literature and drama.
The
Great Telescope
For almost seventy years, from the 1840s to 1912, Birr Castle was renowned
for its unique observatory and the world's largest telescope. Built by
William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse in 1844 on his front lawn, the
telescope had a focal length of 58 ft. and its 72-inch reflecting mirror,
made from an alloy of copper and tin, weighed almost four tonnes. This
amazing instrument enabled the third Earl to see further into space than
was hitherto possible and to observe for the first time the spiral nature
of some of the galaxies. People came from all over Europe and beyond to
see the 'Leviathan of Parsonstown' as the telescope was known.
Phase
One
The first phase has been devoted to the unique attraction of the Science
Centre, the Great Telescope. It was dismantled in the early years of this
century, leaving only the masonry walls and the steadily disintegrating
wooden tube. A programme of restoration and rebuilding began in 1996 and
now the instrument is fully rebuilt complete with staircases, chains,
pulley systems and viewing galleries. The Telescope is operated once a
day to give visitors a delightful insight into Victorian engineering and
the awesome achievement of one remarkable man. A new 6-foot aluminium
mirror is currently being made. It will be installed in Autumn 1998 making
the telescope once more fully operational and completing the first phase
of the Science Centre.
Phase
Two
The second phase will deal with the conversion of the Castle Coach House
and Stables, a 19th century cut-stone stable block, into a series of galleries
dedicated to the achievements of the Parsons' family and their contemporaries.
Currently being designed by Ann Scroope, the galleries will demonstrate
the making of the Telescope and how it worked, developments in astronomy
and discoveries made with telescopes from Galileo's to the Hubble Space
Telescope. Views of the skies as seen by the naked eye and through telescopes
will be shown alongside scientific instruments used by or indeed made
by the determination and practical skills of the third and fourth Earls.
A
remarkable family
The achievements of other members of the Parsons' family will also be
recognised: Mary Rosse, the third Earl's wife, a pioneer photographer,
has left a wonderful collection of photographs of her family, of her friends
and of the scientific instruments used and invented by her husband which,
together with her cameras and developing equipment, will be displayed
in the photographic gallery. A Victorian photo opportunity will be set
up allowing visitors to experience the difficulty of staying still long
enough for a photo to be taken using the 19th century equipment. The fourth
Earl's photographs of the Moon will also be displayed together with the
instrument he developed to measure the radiant heat of the Moon and a
model demonstrating how it worked.
Charles Parsons was probably the most internationally famous son of this remarkable family. Like his father, he was an optical engineer but his most famous invention was the steam turbine which revolutionised marine technology. His turbines powered the great ships of the early part of this century, the Lusitania, the Mauritania and the ill-fated Titanic. A gallery dedicated to engineering will display interactive experiments to demonstrate the principles relevant to all the various achievements of the Parsons' and their contemporaries - Thomas and Howard Grubb, Yeates & Son, Nicholas Callan, John Joly, Mary Ward and so on.
Botanic
Gallery
In this century the Earls of Rosse have turned their talents to botany,
creating one of the most beautiful and interesting gardens in the British
Isles. The botanic gallery will help to explain the garden to specialists
and enthusiasts alike. Plants currently in bloom will be identified together
with rare species many of which are unique to Birr. From this gallery,
visitors can walk straight out to the gardens to explore their splendour
for themselves - 120 acres of parkland with river and lake, formal gardens
and wild meadows, the fernery, the waterfall and stunning vistas.
The third phase of Ireland's Historic Science Centre will be dedicated to all the other Irish scientists who achieved so much and whose contributions to international science is rarely recognised outside academia.
Sonairte,
The National Ecology Centre
The Ninch, Laytown, Co. Meath
Located on the banks of the River Nanny near Laytown in County Meath, the National Ecology centre is the only establishment of its kind in Ireland.
The aim of the centre is to show schools, the public and business, practical and economic ways o living in harmony with the earth and avoiding damage to the environment. This is achieved through the promotion of ecological awareness and education in areas such as sustainable living, organics, conservation, and alternative technology.
Founded in the late 1980's, the centre has developed into a respected educational facility as well as one of East Meath's leading visitor attractions.
Sonairte is open to the public throughout the year and holds appeal to a wide variety of visitors. Its setting in peaceful countryside together with its unique exhibits and attractions makes it an enjoyable and enlightening place for all to visit, whilst its location is convenient to both major road and rail links.
Since its conception the National Ecology Centre has made significant progress in transforming the derelict 18th century farm complex in which it is situated into an attractive ecological visitor centre.
Through gradual renovation of the farm buildings, the centre has taken shape and can offer a range of facilities and attractions to cater for its many visitors. At present these include :
- A purpose built reception area, which also acts as a local tourist office
- An energy courtyard with a variety of alternative energy exhibits which practically demonstrate the uses of wind and power.
- A two acre walled organic garden where produce is grown without the use of fertilisers.
- A riverside nature trail where visitors can learn more about the local plant and wildlife or just enjoy the beautiful scenery
- A large wind generator capable of satisfying much of the centre's electrical needs
- A lecture/exhibition hall which hosts courses, seminars and ecology exhibitions
- A coffee shop offering a range of wholefood cookery
- A children's playroom where even the very young can learn more about our earth
The centre can also
offer more formal learning through a range of courses and seminars, ranging
from wholefood cookery to solar energy.
Phone : 041-27572 / 27854
Fax : 041-28130
40th Anniversary
of Sputnik
Celebrated at International Conference on Science in Chicago
Irish Paper Presented October 7, l997
The 40th anniversary of the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik was marked at the prestigious International Conference on the Public Understanding of Science and Technology, sponsored by the Chicago Academy of Sciences from October 3-6, 1997.
Topics under discussion included the public understanding of science in newly industrialising nations, and the measurement of issues and/or strategies for effective communication of scientific and technological information.
Papers on the post-Sputnik era were presented by 19 countries, including Russia, Japan, and China. The Irish paper entitled "Science Centres and the Public Understanding of Science" was given by Kate Phillips Connolly for Discovery, the Dublin Interactive Science Centre project. The Discovery committee have been lobbying since 1987 for a science centre for Stack A in the Custom House Docks.
Excerpts from
the Discovery paper:
Kate Phillips
Connolly used the 1987 CHDDA Draft Master Plan (which proposed that a
science centre be included in the Stack A warehouse in the Custom House
Docks Complex), as a case study to illustrate the conflict in many industrialising
countries between traditional cultural heritage and science and technology
as part of contemporary culture.
She noted that for religious, historical and cultural reasons, the Irish have long seen science and the humanities as separate and incompatible. In the post-Sputnik era, when more industrialised countries kept ahead technologically, Ireland was immersed in cultural re-discovery.
"The interesting thing about Ireland is that we are known world wide for literature - Thomas Keneally refers to the Liffey as 'the Ganges of the literary imagination'. Our scientific heritage is neglected to a shocking degree, however. We are an agricultural nation which skipped the industrial revolution of the XIX century, and have now entered a "clean" industrial revolution so that Intel, Dell and Microsoft have become household names.
Despite a strong
record of achievement in science - stretching from Boyle to the recent
winner of the Aer Lingus Young Scientists Competition, the Irish still
see science as fundamentally "not us".
- Rose Kevany, DISCovery
Notices
The iSCAN Spring meeting will be held in the Ulster Museum by kind invitation of Sally Montgomery. The provisional date is Saturday 28 March, commencing at 11am.
Forbairt has launched its "Forbairt Portrait Gallery" of "Great Irish Scientists" located in its Library at Glasnevin. Admission free, and the catalogue is free also.
Irish Society of Toxicology
A new committee has been elected for the Irish Society of Toxicology on the AGM on 31th of October. Please find below the names and addresses of some contact persons.
President:
Prof. M.P. Ryan
Dept. of Pharmacology
University College
Dublin 4
Telephone: 01-706 1557
Fax: 01-269 2749
Email: michael.p.ryan at ucd
Past-President:
Dr I. Pratt
Health and Safety Authority
Hogan Place
Dublin 2
Telephone: 01-662 04 00
Fax: 01-662 04 11
Email: iona at hsa.ie
Vice-President:
Mrs C. M. Chambers
Dept. of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Telephone: +353-1-608 14 03
Fax: + 353-1-677 20 66
Email: cchmbers at tcd.ie
Treasurer:
Dr. J. O'Neill
61 Barton Road
Dublin 14
Telephone: +353-1-493 10 88
Secretary:
Dr F.N.A.M. van Pelt
Dept of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Clinical Sciences Building
Cork University Hospital
Cork.
Telephone: 021-901254
Fax: 021 343211
Email: vanpelt at ucc.ie
People
We extend our belated congratulations to Dr Alan J. Friedman who was the 1996 recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. As director of the New York Hall of Science, he developed the museum from a three-person staff with an operating budget of $300,000 in 1984 to its current staff of 110 and an annual budget of $5 million. Dr Friedman was one of the overseas speakers at the RDS Conference on Science Centres for Ireland in June 1996.
Dr Friedman's latest achievement is a $3 million Science Playground at the New York Hall of Science which was opened in June 1997. The 30,000 sq.ft. playground is an outdoor laboratory packed with special slides, seesaws and other colourful exhibits that exercise both brains and bodies.
We also congratulate Caroline Nolan who left Exploris at the end of October to take up a new position with Strangford Lough Management Committee. Her new address is Strangford Lough Management Committee Offices, 13 The Strand, Portaferry, Co. Down BT22 1PF. Tel: 012477-28886 Fax: 012477- 29588.
New Science Centres
The Dutch National Science Centre, newMetropolis, was opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on 3rd June. Dr Joost Douma, the Executive Director, reports that attendance numbers are exceeding estimates.
At Toulouse in France, Cité de l'espace (Space City) was opened on 27th June and it had received its millionth visitor by 5th September.
New Books
Mirrors in Mind by Richard L. Gregory; W.H. Freeman 1997, ISBN 0-7167-4511-9, pp302, £25stg.
Prof. Richard Gregory, the founder of the Exploratory in Bristol, has written an entertaining and wide ranging account of his lifelong fascination with mirrors: their place in history and art, the underlying physical principles and their relevance to theories of perception and optical illusions. He also touches on some of the hands-on techniques used in the Exploratory. There is a useful list of references.
Here and Now - contemporary science and technology in museums and science centres, edited by Graham Farmelo and Janet Carding; Trustees of the Science Museum, 1997, ISBN 0-901805-97-1, pp294, £12.95 stg + £1.50 p&p. available from Dillons bookshop at the Science Museum, Tel: 00-44-171-938-8255.
Almost 40 science centre experts have contributed to the proceedings of a conference held in the Science Museum, London, 21-23 November 1996. The main theme of the conference was the role of science museums and science centres in interpreting current scientific issues such as BSE and genetic engineering. The main sections are: Programming for success; Collaborate or stagnate?; Collections in the modern world; The virtual visit; Focusing on biotechnology; Rapporteur's remarks. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in present-day developments in science centres.
Latest Samton Ltd publication "The Chemical Association of Ireland 1922-1936" by J. Philip Ryan, published to commemorate the 75th anniversary of The Institute of Chemistry of Ireland. ISBN 1 898706 07 7, hard back, pp. 240. It is the story of the precursor to the Institute, with a 38 page historical chapter on "The Tradition in Irish Chemistry" looking at Irish chemists up to 1922, and a chapter (by Philip Ryan) bringing the ICI story up to 1997. Available for IR£20 including postage from:
(Dr) Charles Mollan
17 Pine Lawn
Newtownpark Avenue
Blackrock
Co. Dublin
Ireland
Tel (+353-1)-289-6186
Fax (+353-1)-289-7970
E-mail: cmol at iol.ie
Notice
Historical display of small calculating machines in the Forfas foyer at Wilton Park House "From the abacus to the electronic calculator". The RDS "British Calculator" and slide rule are displayed there, as well as chinese and japanese abacuses, a set of "cylindrical Napiers bones", Fuller's cylindrical slide rule, Lilly's spiral slide rule, a few electronic calculators, etc.
Letters
To all iSCAN Members
May I urge you, when considering your various designs for science-access
centres, to bear in mind the potential utility of currently available
structured knowledge-base access technology, such as the Web, and the
CD-ROM, for various aspects of the presentation, and to allow something
significant in the budget for this purpose?
There are two particular applications I have in mind:
- An interactive multimedia display which might enable a viewer to make a conceptual link between a historic artefact and a modern hands-on demonstration of a principle; this might be one of many in a location, and the totality of such demonstrations in one centre might be available, at a price, as a bring-home CD-ROM.
- A structured web-site presentation focussed either on a location, a person, an invention or a discovery, or a related mesh of some combination of these categories. The basic element of the presentation would be like a hypertext review-paper, with links to related papers, and with references to source-papers, live where feasible. The starting-point of such a presentation might be the domain of interest to a science centre, but it would be a resource enabling students to explore the concepts historically and in depth, and to branch out elsewhere.
Given that the web-site and the CD-ROM are increasingly acting as the primary gateways for students into the human store of knowledge, supplementing the library system, it seems to me that the science centre movement could be a useful way of focusing this development.
Anyone interested
in further discussion of how to bring this concept to reality should contact
me on either:
rjtechne at iol.ie or
rjohnston at imsgrp.com
Roy H W Johnston PhD F Inst P
Some Science
Centre Homepages
(see our links
page)
Exploratory, Bristol
The London International Youth Science Forum, attended by over 300 young people (aged 18-23) from all over the world, includes visits to many scentific institutions and museums. Following are some comments from one of the Irish Delegation who visited the Exploratory in Bristol in July 1997.......
"I thoroughly enjoyed
all my expeditions but the one which shines through the others for me,
is the one to the Exploratory in Bristol.
Immediately when I think of the Exploratory, fresh. novel, innovative
are words that spring to mind. I was fascinated by all the little gadgets
and games. They challenged our knowledge and comprehension of both science
and sense. In a way, you could question science but come up with an answer
yourself from observing and thinking things through. I suppose the reason
why the Exploratory distinguishes itself from the others is because it
was a "hands-on" experience. Basically it was centered around your own
interpretation or understanding of scientific mechanisms and phenomena.
Maybe someday we'll recognise the potential for something similar in Ireland."
....Sinead Harding, UCD
An iSCAN Directory - Reminder
iSCAN is in the process of producing a Directory of Irish Science Centres for its members, and a database of locations for travelling exhibitions. If you would like to be included in the Directory or database free of charge please complete the enclosed questionnaires and return to iSCAN, c/o RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
Hands-on,
Minds-on, HEARTS-on
By Ian
Russell, Interactive Science
ian at interactives.co.uk
http://www.interactives.co.uk
+441663743794
Presented at the iSCAN meeting at Dunsink Observatory on 26 September 1997
I totally agree with Jorge Wagensberg, who spoke before me and mentioned the importance of communicating "the emotion" of a scientific concept. I also agree with him that science communicators cannot hope to convey "the emotion" unless they have felt it themselves.
As a young boy, my heart was captured in the very early 1960's by a television series featuring a couple of Austrian adventurers, called Hans and Lotte Hass. Before the days of the aqualung they were using primitive oxygen re-breathing equipment to explore and film a new world under the sea. The elderly Hans Hass now lives in Vienna, and I happened to see him interviewed on TV recently. I was started by the intensity of the emotional reaction I experienced. I am certain that my childhood decision to become a marine biologist was largely inspired by that man, his films and his charmingly accented voice-overs. I ended up with a degree in marine zoology and a lifelong passion for pointing out the wonders of nature to people, firstly in public aquariums, then for the past twelve years in science centres.
Emotions are very important, and far too often overlooked in the rush to inform and educate people. "Hands-on" is a good thing, everybody agrees about that now. I think it was Richard Gregory who pointed out, about ten years ago, that we mustn't forget the importance of "Minds-on" in our newfound infatuation with interactive exhibits. Of course he was right: what people do is important, but so is what they think. Now, I'm suggesting that what people at the receiving end of science communication feel is at least as important as what they think or do. We are body, mind and spirit. For example, the following words appear on the home page of my Internet web site and in all my email signatures. "Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour. Give them curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime".
It is not just playing with words. My point is that putting this into practice could achieve a great deal more, yet genuinely cost a great deal less. Also, this is a useful tool for checking that any science communication initiative is well balanced. All three aspects need to be present: hands-on, minds-on and hearts-on. We do need all three and it is a serious error to think that any of them is "better" than the others. This mistake has been the root cause of some damaging arguments among science communicators.
For example:
Entertain or Educate
This is just one of many needlessly polarised debates. Neither of them
is the right answer! On its own in this context, each is a ridiculously
inappropriate caricature. Good science centres are a new kind of medium,
able to operate at a level where good entertainment and good education
(combined with good hands-on!) are actually one and the same thing. And
I think it is an insult to trivialise this breakthrough with that dreadful
"edutainment" word.
Science as Culture
or Science as Career
What is our definition of science? Is it simply what professional scientists
do? Are we just helping a profession with its recruitment and public relations?
Or helping industry? What about enriching people's lives as well? What
about showing people how they can enjoy noticing beautiful rainbows in
every oily roadside gutter?
Dummed-down Science
or Proper Science
The misconceived accusation that science centres trade in trivialised,
"dummed-down" science instead of "proper" science is potentially very
serious indeed. The common cry is, "Yes, but what are they LEARNING?"
Damagingly misguided criticism can come from influential opinion-formers.
The damage is done when governments, grant awarding bodies and industrial
sponsors then fail to understand the potential value of informal science
communication initiatives. These people quite rightly seek performance
indicators. But unfortunately minds-on gains are far easier to observe
and quantify than hearts-on gains. So they often ignore awakened curiosity,
wanting to become a scientist, increased classroom motivation, intellectual
self -confidence, new interest in natural phenomena, reading more about
science, watching more TV documentaries about science. ... all the priceless,
achievable goals which school curriculum documents also ignore, but which
science centres are phenomenally successful in promoting.
Treat or Treatment
Public Understanding of Science clearly suggests a deficit
to be remedied. So does the American equivalent, Scientific Literacy.
Scientific Culture is a more neutral term, often used in
Europe. The temptation when applying a remedy is to "sugar the pill".
When people sense that they are being offered a sugared pill (and people
are sensitive to this), then they conclude that something less palatable
has been covered over. Also, a feature of our modem culture is a ready
dependence on pills, injections and other "fixes", even when the ability
to enjoy a delicious, wholesome diet is often all we need. But our diet
depends on our attitudes, so we are talking about feelings
again. In terms of scientific culture the public's "diet" represents things
like reading, television, museum and science centre visits, conversation,
hobbies, and so on.
People or Programmes
To consider feelings, you have to consider people. People are a vital
part of all the world's best science centres. Science centres with a "heart"
deal sensitively with their staff, who in turn pass this on to visitors.
"Heartless" science centres rely more on their programmes and formal events.
Science centres with "personality" were produced by individual, practical,
free-thinking enthusiasts who knew their job and were allowed to express
their emotions. A science centre which lacks personality was probably
ruled by a well-meaning committee at the design stage!
Hands-on, Minds-on, HEARTS-on!
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