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Bimonthly News Journal of the Association of Science-Technology Centers July/August 2009

• In Other Words: Developing Bilingual Exhibitions

• The Languages of Science in Wales

• Secrets of Circles: Evaluation of aTrilingual Exhibition

• Sharing Yup’ik Language, Knowledge, and Heritage

• Language in a Learning Ensemble

• Challenges for English MediumInstruction in Sri Lanka

• Expanding Informal Science Education for Latinos

• Addressing Deaf Visitors with an American Sign LanguageMultimedia Tour

In AnyLanguage:

In AnyLanguage:

ServingMultilingualCommunities

ServingMultilingualCommunities

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IN TH IS I SSUE July/August 2009

As science centers and museums welcome increasingly diverse audiences, many ofthem are working to accommodate the linguistic needs of their visitors and tofoster a sense of ownership and belonging. Immigrants, indigenous populations,and visitors who are Deaf bring a variety of languages with them to sciencecenters around the world. This issue will explore how centers are recruitingbilingual staff, reaching out to linguistically diverse communities, andconstructing multilingual exhibitions, materials, and educational programs.

FeaturesIn Other Words: Developing Bilingual Exhibitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3The Languages of Science in Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Secrets of Circles: Evaluation of a Trilingual Exhibition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Sharing Yup’ik Language, Knowledge, and Heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Language in a Learning Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Challenges for English Medium Instruction in Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Expanding Informal Science Education for Latinos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12The Self Reliance Foundation and Science Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Addressing Deaf Visitors with an American Sign Language Multimedia Tour . . . 14

DepartmentsASTC Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Spotlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Grants & Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Cover: Children explore the English/Spanish traveling exhibition Amazon Voyage, ViciousFishes & Other Riches/Viaje al Amazonas, Peces Feroces y Otras Maravillas. The NationalScience Foundation–funded exhibition was developed and built by the Miami ScienceMuseum, Florida, in consultation with the Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul; RandiKorn & Associates, Inc., Alexandria, Virginia; a team of North and South Americanscientists; and the artist Ray Troll. Photo courtesy the Miami Science Museum

Bimonthly News Journal of the Association of Science-Technology Centers

Bonnie VanDornExecutive Director

Wendy PollockDirector of Research, Publications,and Exhibitions

Emily SchusterEditor

Christine RuffoPhoto Editor

Brendan CartwrightPublications Assistant

Editorial Advisors

Elsa BaileyNational Science Teachers AssociationSan Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Rita DeedrickCOSIColumbus, Ohio, U.S.A.

Colin JohnsonThe BALondon, U.K.

Ronen MirMadaTechIsrael National Museum of ScienceHaifa, Israel

Mikko MyllykoskiHeureka, the Finnish Science CentreVantaa, Finland

Vishnu RamcharanOntario Science CentreToronto, Ontario, Canada

Elizabeth StageLawrence Hall of ScienceUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeley, California, U.S.A.

Contributors

Sue AllenElissa ChinAnn Fienup-RiordanDerlly GonzálezMalu JimenezKristin LeighChris MasonSean PereraCarlos PlazaChristine ReichRobert L. Russell

ASTC Dimensions (ISSN 1528-820X) is published six times a year by the Associationof Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, 1025 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500,Washington, DC 20005-6310, U.S.A. Copyright © 2009 the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated. All rights reserved. ASTC Dimensions is printed on45 percent recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks.

ASTC Dimensions is intended to keep member institutions apprised of trends, practices,perspectives, and news of significance to the science center field. All ASTC membersreceive five free copies of each issue as a benefit of membership. Individual subscriptionsare also available: For employees of ASTC-member institutions, the annual rate isU.S.$40; $50 outside the United States. For all others, the price is $55; $65 outside theUnited States. Send name, address, name of institution, and payment in U.S. dollars toASTC, 1025 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005-6310, U.S.A., Attn:ASTC Dimensions. For more information or to order bulk subscriptions, call 202/783-7200x140, or e-mail [email protected]. ALTERNATE FORMATS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.

To submit news items and ideas for articles, contact Emily Schuster, editor, 202/783-7200 x130; e-mail [email protected].


By Carlos Plaza

ASTC Dimensions • July/August 2009 3

In Other Words:Developing Bilingual Exhibitions

In Other Words:

Over the course of 10 years, theexhibit team at the MiamiScience Museum, Florida, has

developed general guidelines andstrategies for writing and designingbilingual exhibitions. These guidelinesresult from our experience producingSpanish-language interpretation formore than 40 bilingual exhibitions,and from much trial and error.Although these guidelines refer toEnglish/Spanish interpretation, theprinciples can be applied to bilingualexhibitions in other languages.

There is certainly more to belearned, but let’s look at some of thebasic issues. Following these strategiescan lead to a more accessible and re-warding experience for all visitors.

Both languages are equallyimportant

The same editorial review is necessaryif you expect your second language to match the quality of the first. This

might seem like a given, but I’ve comeacross many bilingual labels that proveotherwise. While some visitors willpraise your institution for making theeffort to provide the text in a secondlanguage, less forgiving ones mightsurmise that you didn’t care enoughto do it right.

The right people for the job

A truly qualified translator and a savvyeditor make for better text in bothlanguages. The translator’s role is toreplicate the meaning and mood of theoriginal text as if it were originallyconceived and written in the secondlanguage. The editor must review thetext for grammatical errors and con-firm that the structure and style sound

authentic from a native speaker’s pointof view. Remember that a proficientspeaker of any language is not neces-sarily a proficient writer or editor, anda proficient translator is not necessarilyequipped to write exhibit text.

The translator and editor, whetherstaff members or proven outside pro-fessionals, must be intimately familiarwith the exhibit content. Their input isessential at the outset of exhibit devel-opment in determining how both lan-guages can most closely mirror eachother in terms of voice, tone, humor,and idiomatic expressions.

Interpretation versustranslation

Your translator must be ready to searchfor the correct terms, play with syntax,

Writing Guidelines• Write in the first language and thenconvey meaning, not literal transla-tion, in the second language.• Reformulate the text in the first lan-guage based on insights gained frominterpreting the text in the secondlanguage.• Voice, tone, and style should be thesame in both languages.• Use universal terms whenever possi-ble and the most familiar regionalvariations when necessary.• Create concise, digestible chunks ofinformation.• Determine word count based onvisitor behavior, graphic design, andreadability.• Test and modify as necessary.

The Miami Science Museum’s exhibit team has workedon more than 40 bilingual exhibitions, including Charlieand Kiwi’s Evolutionary Adventure, which opened inMay at the New York Hall of Science. The travelingexhibition is a project of the New York Hall of Science,the University of Michigan, the Miami Science Museum,and the North Museum of Natural History & Science.Photos by Wendy Hancock


4 July/August 2009 • ASTC Dimensions

and interpret. Literal translation isusually not an option, especially whenyour meaning must be clearly conveyedin as few words as possible. Concise,digestible chunks of information arekey to accommodating the second lan-guage on exhibit labels and panels. Theextra wordsmithing necessary to dealwith this constraint often helps torefine and clarify your message andreveals ways to improve upon the orig-inal English-language text. This resultsin text that is more likely to be read byspeakers of both languages.

Universal terms and familiarregional variations

Interpretation, as opposed to a more lit-eral translation, begins with identifyingthe most widely used word or expres-sion for any given English equivalent.Both the translator and editor shouldbe cognizant of the cultural makeup ofyour visitors. They should use universalterms whenever possible and select theregional variations most familiar toyour visitors when necessary.

Common names for living things,objects, and actions in Spanish areoften region specific. For example, dif-ferent countries use different words torefer to a car. Most Spanish speakersare familiar with the terms carro, coche,and auto, but a Cuban accustomed tosaying carro would feel odd usingcoche, just as someone from the United

States might feel strangereferring to his “apartment”as a “flat.”

It is particularly importantto develop English and Span-ish text in unison when usingidiomatic expressions. Forexample, it’s important tohave thought of appropriateSpanish-language phrasesthat capture the meaning ofheadings such as “Fish outof Water” or “Bone Up on

Bones.” Moreover, the Span-ish equivalent of colloquialexpressions can vary bycountry or region. Spaniards,Mexicans, and Cubans havevery different expressions for

“That’s cool.” The point is not to shyaway from whimsical language oridiomatic expressions, but to thinkabout the text, especially titles andsubtitles, at the start of the project.

Layout and design

The graphic design of bilingual textpanels and other exhibit componentscan be just as challenging and reward-ing as the text-writing process. Theostensible starting point is determininga word count based on visitor behav-ior, readability, and available space.Bilingual label copy must be kept shortto avoid producing a wallpaper ofwords. This usually means aiming for50- or 60-word chunks of text, withpanel titles no less than 40 points andbody copy around 24 points.

Color schemes, panel dimensions,and other practical considerationsshould also take the second languageinto account at the outset of exhibitdevelopment. Giving equal weight toboth languages avoids the suggestionthat one language or culture is moreimportant than the other. Also, theclear separation and consistent place-ment of the two languages helps visitorsquickly identify where to find Englishor Spanish text throughout the exhibit.Different background colors, text treat-ments, and creative placement ofimages can help accomplish these goalsand create a label design as aesthetically

pleasing as any single-language exhibit.Of course, this whole endeavor is a

dynamic process. Two weeks into aproject, the writing team may ask theexhibit production manager for a fewmore inches of text panel real estate toaccommodate longer-than-expected text.The graphic designer may ask the sameexhibit production manager for largerpanels to accommodate certain graphicelements. The production manager maycome back and say that the writers anddesigners can have an extra two inches,and not the four they requested, be-cause he can’t get a certain material in agiven size without going over budget.

This not-so-fictional account high-lights the very real give-and-take thatresults in better exhibit products andvisitor experiences. The writing team in-evitably returns with yet more concise,effective text, and the designers becomeever more creative with the use of colorand design, therefore adding to thevisual appeal and success of the content.

Ideally, these efforts should be part ofa larger museumwide plan to reach

and serve your Spanish-speaking andbilingual audiences. A bilingual website, outreach programs, special events,and partnerships with universities andSpanish-language media outlets willhelp spread the word—¡Este museoes para todos! (This museum is foreveryone!) �

Carlos Plaza is exhibit developer andbilingual communications specialist atthe Miami Science Museum, Florida.

Design Guidelines• Develop consistent size, arrangement,and aesthetics for all interpretive text.• Give equal weight to both languagesin terms of font size, headlines, etc.• Clearly separate the two languagesvisually. Consider using different colorsfor the backgrounds and/or text.• Be consistent with the placement ofgraphic elements.• Avoid repeating the same images onone panel.• Test and modify as necessary.

Children explore Amazon Voyage, Vicious Fishes &Other Riches/Viaje al Amazonas, Peces Feroces y OtrasMaravillas, a bilingual traveling exhibition developedand built by the Miami Science Museum. Photo courtesythe Miami Science Museum


The Languages of Science in WalesThe Languages of Science in Wales

since the 1990s, particularly withyounger residents, who are proud tokeep it alive. This change was borneout of an era known as “Cool Cymru.”(Cymru is Welsh for Wales.) The rise inpopularity of movie stars like Cather-ine Zeta-Jones and rock bands likeManic Street Preachers gave the youthof Wales a definite identity—it wascool to be Welsh. Wales’s primary dis-tinguishing factor is its language, andthe Cool Cymru era raised the statusof the language accordingly. Figures re-leased in 2003 showed that 37.7 per-cent of children ages 3 to 15 in Walescan speak the language. This indicatesa hopeful future.

Since devolution 10 years ago, Waleshas been governed by the Welsh As-sembly Government, which provides aportion of Techniquest’s core funding.The devolved government has policy-making responsibility for many issues,while others remain the responsibilityof central U.K. government. The As-sembly has brought the Welsh lan-guage agenda to the forefront of Welshpolitics. Welsh is now considered an

Wrth fynd ati i ysgrifennu’rerthygl hon, I decided that itwould be best to write it in

English. Pendronais dros ysgrifennu’rcwbl yn y Gymraeg, but realized thatmost readers wouldn’t understand thecontents. Like many other citizens ofWales (a country with two official lan-guages), I think bilingually, jumpingbetween Welsh and English. While Ifeel that I have two first languages, oth-ers favor one language over the other.Techniquest, based in Cardiff Bay inthe south of Wales, must find ways toserve its visitors’ diverse language needs.

The rebirth of Welsh

The Welsh language was once consid-ered to be in its final years. The preva-lence of English, both nationally andinternationally, led to a decline in theuse of Welsh. This decline continuedas Welsh speakers from rural areasmoved to cities in search of work, andEnglish speakers migrated to ruralareas during the 20th century.

Welsh has enjoyed a renaissance


official language of Europe and is spo-ken at the European Parliament inBrussels.

Bilingualism at Techniquest

As the leading science discovery centerin Wales, Techniquest has a responsi-bility to represent the Welsh languageequally in its activities. However, pre-senting bilingual content is, at times,easier said than done.

The written word is easiest to han-dle. Publications, signage, and exhibitlabels can be sent to external transla-tors prior to publication. This, in it-self, presents challenges, however: Thetranslation must be accurate and alsowritten in a style suitable to the docu-ment at hand. This has taken a greatdeal of trial and error to achieve. Byworking with us regularly, our transla-tors have developed an understandingof our organizational aims and housestyle.

Techniquest’s award-winning designscheme ensures visitors are easily able

By Chris Mason

Guided by bilinguallabels, visitors toTechniquest in Walesplay with a giantelectric piano. Photocourtesy Techniquest

Continued on page 9


By Sue Allen


percent spoke English only), 8 percentspoke Spanish, 4 percent spoke Viet-namese, and 13 percent spoke Chi-nese. Interviews were conducted in thelanguage of visitors’ choice by threebilingual interviewers, who were nativespeakers of English and either Spanishor Vietnamese.

General reactions totrilingual labels

Interview data suggested that adultsfound the trilingual labels understand-

able and easy to use. A total of 82 per-cent said they had read or used at

least some of the labels, thoughthis was difficult to confirm

because most were so briefthat they could be read

“at a glance.” The labelsdid appear to play akey role in promotingunderstanding: 91percent of visitorswhose home lan-guage was represent-ed in the labels cor-rectly identified thecircles theme, com-pared with 62 per-

cent of visitors whosehome languages were

not represented. Thissuggests that the main

theme of the exhibitionrelied, at least in part, on

labels in visitors’ home languagesfor its effective communication.Almost two-thirds of all adults

(62 percent) had a clear and positiveresponse to the multilingual labels.Comments from these supporters fellinto three main categories, based onwhom they perceived as the benefitingaudience. The first category consistedof the 6 percent of all adults who feltsuch labels would help them person-ally to understand an exhibition. Oneremarked, “It’s great—our family isbilingual.” Another 28 percent feltsuch labels would help others fromdifferent cultures and linguisticgroups. One said, “Different peoplecan read them; you get a better expla-nation.” In the third category were the7 percent who felt such labels wouldhelp people who were trying to learn anew language. One respondent com-mented, “My son is actively learning

Secrets of Circles, a 2,600-square-foot traveling exhibition createdby the Children’s Discovery

Museum of San Jose (CDM) inCalifornia, was designed to beparticularly inviting to fami-lies of Latino and Viet-namese descent, the largestethnic groups in San Jose.In service of that goal,every label in the exhibi-tion was trilingual, inEnglish, Spanish, andVietnamese. Summativeevaluation of the exhibi-tion included a focus onthe trilingual labels, be-cause CDM staff won-dered whether these wouldbe understood and em-braced by the general public,or whether they would feeloverwhelming or even alienating.

CDM serves an average of300,000 visitors each year. Of these,21 percent are Latino, 17 percent areAsian American or Pacific Islander, 4percent are African American, and 58percent are white. Secrets of Circles,funded by the Informal ScienceEducation Program of the NationalScience Foundation, was designed topromote explorations of circles andwheels in everyday life. Circles haveunique properties that make them ef-fective as engineering and design tools,and they are ubiquitous in culturesaround the world. The main audiencefor the exhibition was children ages3–10 and their parents or other care-givers.

As part of the evaluation, 107adults, all visiting with children on aweekend or holiday, participated in aninterview about the exhibition. Ofthese, 77 percent spoke English (58

Secrets of Circles:Evaluation of a Trilingual Exhibition

Secrets of Circles:

Secrets of Circles uses trilingual labels, inEnglish, Spanish, and Vietnamese, to serveSan Jose’s largest ethnic groups. Photo cour-tesy the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose

S



audience, these adults unanimouslyrecommended that CDM create labelsin English as well as other languages.One stated, “We want our kids to bebilingual—more multicultural.” An-other person added that her child hadlearned something specific because ofthe multilingual labels: “He just asso-ciated ‘circles’ with the Spanish word‘círculos.’”

Reactions of Vietnamese-descent families

Interviews with the general audienceshowed that very few Vietnamese fami-lies were visiting the exhibition. It wastherefore decided to invite eight Viet-namese families (in which the adultsspoke mostly Vietnamese), as well as aVietnamese community leader, to viewthe exhibition and give their in-depthfeedback.

These families were observedusing the Vietnamese text on thelabels in a variety of ways:• An adult reading the Vietnameselabels to understand the exhibitionfor herself/himself• An adult reading the Vietnameselabels out loud to help a child• A young adult reading both theEnglish and Vietnamese versionsto understand the exhibition fully• A school-aged child reading boththe English and Vietnamese ver-sions as a way to help him learnboth languages• An adult checking the correct-ness of the translation from Eng-lish to Vietnamese.

When asked, almost all familieswere very positive about the trilinguallabels. One parent was dismissive,explaining that he assumed the labelswere compulsory in public places.However, the other seven families sawthem as providing access to the exhibi-tion for Vietnamese speakers, a way forEnglish-speaking children to furthertheir Vietnamese language skills, and aform of outreach to the Vietnamesecommunity. One visitor remarked,“Next time, we’ll bring the children’sgrandparents to the museum—theywould be thrilled if they could read

Spanish, so it was nice for him to readsigns in Spanish.” Four respondentsasked for even more languages, such asChinese or Japanese.

Thirty percent had neutral responsesto the trilingual labels (such as “Fine”and “I don’t really care.”) Only 3 per-cent of the adults had something nega-tive to say about the multilingual labels(such as “Aren’t we supposed to be anEnglish-speaking state?” and “I get dis-tracted when I can’t find English.”)

Finally, visitors were asked whetherthey would recommend that the muse-um create labels only in English or inother languages as well. Only 2 percentof the adult visitors recommendedEnglish only, 11 percent had no prefer-ence, and fully 86 percent said theywould recommend that labels be inEnglish and other languages. It isworth mentioning that most of thosewho supported multilingual labels (54out of 92) said that the language theymostly speak at home was English, sothese were not just people who person-ally needed the multilingual labels.

Reactions of Latino families

Of the 107 adults interviewed, 11 (10percent) said they spoke Spanish athome, or self-identified as Latino,Mexican, or Hispanic. When askedwhat they thought of the trilinguallabels, all 11 of these adults gave im-mediate positive responses. One com-mented that it was “excellent that [theexhibition] caters to different groups.”Unsurprisingly, these adults also unani-mously recommended that CDMcreate labels in English as well as otherlanguages, though in this respect theywere not significantly different fromthe rest of the interviewed sample.

Another 16 adults, who all reportedspeaking Spanish at home, were inter-viewed at CDM’s Three Kings Cele-bration (Tres Reyes), an event that tar-geted the Latino community. Of thoseadults who noticed the multilinguallabels, 92 percent had a positive reac-tion. One remarked, “I think it’s fabu-lous because it exposes children todifferent languages and cultures.” Likethe Latinos in the general visiting

Vietnamese labels and explain howthings work to their grandchildren.”Another commented, “These labelsshow that the museum takes the diver-sity in San Jose’s multiple cultures seri-ously. This makes me proud of ourcommunity.”

In summary, the multilingual labelsin Secrets of Circles were well received

and thematically effective. Support formultilingual labels was very strong, notjust among speakers of Spanish orVietnamese, but across the spectrumof languages and cultures of CDMvisitors. Keeping the labels very brief,connected to daily life, and consis-tently colored (i.e., each language hadthe same color on all labels) seemed tohelp reduce the potential for visitoroverwhelm. Overall, the evaluationindicated that the multilingual labelsmade mathematical content accessible

to visitors, facilitated thematic under-standing, and were enthusiasticallyreceived by visitors. �

Sue Allen is principal of Allen & Associ-ates, an evaluation consulting firm basedin San Mateo, California. This article isadapted from her summative evaluationreport on Secrets of Circles, available athttp://informalscience.org/evaluation/show/115.

The trilingual labels in Secrets of Circles use color consis-tently to indicate the English, Spanish, and Vietnamesetext. Photo courtesy the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose


Sharing Yup’ik Language,Knowledge, and HeritageSharing Yup’ik Language,Knowledge, and Heritage

By Ann Fienup-Riordan

ence Foundation’s Informal ScienceEducation Program and the AnchorageMuseum Association. We opened theexhibition at Bethel, Alaska’s YupiitPiciryarait Cultural Center in Sep-tember 2007 and moved it to theAnchorage Museum in February 2008.Although 95 percent of our visitors inAnchorage were non-Yup’ik speakers,we continued to foreground the Yup’iklanguage in everything we did.

Along with over 200 pieces of 19th-century Yup’ik technology, the exhibi-tion includes bilingual panels; scienceinteractives featuring quotations fromYup’ik elders, including a language in-teractive where visitors can learn tospeak Yup’ik words and simple sen-tences; listening stations where visitorscan listen to stories in Yup’ik and Eng-lish; short videos in Yup’ik with Eng-lish subtitles; two catalogs (one Eng-lish and one bilingual); and a web siteincluding elders’ quotes in Yup’ik andEnglish (www.yupikscience.com). Thiswealth of information derives fromhundreds of hours of informationshared by Yup’ik elders in their ownlanguage and painstakingly transcribedand translated by Yup’ik language ex-perts Alice Reardan and Marie Meade.

Traditional knowledge

The exhibition resulted from the Cal-ista Elders Council’s desire to bringmuseum objects home. Repatriationwas not the issue, as ownership of ob-jects was not the goal. Rather, “visualrepatriation” was what they sought—the opportunity to show and explaintraditional technology to young peo-ple. As European-American influencein southwest Alaska slowly but steadilyincreased in the 19th and 20th cen-turies, traditional knowledge and lan-guage began to decline. Many believethat now is the time to address this

erosion of language and traditional val-ues, before the last generation of eldersraised in the traditional ways disappears.

Paul John noted, “We are losing ourway of life, and we need to help youngpeople and others better understandwhat they’ve lost.” The truth of hiswords was brought home to me in April2003 when I listened to Jeffery Curtis,a Yup’ik high school student, speakpublicly about his recent visit to An-chorage. He said how glad he was tohave the opportunity to visit the Uni-versity of Alaska, where he planned tostudy science, because his ancestorshad no science and he wanted to learnwhat white people could teach. Jeffcomes from a proud and talented family,and his grandfather, Phillip Moses, is amaster kayak builder with expert knowl-edge on many aspects of Yup’ik tech-nology. Jeff knows this, but nowhere hashe learned to respect his grandfather’straditional knowledge as “science.”

I was given the opportunity tounderstand some of Phillip Moses’knowledge, and that of his ancestors,as I worked with him and my partner,Alice Rearden, in the Anchorage Muse-um collections. Phillip passed a pair ofwooden snow goggles to me and thenlaunched into an enthusiastic explana-tion of how they were the original“Yup’ik prescription sunglasses.” Halflistening, I held the goggles to myeyes, and for the first time since myretinal surgery two weeks earlier, Icould see! As I digested the sophisticat-ed design—thin slits that focused thelight like a pinhole camera, enhancingthe user’s vision—I could hear Philliprelating in Yup’ik how the gogglesworked both to reduce glare and help ahunter see far.

Elder Elsie Mather observed, “Ourlanguage had no word for science, yetour tools were so well designed that theyallowed us to live in a land no one else

Yup’ik elder Paul John said, “Inthis whole world, whoever weare, if people speak using their

own language, they will be presentingtheir identity, and it will be theirstrength.” As curator of Yuungnaqpi-allerput/The Way We Genuinely Live:Masterworks of Yup’ik Science and Sur-vival, I worked collaboratively withPaul and a team of 12 Yup’ik eldersand educators to explore 19th-centuryYup’ik science and technology—and tobring this traditional knowledge tocontemporary young people. Yup’ikEskimo—the primary language of two-thirds of the 23,000 residents of south-west Alaska—was an essential part ofevery aspect of the project.

The exhibition is a joint project ofthe Calista Elders Council (the primaryheritage organization in southwestAlaska) and the Anchorage Museum,with support from the National Sci-


A young boy tries on replica 19th-centuryYup’ik wooden snow goggles in the exhibi-tion Yuungnaqpiallerput at the culturalcenter in Bethel, Alaska. Photo by Suzi Jones



would inhabit.” By choosing a “science”focus for the exhibition, Yup’ik commu-nity members continued to advocatefor respect for their knowledge systems.Yup’ik technology was developedthrough experimentation, as men andwomen learned to construct and workwith tools through trial and error.

The value of considering Westernscientific approaches side by side withthose of Yup’ik traditional knowledgecannot be overstated. Yup’ik gradeschool principal Agatha John-Shieldarticulated the dilemma of her genera-tion: “When I was in school, I hatedscience. I couldn’t understand it. Notonly was it in another language [Eng-lish], but all the examples were foreign.If we begin to speak of ‘Yup’ik science,’we will give our children somethingthey can understand.”

Collaboration and authorship

Had we not done the exhibition theway we did, had the Yup’ik communitynot been involved from the beginning,the results of all our planning mightnot simply be neutral; they could behurtful. If, as a non-Native researcher,I work without community involve-ment, I take away authorship and un-dercut ownership. Collaboration ismuch more than a matter of respect.An outsider’s exhibition, however accu-rate, runs the risk of putting AlaskaNatives at arm’s length from the ob-

jects of their past.As we worked on label copy, I would

look at the interview transcripts andinevitably find that an elder had said itbetter than I ever could. Even moreimportant than preserving the vitalityof texts, foregrounding particular elderslets Yup’ik visitors recognize authorship,and own it in ways no restatement ofmine ever could. Presenting quotes inthe original Yup’ik (along with an Eng-lish translation) strengthens this senseof ownership.

In the end, this exhibition is first andforemost about sharing knowledge.

In making this exhibition, we havelearned much about Yup’ik science.We have also been taught somethingabout life, from the Yup’ik point ofview. Paul John has always told meabout my opportunity to learn theYup’ik language, “You’re very lucky,Anna.” Now, thanks to him and tomen and women like him, we’re alllucky in the rare view of the past we’vebeen given, as well as an understand-ing of the meaning this past still holdsfor people in Alaska today. �

Ann Fienup-Riordan, a cultural anthropo-logist, is curator of Yuungnaqpiallerput/The Way We Genuinely Live: Master-works of Yup’ik Science and Survival,which will travel to the Smithsonian’sNational Museum of Natural History,Washington, D.C., in March 2010.

to find the language they wish to use.On signs and labels, English is alwayswritten in red and Welsh in green.These colors are drawn from the Welshflag, further enhancing the Welshimage of the center.

Bilingualism also presents challengesfor marketing staff. As the two lan-guages need equal status and space onany leaflet, the available word count ishalved, requiring great creativity inconveying the message. Techniquest’slatest leaflet contains only around 200words. Our current marketing teamhas opted for a pictorial approach, by-passing language issues. They say a pic-ture is worth a thousand words—italso conveys those words in whateverlanguage you choose!

By far the biggest challenge to offer-ing bilingual service is the recruitmentof bilingual staff. There is a great de-mand for Welsh speakers in all sectorsin Wales, so highly skilled science com-municators are hard to find. Around600 schools in Wales teach exclusivelythrough the medium of Welsh, or haveWelsh as the main language of learn-ing, and Techniquest relies on a smallcore of Welsh-speaking staff to deliverprograms to those schools. This chal-lenge became especially acute when weexpanded our schools’ outreach serviceto northwest Wales, where Welsh iswidely spoken. Welsh language skillscontinue to be one of the most impor-tant “boxes” for job applicants tocheck.

In the past, some people have seenWelsh as a problem, and even as a

barrier to success, but attitudes havechanged. People take pride in the lan-guage, and the Welsh tourism industryhas realized the benefits in promotingthis distinct difference from the rest ofthe United Kingdom. Techniquest is ina prime position to capitalize on thisadvantage, by using the beauty of theWelsh language to create a unique sci-entific experience. �

Chris Mason is visitor services managerat Techniquest, Cardiff, Wales, UnitedKingdom.

Continued from page 5

Translator and Yup'ik Steering Committee member Marie Meade guides a group ofvisitors through the Yuungnaqpiallerput exhibition. Photo by Chris Arend


Marbles, water, prisms, gears.Canicas, agua, prismas, en-granajes. These are words,

symbols that many of us recognize.However, what they mean to us de-pends on our experiences with theobjects they represent and on what wechoose to do with the objects once theyare in our hands.

At Explora in Albuquerque, NewMexico, we provide this direct experi-ence with physical materials. Once wehave chosen the right materials, it isthe “stuff” that does the teaching. Thenlanguage can become transparent, asupporting cast member in a learningensemble of materials and equipment,the physical environment, and thepeople nearby. If the language is trans-parent, learners can see through it andfocus on the materials, without thelanguage becoming a distraction. Wemust make the learning environmentcomfortable enough that visitors canintuitively, by free choice, use the lan-guage that feels most natural for thecurrent activity.

This approach is important becausein our community, almost 40 percentof the population speaks a languageother than English. This is primarilySpanish, followed by 12 Native lan-guages. On most days at Explora, thereare nearly as many Spanish-speaking asEnglish-speaking visitors. When visitorsarrive at the front desk, a banner greetsthem with “Welcome to Explora. Bien-venidos a Explora.” They read questions,in both Spanish and English, encourag-ing them to investigate. They noticebilingual background informationtucked next to exhibit activities.

Most importantly, they encounterstaff ready to share activities with themin either English or Spanish. In fact, 45percent of Explora’s staff is bilingual,primarily in English and Spanish, al-though 11 languages are represented.Staff that speaks the same languages asthe visitors is a crucial element of a

whispering to each other in Spanish.When a bilingual educator approachesand uses Spanish to invite them to ex-plore, a barrier has been overcome. Thelanguage is able to become invisible asthe students manipulate the materialsand share their discoveries, much moreloudly and confidently, in Spanish.

Twice a month, Explora hosts bilin-gual Family Science Nights through apartnership with our local school dis-trict’s Title I program, which servesschools with high student poverty rates.Greeters at the front door welcome thefamilies in Spanish and English, invit-ing them to join us for dinner and toexplore the exhibits. On these evenings,we hear whole families speaking onlyin Spanish. We hear grandparentsspeaking in Spanish to their grandchil-dren, who answer in English. We hearfamilies switching fluidly from onelanguage to the other. This feels likeevidence that our environment enableslanguage to become transparent andallows families to focus on what theyare doing with the open-ended materi-als provided.

Visitors for whom English is not themost natural language often tell ushow surprised they were to find outtheir language fit so easily into theirtime at Explora. They often share theirexcitement with our bilingual staff andthrough comment cards written inSpanish: “Soy una abuelita que se divir-tió con su nieto de 2½ años. Los felicitopor pensar en los niños que hablan es-pañol, y gracias por su gran esfuerzo.¡Mil gracias!” (“I am a grandma whoshared a good time with her 2½-year-old grandson. Congratulations forthinking of the children who speakSpanish, and thank you for your ef-forts. Thanks a lot!”) �

Derlly González is bilingual programscoordinator, and Kristin Leigh is educa-tional services director, at Explora, Albu-querque, New Mexico.


learning environment in which visitorsintuitively use the most comfortablelanguage. The staff is able to respondin kind. For example, Explora’s 207different Classroom Explorations, whichtake place on-site or as outreach pro-grams, are offered in either English orSpanish. However, even in programsfacilitated in English, there is often atable of students who can be overheard

Author Derlly González (left) helps visitors interactwith hands-on materials. She and other bilingualstaff make Explora a comfortable environment forvisitors, where language is not a barrier. Photo cour-tesy Explora

At Explora, visitors are encouraged to in-teract directly with materials and chooseto use the language that is most naturalfor them. Photo courtesy Explora

Language in a Learning EnsembleLanguage in a Learning EnsembleBy Derlly González and Kristin Leigh



and technology in the English medium,to help students engage with interna-tional developments. The plans ac-knowledge that proficiency in Englishis important for higher education andcareer advancement of all students.

The revival of English medium in-struction was also influenced by devel-opments in the private education sectorin Sri Lanka. The admission of domes-tic students to secondary educationinstitutions intended for expatriatesliving in Sri Lanka was one such pre-cursor. Since the 1980s there emerged,consequently, what are known as inter-national schools. These schools teachall subjects in English while subscribingto U.K. textbooks and curricula. Theexponential emergence of more afford-able international schools catalyzed thegovernment’s decision to reintroduceEnglish medium instruction in state-funded schools.

Post 2002, English medium instruc-tion was reintroduced to Sri Lankanschools in gradual stages, starting withmiddle school. However, these reformswere not absorbed uniformly by all

Sinhala and Tamil words need to becreated to describe Western scientificconcepts. In addition, many Sri Lankanuniversities are required to conductintensive English-language programs asprerequisites for science and technolo-gy courses. Despite these efforts, theSri Lankan public’s engagement withscience at an informal level, includingat science centers and museums, con-tinues to suffer due to the need tocommunicate simultaneously inSinhala, Tamil, and English. Policy-makers and educators agree that amore inclusive resolution needs to beadopted if Sri Lanka is to interact withscience and technology at an interna-tional level.

Reintroducing Englishmedium instruction

In 2002, the Ministry of Educationand the National Education Commis-sion in Sri Lanka issued plans to rein-troduce English as the medium of in-struction at all grades in state-fundedschools. They emphasized in particularthe teaching of science, mathematics,

English is inarguably the mostpopular medium for communi-cating science internationally.

This predisposition marginalizes non-native English speakers from engagingwith science. In order to facilitatescience communication on an interna-tional scale, Sri Lanka, like severalother countries, has decided to teachscience and other subjects in English.However, teaching science in a non-native language raises various chal-lenges, which I will address below.

Language, politics, andscience

Sinhala, the mother tongue of SriLanka’s Sinhalese ethnic majority, wasrecognized as the country’s first officiallanguage in 1956, after Sri Lankagained its independence from Britishrule in 1948. Tamil, spoken by thelarge Tamilian minority, became thesecond official language, followed byEnglish as the third. As a result of thisnationalist endeavor, English, whichwas the medium of administration andeducation in colonial Sri Lanka (thenknown as Ceylon), was graduallyphased out. Sinhala and Tamil replacedEnglish as mediums of secondary levelinstruction, depending on the ethnicpopulations in different parts of thecountry. In my own experience as astudent in Sri Lanka, I studied sciencein the Sinhala medium. Sinhala andTamil also permeated progressivelythrough to tertiary level education,with the exception of professionaldegrees like medicine, engineering, andsome sciences, which are still taught inEnglish.

However, mother tongue–based sci-ence education has been hard pressed tokeep up with the pace of science andtechnology literature. For instance, new

Challenges for English MediumInstruction in Sri Lanka

Challenges for English MediumInstruction in Sri Lanka

By Sean Perera

A teacher leadsa math lesson inthe state-fundedVishaka Girls’School in theSri Lankan townof Sapugaskanda.Photo courtesySapugaskanda VishakaBalika Vidyalaya

Continued on page 13



General trends

• The Latino population is growing fast.Numbering over 44 million, Latinosare now the largest ethnic/racial mi-nority group in the United States. Inrecent years, one of every two newU.S. residents has been Latino.• The Latino population is not homoge-neous. Latinos include U.S.-born andimmigrant residents who come frommore than 20 different countries andhave varied levels of education, accul-turation, English-language proficiency,and income. This diversity is clearlyimportant when designing educationalprograms or media for Latinos.

In March, educators from across theUnited States met at the ExpandingInformal Science Education for

Latinos conference in Albuquerque,New Mexico, convened by the SelfReliance Foundation (SRF) and sup-ported with funding from the Nation-al Science Foundation (NSF). (See thesidebar article below and “ASTCNotes” on page 17.) This topic seemseven more important now than ever asLatino populations in the UnitedStates continue to grow. The followingpoints reflect general trends and socialindicators in the U.S. Latino commu-nity. Most were derived from the con-ference background briefing papers.

• Spanish is still important for commu-nicating with Latinos. While researchshows that Latinos are learning Englishat the same rate as large immigrantpopulations from the past, over two-thirds of Latino adults use Spanish athome.

Latinos and education

• Latino parents frequently have higheducational aspirations for their children.When choosing a leisure time activity,they are more likely to choose one thatthey perceive has some educationalvalue over one that seems merely “fun.”• Some Latinos may define education

The Self Reliance Foundation (SRF), Washington, D.C., wasfounded in 1979 as a nonprofit organization that used media,

primarily radio and video documentaries, to link Latinos andNative Americans in the southwestern United States with informa-tion on how to become self-sufficient by accessing community re-sources. Today, SRF’s Acceso Hispano initiative encompasses allof our efforts to empower and educate Latinos throughout theUnited States (www.accesohispano.org). Science, technology,health, and the environment have always been important issuesfor Latinos and SRF.

Through one of our programs, the National Science Founda-tion–funded Celebra la Ciencia project (www.celebralaciencia.org),SRF combines the power of mass media with the immediate en-gagement of hands-on science. The broad goal of this project isto link Latino students and families with the rich science resourcesavailable in most communities. SRF has helped organize coalitionsof science museums, zoos, universities, community organizations,and like organizations through this initiative. These coalitions, nowactive in nine regions around the United States, continue to organ-ize science festivals and afterschool, outreach, and other programsdesigned to engage Latino students and families in science. ASTCmembers, such as the Pacific Science Center, Seattle, and the NewMexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque, are

among SRF’s strongest partners in Celebra la Ciencia.Continuing this emphasis on science, technology, health, and

the environment, SRF has developed educational media initiativeson such topics as health and the human body, cancer, energy,human genome research, and science careers. With NSF support,SRF has launched the first Spanish-language science and healthnews service, ConCiencia/Hispanic Science Newswire (www.con-ciencianews.com), which disseminates original, research-basednews stories each week to over 100 Spanish-language newspa-pers throughout the United States and Latin America.

In March 2009, SRF convened the Expanding Informal ScienceEducation for Latinos conference in Albuquerque, bringing to-gether 125 representatives from science and children’s museums,youth organizations, universities, Latino science and engineeringsocieties, and government agencies. The participants definedchallenges and existing resources and used the conference as afoundation for designing new collaborations and initiatives.

Looking into the future, we plan to continue and expand ourcurrent initiatives, Celebra la Ciencia and Conciencia/Hispanic Sci-ence Newswire, while developing new initiatives, including a sci-ence career support system for Latino students and expandedcollaborations with science centers throughout Latin America. �

—R.L.R.

Expanding Informal ScienceEducation for Latinos

Expanding Informal ScienceEducation for Latinos

By Robert L. Russell and Malu Jimenez

The Self Reliance Foundation and Science Education

Dimensions_News:Dimensions.qxd 6/12/09 4:41 PM


more broadly than mainstream U.S.culture does. When defining education,many Latino families include socialand ethical education in addition towhat happens in school. They may per-ceive parents and teachers as filling dif-ferent educational roles, with parentsresponsible for the social and ethicaleducation of their children and teach-ers responsible for formal education.• Role models and mentoring are vitallyimportant. Many Latino science profes-sionals have described the importance ofteachers and other role models in guid-ing and supporting their career choices.

Potential barriers

• Science education opportunities are notkeeping pace with the needs of the Latinocommunity. Overall, Latino studentsscore lower on math and scienceachievement tests than national aver-ages and are underrepresented inundergraduate and graduate scienceand engineering programs.• Latino families do not have great accessto informal science resources. Latinofamilies are underrepresented amongthose who visit science centers andother similar institutions. Latinostudents are underenrolled in after-school programs. There is no Spanish-language National Public Radio orPublic Broadcasting Service, and thereis little science available on Spanish-language media, including radio, tele-vision, and newspapers.• Cultural barriers may discourageLatinos from visiting museums. Infre-quent museumgoers may believe thatyou need to know about the conven-tions and subject matter of a museumbefore you go. Some Latinos may alsofeel unwelcome in museums because ofa lack of cultural relevance, interpreta-tion in Spanish, or visitors or staff thatare like them.

Planning for Latino audiences

• When planning programs, involve theaudience. Use members of the commu-nity to help you plan programs. As youbuild trust with the community, recog-nize that it takes time. Working with

community “gatekeepers” or “culturalbrokers” may facilitate the process.• When planning media for Latinos,know your audience. In the averageweek, Latinos watch over 17 hours ofSpanish-language television and listento over 12 hours of Spanish-languageradio. In addition, the majority readSpanish-language newspapers. To sup-port your message, use popular andwell-trusted media, consider the literacylevels and language preferences of thetarget audience, use native speakers towrite or translate, keep messages sim-ple and clear, and use multiple medi-ums (e.g., radio plus outreach at thechurch or community center).• Plan for families. Many Latino fami-lies use leisure time to promote andbuild family unity. Informal learningexperiences that involve the entire fam-ily, even including cousins, uncles, andgrandparents, may be very attractive toLatino families.• Use culturally competent staff. Lan-guage competence, cultural under-standing, and respect for traditions andvalues are some of the qualities organi-zations should look for in staff.• Evaluate. Evaluation is an essentialtool in understanding the participantsin a program, so that language issues,context, trust, and other challenges canbe taken into consideration duringplanning. Evaluators need to acknowl-edge their biases, use the community tohelp analyze proposed evaluation meth-ods, talk to other evaluators experi-enced in culturally appropriate evalua-tion, and field test evaluation methods.

These “broad brush” observationsbarely scratch the surface of the rich-ness of the discussions and the depthof observation made in the backgroundbriefing papers prepared for the Ex-panding Informal Science Educationfor Latinos conference. If you wouldlike to hear more about the conference,read the briefing papers and join thisdeveloping learning community athttp://scienceforlatinos.ning.com. �

Robert L. Russell is director of scienceand health programs, and Malu Jimenezis senior program director, at the SelfReliance Foundation, Washington, D.C.


schools in the country. While provin-cial schools often continue to teach inSinhala or Tamil, only schools in thecountry’s provincial capitals, likeColombo, Galle, and Kandy, have bet-ter access to teachers and resources inthe English medium. Even in theseschools, the reintroduction of Englishmedium instruction has not beenconsistent.

Inconsistencies andchallenges

I have identified three such inconsis-tencies that impede the government’sinitiatives to reintroduce English as themedium of instruction, particularly forscience. I made these observations inSri Lanka while collecting data for myPh.D. research, which focused on sci-ence teacher professional development.

1. Teaching in the English mediumis not practiced consistently across allmiddle school grades. Often, studentswho are more proficient in English aregrouped into classes where they aretaught in the English medium. Thesestudents are essentially those whoalready have more access to the Englishlanguage and are able to afford re-sources like English medium text-books. Needless to say, this strategydefeats the efforts by the governmentto improve the English proficiency ofall students.

2. The lack of freely available pre-scribed texts in English, particularlyfor science, poses a significant chal-lenge for both students and teachers.Despite the considerable time andfunds the National Education Com-mission committed to producing anEnglish medium textbook for science,this document does not address suffi-ciently the difficulties faced by SriLankan students, who are essentiallynonnative speakers of English. It isalready a challenge for non-Westernstudents to negotiate the culturalboundaries between their home cul-tures and the apparent Western cultureof modern science. Assimilating scien-

Continued on page 16


Addressing Deaf Visitors with anAmerican Sign Language

Multimedia Tour


With our strong commitmentto universal design and tothe inclusion of people with

disabilities in informal science learning,it was a natural choice for the Museumof Science, Boston, to provide for Deafvisitors a guide to the exhibition StarWars: Where Science Meets Imaginationin their own language. Leveraging thevideo capabilities of handheld devices,we developed an American Sign Lan-guage (ASL) version of the exhibition’sMultimedia Tour (MMT).

Multimedia tours have the potentialto better serve visitors who are Deafthan most other information deliverydevices. These tours can deliver per-sonalized video clips and animations,which work well for Deaf visitors asthey tend to be visual learners. In ad-dition, video is the only way (outsideof person-to-person interactions) toconvey information through ASL.English is a second language for manypeople in the United States who are

Deaf (whose primary language is ASL).Further, people who are Deaf generallyhave lower reading comprehension lev-els, given that their English languageacquisition is affected by their inabilityto hear oral discourse. This can makereading traditional text labels in exhi-bitions a challenge.

According to Nancy Proctor, of mul-timedia tour company Antenna Audio,a good sign language MMT has highquality signers; a great story with appro-priate drama, effect, and atmosphere;subtitles to strengthen understanding;large text for low vision visitors; highcontrast; and a sign language glossaryof new vocabulary. In terms of opera-tions, a good tour also has a neck strap,awareness training for visitor servicesstaff, and a signed instructional videoat the distribution center.

The traveling Star Wars exhibition,supported by the National ScienceFoundation, premiered at the museumin October 2005. The original hand-

held MMT, which was produced inconjunction with Antenna Audio, had22 stops that featured interviews withStar Wars film producers and explana-tions of real-world technologies. TheASL MMT featured nearly the samecontent, with a woman translating thenarration; the interviews with StarWars producers were displayed withcaptioning.

Positive experiences

In December 2005, two groups of Deafadults (ages 18 to 40) participated infocus groups exploring the ASL MMT.It cannot be overemphasized howthrilled participants were with the ideaof experiencing the exhibition in theirnative language. The ASL tour repre-sented the opening up of museumdoors to the Deaf, and it was a warmlyreceived gesture.

Many Deaf individuals declared thatthe handheld provided a sense of inde-

Addressing Deaf Visitors with anAmerican Sign Language

Multimedia Tour

By Christine Reich and Elissa Chin

A family explores the Star Wars exhibition. Photos, this page and opposite page: Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, presented by Bose Corpora-tion, was developed by the Museum of Science, Boston, and Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars objects in this exhibition are on loan from the Archives of Lucasfilm Ltd. This exhi-bition is made possible through the cooperation of Lucasfilm Ltd. Lucasfilm Ltd: © 2009 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

W



pendence and control over the experi-ence that they normally would nothave. They did not have to arrange foran interpreter, which is a difficult taskwith a long waiting list, and they couldexperience the exhibition at their ownpace, not the interpreter’s.

Interestingly, although the museumand hearing public conceptualized thehandheld as an added experience, manyDeaf individuals said that without thehandheld, “We wouldn’t have any in-formation.” Conceivably, they meantthat it would have been significantlymore difficult to access exhibitioncomponents that were not in theirprimary language.

In addition, the handheld providedDeaf visitors with access to informationthey might have had difficulty gleaningfrom a crowded exhibition. For exam-ple, Deaf visitors do not have the luxuryof listening to a video from five feetaway while peeking over other visitors’shoulders. Instead, they have to standclose enough to see the captioned text.

Participants remarked on how won-derful it would be if the Museum ofScience had a handheld tour of the en-tire museum. Moreover, they said thatit would be amazing if all museums hadan ASL tour, including wayfindingmechanisms to help visitors locateexhibits and show times.

Room for improvement

Overall, the handheld ASL MMT isan honorable first step in including animportant population. Visitors feltmuch more comfortable and at easehaving information in their own lan-guage. Yet there is much room for im-provement as this is a relatively newfield and audience.

1. Issues with the handheld’s designMany Deaf handheld users felt they

had to continually “look up and down”and make a choice between what tosee; unlike hearing visitors, they didnot have the option to listen and watchat the same time. Deaf visitors recom-mended that we build in pauses toallow Deaf visitors to cycle between theASL tour and the exhibition. Also, thecaptioning lagged a second or two be-

hind and was constricted by the smallspace of the handheld’s screen. Somesuggested translating the interviews inan abbreviated fashion. Both focusgroups unanimously agreed that the“signing image was too small.” It is im-portant to remember that many Deafindividuals also have low vision.

2. Differences in learning styles andpreferences

Deaf individuals generally prefer tolearn from and interact with the worldvisually. Multimedia tours should haveplenty of imagery and video clips of ar-tifacts in motion or in creation phases.

3. Going beyond direct translationAn ASL tour must be more than a

direct translation of a hearing tour. Bysimply translating the in-depth informa-tion of the Star Wars hearing MMT, wemissed providing the basic informationthat was on the exhibit labels.

Recommendations

If we created an ASL MMT today, wewould make the following improvements.• Prototype with Deaf users before mak-ing handheld multimedia tours public.• Go through the exhibition using onlythe ASL or text versions of tours to gaina better understanding of the timing forDeaf visitors. Also, include individualswho are Deaf in the planning process.• Display short messages with a greateremphasis on the visuals, and considerusing animations.• Allow for more interaction with theexhibition and the visitor’s social group.• Have a larger interpreter image,focusing on the waist up.• Experiment with more text caption-ing options, including the ability toread larger chunks at a time.• Create a small pamphlet with an out-line of each stop’s content.• Train frontline staff on how to workwith blind and Deaf individuals.• Implement an ASL video at the frontdesk to instruct Deaf visitors on how touse the tour and serve as an advertise-ment to the Deaf.• Prominently market the handheldwith captioning or interpretation sym-bols. Without these, Deaf individualsnaturally assume a service is not Deaf

friendly (especially since the tour camewith headphones for hearing visitors).

Inclusion through technology

While the handheld ASL MMT wasvalued in many regards, having a tourwith or without ASL capabilities wasnot absolutely necessary in a hands-on,multimedia-based exhibition. However,for many, the tour provided an invalu-able experience by providing more easilyunderstood information. As a sciencemuseum, it is important for us to wel-come the Deaf community throughtechnology, communicating an impor-tant message: “You have a place here.”

As it becomes easier to incorporateASL in video-based technologies, muse-ums should think about how to helpDeaf individuals access learning in theirprimary language. Many focus groupparticipants said that if such handheldswere prevalent and well advertised, theDeaf community would be more likelyto visit museums, providing anothersource of revenue. The Deaf are animportant audience we should and canreach much more easily through theadvancement of technologies. �

Christine Reich is manager of researchand evaluation at the Museum of Science,Boston. Elissa Chin, formerly senior re-search and evaluation assistant at theMuseum of Science, is currently researchanalyst at Eduventures. This article wasadapted from “‘Life in Translation’:Addressing Deaf Visitors in Museumswith an American Sign Language (ASL)Multimedia Tour: Research Article,”originally published in July 2006.

Visitors build their own “landspeeders” in the StarWars exhibition.



Anousheh Ansari to GiveConference Keynote

As the first female private spaceexplorer, Anousheh Ansari knows

how to create and enable change. Inher keynote address at the 2009 ASTCAnnual Conference on October 31,she will explore how science centerscan encourage quick and effectivesocial change. Ansari and her familyhelped to bring in a new era in privatespaceflight when they sponsored theAnsari X Prize to encourage innovationin reusable spacecraft. In addition tochairing her own technology company,she works with global organizationslike Ashoka, which supports socialentrepreneurs working to bring aboutchange in more than 60 countries.

ASTC 2009, entitled “The Art ofScience: Creating a Better Future/ElArte de la Ciencia: Hacia un FuturoMejor,” will be hosted by the FortWorth Museum of Science and His-tory, Texas, and will run from October31 to November 3. In addition to themain themes of blending art and sci-ence and taking on key societal issues,the conference will address wayscenters can persevere in challengingeconomic times. Development offer-ings will include sessions on securingfederal funding and building corporatepartnerships. There will also be a devel-opment luncheon, and a roundtablewith officers from the National ScienceFoundation (NSF) Informal ScienceEducation Program.

This year’s conference marks the 10thanniversary of the ASTC Diversity andLeadership Development Fellows Pro-gram. To celebrate the program and the

Veteran of a2006 RussianSoyuz spacemission,AnoushehAnsari isscheduled tospeak at the2009 ASTCAnnualConference.Photo courtesyAnousheh Ansari

more than 100 Fellows who have bene-fited from it, ASTC will host the “Fiestaafter the Feast,” featuring dancing and aspecial retrospective. Past participantsand supporters are invited to contributephotographs and thoughts; contactLaura Huerta Migus at [email protected]. In addition, several conferencesessions will address equity and diversity.An all-day preconference workshop, ledby ASTC Dimensions authors Robert L.Russell and Malu Jimenez (see pages12–13), will focus on expanding infor-mal science education for U.S. Latinos.Also, ASTC Dimensions authors CarlosPlaza and Derlly González (see articleson pages 3–4 and 10) will participate ina session on bilingual learning places.

For dates, times, and details, consultthe preliminary conference program atwww.astc.org/conference/index.htm.

Science Engagement inAction

ASTC joined Heureka, the FinnishScience Centre, Vantaa, in organ-

izing the international Science Engage-ment in Action seminar, held March20 at Heureka and webcast live. Sevenexperts from outside the science centerfield debated the following questions:What are the most challenging issuesfacing humanity today and into thefuture? What is the role of science inhelping to solve these challenges?What can science centers do to engagecitizens in the debate and actionneeded?

The experts noted a wide array ofchallenges, ranging from populationgrowth to the disparity in distributionof wealth to the lack of political will toimplement solutions. They concludedthat science centers can play a role byhosting forums and fostering a passionfor science.

More information and a video ofthe presenters’ introductory remarksare available at www.heureka.fi/portal/englanti/20th_anniversary. A follow-updiscussion—“Toronto, Helsinki:What’s Next?”—is being organized forthe ASTC Annual Conference in FortWorth.

ASTC Notes

tific information in a foreign languageadds an extra layer of difficulty forthese students and their teachers. Thepresent science text in English posessignificant language and cultural gaps,which need to be bridged before stu-dents in Sri Lanka can confidently andmeaningfully learn science in English.

3. Lastly and most significantly,there is a lack of teachers trained toteach subjects, including science, inEnglish. This deficiency results directlyfrom the post-Independence introduc-tion of mother tongue–based instruc-tion. Until as recently as 1990, therewere teachers trained to teach in theEnglish medium, but they belonged toan aging population that was educatedin English. Therefore, when Englishmedium instruction was reintroducedin 2002, there was a shortage of teach-ers trained to teach science in English.While most science graduates who areproficient in English are hired to teachat international schools, the Englishmedium science teachers in state-funded schools do not have the benefitof English medium instruction at thesecondary level nor adequate tertiarylevel training. Although inservice train-ing is currently offered to this lattergroup of science teachers, these effortsneed to focus more on long-term out-comes, such as the teachers’ proficiencyin English and their awareness of thehistory and philosophy of Western sci-ence. These efforts also need to extendto science teachers outside the provin-cial capital cities.

While it is commendable that theSri Lankan government has

taken steps to reintroduce Englishmedium instruction, it is a journeythat has only just begun. The genera-tion or more of teachers who have notreceived training in the English medi-um will first have to be addressed be-fore Sri Lankans as a whole can engagemeaningfully with science. �

Sean Perera, a Sri Lankan national, is aresearcher at the Centre for the PublicAwareness of Science, the AustralianNational University, Canberra.




21–25 Visitor Studies AssociationConference. “For What It’s Worth:Wrestling with Relevance, Public Value,and Impact.” St. Louis, Missouri.Details: www.visitorstudies.org

22–24 BIG Event 2009. Hosted by theRoyal Institution, London.Details: www.big.uk.com

23–27 IMTAL 2009 Global Conference.“Museum Theatre on the Edge.”Hosted by the Monterey BayAquarium, California. Details:www.imtal.org/monterey_2009.asp

7–13 37th CIMUSET Conference.“Dream Your Museum. . .”Belgrade, Serbia. Details:www.cimuset.net

12–17 AZA Annual Conference.Hosted by Oregon Zoo, Portland.Details: www.aza.org/AnnualConference

21–23 Giant Screen CinemaAssociation InternationalConference and Trade Show.Indianapolis, Indiana. Details:www.giantscreencinema.com

21–26 22nd Annual Theatre inMuseums Workshop.Hosted by the Children’sMuseum of Indianapolis.Details: Patricia Daily,317/334-3819, [email protected]

11–17 Earth Science Week 2009.“Understanding Climate.”Details: www.earthsciweek.org

31– ASTC Annual Conference.Nov. 3 Hosted by Fort Worth Museum

of Science and History, Texas.Details: www.astc.org/conference

Calendar

JULY

OCTOBER

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST

Lights Out for EarthHour

ASTC, in partnership with the WorldWildlife Fund (WWF), rallied sci-

ence centers and museums to supportthis year’s Earth Hour on March 28.Earth Hour is a worldwide event whereindividuals, businesses, and even citiesturn out lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m.local time to demonstrate that people canmake an impact on global warming.According to WWF, 3,922 cities in 88countries had 1 billion participants, upfrom 50 million in 2008.

ASTC and IGLO asked members toparticipate in this event not only byturning out their lights, but also byplanning special activities related toclimate change. The Ontario ScienceCentre, Toronto, Canada, offered visi-tors a free Star Party featuring climatechange activities. At Maloka in Bogotá,Colombia, visitors learned about lightpollution while making star observa-tions after the lights went out. TheSciencenter, Ithaca, New York, createdan Earth Hour Experiment Guidebook(www.sciencenter.org/earthhour/d/Earth_Hour_Guidebook.pdf ) for visitorsand students.

For advice on how to build localsupport for Earth Hour 2010, contactWalter Staveloz, [email protected].

Cosmic Serpent:Bridging Native andWestern Learning

The Cosmic Serpent project exploresconnections and commonalities

between Native and Western science

learning in museums. As a Cosmic Ser-pent partner, ASTC is working to fosterand support science centers’ participa-tion in a series of workshops and a cul-minating conference, which ASTC willhost in 2011 with the Smithsonian’sNational Museum of the American In-dian (NMAI), Washington, D.C. Thefirst of these workshops, held March15–20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, ex-posed museum representatives to pro-grams illustrating the complementaryrelationship that can exist between in-digenous lifeways and Western science.The Northwest and California work-shops will be held August 23–28 (appli-cations due July 13) and November8–13 (applications due September 28),respectively. For the application andmore detailed project information, visitthe Cosmic Serpent web site, www.cosmicserpent.org.

Funded by NSF, the Cosmic Serpentproject serves practitioners at 96 sciencecenters, science museums, and tribal/cultural museums in eight states in theU.S. Southwest, West, and Northwest.The project is led by a partnershipbetween the Indigenous EducationInstitute and the University of Califor-nia Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory,with project partners NMAI, ASTC,and Ideum.

Expanding ISE forLatinos Conference

Staff from ASTC and more than 20ASTC-member institutions partici-

pated in the Expanding Informal Sci-ence Education for Latinos conference,March 26–29 in Albuquerque, NewMexico. (See pages 12–13.) Hosted bythe Self Reliance Foundation and sup-ported by NSF, the conference broughttogether a wide range of organizationsdedicated to involving Latino youthand families in informal science educa-tion. The more than 100 attendeesengaged in lively dialogue and sharedstrategies for improving current pro-gramming. They also began to seedideas for new partnerships. Ten ASTC-member institutions participated in theconference poster session. �

During Earth Hour at Maloka in Bogotá,Colombia, visitors observe the stars afterthe lights are turned out. Photo courtesy Maloka



By Emily Schuster

Spotlights

MORE SPACE—On March 6, the45,000-square-foot McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Centeropened in Concord, New Hampshire,quadrupling the size of the originalChrista McAuliffe Planetarium. Theexpanded center incorporates theexhibits from the original 1990 build-ing, while updating the planetariumand adding more exhibits and anobservatory.

Named for two space pioneers fromNew Hampshire—Christa McAuliffe(1948–1986), selected as the firstteacher in space, and Alan Shepard(1923–1998), the first U.S. citizen tojourney into space—the center takes alocal focus on space travel. It includes atribute to its New Hampshire name-sakes, as well as full-scale replicas of aMercury-Redstone rocket and the Mer-cury 7 Capsule that took Shepard onhis historic suborbital flight in 1961.Visitors can also get a local and person-al perspective on space travel by exam-ining actual items that astronauts fromNew England took with them to space.

Other exhibits focus on astronomy,Earth and space science, and technol-ogy. In Walk on the Sun, visitors canstand on different parts of a projectedimage of the sun and hear differentsounds that indicate the brightness,color, and temperature of a particulararea. In the exhibit gallery Looking atEarth—Looking Beyond, they cantouch rocks and minerals found onEarth and other planets, or see thefeatures of the planet or moon of theirchoice projected on a globe.

Future phases of the $15 million

expansion will include an aviationwing, astrophysics exhibits, and aChallenger Learning Center. The cen-ter is funded by the National Aero-nautics and Space Administration andthe state of New Hampshire, with pri-vate support from BAE Systems,SkySkan, and Northeast Delta Dental.

Details: David McDonald, directorof education, [email protected], www.starhop.com

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH—Howwould your body respond to a hike toa 14,258-foot mountain summit? Visi-tors to Expedition Health at Colorado’sDenver Museum of Nature &Science experience a virtual climb upMount Evans in the state’s RockyMountains, measuring the responsesof their own unique bodies along theway. The 10,000-square-foot exhibi-tion, which opened April 3, replacesthe 20-year-old Hall of Life and is themuseum’s first new permanent exhibi-tion in six years.

To enhance the exhibition’s localfocus, each visitor chooses one of 12“expedition buddies”—a diverse groupof real Coloradoans. They appear onvideo screens to explain how the bodyworks and to share their experiencesfrom an actual trek up Mount Evans.

As visitors travel through the CoreExhibition, they take measurements oftheir own bodies, hear messages fromtheir buddies, and see human anatom-ical specimens. For example, they canmeasure their skin temperatures inand out of a “cold box,” hear theirbuddies talk about the wind chill theyexperienced on Mount Evans, and (forthe brave of heart) see a frostbittenhuman toe. They can also comparetheir blood oxygen levels with that ofa hiker ascending Mount Evans in afilm at BodyTrek Theater, examine

A young visitor operates a virtuallunar lander at the McAuliffe-ShepardDiscovery Center. Photo courtesy theMcAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center

At Biology BaseCamp in the exhibi-tion ExpeditionHealth, visitors canextract DNA fromwheat germ ordetermine the sugarcontent of cereal.Photo by Scott Dressel-Martin

Welcome to ASTCThe following new members were approvedby ASTC’s Membership Committee inOctober 2008. Contact information isavailable in the About ASTC section of theASTC web site, www.astc.org.

SCIENCE CENTER ANDMUSEUM MEMBERS• Dundee Science Centre, Scot-land, United Kingdom. First opened in2000 as a Millennium project fundedby the U.K. National Lottery, this19,000-square-foot center is popularlyknown as Sensation because its morethan 80 hands-on exhibits are based onthe five senses.• Hanford Reach InterpretiveCenter, Richland, Washington. The$40.5 million interpretive center willbe built on a 50-acre site at ColumbiaPoint, the confluence of the Yakimaand Columbia rivers. Set to open in2011, the center will feature 15,000square feet of permanent exhibitionspace, bicycle and walking trails, class-rooms, and indoor and outdoor theaters.• North Carolina Arboretum,Asheville. Located on a 434-acre sitewithin the Pisgah National Forest, thisaffiliate institution of the University ofNorth Carolina operates three-hourSegway tours along woodland trails.The 16,000-square-foot Baker ExhibitCenter houses a greenhouse, informa-tion center, and temporary exhibitionspace.

SUSTAINING MEMBERS• Alan Friedman Consulting,

New York City• Clifford Wagner ScienceInteractives, Inc., Philadelphia

• MediaMerge, Inc., Chelsea,Alabama

• Moser Productions, Inc.,Richmond, Virginia

• Mystic Scenic Studios, Inc.,Norwood, Massachusetts

• Push Product Design, LLC,Birmingham, Alabama

• Visual Sports Systems,Concord, Ontario, Canada. �


Oppenheimer and senior ManhattanProject scientists to the Trinity Site forthe first test of an atomic bomb onJuly 16, 1945. The restored Packard ison display at the National Museumof Nuclear Science and History,formerly the National Atomic Muse-um, which opened in its new Albu-querque, New Mexico, location onApril 4.

After September 11, 2001, heightenedsecurity made the museum’s originalhome on Albuquerque’s Kirtland AirForce Base inaccessible to visitors fromoutside the United States. The museum,which was founded in 1969, had beenrenting temporary space in Albuquer-que’s Old Town area since 2002. Duringthat time, many of the larger artifacts,including aircraft and missiles, were offexhibit. Most are now displayed in thenine-acre Heritage Park, part of the 12acres of outdoor space that surround thenew 30,000-square-foot building.

The new museum includes an exhi-bition on The Uranium Cycle, featuringa real ore cart from a uranium mine.Content on nuclear, solar, and windpower has been greatly expanded in theexhibition Energy Encounters. Severalnew interactive elements were added to

ASTC Dimensions • January/February 2007 19ASTC Dimensions • July/August 2009 19

Grants & Awards

On April 21, the PNC Foundation announced Grow Up Greatwith Science, a three-year, $6 million initiative to foster a

foundation in science for preschoolers. The foundation has award-ed grants to 14 mid-Atlantic science centers and nonprofit organi-zations, including 10 ASTC members: the Academy of NaturalSciences, Philadelphia; Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh;Cincinnati Museum Center, Ohio; the Delaware Museum ofNatural History, Wilmington; the EcoTarium (as part of theWorcester Collaborative), Massachusetts; the Franklin Institute,Philadelphia; Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, New Jersey; theLouisville Science Center, Kentucky; the Maryland Science Cen-ter, Baltimore; and Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts,Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded $2,994,748 inConservation Project Support grants on May 1. (All awards requirematching funds.) Three ASTC members were among the 35 recipi-ents:• The American Museum of Natural History, New York City:$74,090 to conserve totem poles and large wood carvings housedin the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians• The Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin: $113,979 to pre-serve the Carl P. Dietz Typewriter and Business Machine Collection• The Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University,

New Haven, Connecticut: $149,282 to conserve and rehouse 7,600specimens in the Vertebrate Paleontology Fossil Fish collection.

The Maryland Science Center, Baltimore, was awarded a $322,313from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to host an exhibition ofartwork by participants in NSF’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Proj-ect, as well as science demonstrations related to the exhibition.

NSF awarded $68,883 to the American Museum of NaturalHistory, New York City, to produce a short documentary film andpublic program about taxonomic and biodiversity research of faunain the lower Congo River.

Citi Foundation contributed a $40,000 grant to Hands On!Regional Museum, Johnson City, Tennessee, to teach financialliteracy in local youth programs, as well as in programs in themuseum’s Kids Bank & Credit Union exhibition.

The Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) program at the Academyof Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, received a $25,000 grantthrough clothing company Eileen Fisher’s Self Image GrantProgram for Women and Girls.

Ideum, Corrales, New Mexico, received a New Mexico TechnologySolution Award from the New Mexico Technology Council. Thecompany was honored for its “MT2 Multitouch, Multiuser Table”

their own cheek cells under a micro-scope in Biology Base Camp, or watcha heart dissection at the SummitScience Stage. Children under age 5can climb a small “mountain” andslide back down at Tykes Peak.

Next to the exhibition are twoclassrooms for health science classes,and a 1,000-square-foot laboratory,funded by a $655,000 Science Educa-tion Partnership Award (SEPA) fromthe National Institutes of Health.

Kaiser Permanente Colorado con-tributed $4 million toward the cost ofthe $8.7 million exhibition. Othermajor donors are Gates Family Foun-dation, the Colorado Health Founda-tion, and the Boettcher Foundation.

Details: Bridget Coughlin, curatorof human health and deputy chiefcurator, [email protected],303/370-6310, ww2.dmns.org/Expedition-Health

NUCLEAR HISTORY—The 1941Packard Clipper limousine sat in ajunkyard for half a century, buriedbeneath piles of debris, before it wasrescued by a local car collector in2005. Now researchers believe it is thesame car that took physicist J. Robert

Radiation 101, including a survey thathelps visitors determine their personalexposure to radiation. Returningexhibitions include X-Ray History,which highlights examples of earlyand modern medical equipment, andLittle Albert’s Lab, where an animatronicAlbert Einstein invites children to ex-periment with hands-on exhibits. Inaddition, visitors can see the actualcasings of the atomic bombs Fat Manand Little Boy in Decision to Drop andthen reflect upon the human cost ofwar in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The$10 million facility was supported byfederal, state, and private funding.

Details: Jeanette Miller, directorof marketing and public relations,[email protected], www.nuclearmuseum.org �

Visitors areinvited toshare theirreflections onHiroshima andNagasaki.Photo courtesyNationalMuseum ofNuclear Scienceand History


ing, and business development. Mostrecently, Collins served as presidentand CEO of the Battleship New JerseyMuseum and Memorial in Camden.

Mark Hogan is the new vice presi-dent of technology at Mad Systems,an audiovisual systems integrationcompany in Orange, California. Hehad previously spent 18 years workingwithin development and systemsgroups at Electrosonic.

At its 2008 Equity Awards Dinner, theEducational Equity Center at theAcademy for Educational Develop-ment (AED) honored Maritza B.Macdonald, director of educationand policy at the American Museumof Natural History, New York City, asone of three Equity Champions.

Adrian Van Allen, multimediadesigner and exhibit developer at SanFrancisco’s Exploratorium, was amongthe winners of the Rome Prize in de-sign. Van Allen will study and work inRome in March 2010, creating an inter-active map that lets visitors explore theevolution of the sciences in Rome. �

Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona,named Eileen Friel as its new direc-tor on June 15. Friel was formerly theexecutive officer for the Division ofAstronomical Sciences at the NationalScience Foundation. She succeedsBob Millis, who stepped down afterheading the observatory for 20 years.

On June 30, Mike Sullivan retired asexecutive director of Gulf Coast Explor-eum Science Center, Mobile, Alabama.Sullivan led the Exploreum during itsfirst 11 years in its downtown location.Prior to becoming executive director, hespent eight years working with the Ex-ploreum as a consultant. A nationalsearch for his replacement is underway.

The Science Museum of Minnesota, St.Paul, has chosen Jill Rudnitski to beits vice president of development. In acareer spanning more than 20 years,Rudnitski has worked in fund-raising atthe St. Cloud State University, Minne-sota, and the University of Minnesota.

The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia,has selected Troy M. Collins as sen-ior vice president of programs, market-

20 July/August 2009 • ASTC Dimensions People

Association of Science-Technology Centers1025 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500Washington, DC 20005-6310Address Service Requested

After 10 years of service, MosheRishpon stepped down as director ofthe Clore Garden of Science, WeizmannInstitute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, onMarch 1. In 1999, Rishpon receivedASTC’s Award for Innovation for hiswork creating the Clore Garden. He issucceeded by Zvi Paltiel, a physicistand former director of Weizmann In-stitute’s Young@Science program.

Troy A. Thrash became executivedirector and CEO of the Da VinciScience Center, Allentown, Pennsylva-nia, on March 30. Thrash was previ-ously executive director of the NationalAerospace Development Center in Al-pharetta, Georgia. He succeeds FrankK. Schweighardt, who had servedas interim CEO since August 2008.

The Science Center of Iowa, DesMoines, has chosen Paul Jennings asits new president and CEO. Jennings isformerly chief executive of DundeeScience Centre, Scotland, United King-dom, and is a member of the firstcohort of Noyce Leadership Fellows.He succeeds Mary Sellers, whoserved in the position for nine years.

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