Current Science & Technology Center
Program conducted by: Museum of Science, Boston

Enhancing Public Understanding
The Current Science & Technology Center is a museum-based experiment in science communication aimed at enhancing the public understanding of research by focussing on new discoveries, breakthrough technologies, and science in the news stories. The Center serves as an information resource, showcase and forum for many of the Museum's 1.5 million annual visitors, while developing new audiences through the web, cable television and networking with other science centers.

The centerpiece of the roughly 5000-square-foot exhibit area is a dramatically suspended oval stage and large plasma screen array. Live presentations are given daily, backed by colorful digital video and graphic displays, and include opportunities for questions and discussion. Guest researchers with a knack for public speaking are invited in on a regular basis. Exhibits often feature new technologies still under development, in partnership with university and industry R&D labs. Attractive touchscreen displays carry science news and stories on current research, utilizing text, images, animation, audio and video. News and stories are updated daily from an in-house digital production studio by a team of dedicated scientists, educators and multimedia producers, who also prepare and deliver the live presentations. Much of the material is also uploaded to the Center's website, www.mos.org/cst, with links to related sites.

CS&T hosts live events, demonstrations, and forum-type gatherings. It has live links to NASA-TV via satellite, to the Gilliland Observatory telescopes, and to cable, web and video-conferencing resources. New fiber lines and robotically-controlled cameras will allow CS&T to begin cablecasting in the summer of 2002 as a regular feature on New England Cable News. CS&T also pursues opportunities for live communications with research expeditions in the field, such as the International Trans Antarctic Expedition and Woods Hole deep sea dive research expeditions.

Partnerships and Grants
Partnerships and grants help provide staffing and resources for various areas of research. For example, the Center pursues a major focus on health science research in partnership with local research institutions, funded by a SEPA grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources. The NSF-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center headquartered at Harvard University includes CS&T as an educational outreach collaborator. The Museum has a NASA broker/facilitator grant that assists CS&T staff in developing educational outreach in partnership with space science researchers. Working with the Public Understanding of Research initiative at the National Science Foundation, the CS&T Center is also exploring various ways of sharing and networking educational resources with other science centers and broadcast media.

The pace of research and innovation is quickening, opening new possibilities, new career choices and often new controversies. CS&T seeks to empower public and school audiences with information and perspective on science and technology in the news and to encourage widespread participation in meaningful dialogue on our future. The Center serves as a safe place where some of the trickier ethical and social issues associated with current research can be teased out and understood on a factual basis, without reference to political or cultural agendas.

The CS&T Center is an ongoing experiment in designing the science and technology center of the future. With the help of the Institute for Learning Innovation, we are conducting a four-year formative and summative evaluation program in order to develop and improve on all aspects of the Center's multifaceted approach and to assess its value as a science communication model for further dissemination.

Budget

• Capital Construction Costs (Design, Contruction, Hardware, Software): $2.5 million
• Lead corporate sponsor: EMC Corporation
• Annual Operating Budget: $200,000, including staff
• Grant-Funded Programs: $425,000, including staff

Contact
Carol Lynn Alpert, Manager
Current Science & Technology
Museum of Science
Science Park, Boston 02114-1099
Email: calpert@mos.org

Web Site

www.mos.org/cst

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Created: 5/18/2002
Last updated: 8/17/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov