In Week Four, we sought to define a set of critical conversation topics that might occur at the 2022 ASTC Conference. The ASTC itself had offered us three general questions that they were interested in exploring. These three questions are:
- How do we continue to adapt business & operation to new reality?
- How do we balance traditional roles of science learning and new needs?
- What is the role of the science museum? (in community, school, pandemic, collaborators)?
While these three questions are both interesting and relevant, they are still fairly broad. Thus, when we created our set of critical conversation topics, we attempted to make these new questions more specific.
We created a list of critical conversation topic questions that touched on COVID-19, the role of science engagement organizations, community relationships, and exhibits. Listed below is a small sample of the questions:
- How can science engagement organizations help combat misinformation surrounding both the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines?
- What role should science engagement organizations play in the current day? Venues for informal learning? For the collection and preservation of artifacts and specimens? For science communication? For activism?
- How do science engagement organizations reach out to traditionally underserved populations in their communities?
- How can science engagement organizations measure the impact of their exhibits on their visitors and communities?
We presented these critical conversation topic questions to the ASTC in our client meeting. While the ASTC generally approved of the topics, they also made a number of suggestions. Firstly, the current events impacting science engagement organizations is not limited to COVID-19, but also encompasses such issues such as climate change, racial inequality, and natural disasters. Secondly, the ASTC wishes to take a forward-looking approach at their conference and would desire for the conference topics to reflect that mindset as well. Lastly, the ASTC is concerned with how they can adapt their ways of working to keep up with a rapidly changing world.
In the future, we can utilize these critical conversation topics to guide our design and to determine what should be included within our experience. As we are not experts in the sector ourselves, we wish to guide our users to converse about these topics rather than provide definite answers to these questions.
In terms of our branding, we continued to work on our halfsheet and poster designs. As with our logo, we wanted to incorporate the idea of communication in our halfsheet and poster. We also began building our website, adding additional information, and making it more aesthetically appealing in appearance.
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