Conference sessions

Brought to you by Ecsite’s THE Group, this workshop will focus on the explainers’ profession and their work with visitors. Training will be provided through interactive activities, contributions from keynote speakers and from your fellow participants.

This Ecsite inaugural workshop focusing on space will highlight collaborations between the European Space Agency (ESA) and museums and science centres across Europe. Together we will collect feedback and will start developing future space-themed collaborations open to various museums and science centres across Europe. Representatives from space industries and national space agencies will also share their expertise and ideas in this workshop.

The working groups of first workshop will focus on three main topics:

1. Presentation, feedback & open discussion of the existing exhibition material, available for free at: www.esa.int/exhibitions . ESA has a dedicated website where it regularly publishes exhibition material for download free of charge and in different languages.

2. Development of thematic collaborative projects

3. Building a Space thematic group within Ecsite

speakers:
Fernando Doblas, Head of the Communication Department, European Space Agency

ESA & Education projects, Hugo Marée, Head of the education and knowledge management office, ESA/ESTEC, The Netherlands

CNES
Philippe Collot, Responsible for public events & exhibitions, CNES

EADS-Astrium
Dominique Huard, Head of Communications and Public Relations, EADS-Astrium

Rob van den Berg’s, Director of Space Expo Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Confident, experienced staff are the key ingredient to operating a successful science centre. They are essential in all areas, from front of house explainer roles to managerial and administrative staff. But how can new teams be developed in a new centre – or one which is rapidly expanding – where existing expertise is limited and the potential for ‘on the job’ training is either absent or highly restricted? How can the next generation of science centre staff pick up the skills needed? This session will present the experiences of newly established science centres: How did they recruit and train their staff? What were their greatest challenges, and what surprised them about what they learnt as their teams became accustomed to their roles? What do they think their recent experiences can teach others in our field?

Bjorn Winther Johansen, CEO of Inspiria Science Centre, a recently opened science centre in Sarpsborg, Norway,

Linda Leuchars Science Learning Manager from the Dundee Science Centre,

Leila Schembri, from KCA London,

A group from different science centres is getting together for a week of collaborative hands-on learning focused on exhibit development and fabrication in June 2012. Before we start building our exhibits, we are seeking your critiques and advice. Join us at this interactive poster session where we will present our ideas – the science we want to communicate and our concepts to engage, excite and challenge users. We will bring our sketches, maquettes, and more importantly, lots of art boards and bits and pieces so you can help shape our ideas and take them a step further before we start building!

The popular fabrication and “maker” movement seems to be the next big thing in the field of digital culture and new technologies. Stemming from both the academic field (MIT, Boston) and from more underground networks (i.e. hackerspaces), this move is now reaching the general public through media reports and the opening of Fabrication Laboratories (Fab Labs) everywhere in Europe and abroad. A Fab Lab is a place where people make or even print in 3D objects that they designed, or whose design they downloaded from the internet through websites. So, what about opening a Fab Lab in a science centre? Through different experiences, this session will discuss the opportunity for our field to interact more with makers and hackers.

With a vast number of challenging space missions and a wealth of discoveries in recent years, space is providing innovative tools for a rapidly changing world.

In this dedicated session, you are invited to a series of lively presentations on: – Space for future human endeavour; – Space for a better understanding of our Earth and its environment; – Space to unveil the origins of life. – European launchers , providing independant access to space for European users

At the end of the presentation, a question-and-answer session will give the audience the opportunity to address specific questions to the speakers.

Speakers:

- Paolo Nespoli, ESA astronaut – Sylvestre Maurice, astronomer, Mars specialist, IRAP/Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse,France – Gil Denis, Earth Observation expert, Astrium,Toulouse,France – Christophe Bonnal ,Launcher expert , CNES,Paris,France