Education and Outreach Colloquium, Walter Staveloz and Kate Crawford

Affiliation: ASTC
Event Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Location: Bldg 33, Room H114
Time: 12:00 PM

Communicating Climate Change (C3)
In 2006, the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies discussed "Americans and Climate Change' and in particular why there is still a "gap between the science and the action". Not less than 39 very practical recommendations came out of that work and at the top the idea to "strengthen citizens-science initiatives on climate change so as to build greater public engagement with the conduct of climate change science".

On our side at the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) through the implementation of our International action on GLObal warming (IGLO) created for the International polar Year (IPY) we have found that our audiences are extremely interested in the issue, but that they need a local connection. That is why we have created Communicating Climate Change (C3) that help science center visitors to understand global issues through a local approach. 12 science centers in the US have validated local indicators of climate change in cooperation with local research labs and have set new education and communication programs that will increase the communities understanding of climate change and envisage how this will lead to action.
The talk will present the chosen indicators and some of the innovative partnerships that the program has already created.

The presentation will include a short film about the project.

About Our Speakers
Walter Staveloz
After a short career conducting research projects at the Institute for Sociology of the University of Brussels, Walter served as the Secretary General of Focus Research, the Belgian Association for the Advancement of Science. In this position, he created numerous workshops and conferences to support funding for basic research. Under his direction, the organization became more involved in issues of science communication and education, launching a "Science by Mail" program that partnered thousands of children with hundreds of scientists on projects ranging from dinosaurs to genetics.

From 1995 until 2005, Walter was the first full-time Executive Director of ECSITE (European network of science centers and museums). During his tenure, he solidified ECSITE's reputation as a professionally-operated organization and established the annual conference as one of the most respected and best-attended in the field.

He has served as PI for numerous EU-funded projects, including "SEA" Your Future in conjunction with the World Expo on Oceans in Lisbon in 1998 and the ISCOM (Improving science communication in science centers and museums 1999 -2002) program that addressed three new challenges for the science center field (establishing the economical impact, using information technology, and addressing the question of how science centers should tackle the "Science & Society" connection, EPOS: The European project on the Sun at the occasion of the total solar eclipse 1999 - 2000 and PENCIL the Permanent Resource center on Informal science education (2004) partly in cooperation with the CILS program from the Exploratorium . He also created Yess, a debate game on brain research (2005).

Walter was on the jury of the European "Descarte Prize" for promoting science communication in 2004 and has been member of the International Program Committee of the Science Centers World Congresses since 1996.

Off Site Access
This talk will be Webcast at:
http://mediaman.gsfc.nasa.gov/asx/Public/Live/Building33Live.asx
NOTE: You will need to have Microsoft MediaPlayer installed to view this Webcast.

Alternatively, folks may tune in via telephone for audio only by dialing 1-877-951-7741; passcode = 7873205.

Posted or updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Editor: Paul Przyborski

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