Live where you fear to live in 2013!

We thought this picture taken in the ever beautiful cathedral of Vezelay, Bourgogne is a suitable background for our best wishes for the New Year. 2012 saw me exploring new roads with great clients such as Legermuseum, Europeana, KNAW, NCWT, the Science Learning Center of NCWT and others. Looking back on 2012 I tought: what a trailblazer of a year! Let's keep that up for 2013. Together. As a team. To create something new, something wonderful, to live the excitement of exploration in projects where don't quite know how to achieve our vision....but will manage to do so! I can't wait to meet you soon and to get started. But first things first so for now: happy holidays!

Catching up on science education developments

Ouch...this blog was lagging behind quite a bit. Time to catch up!  Where to start?

A publication. The translation of the title would be A journey through the landscape of informal learning. As the proud chair of the Science Learning Center's annual vision and strategy days I was send a draft earlier this year. That was already so good and so informative that I was very tempted to forward it to other professionals and organisations with the message "hey look here for some great eduational insights from experienced colleagues". And to very honest also driven by the wish to show that the sector is definitly on a road of professionalisation. Finding its bearings, formalising its fundaments and developing its vision driven by passion and a strong content focus. And from there building strategical partnerships and developing businesscases. But of course it was still internal then, a draft. Which I already thought excellent. But the eventual version incredibly indeed has improved once again from the draft. And the presentation was just lovely. A symposium with a highly interesting presentation from Josh Gutwill from the Exploratorium in San Francisco who enlightened the participants on juicy questions, the insight that the actual exhibitions hardly have a tangible effect on the level of knowledge and that longitudinal research in the USA shows that how well you do at a certain subject is less decisive in the choice of study than what interests a kid. His statement: our goal is to empower people to make sense of the world themselves. How is that for a oneliner that gives food for thought!

prinses Laurentien spices up the science dinner

A dinner. A science dinner to be precise. To kick off October science month and the first ever science weekend. An entire range of activities highlighted science and technology in action for families, schools, and everybody interested. A remarkable dinner with insect meatballs (delicious by the way), and high level speakers. And two very happy winners of the science communication prize in The Netherlands: Freek Vonk & Rob van Hattum. The dinner offered a very nice opportunity to catch up with quite some people I hadn't seen for a while. So thanks for the organisation!

trying to get some lessons learned readable from the iphone

A lecture. By Kimberly Kowal Arcand from the Chandra x-ray center from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachuttes in the USA. A public symposium organised by Leiden University widely publices via linkedin. A lecture about the new insights user research delivered to the institute's communication. Through structured end user research they found that inspite of their efforts and goals they reached only a very specific group: mostly man, white, non-hispanic and 60+. Whereas their goals was to reach a broad audience and many teachers and students. They also found out that different groups appreciate different forms of communications: laymen are appreciative of a rather more narrative approach whereas experts want short and to the point information. Kimberly also highlighted questions that arise in science communications. The one that stuck with me (probably also because it was part of my M.A. thesis for Applied Ethics) was wehterh in your communications as an institution you have to be culturally correct (e.g. the color red indicates "hot" on a picture) or stay with the scientific lingo (e.g. "hot" in the world of astronomers is indicated with a blue color). Her story on reaching out to the public with exhibitions in public spaces was also enlightning. Want to know more? Look out for their stories in which they explain their experiences in the Journal of Science Communication and the CAP Journal.


So quite a few what I would call milestone developments in the professionalisation: effects are measured, impact is charted, and fundaments driving the work in science education and communication are on the road of being formalised in a way befitting the sector. And the sector is slowly but surely taking a peek below the surface, addressing ethical questions (jay! says this ethicist!!) such as what we build into exhibitions, into machines? What are our values driving the designs? How can we chart those and work with those? Productively. The area that Peter Paul Verbeek is developing and bascially making accessible for all sorts of professionals. And that is slowly but surely making it's way into science communication and education. It's always been there, but it's increasingly explicity addressed.

Throughout it all I caught myself wondering: how do we get this (new) knowledge out to others? How do we get past preaching to the choir? And is that indeed possible. And also: how do we paint a realistic picture of the scientific world. Because it is knuckling down. Grafting. Demanding. And to reach the scientific starts takes more than a passion for knowledge. Very few make it onto the grand projects that we hear about and that we like to point to. The stone we tend to romance, to quote after that old movie. Those are questions that will surface from time to time, that are part of the professional development of science communication and education.

Testing the waters....

 "Do you still have that 2cv?" is a question I frequently get when with (new) clients. "I saw it on your site." Yes, I still have the 2cv. And as far as I'm concerned I always will. It's a character thing, an impractical passion, a steel love. But our grey "ugly duck" as we call the voiture in Dutch is in dire need for some serious maintenance. Among other minor and somewhat major things it leaks through the front window. So the "duckman" needs to know precisely where. And that is were you get "made to measure" rain. So should you anytime soon encounter me without my dear 2cv: know that it's under revision, well taken care off and that it will be back with a vengance! And me with dry feet:-)

Cycling Europe's "new" frontier

rebuild Gdansk under glorious skies

Great news: we had an uneventful cycling holiday in Poland! Those of you who have followed our previous biking adventures through bike2culture.org will probably understand how very welcome the eventless holiday was. In stead of chasing us the Polish dogs were so kind to jump into the hedge themselves, good boys :-)

The Polish landscape we cycled through were splendid, the roads varied nicely from brilliant tarmac to furious gravel, from cyclable sand to the Polish version of sifsif, the people have an uncommon warm hospitality and the food is good. Al ingerdients for a great holiday. What for us added an additional charm, is that the north east bit we cycled is basically Europe's newest frontier. You see signs: Belarus 40 km. Wauw. We felt "the East" pulling at us again. But we returned in NL:-) Somehow the proximity of a border to a country where you need a visa, a country you can see but not enter unless you have the right papers, gives a special feel. To us at least. That feeling is enhanced by the amount of police forces you see driving around, espcially when the roads lead you closer to the border. A feeling also enhanced by the incredibly fantastic state of the tarmac. But perhaps most enhanced by the enormous building vibe you can literally see. In Michener's Poland I read that every Pole is born with a sword in one hand and a brick in the other. We were astounded to experience what it means when your highschool history book tells you "Warsaw was rebuilt." To the last cobblestone we experienced. Gdansk (Danzig) rebuilt to the last cobblestone. The last painting on the houses. Roads that are build. We found many fluent in English or German and some even in French. Poland is also the homeland of great scientists such as Copernicus and Marie Curie. Scientists who delivered crucial contributions to our current societies. What I found fascinating especially in comparison to other European countries we visited is the amount of public honor these scientists receive. Copernicus for example has many statues across the bit of Poland we cycled, including an entire square in Warsaw.

Copernicus in Frombork

Well, it may be clear: we really, really had a great holiday with many inspirational and insightful moments to take with me for the second half of 2012!

Professor in Science Education

professor Maartje!

I apologise: professor of science education is not her official title. But she knows a heck of a lot about it and researches that topic. I am talking about prof. Maartje Raijmakers Phd.. Nearly six weeks ago she was installed as an affiliated professor Cognitive Development. Her inaugural speech (in Dutch only, sorry!) I thought was enlightning. Her goal is to gain further scientific insight in how children learn especially in the field of science and technology. A fascinating field as a a lot of assumptions are made on this process but surprisingly little actual research is done to provide fundaments to hypothesis made or to counter commonly used methods.

Exploring this field will undoubtedly be an innovative journey. To me her "professorship" in itself is an innovation, a huge step for science centers and others involved in what is commonly known as in- and/or nonformal education (the boundaries between the two are so theoretical). Maartje is professor on behalf of the Dutch National center Science and Technology/Science Center NEMO. And that alone is an innovation! Or maybe rather: a new step in the continuous professionalisation of the sector. A milestone in the development I'd say!

Maartje was so kind to be part of the annual sabbatical days of the education department of the Dutch National Center Science and Technology which I happily chaired. She shared her research with us and we discussed how to best feed into each others activities: the professionals from the educational department from their hands on/brains on work and Maartje from her scientific perspective. With Rooske Franse as the proverbial bridge between them as she is both working for the educational department and has taken up a position as Phd student with Maartje. I cannot wait to experience what this new milestone will mean for the National Center, Maartje, Rooske and the science center sector as a whole!

Death by detail :-)

Over the past months I was a happy part of the Europeana office, supporting, coaching, guiding and helping the event organisation to reach the next level. A challenge because Europeana is above all a network organisation. Which means that pretty much every event is organised with an external partner usually in another country.

Organising a tight event, with strong, interlocked content that offers a real experience to the participants as well as inspiration and that is not finishing off the crew is at the best of times quite a feat. Having to do so with external partners adds different organisations with each their own logics and different cultures to the equation. And with that a heap of things that are basically out of your hands.

Over the course of the first half of 2012 I think we indeed achieved incredible progress! We introduced event briefings, a format in which the event leads jot down their vision of the event in a structured way including budget etc. which helped internal but also external communications forward. In addition we started working with roadmaps, which to those not so used to running conferences might easily bring on “death by detail”. In these docs we think through the entire conference step by stap, action by action in the preparation, interlocking everything into a smooth event. And finally a roadmap for the conference days themselves, outlining every little step that needs to be undertaken to make guests and speakers feel at home and thus perform at their best.

The Europeana team organised a staggering 6 high level, all totally different big events in the first half year. Mind you: for no one at the office this is full time work! It’s all in addition to other tasks with their own deliverables. The much anticipated Europeana event in Brussels was attended by many Ministerial delegations and ran very smoothly also with the Brussels team. The Plenary in Leuven was nothing short of a smash hit, with Europeana receiving many compliments via twitter. Rightly so! And how nice of guests and speakers to openly give their compliments this way! It's really heartwarming.

To me the entire experience and my role as an “advisor” (never ever thought I’d be one in this lifetimeJ) was magic. To me professionaly you added a new layer of fun, a new depth to my experience and a confirmation that one best leads by example in stead of offering theoretical advice and “training from a distance", by which I mean training in an artificial setting with thought out situations. The challenge is in the lack of control of many factors and then act accurately, decisively, in good spirits with a good sense of humour. Rather: just do it, do it together, learn from each other in good spirits and off we go to the next level! From this little corner of the internet I wholeheartedly applaud the team for their achievements over the past months. We really managed to deliver great team work. I felt very much at home in your team. Thanks for your warm hospitality! I’ll surely miss my Wednesday at your office.

A Network for Science Communication

It’s been quiet on the blog for a while….I was out workingJ Amongst others on a safari to find out whether a Science Communication Network of national organisations involved in science communications supported by a professional could count on passionate support and input. A tricky question seeing the current landscape of recession. Over the course of the past months I spoke to not less than 14 parties, represented by warm and enthusiastic people, who were all granted me a view of their thoughts and feelings vis a vis such a network. I am now in the final stages of reporting back, so it’s a tad to early to write about the results on this blog, but I surely will later.

One of the sources of inspiration mentioned was the Australian Network of Science Communicators. I had vaguely heard from them but of course when it was mentioned I started following it more closely. Definitly a good tip when you are looking for an informative informal network. So check it out!

Another thing in The Netherlands to check out is this network (Dutch only for the moment) with the attractive tagline: for everyone with a story about science. Well we all have one I think! So check it out and contribute!

Meeting of cultures

Through my work on the benchmark for the Delft science center I got in touch with the Legermuseum (army museum) in Delft. A museum with the rare ambition to take on educational projects with a strong ethical dimension. I was contracted as an advisor for the project on Strangers in Focus (Fremde im Visier). An exhibition created by Petra Bopp with the private, long forgotten photos taken by German soldiers in the war as topic. Fascinating topic, espcially when you realise that photography wise it was early days yet for this type of photography. The pictures are sometimes extraordinarely jolly and sometimes harrowing. 


So....what do we do with this project educationwise? Target group was clear: young adults, 16-18 year olds. German young adults and Dutch young adults. We definilty wanted something with a dialogue. Early thoughts went towards the debate form. But that means opposing parties. Exactly what we did not want. We aimed for a good conversation, with the elusive mutual understanding as the envisaged result. The "picture of the other". Out went the debate, in came the conversation. No set model, no set structure. Just a conversation between the groups on different angles of the exhibition. Do you actually think that the pictures are aesthetically beautiful? Although they depict sometimes brutal events? To what extent is society responsible for the behaviour and deeds of its army in wartime abroad? What story do the pictures tell about the country the soldiers were in? What are the stories from your own family in WWII? What is your view on the current relation between Germany and The Netherlands?


Once we had the loose form of a conversation as the finale of the project, we reasoned backwards from their. Preparations to be done: finding schools and teachers that wanted to cooperate. A mailing to several schools in the area resulted in two very enthusiastic teachers responding: Markus Schickentanz from the German School in The Hague and Linda van de Beek from Sorghvliet Gymnasium. They offered their advice and support and involved their students. We organised a class for the students by a professional photographer on what you can read from pictures: from the angle they were taken from, the subject, the composition etc. All the things you think you know but that got me by suprise during a symposium the Legermuseum organised to open the exhibition. A professional journalist gave an interview class. Because during the visit to the exhibition we wanted the youngsters to interview each other on the pictures. Both groups are fluent in both Dutch and German, so little language problems expected and the teachers would be at hand. 


As ever the project was continuous work in progress:-) Whilst organising and preparing we all of a sudden realised that it would be great if the students could be filmed telling their story on a personal item or picture that to them was the quintessential image of WWII. Which they all did! A huge applause for them. Imagine being 16 and telling on video your story, to be seen by your class mates and the students from the other school. Wauw. 


It all came together the morning of 14 June. The movies with the stories of the students were edited and shown in the theatre. Offering input for thought and the conversation. In teams of two - one Dutch one German student - the students visit the exhibition, meanwhile interviewing each other but mainly getting to know each other. Culminating in a conversation with Thierry Baudet as chair. Who offered a great open floor for stories leading to better understanding of each other. Students told their experiences, how they view the other culture, which prejudices are still alive and what they experience living as a German in The Netherlands. Their openness, honesty, well spokenness and authenticity leaving all of us pretty much flabbergasted. 


What a morning. What an experience. And what a guts of the Army museum, the schools and the teachers to dive into such an open structured educational project. As we speak (ehmm....I write:-)) this blog we are still working to push some plublicity out. So watch the newspapers, the project might just appear in it! Below some fragments of the symposium that was organised by the Army Museum on 26 April to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.

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Riding my bicycle

I cycle past this poster hanging in a shop window in Noordeinde every Wednesay on my way to Europeana. I find it hugely inspiring and I thought I'd better get off my beloved bike for a sec and take a picture of it. It signals my own steps in focussing solely on MK5060 and the preserves but also the steps we are making in furthering Europeana's event organising activities. The first half year of this organisation features a stack of events. Some small, some large, some for the public and some on a high policy level. Some more complex, some relatively straight forward. Over the past months we have established event teams and accompanying work processes, including roadmaps, event briefs and the likes. Working from the perspective that the content side and the operational side need each other to produce the envisaged event.

For me it is a shift from the hands on project management work to an advisory role. Although I am probably still a very hands on advisor:-). I find that the advisory role really adds another layer to my work allowing me to transfer my experience and to grow in another role. To continuously move between strategy, content, operational and team building. Balancing between the need for processes and people. As such it adds a new depth for me as well to my my experience, which by now somebody ever so kindly pointed out spans over 15 years. Ooops. Yes, grey hairs are showing around the temples. Growing older, yes. Wiser....I'd better leave that up to you....