Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has one. Anchorage, Alaska, has one. And even Boise, Idaho, has one. Soon, Salt Lake City will have one, too.
In late 2003, the Utah Science Center will open to the public. The old Salt Lake City Library, which will be vacant once the new city library is completed, will be the home to dozens of scientific exhibits and laboratories.
Following the examples of “second generation” science museums, center director Joseph Andrade said the dominant motif at the Utah Science Center will be learning through interactivity. Earlier science museums tend to house relics of science and provide passive learning. The center will try to go beyond the gee-whiz and superficial and offer a hands-on experience.
“The audience will really get involved,” said Andrade, a bioengineering professor at the U, “and not just push a few buttons like in a video game.”
One of Andrade’s ideas is a station where visitors can learn about their “personal chemistry” through an instrumented urinal. Another requires a participant to wear special clothing and then allow the computer to interpret the dancing or motion into spectacular graphics. Andrade hopes these displays will rouse the curiosity of visitors, making them ask questions such as “How does that happen?” or “How does the computer do that?” As a way to encourage learning and repeat visits, participants are required to complete certain modules before progressing to more difficult and enticing exhibits. A smartcard?an identification card with a microchip?will record the visitor’s accomplishments.
“They will have to do their homework,” Andrade said.
A former dean of the College of Engineering, Andrade thinks the science center can be a showcase for the U’s research efforts. Various departments can contribute to exhibits. In one of Andrade’s classes, all of the students are working on potential ideas for the science center. And if a visitor’s curiosity is not satisfied by the science center, he said, the staff can point them to the university.
Andrade, who had served as the co-director at the U’s Center for Science Education and Outreach until recently, also sees the museum as a way to increase science literacy among the public. In a modern society, major policy decisions require a sound understanding of science and technology. Andrade sees it simply as responsible citizenship.
“All you have to do is take a look at the greenhouse effect issue,” Andrade said. “People just don’t have much of an understanding of the role of energy consumption and utilization.”
Dedicated to science education, Andrade took a two year leave of absence in ’94 from his faculty position to work full time producing a 40 part telecourse series called “Science Without Walls.” He saw a lack of an integrated and coherent view of science among students, and that motivated him to create the course, which aims to break down the “interdisciplinary walls” between scientific fields.
For the science center, Andrade plans to target adults, or kids who want to be treated as adults, as its primary audience, partly because Salt Lake City already has a children’s museum. And he hopes these adults who were discouraged in school by the subject will rediscover science.
“Most adults have a sub-high- school level of science,” Andrade said. “They didn’t take many science classes in their high schools?People who’ve been beat up by science in school can be turned on again by the center.”
The science center will concentrate on three themes: (1) energy?the sun, fusion, nuclear fission, photosynthesis, respiration, etc.; (2) the visitor as an individual?genealogy, genetics, physiology, health, dreams, etc.; (3) our planetary home?climate, biosphere, resources, etc. It will also avoid overlapping on areas of other museums that now exist or are being planned, and therefore will not cover subjects such as outer space (the planetarium) and the ocean (an aquarium is being planned).
Andrade became involved with the Utah Science Center when he was serving on the Hansen Planetarium’s board of directors. As part of its long range planning, the board suggested the idea of a science museum. In 1993, the state Legislature created a 17-member Utah Science Center Authority board that included Andrade to realize the idea. The board looked at the Union Pacific Depot as a possible site, but the $50 million price tag deterred further consideration. After starting an outreach program called Discovery on Wheels but failing to find suitable sites for the science center, the USCA board disbanded in ’98.
In 2000, the science center finally found a home. When the new city library broke ground and the mayor solicited ideas for the use of the old library, the science center was a leading candidate. The names of three other organizations?Global Artways, Center for Documentary Arts and Center for Community and Culture?also came up and will share some of the space in the library with the science center.
Since then, Andrade has been busy raising funds for the project. The old library structure needs $5 million of renovation work before the new tenants can move in. Large slabs on the library’s faade require re-engineering because they probably can’t withstand a major earthquake, and a new spiral staircase is planned to guide the visitors through the science center’s portion of the building. Another $5 million is needed to create exhibits. Also, phase two of the project is a second building next to the old library. The new wing will cost $15 million, a “very rough estimate” by Andrade, and will concentrate on the theme of alternative energy.
Once operational, a portion of the revenue may come from a gift shop, where some museums generate as much as 15 percent of their income. But Andrade estimates about half of the center’s revenue would be from ticket sales, a quarter from government funding and the other quarter from donations.
“One-half of all attendance in U.S. museums is in science centers,” he said. “They attract a lot of school crowds, after-school workshops, family programs and people who are just tired of being a spectator?We can’t watch football all the time.”
Andrade sees his work for the science center as part of his civic duty. Right now, he spends about 25 hours per week working as the science center’s director. Half of that time is used designing exhibits and the other half is for fund raising. This is in addition to the 50 hours he spends per week on his day job, being a researcher, teacher and administrator at the U. He has 50 volunteers helping with the science center and hopes to have 200 by mid-Summer.
“The challenge now is fund raising and getting people to step forward and work,” he said. “Everyone is busy or thinks they’re busy. We need people to work with the education, business, philanthropic and university communities.”