Ecsite: The European Network of Science Centres and Museums
Science centers—a building full of hands-on, interactive learning exhibitions—are a relatively new phenomenon. Previously, some science museums—buildings containing static exhibitions that discourage/forbid handling of the artifacts and specimens—would incorporate special exhibits that allowed for hands-on opportunities. But the first two places to open their doors as full-fledged science centers did not occur until the late 1960s: the San Francisco Exploratorium and the Ontario Science Centre.
In 1971, 16 science center directors banded together to form a new association since the existing American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums) no longer fulfilled their specific needs. They formed the Association of Science–Technology Centers and, in 1989, a European version of the association was formed: Ecsite.
Ecsite is actually an acronym for “European Collaborative for Science, Industry and Technology Exhibitions.” It was founded by 23 organizations from the European science center scene, and originally their yearly conferences focused exclusively on topics concerning professional science centers. However, over the years the annual conference has expanded to cover science communication more generally, in varied areas from botanical gardens to non-profits to governments. | The 29th Ecsite conference brought together 1,182 professionals from 58 countries in Geneva, under the title "Creative Collisions." |
I built a personal program for which sessions I wished to attend before the conference, and the one I was most looking forward to was on science outreach in the MENA region (Middle East – North Africa). I want a career doing intercultural communication, and the chance to learn about the MENA region meant a lot to me.
I was not disappointed in the least
While the whole panel was fascinating, one of the panelists in particular really stood out. Her name is Shireen Sabanegh, and she is the Deputy Director of The Children’s Museum Jordan.
I had met Sabanegh at a Thursday session on science engagement cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean and Middle East. She was not presenting at that time, but I was in her group during the workshop portion of the session. I was impressed by her then, and after hearing her presentation at the Saturday session, I can definitely say she is now one of my role models.
Shireen Sabanegh Shireen Sabanegh got her BA in Fine Arts and spent five years as a senior designer in the marketing field before deciding to move into education. She taught at the Amman Baccalaureate School (Amman is the capital of Jordan) before The Children’s Museum Jordan hired her as a free-lance content developer to set up the programs department at the Museum. Photo courtesy NAMES. |
The Children’s Museum Jordan was founded in 2007 by Queen Rania Al-Abdullah (رانيا العبد الله), and it is the first and only nonformal science learning environment in the whole country of Jordan. Sabanegh explained the main Museum building—located in the Al Hussein Public Parks of the capital, Amman—holds 187 interactive exhibits, which are spread across:
All images courtesy The Children's Museum Jordan
And then the Syrian refugee crisis
The population of Jordan is a little less than 10 million, which is about the same population as the US state of Michigan. But when Queen Rania Al-Abdullah (رانيا العبد الله) founded The Children’s Museum Jordan in 2007, the country’s population was a little less than 6 million. Where did the additional 4 million people come from? While it might be tempting to attribute it to natural population growth, the truth is that Jordan hosts the second highest number of refugees per capita in the world.
A third of Jordan’s population is refugees, with the majority coming from Syria (fleeing the Syrian civil war, which has been ongoing since 2011). Many of the child refugees are stuck in camps with or without their parents, with no access to formal education.
Sabanegh says The Children’s Museum Jordan wanted to reach these children as well, since their mission is to help all children in need of science education, not just Jordan nationals. And so the Museum launched their new initiative, “Beyond Museum Walls.”
The “Beyond Museum Walls” initiative launched in April 2017, and their website does not yet have a page I can link to about it. This initiative models the Mobile Museum initiative, in that it is a van filled with exhibits that drives to different places, but instead of visiting poverty pockets and underserved communities in Jordan, the “Beyond Museum Walls” van travels to hospitals, refugee camps, and host communities.
Sabanegh says that experience with the Mobile Museum proved useful in developing Beyond Museum Walls, but there were so many more challenges they didn’t fully appreciate until diving in. Each of the six mini-shows they developed to teach basic science needed to have content specifically designed to take emotional sensitivity into account, both for the children and the employees. Sabanegh described how sometimes a child they would see several days in a row would die from their illness, or how some refugee parents would prohibit their daughter from attending any more of the shows once she told them about doing science. Sabanegh described bittersweet moments as well, though, like the mother who said that was the first time she had seen her son smile since being diagnosed with cancer.