International Science Center and Science Museum Day 2016

On November 10, 2016, on the occasion of the World Science Day for Peace and Development and in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Council of Museums, science centers, science museums, and their networks worldwide will organize the first International Science Center and Science Museum Day (ISCSMD). On that day, science centers and science museums are invited (and encouraged!) to offer activities based on one (or more!) of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) declared by the United Nations (UN). Building upon that UNESCO theme of “Science for Peace and Development,” our goal is to create new ways for our institutions to proactively address global sustainability while reaching increasingly diverse audiences. ISCSMD aims to demonstrate the engagement and impact of the science center and science museum field and to present them at the Science Center World Summit in Tokyo in November 2017.

International Science Center and Science Museum Day flyer (PDF)

As we start to mobilize for ISCSMD, we invite individual science centers and science museums to begin an online dialogue about the event. Help us bring the conversation alive by submitting a blog post and letting all of us know what is working (or what you’d like to improve) in your center relative to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. How can you start? Identify one goal (or more!) linked to an exhibition or a program that you currently offer or plan to undertake. Share your successes, challenges, and ideas for change, either that you’ve already made or hope to make. Your posts—and the discussions that result—will not only inspire comments from the field, but will be used to set the stage for the aforementioned expert-led mini-conference. Plus, when the official ISCSMD website is launched in June, your entries will help make it come alive.

Our first post below describes how Telus Spark (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) seeks to be a place where rich conversations around sustainability can happen through their Energy Sustainability Project—a pilot exhibit designed test to their visitors’ interest in these topics.