NAMES 2020 is the Network’s 7th Biennial Conference; it takes place 8-10 September in Konya, Turkey, where it will be hosted by Konya Science Center. The overarching theme of the Conference is Design: What's Next? (مستقبل التصميم في توصيل العلوم); a call for finding ways to deal with future challenges in in science engagement, especially within science centers and museums to maintain relevancy.
The Call for Session Proposals is open as of Sunday, 2 February; check out the Session Proposal Guidelines, get in touch with your peers to develop an inspiring session proposal to share with us your much-valued experiences, whether it be best practices or lessons learnt. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the final deadline to receive session proposals has been postponed to Thursday, 30 April 2020.
Time is changing; consequently, people’s expectations from science centers and museums inevitably change. People’s perspectives and attitudes have converted because of new media tools; the potentials of these new media tools have contributed to the rise of new educational techniques across the world. Moreover, new media tools give an extensive opportunity for collecting big data analysis, including science center/museum visitors’ behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives. To benefit from data analyses in a significant way, said institutions might need to reorient their missions, goals, and, especially, their contents.
NAMES 2020 aims to seek answers to how to design for science engagement, especially science centers and museums, for the future together. We wonder how currently trending topics will affect science engagement and its institutions in the future; what awaits the field in the coming years? What changes have occurred in visitors’ expectations and experiences? What will be the impact of big data and artificial intelligence in science engagement institutions?
Subtheme 1 – Media: Design for New Media
- New visitor experience with new media
- How to make exhibits compatible with new media
- How to use new media in popularizing science
- How to produce Instagram-able workshops/exhibits
- How to design reproducible/copy-paste workshops/exhibits
- How to improve existing storytelling tools for science centers/museums
- How to create new virtual laboratories for science centers/museums
- How do virtual laboratories influence learning/teaching techniques
Subtheme 2 – Content: Design for Big Data
- How to imagine artificial intelligence and/or big data exhibits with art
- How to design new exhibits based on big data
- How to design workshops understanding big data
- How to adapt big data for daily life
- How to take advantage of big data in science centers/museums
Subtheme 3 – Sociability: Design for Social Impact
- How to offer programs to refugees in science centers/museums
- How can science centers/museums impact business retail attitudes
- How can science centers/museums contribute to community development
- How can science centers/museums accumulate the sharing of ideas, information, and values; the development of empathy and understanding of other people’s ideas and culture
- How can science centers/museums change public awareness of issues and attitude