January 08, 2009

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Prospectus for the Wisconsin Idea Science Center
At UW-Madison, we have many venues to welcome the public to come to campus to participate in the life of the university—venues in arts, athletics, music, theater and dance.
But where is the public science venue to match the caliber of science research on campus?

A Proposal for a Public Science Venue on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Why do we need the Wisconsin Idea Science Center?

What would go on at the Wisconsin Idea Science Center?

The Scope of the Idea

Scope of the Idea: Explaining What It Is Not

Why is it important to the University?

Core Functions

What would go on at the Wisconsin Idea Science Center?

Getting A Business Plan:

What we’re doing now:

Parking a Problem?

The solution to the parking paradox is a key to how The WISC will work.
Why do we need the Wisconsin Idea Science Center?
  • We want to involve and to excite people about science, on campus and in person.
  • We want to energize and synergize the community of outreachers on campus in order to better engage people from across Wisconsin.
  • We need to fuel the aspirations of young people and sustain the appreciation of all Wisconsinites by sharing the achievements of scientists and scholars at UW-Madison.
  • We want to excite people about science by welcoming the public to campus and telling the stories of discovery and innovation at the University of Wisconsin.
  • We need to fuel the aspirations of young people and sustain the appreciation of all Wisconsinites by sharing the achievements of scientists and scholars at UW-Madison.
  • We want to attract people (undergrads, grads, young faculty, life-long learners) to come to UW-Madison to experience science as probing the unknown.
  • We need to raise friends and inspire donors to invest in the science enterprise here (including instruction, investigation and outreach).
  • We want to inform people in person about new insights from research.
  • We need to engage people in conversation and discourse on how the research impacts their lives, their families, their fortunes and their futures.
  • We want to involve people in seeing science in their daily lives as the pursuit of “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out,” to use physicist Richard Feynman’s phrase.
  • We need to empower learners of all ages by transforming how people view and do science, and to encourage people to use science better in making personal choices and in forming public policies and in dealing with uncertainty.
  • We want to spark their curiosity, fuel their wonderment, feed their creativity, speed their ingenuity, whet their skepticism, hone their acuity, fire their audacity, and stretch their tenacity in testing ideas through observation, experiment and analysis.
What would go on at the Wisconsin Idea Science Center?

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 Imagine a place open early and closing late, with a welcoming center, hands-on labs, engaging exhibits, meeting rooms, grand halls and tucked-away nooks, an excellent restaurant, an inviting coffeehouse, and a bookstore and gift shop.
Imagine an Elvehjem Museum for the sciences, and include the synergizing cultural impacts of a Memorial Union.
The Wisconsin Idea Science Center would
  1. Welcome people every day, in an organized way, from Wisconsin and all over the world, to come to campus to experience science as exploring the unknown.
  2. Bring together the community of researchers and outreachers by providing a place for hosting meetings, seminars and conferences where we can share ideas, compare approaches and synergize our work in Amplifying the Wisconsin Idea.
  3. Provide a place for hands-on science workshops, with exhibits and lectures and discussions on current research, together with forums and discourse on the social and ethical implications of the scientific issues of the day.
  4. Host special events for recruiting students and faculty, cultivating friends, keeping connected with alumni, and inspiring donors.
  5. Provide an inviting gathering place on the central campus for people to share conversation and ideas over lunch or coffee (or breakfast and hot chocolate).
  6. Serve as a gateway to the rest of the central campus and for all the science enterprise at UW-Madison.
The Scope of the Idea

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  1. It’s about exciting people, igniting inquiry, sparking creativity.
  2. It’s about sharing the stories of science, building on the past and present research on campus, in Madison and across the state to fuel the future of innovation, ingenuity and invention in Wisconsin.
  3. It’s about a public science venue on campus to match the breadth of the research enterprise on campus and to match the commitment to the Wisconsin Idea; a place to welcome people to campus every day in an organized way to experience science as exploring the unknown.
  4. It’s about proclaiming and affirming Hospitality Counts, Venue Matters: This Campus Is a Destination for Exploration.
  5. It’s about fueling Science Savvy: transforming how people view and do science, and enabling people to use science better in making personal choices, in forming public policies, and in dealing with uncertainty.
  6. It’s about synergizing the university’s science outreach enterprise to connect better with communities across Wisconsin, by building Community and Collegiality on Campus.
Scope of the Idea: Explaining What It Is Not
  1. It is not a museum solely for collecting, curating and exhibiting artifacts.
  2. It is not a Hall of Fame.
  3. It is not only for children.
  4. It is bold, but it is not impossible.
A University and a City of Audacity:

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 The Next Stretch Goal for Our Campus and Our Community: no city the size of Madison, and no university the caliber of UW-Madison and UW-Extension, have ever jointly built a public science venue to welcome people every day in an organized way to come to campus to experience science as exploring the unknown; to engage in discussion and discourse about the controversies of the day; and to kindle the ingenuity and to hone the scientific talents of people of all ages.
Why is it important to the University?

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  1. Missionary Reasons:The Wisconsin Idea Science Center would serve the instruction, investigation, engagement missions of the university.
  2. Goodwill Reasons: The W. I. S. C would help generate public goodwill and political support for the work of the university in Sharing Science with Wisconsin.
  3. Enterprise Reasons: The W. I. S. C would help cultivate innovation, ingenuity, and industry in Wisconsin.
Core Functions

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  1. Welcome, Excite and Engage Learners of All Ages
  2. Organize, Energize and Mobilize the Science Outreach Enterprise across Wisconsin
  3. Synergize the Scientific Community on Campus and in Dane County.
Getting A Business Plan:
The Business Plan is vital because it asks vibrant questions:
  1. What are the core activities of the enterprise that will make and cost money?
  2. What are your other sources of money?
  3. What location, how much space, what kind of facilities, how many employees, how many customers, and how big an endowment will you need to achieve and pay for the core activities?
Therefore the Business Plan is an opportunity to invite the participation of key people from the campus, the community, the state, the alumni and the friends of the university.
We can draw on the 1998 feasibility study by White Oak Associates for the IMAX theater and science museum that was proposed for the Orpheum Theater location on State Street. We can also draw on the experience of renovating the Red Gym. The project cost $13 million in 1997-98 for 77,000 square feet.
We need a business plan that will convince ourselves, our leaders, our funders and our skeptics of the feasibility and sustainability of the project.
What we’re doing now:

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  1. Sharing the Vision
  2. Inviting and Organizing Champions: on Campus, in the Community, among the Alumni
  3. Getting a Business Plan
  4. Writing Planning Grants
Last updated June 30, 2005
Contact: Tom Zinnen   Dave Nelson   webmaster