January 08, 2009

Creating an Outreach Community

For nearly a thousand years scholars have gathered together in communities called university campuses. Being together in one place speeds discussion, discourse and discovery. It can also speed the sharing of science with the public. Just as researchers point to the value of being together in large, multidisciplinary buildings--to enjoy the synergies of working together--so too can a comprehensive, full-spectrum science venue help science outreachers from different fields come to work together.

Creating synergies among the science outreach community on a campus can clearly benefit the learners whom we serve. The learner gains a more comprehensive view of the frontiers of science and of the interplay of different scholarly fields, and the different approaches and mindsets those fields bring to bear on an intriguing puzzle or on a pressing public issue.

We also embrace the expectation to constantly seek, find or create new ways to deliver more service with the same resources. This is the essence of synergy: when possible, work together, especially if the combined work creates something greater than the sum of its parts.

Moreover, a large research campus such as that of University of Wisconsin-Madison commonly will have a series of small, highly focussed science venues that may be open only for limited hours and can welcome only a few visitors at a time, often by appointment only. The Wisconsin Idea Science Center would synergize, not supplant, these "boutique science venues", by providing a central place for groups to gather and coordinate their expeditions to the boutiques.

In these ways, therefore, the Wisconsin Idea Science Center provides the physical space, the common venue, for cultivating and growing the science outreach community on campus.