Conversations about . . . Museums and Science

Rob Semper, Executive Director of the Exploratorium (San Francisco, CA) and UM Professor of Physics, Timothy McKay, engage in a conversation about the presentation of science in today’s museum, Winter 2006.

Our featured guest, Dr. Rob Semper, a physicist and science educator, is Executive Associate Director of the Exploratorium, and is responsible for leading the institution’s work in developing programs of teaching and learning using exhibits, media and Internet resources. He is head of the Exploratorium’s Center for Learning and Teaching which contains the institution’s programs in teacher professional development, youth programming, publishing, media and Internet development. Dr. Semper is the principle investigator on numerous science education, media and research projects including leading the National Science Foundation sponsored Center for Informal Learning and Schools, a research collaboration between the Exploratorium, U.C. Santa Cruz and King’s College, London which studies the relationship between museums and formal education. He is also Co-PI on the NSF funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, a national network of science centers designed to foster engagement of the public with the nanotechnology field. He leads numerous research and development projects in new media including wireless networks, handheld computing and advanced Internet applications.

Rob Semper will be interviewed by Dr. Timothy McKay, Associate Professor of Physics and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education, University of Michigan. Dr. McKay is also well known to many for his role in the popular “Saturday Morning Physics” series.

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Michigan Museum Studies Program, The Exhibit Museum of Natural History, and the Office of the Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.