Science Affair New Director Brings Passion for Learning to SciTech Museum

Jun 14, 07:44 PM

Current Headlines: By Susan Dibble

sdibble@@dailyherald.com

Shawn Carlson, the new executive director of SciTech Hands-On Museum in Aurora, recalls a trip to his grandfather's house when he was 8.

As the family car turned a corner, his mother gasped and his father screamed an obscenity.

His grandfather, who lived in a rural area on the Pacific seaboard, had found a dead whale, cleaned its carcass and reassembled the skeleton on top of his house.

Carlson was fascinated.

Seeing the boy's interest, his grandfather ushered the rest of the family inside the house while he excitedly explained to his grandson the discoveries he had made.

"He was a passionate citizen scientist and he totally infected me with his passion for science," Carlson said.

Charged with a mission to make SciTech a place where ordinary people can do extraordinary science, Carlson will have an appropriate outlet for his passion.

The California native, who took over the helm of SciTech on June 1, is the founder and head of the Society for Amateur Scientists and has gained national media attention for his work in promoting citizen science.

He explained that after earning a doctorate in nuclear physics and working as an astrophysicist for a few years, he realized that narrowly focused research projects did not satisfy him.

"Science encompasses the whole of the physical universe. Why limit yourself?" he said.

Not everyone in the science world saw it that way. After founding the Society for Amateur Scientists in 1994, Carlson says he met with active opposition from some scientists and struggled financially for several years.

His wife, Michelle Tereault, then pregnant with the second of their three children, had just told him he would need to give up SAS and care for the family.

That's when the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave him a nearly $400,000 "genius" grant in 1999 for his work in promoting informal science education.

"My big passion is now science education," he said.

Carlson, who is moving to the area from Rhode Island, said he'll bring the experience and contacts he's gained through SAS to SciTech. He plans to involve citizen scientists in the museum; enable visitors to collect data for projects designed by professional scientists; and create exhibits that let kids experience the wonder of science while computers record information that can be used by scientists.

Students will be able to attend science fair clinics guaranteed to help them turn in a project that wins recognition or it will be bought back. Carlson said he's put the same guarantee on a science fair Web site he's had for years and never once gone in hock for a project.

A Labrats Science Education program that has piloted in New England also starts SciTech this summer. The program, which Carlson describes as a sort of Scouting experience for kids in grades 6 to 12 who like science, emphasizes human values along with hands-on experience.

Carlson worked his way through college as a professional magician and often uses magic in his presentations as a hook to interest kids in science. But he always reveals the secret of what he is doing and encourages kids, telling them they can master the trick too if they work at it.

"We do a great disservice to kids when we just tell them science is fun. Science is also hard," he said. "But it is so incredibly rewarding."

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