Erika Shugart is the deputy director of the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, which opened four years ago at Sixth and E streets NW, and is aimed at teaching visitors how to use scientific knowledge in their everyday lives and the decisions they make. Shugart oversees the development of exhibits and the museum Web site (koshland-science-museum.org).
What kind of exhibits are in the museum?
There is an exhibit on global warming that shows people how their lives can affect the environment and there is an exhibit on infectious diseases, which could inform people such as those who are deciding whether to vaccinate their children. We also have a Lights at Night exhibit, which lets people go in, and zoom around the globe and see which places are light and where places are dim and how that has changed over time. You can actually see how the suburbs have gotten brighter in the past few decades.
Who visits the museum?
Since we’ve been open, we’ve gotten more and more foot traffic from people just passing by. We get about 30,000 visitors a year. Our museum is aimed at adults but also teens, which is when you first start thinking about how your decisions affect the world. The people who come in are interested in science, but most of them are not scientists; they don’t have a background in science but want to get more information on topics like global warming.
What do you do?
I have one of the fun jobs in D.C. I like to think of myself as a translator. I work with the scientists to help them realize the information they want to communicate and then I work with design and multimedia firms to help create exhibits that explain the science.
What is the most interesting aspect of the job?
The thing I like most about my job is I get to continually learn new things. I’ve learned a lot about climate change and I’ve learned a lot about HIV and malaria that I had never learned before.
How effective has the museum been in influencing visitors?
We find that there is a certain percentage of visitors who have an attitude change and a certain percentage who come away with new knowledge. Sometimes you may not convince someone, but if they have more information, they can go away and think about it. What we really want to present is a range of options. We don’t advocate points of view, we are just trying to give them the science portion of it.
