by Janne Kiik, Customer Experience Manager, Science Centre Ahha
I had a great opportunity to take part in this year’s Nordic Science Center Conference as a scholarship holder. The conference took place in Sweden, Norrköping in the Visualization Center.  

The first day, 16th of November, we were welcomed at the birthplace of The WISDOME project and one of the world's most advanced 3D Dome Theatres with Making Magic 3D Dome show. These WISDOME productions aren’t average 3D movies, but part real-time, interactive dome shows on topics such as the science behind visual effects, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and so on. Making Magic was a story about how visual effects are created for film and computer games from equations to explosions. I really hope that one day we have a similar dome theatre in Estonia as well. It was really great!
After that, we had a really nice dinner with local food and ended the night.

 On 17th November we started with presentations. The first one was “What role as science communicator do Science Centers play?” I learned new things about public engagement and we listened to topics about open access to open science and citizen engagement. We discussed how to bring science closer and how to explain scientific processes to the audience.

As a second part of the presentation, we talked about misinformation and disinformation about COVID and vaccines and how important it is to communicate and learn facts because increased knowledge leads to a positive attitude towards science.

We also had a presentation about New tech in the “WISDOME” and WISDOME-Project, as we were introduced to design principles for domes and what equipment to choose for the dome.

During the day we also took a group photo and had traditional Swedish lunch, after that we played an Escape the PAUS game where we were able to learn about the virtual autopsy.  

We were told about the work behind virtual autopsy and we heard a story about a mummy whose murder was solved about 5500 years later with the help of 3D visualisation of the CT scan showed that this murder was probably caused by a sharp-pointed weapon.  

In the dome, we also saw scientific visualisations about the dynamic molecular world we all carry inside of us. We explored mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, and learned how we are connected to all livings on earth. I think that these kinds of visuals are a great way for learning!

In the evening we also had a guided city tour. We were told about the history and saw the city center and some main attractions.  

We finished the day with a Grand Dinner in the Historical location of Värmekyrka. It was a building that was called “hot church” or “church of hot” in translation. Dinner was accompanied by live music and entertainment.


Last day, the 18th of November, we had a presentation of next year’s NSCA host -Denmark. After that, every Science Center had a chance to present their presentations about what’s new in our Science Centers. As I have never been to any of them, I had a great chance to get to know them. I hope to visit one of the openings of Latvian Science Centers.

Last but not least we had a stand-up for Science by Anders Sahlman. He told us about how scientists can catch the attention of the public and keep them involved, his main goal was to teach how to cause great emotions and get people really interested and listen. He taught us how to make a great presentation and we then made a presentation by ourselves and presented it to the person next to us. I think I got some great learning points.  

In conclusion, it was a very exciting conference and I learned a lot, got to meet a lot of great people and had a lot of fun! I really hope that I will a have chance in the future to take part in it again.  

Best regards,
 
Janne Kiik
Customer Experience Manager
Science Centre Ahha