Ontario Science Center on April 18th. The provincial government has announced plans to move the science center to Toronto’s waterfront at Ontario Place.Fred Lamb/Globe and Mail
Leslie Lewis served as Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Science Center from 1998 to 2014. Nancy Lockhart served as Chair of the Ontario Science Center Board of Directors from 1998 until 2006. Jennifer Martin is a visitor to the center, where he is vice president of experience and founder of Spark, where he is CEO. Calgary Science Center. Kevin von Appen is the former director of science communication at the Ontario Science Center.
What should the Ontario Science Center do?
The Doug Ford administration has the answer. The Science Center should help revitalize Ontario Place by demolishing its current building for housing and relocating to Toronto’s waterfront.
But science, like science centers that bring the wonder, joy, discovery and curiosity of scientific inquiry to the public, looks to evidence for answers. That’s how we come up with vaccines that end pandemics and rockets that go to the moon.
As former science center leaders and experts with decades of international experience in the field of science museums, we respect and understand evidence. We believe the evidence shows that the proposal is bad science and bad policy.
Here’s why:
The government says it’s cheaper to tear down the center and build a new one than to repair the existing one. No evidence has been presented to support this claim. Kinga Surma, the minister for infrastructure and minister in charge of moving the center, said he wanted to “triple-check” the figures before releasing them.
Would this work if the minister was a scientist?
If a scientist publishes her conclusions before testing, her colleagues might reasonably answer that she is either not doing her homework (bad) or hiding data that undermines her claims (bad).
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What we do know is that there are more than 3,000 science centers around the world, based on international experience with the costs of developing new science centers and inspired by the examples of early innovators like the Ontario Science Center. will cost at least $400 million to build, possibly more. I can’t imagine a cheaper scenario than renovating the Science Center’s current home.
After decades of failure of successive governments to invest in necessary maintenance in the center, we have reached a tipping point where relocation and renovation are a valid conversation, but Raymond Moriyama’s iconic Architecture can and should be preserved for both economic and cultural heritage reasons.
But most important are the people the Science Center serves. The government’s proposal for a 200,000-square-foot building ignores the size of its main audience in southern Ontario, let alone tourists visiting from elsewhere.
For comparison, Calgary’s Spark Science Center opened in 2011 at a cost of $160 million, providing 153,000 square feet and serving a regional audience of 1.5 million. How will a new Ontario Science Center, half the size of the current one, serve a growing region of over 6 million people? Evidence claims it can’t and won’t.
Since its opening in 1969, the Science Center has welcomed more than 54 million people despite historically poor transport links, averaging one million annual visitors (more than 160,000). students). It has become known internationally for the diversity of its audience, a feature rarely seen in museums.
Visitors to the center reflect the face of Toronto, one of the world’s most diverse cities. It is a rare example of a successful cultural establishment outside the city center and a vibrant anchor for two of Toronto’s historically underserved communities: Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park. and partner. This is evidence of dynamism and success, not of a “tired” institution as Prime Minister Ford suggested.
In fact, the current crisis presents an exciting opportunity to revitalize the Center while using above-ground parking to expand housing, retail and culture at the Center’s location. The Eglington Light Rail Transit Line allows attendees to reach new heights. Good science and good policy go beyond either or both zero-sum arguments. Good science follows evidence.
One last thing to say about these vaccines and rocket ships. They were created through consultation and cooperation. a lot. It’s also how good science and good policy work.
Evidence indicates that the state government neither consulted nor cooperated before announcing its plans. Toronto and Regional Conservation Service, which owns and manages the Science Center’s environmentally sensitive valley land. Not the community of Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park. The Ontario Science Center is his centenary gift, not with the citizens of Ontario, the people’s trust.
That’s bad science. and bad policies.