Written by Gene Marrano

Photo by David Hungate

One thing about Nancy Ann McCrickard is certain: the executive director of the Science Museum of Western Virginia is very enthusiastic about the future and the inspiring role of science. McCrickard was the director of education before succeeding Stuart Hill this past year… She started as a volunteer seven years ago after moving to the Roanoke Valley. It’s probably not a shock that she taught middle and high school science in suburban Chicago and Newport News. With some 40 programs for local schools, the Science Museum of Western Virginia has been in the education business for years and on a recent afternoon held an open house for area teachers, who came by to learn about curricula associated with the Standards of Learning.

What has this part-time doctoral student at Virginia Tech so enthused is a makeover already in progress at the science museum, which is located at Center in the Square. In the next few years the facility that covers parts of two floors will roll out three new exhibits dealing with healthy bodies, healthy Earth, and how they function. “We have launched a plan to reinvent the science museum,” says McCrickard. Before their official debut, these new galleries will be open to museum patrons. An interactive discovery room for very young scientists is also under way.

A 40-foot long “living river” should be up and running in November. It will allow visitors to learn about watersheds, swamps, flora, and fauna along the riverbed. One new gallery will roll out in each of the next three years, with, a new program How It Looks in 2010 that will look behind the scenes at things at everyday things that we take for granted. Elsewhere look for walls to come down and other exhibits to change. She calls it all “an aggressive plan to update this facility.” McCrickard wants the remade organization to be a role model for small-to-midsize facilities elsewhere.

McCrickard’s other fundraising ventures included entertaining some key museum backers last month at a “reinvention meeting,” giving them a sneak peak at the Healthy Bodies exhibit, which will focus on exercise, nutrition, and mental health. A giant iberglass-molded mouth that makes eating noises when a button is pressed will be the gateway to that gallery. These will be large spaces she promises: “We’re not going to create something small… we’ll do it well.” The galleries will be built locally and an advisory board is weighing in on their makeup. She wants to engage the public in any discussion and says the fluid nature of science demands they keep their ears to the ground.

Getting kids away from Ipods, cell phones, video games, and The Discovery Channel to learn about science in a hands-on environment is the ultimate challenge. “How are we going to increase science literacy?” asks McCrickard. Look for those wordy labels on exhibits to go away —not many read them all the way through in these go-go times she notes. “We want to explore how people are learning…almost like a living lab.”

McCrickard has looked to promote science literacy by teaching classes at the 37-year-old museum, in-home school environments, at summer camp programs, and via outreach classes that she hopes to expand in the future. – She will reach out to people in the community if they won’t come downtown.

In 2006 she was awarded a Science Educator Award by the Virginia Association of Science Teachers. (The museum itself was founded by science teachers.) A West Virginia native and Bridgewater College graduate, McCrickard is now married with two children. She earned a Masters in Teaching from Hollins University. Her current doctoral work at Virginia Tech examines how people acquire knowledge in science in informal settings such as museums.

The current “In the Glow” neon exhibit reinforces that point. It will travel after six months in Roanoke and was created in large part as a complement to the museum’s hosting of The Neon Man, a tribute to the late Roanoke neon artist Mark Jamison. “I’m a theme person,” McCrickard says with a grin. Slash Coleman’s one-man play Neon Man was part of the Roanoke Arts Festival in early October and was staged at the museum’s Megadome Theater/planetarium. “We are the Star City,” McCrickard points out, “[so] people need to know how neon works.”

A graduate of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Roanoke Valley program, there seems to be little doubt that McCrickard will lead her small staff and some willing volunteers with an upbeat attitude about the future. The museum expects to gain more exhibit space once the Art Museum of Western Virginia moves to its new home, which can be seen rising above the Roanoke City skyline just a few blocks away.

“Science Museum of Western Virginia: Questions Answered Here” is the new tag line. “We want to be the place that people can go to have their science questions answered,” she says. Having a place where real life issues such as obesity can be addressed will help make the museum more relevant, according to McCrickard. It has to be something patrons can’t get from the Internet or television, something she calls “a very different environment.” The museum will also incorporate newer technologies. Gallery space on the fifth floor—the second of two the Science Museum uses—will change on a regular basis.

McCrickard also serves on the Promise of Roanoke, which helps to provide the city with a vision for its future in the next century and beyond. Her immediate vision is to recreate the Science Museum of Western Virginia. “I love the informal learning [atmosphere]. I’m on a mission. It’s not a job…I’m on a mission to create something very different here in Roanoke.”