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Together again: Day 1 of the 2025 ASTC conference in black and white

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SAN FRANCISCO, California — The Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) held its annual conference in San Francisco from September 5 to 8, 2025, bringing together science engagement professionals from museums, science centers, and allied organizations. The 2025 theme focused on connectivity.

This photo essay covers scenes from the first day of the conference to showcase the world of public engagement practitioners coming together to build new and strengthen existing ties, as they work to connect science and society.

The 2025 ASTC conference’s theme was connectivity, which they stated underscored “the critical role science centers and the science engagement field play in communities, helping people connect to knowledge, with each other, and across society.” Here, Tim Ritchie (President of Boston’s Museum of Science) shares some remarks on the opening day of the conference. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Attendees mingle at the entrance to the conference exhibit hall inside the Moscone Center West building in downtown San Francisco. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
A Starlab exhibit showcasing a portable learning dome with the aim of helping students explore astronomy, earth sciences, geography, meteorology, and more. Andrew German explains how the demo works here. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
An attendee explores a poster titled “Rooted in STEAM” at the Planetary Health Action Fair during the conference. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Jen Kretser (bottom right) poses for a photo with high school students who presented posters at Planetary Health Action Fair during the conference. One can’t help but wonder about the lasting impact on the students from developing their projects and presenting their work in this professional setting. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Rose Hendricks (Seeding Action Research Director at the ASTC) introduces Stephanie Fine Sasse (founder and executive director of The Plenary, Co) to present a talk titled “What Could Be.” (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Samaira Grover, a first time attendee and high school student, volunteering at ASTC’s “Ask Me” booth. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
During one of the ‘Lightning Sessions’ at the conference, Jose S. Sanchez (Director, Greenfield Community Science Workshop) (left) and Sam Haynor (Exploratorium Senior Exhibit Developer/Project Director) showcase a demo of exhiblets, which are “museum-like exhibits from everyday materials for classrooms, libraries, and community centers.” Citing several exhiblet examples, they argued that exhibit-making does not need to be expensive and show how new workshops are now built quickly in diverse communities, and end with a call to action for the audience to start their own community “places of wonder” with support from the alliance of science workshops. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
An attendee explores one of the posters titled “A Field Guide to Interactive Exhibits of the Exploratorium” during the “Poster Palooza.” The poster is Sylvia de la Pledra and Denise King. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Dan Reicher (entrepreneur, investor, policymaker, lawyer and educator) and fellow panelist Brinda Adhikari (award-winning executive producer, showrunner and journalist) listen as moderator Krisan Uhlenbrock (not visible) frames a question during the Alan J. Friedman Science Center Dialogues session. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
A banner at the Planetary Health Action Fair poses the question: What if we value forests like our future depends on them? (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)

Attendees navigate the different rooms featuring talks, panels, and demonstrations. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)

A packed room of conference goers listening to presenters during a session at the conference. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)

Sarah Myers (left), Director of Traveling Exhibits at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, told me that, in addition to being the world’s largest children’s museum —with over half a million square feet across five levels — they’ve run a traveling exhibits program for 33 years. With an in-house team of content developers, designers, and fabricators, they have developed 24 traveling exhibits, including several with science themes, which are available for renting by venues for three-month rotations before moving on. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Emily Weiss, (center)head of Youth STEM Pathways at The Lawrence Hall of Science, in conversation with fellow attendees. On the last day of the conference, she participated in a panel titled “Leveraging Informal STEM Programs for Workforce Development: Building Inclusive Pathways to STEM Careers.” (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)
Attendees stream out of one session and into the next during the 2025 Association of Science and Technology Centers annual conference in San Francisco. (CSML Photo/Fanuel Muindi/Sept 6, 2025)

The day continues here at the Exploratorium.

Fanuel Muindi is a former neuroscientist turned civic science ethnographer. He is a professor of the practice in the Department of Communication Studies within the College of Arts, Media, and Design at Northeastern University, where he leads the Civic Science Media Lab. Dr. Muindi received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and PhD in Organismal Biology from Morehouse College and Stanford University, respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training at MIT.

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