A Conversation with Dr. Paul Kortenaar

Let's Talk with Che Marville

In today's episode, Che had the privilege to speak with Dr. Paul Kortenaar, CEO of the Ontario Science Centre. He is on a mission to make the virtual and physical science centre experience more accessible, fun, inclusive and engaging and he shares how he and his team are navigating through the pandemic experience. Dr. Kortenaar is not new to the Science Centre, he actually was a teacher in the Science School in 1995 and was Director of Education from 2008 to 2012. He then went on to be the CEO of SciWorks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and most recently was the Founding Director of the El Paso Children’s Museum in Texas.

He is excited about the dynamic multi-dimensional team working at the Science Centre and all the new ways that they are discovering how to advance access to science education while also building new avenues to different audiences, and establishing a global brand as a trusted source of information, education and inspiration. He has a firm commitment to bringing the Science Centre experience to their embedded communities, the province and visitors from around the world. The pandemic has not stopped Paul and the team from creating in fact it has pushed them to design and develop more digital tools, resources and social channels that have no geographic boundaries. Most recently, the Science Centre produced a new website resource, https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/what-s-on/digital-disinformation-plus-covid-19 to help to stop the spread of disinformation and confusion about COVID-19 because of the epidemic of information overload, which scientist now refer to as an “infodemic” to describe the overwhelming amount of information, "some good and some bad, that is shared online".

Take a listen, visit the science centre's website here https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/ and share the show.