Volunteer Tom Clouse helps COSI guests discover the wonders of air pressure.

In Columbus, Ohio, over one million Girl Scouts have shared the same experience: they have all attended sleepover parties inside the Center of Science and Industry. COSI has been running the parties since 1972, and this year’s theme is “grossology.”  Hundreds of girls in grades four through eight will bring their sleeping bags to COSI next January; they will spend the evening learning all about mucus and similar topics, so they can absorb scientific facts while also scrunching up their faces and groaning a lot.  Just before the lights go out, all the girls will gather in the museum’s lobby to dance and jump around while a DJ plays the latest hits by Shakira and Miley Cyrus.  “That is always something to see,” says Heather Popio, COSI’s director of volunteer resources.

In 2009, COSI is celebrating its tenth anniversary in a 320,000-square-foot facility designed by architect Arata Isozaki.  But the museum’s roots go back to the mid-1950s, when a group of local businessmen dreamed of giving Columbus a center to rival the great science museums of Chicago.  Now COSI is playing in the same league as the Field Museum, thanks to extensive help from the community.  The museum gets little government funding. This makes partnerships essential, says Popio.  Last year, 895 volunteers donated more than 40,000 hours inside the museum. But when outreach programs are included, those numbers grow to more than 9,800 volunteers putting in more than 106,000 hours.  “We’ll send a science show to a local school or community group, and their PTA or the neighborhood will send volunteers,” says Popio.

The museum’s most important sponsor might be Ohio State University, one of the largest campuses in the United States.  The University’s main gate is about two miles from the museum’s front entrance, but OSU is also inside the museum every day. The offices of its Center for Family Research are at COSI, and since 2006 the studios of WOSU television have also been here.  The newest OSU partnership has built several working laboratories inside the museum, with transparent walls that turn them into exhibit spaces. Visitors to these “labs in life” learn about the frontiers of exercise physiology and other areas by watching scientists test athletes and other subjects.  Popio says that the museum also has interns from almost every college within commuting distance.  “It’s a symbiotic relationship,” she says.  “We need to bring science to the public, and they need a venue.”

The intake process for volunteers at COSI involves an application, interview, and often a test to see whether the candidate is comfortable speaking to small groups.  About a year ago, the museum started offering volunteers a “career ladder” that gives them tasks of gradually increasing responsibility, ending with a paid position. “We adopted it in an attempt to hang on to more of our teenage volunteers, so we wouldn’t lose them to bagging groceries after their 16^th birthday,” says Popio. “They end up having a richer experience here, along with a stronger college application.”  Nearly 250 people are climbing the ladder. Seven of them have graduated to the COSI staff so far, with more on the way.

Popio stresses that every newcomer to COSI – paid, partner, or volunteer – goes through the exact same orientation process.  “Everyone who works here is part of the same team,” she says.  “That’s built into our culture.”  Clearly, it works. In 2008, COSI was named the best science center in the United States by Parents magazine.  And the Girl Scouts actually sleep, too, thanks to the volunteers who stay up all night to keep tabs on them.