This weekend, Vivian and I decided to the explore the I (heart) Science event at the Harvard Museum of Natural History (http://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/i-%E2%99%A5-science). The event gave us a chance to interact with some (adorable) children and their families, as well as some awesome experts, and some creepy critters.
To present our findings, we created an interactive version of the museum map.
Take a walk through the exhibit (starting at the Earth & Planetary Science room and moving to the left) to meet some of the characters we met. Click on the red squares to explore. (Check out our project here: http://um-viz.media.mit.edu/4hoursF/index.html)
(PS: Check out the Evolution room for some truly brilliant insights from the exhibit visitors
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Insights and commentary: Though we chose the event as we thought it would be a fun environment that would provide some interesting opportunities for interactions (and the opportunity to stare at pretty rocks), we ended up gaining a really interesting perspective on how an effective implementation of STEM education outreach actually works! Here are some of the components that we isolated.
Roles: (see character profiles in our map for more details)
- Hobbyists
- Experts
- Non-expert volunteers
- Visitors
- Parents
- Kids
- Community Members
- Educators
Features:
- Interactivity
- Resources/accessibility
- Live demos
- Bite-size pieces of info (with the potential for in-depth exploration)
- Portrayals of reality
- Juxtaposition between high and low-tech
- Wide-age spread
Character profiles included in our map: (Toby Flowers- Rock Ninja, Charlie Flowers- Super STEM Dad, Janani and Shivapriya- Voracious Visitors/ Rad Researchers, George Buckley- Expert)
Results: Fascinating microcosm of the ecosystem of STEM research.
Vivian and Bianca, this is great. I love the format of an interactive map with characters throughout – it connects the stories back to the space where you heard them. The ‘Are Viruses Alive?’ photo is also amazing.
“Yes. Maybe.Dead.” is the title of my next book. You did such a wonderful job on this assignment I am inspired and I want to know how you built this. It completely pulled me in – visually easy to navigate, with terrific first-person voices and mini-biographies (the rock-ninja kid, the girls scared of scorpions). This was wonderful and I will bother you to show me what it took to create something this inviting.