I am posting this announcement and attachment for a colleague of mine at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Siobhan Starrs
NMNH - Rm. 77A
Washington, DC 20560
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The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center are developing a exhibit to illustrate the connections among Earth's systems: land, air, water, and life. Once completed, it will be licensed to other museums interested in adopting the exhibit for their visitors. For more detailed information, please see the attachment.
We would like to determine if this exhibit is of interest to museum professionals. If your museum might be interested in this exhibit or is exploring similar exhibition techniques, please send an email to Amy Kover at [log in to unmask] Amy will contact you shortly to answer any questions you may have and to determine specific needs your museum may have regarding this type of an exhibit. Your name and information will only be used to help Smithsonian staff in the further development of the exhibit. Your information will not be sold, exchanged, or used in any other context.
Thank you for your time.
Attached Description:
Forces of Change
Global Links Exhibit
Forces of Change-Global Links is an innovative exhibit developed by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural (NMNH) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Goddard Space Flight Center Visualization Analysis Lab (VAL). The goal of this unique partnership is to develop a series of exhibits that bring the dynamics of Earth systems science (ESS) to museum visitors through the use of real-time satellite imagery and the NMNH's renowned collections. By presenting museum objects along with remote sensing visualizations, this series of exhibits will present a unique, global perspective of the Earth by linking its systems, including air, land, water, and life.
The Global Links exhibit is being designed so it can be adapted by other museums and educational institutions interested in illustrating ESS. It could be presented in small to large exhibit spaces and will operate using low-cost, low-maintenance display components. This design will ensure that museums with limited financial, space, and personnel resources can showcase the exhibit.
Exhibit Storyline
The Global Links exhibit will accommodate a series of stories associated with ESS. The first story in this series will focus on El Niņo.
The El Niņo story will showcase connections among the Earth's systems using remote sensing satellite imagery and NMNH objects. These connections will illustrate how the changes in currents and temperature of the Pacific Ocean alter weather patterns (local, regional, and global), sizes and availability of fish populations, agricultural production, and human migration. The story also will consider cultural changes that result from El Niņo events, past and present. Additional story components will include outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as typhoid, malaria, and Hanta virus, and the potential influences of global warming and human activities on the mechanisms of El Niņo.
Potential remote sensing components will include images highlighting the interactions between atmospheric winds, currents, ocean temperatures, tracking rainfall patterns that define an El Niņo event, and depictions of floods, droughts, and forest fires. Enhancing the satellite imagery will be photographs; museum specimens like mollusk shells, coral reef cores, and tree rings showing altered growth patterns during El Niņo events; maps illustrating ocean currents in El Niņo and non-El Niņo years; and graphs showing changes in sea surface temperatures indicating El Niņo years during the past 50 years.
Stories for the Global Links exhibit to be developed in the future include ozone, phytoplankton blooms, carbon dioxide emissions, and nitrogen runoff.
Physical Display
The area of the NMNH's Global Links exhibit will be approximately 1,000 square feet. Four plasma screens will display images of the Earth's four components, land, air, water, and life, as well as other visuals that will help to tell the exhibit's story. A touch-screen will present remote sensing images and animations related to the exhibit's storyline that will allow visitors to navigate through the story. At the perimeter of the touch screens will be display cases containing objects that bring a physical component to the storyline.
Exhibit Concepts
The core of the Global Links exhibit is that Earth is a dynamic system. The exhibit will explore the Earth's components, including land (geosphere), water (hydrosphere), air (atmosphere), and life (biosphere). The physical, chemical, and biological processes that transmit change throughout the system and human activities that influence that system will be included.
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