PORTFOLIO

Multimedia stations capture visitors’ building activity, prompt dialogue and reflection, and guide families to produce a digital book with audio narration for download at home. In order to support collaborative learning, the Skyline exhibition uses design strategies borrowed from Reggio educators. For example, a camera built into this exhibit station snaps photos while the family builds, similar to the way Reggio teachers take pictures of children as they work.

A few subtle changes to the design of the construction materials doubled the amount of time girls invested to match that of the boys. These changes ultimately enhanced the gallery for everyone:

• Doubled the size of the holes and the bolts - this reduced the number of threads and sped up assembly
• Introduced a wood triangle to support corners - this made it easier to build a standing structure
• Added fabric panels for walls and roofs - this made the materials more welcoming

Visitors use virtual reality to examine parts of this Apollo capsule as they complete a mission-critical task. Virtual reality reveals aspects of the capsule which are typically inaccessible to the public. 

Visitors  use augmented reality  to "find"  a rover tucked inside the gigantic Mars Airbag Landing System overhead. Airbags cushioned the fall of the Pathfinder rover when it landed on Mars.

Try sneaking through this maze full of sensors without setting them off--light sensors, touch sensors, distance sensors, sound sensors...you'll have to be stealthy. Or switch it up and barge through the maze triggering each of them to turn on stoplights, play back sound effects, and create a little chaos.

Dance on the carpet, plop down on the furniture, move around this high-tech clubhouse and it will react to your motion with music. Move a little faster to crank up the volume, try standing up at the same time as your friend...sensors embedded in the furniture know where you are!

One large-scale experiment in the Science Storms gallery is the Combustion exhibit, a dynamic display which pitts fire against water. Visitors can change several variables: the quantity of fuel feeding the flame, the volume of water raining down from above, and size of the water droplets released from the spout. As the flame grows and shrinks, laser beams reveal the water droplets interacting with it.

In the photo above, two friends quickly turn their attention back to the battle of fire and water after changing a variable on the touch screen. Science Storms introduced sophisticated technology enabling visitors to control, rather than simply observe, science phenomena in a museum setting. However, we ensured that the technology used to control the phenomena did not upstage or distract from the large-scale experiments.

This LEGO installation features a fireworks lighting effect as a backdrop to a city of skyscrapers.  LED matrices built into a LEGO wall are controlled by an Arduino. LEDs on the matrix are on a pitch that aligns with the LEGO grid, making it possible to selectively control which studs light up.

LEDs respond to gravity in this simulation tied to an accelerometer. Microcontroller, LED matrix, and power bank are packaged in an enclosure built entirely of LEGO parts.

Flexible circuit: A clear substrate (such as overhead transparency) is lasercut with holes to fit over LEGO.  Then the substrate is placed onto a LEGO plate. The gray lines of tape run between the studds.

Paper-thin power grid: Ribbons of conductive tape run between the rows of studs on a standard LEGO baseplate. Paper-thin LEDs are pressed onto the power grid. The contacts wrap around to the back.