On the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History, there was a new temporary exhibit called Cell Phones: Unseen connections. This area revealed different information about the origins, history, and impact of cellphones. One of the three different presentation techniques I saw were live videos allowing viewers to play a game and a video, explaining how cables are connected throughout different continents. I believe this is an effective way at presenting information because it is very interactive while informing the viewer about informational facts about the subject. Another way the museum informed viewers was through a big wall, displaying the difference of life before cell phones and after cell phones. This wall included a representation of actual items that were used in both of these time periods and little cards informing people about how cell phones had affected the world. Finally, throughout the exhibit, there were physical examples to understand what technology currently looks like. One specific example they had was a physical representation of core network infrastructure, which currently serves as the brains behind the network system. These examples also include description along with the physical item that describes each point in the technology. I believe that this is effective because it keeps people engaged with something to look at rather than just text. In order to present information about environmental issues of cellphone technology, the museum showed the minerals used to make cell phones, revealing specific examples of the minerals. Additionally, it showed who created and manufactured your phone and how they go from simple materials to actual technology. Within the exhibit, there was a section called Should I Keep It? talking about electronic waste and the carbon footprint cell phones create. In addition to this, this section states that e-waste harms others when not safely processed, so people shouldn’t just throw away their phones. In order to decrease the environmental impact with cell phones, people should find a way to extend the life of the cell phones. The exhibit also talks about the technological and social impacts of cellphones. Two examples of social impacts of cell phones are apps that allow people to learn languages and translate them and the development of the brain. This made it easier for people to communicate with one another even if they weren’t a part of the same culture. In order to convey this, the exhibit used a large wall to represent the life before and after cellphones, using actual items to represent the items that were replaced with cell phones. The development of the brain allows everyone to access the internet and was the initial starting point of cellphones. This information was connected to a display of an actual operating brain with facts on poster boards explaining the operation of the brain and what it does. One of the technological impacts of cellphones was the development of digital photos compared to camera photos. Before this, people would have to print physical copies of the photos in order to see them, but with digital cameras people do not have to do this and can have instant access to them on their phones. This was also displayed on the wall on the side of before cellphones with an actual camera and examples of polaroid films.
The Climate Change exhibit in the David H. Koch hall of Human Origins is an exhibit that represents the most recent part of human evolution. Some different topics that were discussed throughout this section was bipedalism, the act of walking upright, new tools and foods, and changing bodies and sizes. Bipedalism started due to humans living near open areas and dense woods that caused them to evolve to walking upright. Humans became bipedal 6 million years ago and were fully bipedal by 1.9 million years ago and to represent this time scale, the exhibit showed examples of actual skulls from one of the earliest humans and the leg skeletons of these humans as well. For their new tools, there were various examples including tools created through shaping rocks, discovering fire to cook food with, and creating tools through the animals they hunted (clothes and more tools). There were displays of the actual tools they used in order to hunt like the ant dipping tool and chimpanzee spear, while also having videos of how to make a tool from a rock. One of the earliest discoveries of human bodies changing were from their mostly plant diet, causing them to grow wider rib cages compared to now. Then, due to the hotter climates, their bodies evolved in order to stay cooled throughout the weather and in cooler climates, their bodies stayed short and wide to conserve heat. In order to represent this information, they had displays with a neanderthal thigh bone with a video of the expanding world of homo erectus. I agreed that this exhibit de-emphasizes the human impact on environment and climate because there wasn’t much discussion on humans impacting their environment and climate, just how the change in environment and climate affected humans.
Also on the first floor is the exhibit of climate change and human impact in the Sant Ocean hall. Here, they have the Changing Ocean on the right side of the hall with various interactive videos for people to watch and learn about the ocean. One of the videos was called the Deep Sea Creatures, going into several organisms that resided within the deep ocean. An example of one is the henricia, a type of sea star that feeds on sponges. This video is completely straight forward, providing images and information about each of the species being talked about, making this video understandable for anyone interested. Another video that the station provides goes into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large area filled with various types of marine debris. Throughout this patch of garbage, they are made up of microplastics and other plastics. These patches are vast in size and are constantly moving, making it harder to clean up, however, the ultimate solution for these vast patches of garbage is through the three R’s: Recycle, Reuse, Reduce. Also in the exhibit is the Global Ocean video, a video in the shape of the Earth, showing various information about it. Examples of what the video shows are the continents separating, where all earthquakes occur on Earth, and etc. This format of showing information about the Earth is optimal for showing global effects due to the constant rotation of the screen because it physically shows how the earth’s continents moved and traveled and the actual natural disasters that occurred throughout the world. The video talks about Pangea, how all the continents were all merged together a long time ago and shows the movement of plate boundaries and therefore the continents. It also discusses the movement of oceans through dropping rubber ducks to measure the movement of the water.
In the Climate Change section in the David H. Koch hall of Fossils - Deep Time, there were various artworks and fossils revealing life throughout time. Within this hall, there are several different pylons showing different time periods. In the 2.6 million years ago to today pylon, represents the recent ice ages due to the climate fluctuations and human expansion in the world. Earth’s climate shifted from warm to cold during the ice ages and the huge ice sheets would grow and shrink due to this. The wooly mammoths roamed through the cold north and the giant ground sloths wandered in the warmer areas farther south. I think these exhibits would be effective because they have a good balance between live displays and information. Although, kids may not read through all of the text that was there. In the 66 million to 2.6 million years ago, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere decreased and the continents moved towards current positions. This period started out warm, but then cooled and dried over millions of years. This period’s geography was filled with dense, wet forests from North America to Alaska. I think the exhibits could put the information into better sections because there is a lot to look at and can be confusing to tell what one is supposed to see. Throughout the exhibits there are a series of exhibits that describe climate change throughout the past and present. The time period that was represented was 70,000 years ago to today, talking about human footprint and using maps to represent the areas that have land growing and land use and extinction. This exhibit has various percentages of extinctions depending on the weight of the animal and maps of where humans have traveled throughout the world. This exhibit effectively explains how fossils and geological information about the current or future climate change due to each part showing how extinction in each continent came about from humans. This exhibit provides a great number of informational facts that are spread throughout a large area, making it easier for people to walk through and understand and stay engaged with the information.