November 14, I attended the Scholars fieldtrip to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in downtown D.C. The air and space museum brings science to the masses in an approachable and understandable way, aimed at inspiring both young and old to understand the worlds history in space flight and our knowledge of the universe. During our trip to the air and space museum, two galleries attracted my interest, these being Looking at Earth and Exploring the Universe.
Looking at Earth
Looking at Earth gave an overview of human endeavors in viewing the Earth from air balloons to satellites, and satellite data retrieval. In an attempt to make the gallery interesting and relatable to the public the tour started out with recent applications of satellites in current events and recent discoveries prompted by satellite data. These included discovery of the Ozone Hole, mapping the shrinking sea ice and the shrinking of the Aral Sea. These discoveries have been major news headlines in the past decade and showing them in the exhibit and how the were discovered using remote sensing gave examples of the real life applications of the technology.
The material used to convey the information to the public was a combination of interactive movies, activities, and displays showing how satellite data is processed and deciphered, as well as the different satellites orbiting our Earth in the present and those in the past. Explaining what data they collect and have collected and how this data is then analyzed to form conclusions about our changing Earth.
This material was successful in conveying the information on satellites and the role they play to science. I thought that the exhibit could have been organized more clearly splitting up the satellites into categories and subcategories so as to make the concept more accessible but overall they were able to take a complex concept and simplify it to appeal to a wide array of audiences.
The exhibit was directed at a level of higher education then many of the other exhibits in the air and space museum given the content and previous knowledge of environmental aspects that makes the data displayed in the exhibit interesting and proves the important role satellites play in our everyday lives and knowledge of the World we live in.
Exploring the Universe
The exhibit Exploring the Universe gave a comprehensive overview of the history of our knowledge of the Universe and how it has grown overtime with the inventions of the telescope, photography, and spectroscopy, leading up to modern knowledge of the universe and recent discoveries and technology that is being put to use in the field.
The exhibit was directed at a lower level education using interactive and entertaining videos and layouts in an attempt to attract a wide range of ages and make information presented accessible. Examples of this include cartoons movies about protons and the spectrum of light, which made the information attention grabbing and easy to understand for younger ages that came into the exhibit without previous knowledge on the subject.
Exploring the universe was extremely successful in giving the public a thorough understanding of the history and timeline of human’s view of the Universe. Even the more complex concepts such as mapping the fading flash from the big bang and spectroscopy were presented in such a way that simplified them making them easily understandable with cartoon videos of the basic concepts to information for a higher education. The exhibit was set up in such away that it required no previous knowledge on the subject, making it so that the general public after exploring the exhibit could leave with a comprehensive background and knowledge on the history and current inventions in the field of astronomy.
Astronomy is a difficult concept to successfully portray in a museum but I believe the air and space museum effectively achieved this. The astronomical concepts put forth were broken down into their most basic parts such as what exactly a proton is and the definition of the star. From here that basic knowledge was built onto forming the larger concepts that astronomy is based on such as the big bang theory and the technology and tools used in discoveries. Because of this set up, starting with the most basic information – the concepts and theories of astronomy were made easily accessible to the general public. Nothing in the exhibit was presented without a thorough background of knowledge to accompany it presented in writing, visual representations, and hands on activities to make it understandable and exciting.