Event name: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Event time and place:December 2, 2023 Washington, DC

CELLPHONES: UNSEEN CONNECTIONS (2nd Floor)

In this exhibit, they used many different ways to present their information including Comic Book strips, Interactive devices, and display cases. I found all of these methods to be very effective as it was a cool way to give you the information. About the environmental issues of cellphone technology it talks about how it takes many different things to build a cellphone as it takes 65 elements to build a cell phone. It talks about how they have a great environmental impact as you shouldn't throw away electronics as it creates e-waste. It tells the stories in displays and statistics. It then spoke about the technology impact of cellphones speeding up signals to devices. This was shown in a display and they discuss about sense cellphones the speed of signals have increased. Then it spoke on the social impact which was the spread of misinformation and perception vs reality. They were both shown in comic strips and talk about there negatives effects on the world.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE DAVID H. KOCH HALL OF HUMAN ORIGINS (1st Floor)

There were many different topics discussed in this section. One topic was changing the world's signals. It talks about how commutation changed throughout time to talk to others. It was displayed in a timeline starting at creating paintings and ended with talking. Another topic was how humans change the world today. It talked about the benefits and the cost of the success we had and the many changes modern humans have done. It was displayed with a population counter and cool info near it. Another topic was the change it agriculture. It talked about how about a quarter of the earth is used to grow crops and we are dependent on 4 main crops being wheat, corn, rice, and potatoes. It was displayed with just 4 fun facts. I also found that I agree with the critics that the exhibit de-emphasizes the human impact on the environment and climate because there was no section on our effect on the environment. It was only talked about in small parts and never had a clear part talking about it. With it being such an important topic you should have a whole section dedicated to it.

CLIMATE CHANGE & HUMAN IMPACT IN THE SANT OCEAN HALL (1st Floor)

In this exhibit there were two videos that we had to watch. One being How many horseshoe crabs.The data that it provides is information about horseshoe crabs and how many are in the Delaware Bay and it is understandable to the normal visitor. The other video was Hurricane hunter. The data it provides is information about Hurricanes and the people that go to measure them for data. They use the data for predicting how bad Hurricane will be and It is understandable to the normal visitor. Then we watched the Global Ocean Video. The subjects discussed during the video are the history of the earth, oceans effect on life, tectonic plates, and the oceans movement. Talks about the past earth and how it created the first Ocean and life. It spoke on phytoplankton and how they help us breath and they are in the ocean's food web. It then went on to talk about tectonic plates and how they formed the earth we know today. It then went on to talk about the oceans movement and how the currects help Columbus get to the new world. It used the spherical display to show the earth in the spherical form. It was very useful because it gives you a better experience on what is going on and it is cool which can keep people engaged.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE DAVID H. KOCH HALL OF FOSSILS – DEEP TIME

In this exhibit there were pylons which feature miniature reconstructions of life and environments at different points in geologic time. The time period in the first pylon I visited was the life before big herbivores. It was based on Texas 279 million and 272 million years ago. The co2 level was higher as well as the sea level. The average global temperature was 8 degrees lower to 12 degrees high them modern time. The time period of the second pylon I visited was the giant shadow. It was based on Colorado 150 million years ago. The co2 levels, global temperature, and sea level were all higher then modern times. I found that the pylons in the exhibit are effective because they show past life on earth which help people see what was really going on. Then it gave really interesting facts about the past and was cool to learn about the co2 and sea level. Then there was a climate change exhibit. The time period of the climate change exhibit I went to was the global heat wave. They used fossils to find out about the heat wave. They saw that the fossil leaves had more Insect feeding which implausible a heat wave as they need to eat more to survive. Then they saw fossil changes that show the animals were smaller during that time and after returning back to size. These exhibits effectively explain how fossil and geological information can inform us about current or future climate change because they show how they used fossils and geological information to come to conclusions of the past climate change and had a section talking about how we can use the information for the future.