Natural History museum Excursion:
October 20th, Natural History museum:
We arrived a little late to the natural history museum and unfortunately just barely missed the group picture. We decided to first visit the new exhibit: Cell Phones Unseen connections on the second floor. This exhibit was one that I hadn't seen before as it was newly constructed. And I found its presentation to be very effective and pretty unique. It used electronic slides, interactive screens, and posters. I think that all were effective as they conveyed information well and captured attention. I do think that the posters were less effective as the other forms of media were related to the exhibit, utilizing screens and electronics. Also the posters featured lots of text that many people may skip over. The exhibit tells us how materials that are used to make our phones and electronics are finite and how conflicts in attaining these materials cause human rights abuses and environmental harm. They show us that the creation, use and disposal of phones are very wasteful, creating 123 pounds of carbon emissions to create a single phone and also involve human rights violations. It tells these stories through personal narratives and statistics. Another major focus of the exhibit was the technological and social impacts of cellphones. The main technological impact was that it erased the need for many old items. Since a phone is capable of so much it phased out lots of other inventions like the need to carry a wallet. There is apple pay and virtual wallets that can do the same thing as a physical wallet. Social impacts are that young people of indigenous groups are able to learn their mother tongues and connect more easily with those of similar heritage, and the spread of violent images which could cause trauma.
Next, my group visited the CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE DAVID H. KOCH HALL OF HUMAN ORIGINS exhibit on the first floor. The three main topics being discussed here was Agriculture, Rise in carbon levels, and population growth. Agriculture: At first Humans were hunter gatherers, evolving in ways that would help them in this lifestyle. Overtime, human realized they could plant and breed plants for easier and more reliable access to food. Rise in CO2 Levels, while human were evolving, earth’s temperature and CO2 levels would rise drastically. This resulted in the planet being warmer overall, climate changing, and our ice caps on earth melting. Population Growth, modern humans are able to reach higher and higher numbers due to innovations in agriculture and technology that allow us to support more people.Due to us settling down, we have altered the world significantly yet affected it poorly as well. I agree with the critics in this case. There appears to be significant emphasis on human evolution newer developments at the expense of less emphasis on the environmental costs of these actions.
Afterwards we visited the ocean hall. The videos we watched while in the ocean hall were: satellites of the sea, and the Great pacific garbage patch. Satellites of the sea: This video covers mostly the temperature of the sea and how we can collect data on the salinity of the ocean and how this information can help us predict hurricanes. The video also discusses the methods in which we can collect this information, including using the drifter and glider. I believe this exhibit did a good job and that it is pretty clear and concise so that most people could take something away from it. Great Pacific Garbage Patch: This video focuses on garbage patches. Which are large forms of debris concentration that are formed by rotating ocean currents or whirlpools. Theyre made up mostly of microplastics that are not visible. And are constantly moving which makes them difficult to remove them. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the most famous of these, but it’s not discussed at all in the video. I believe this data is considered to be understandable by a general visitor because it has diagrams and the because the narrator does a good job.
Lastly, we visited the fossils in deep time exhibit, And looked at two of the dioramas. Floodplains diorama: the time period represented is 67/66 million years ago. The place being represented is Montana. The carbon dioxide levels 600-700 ppm, extremely high. Temperatures were warmer and more humid than the modern day. The sea levels were much higher than they are today, nearly 200 ft higher. I think that these exhibits are effective as they give a small but visually pleasing and informative look into another time period with both visuals and interesting information along the sides. Giant shadows on the landscape diorama: Diorama of a scene 150 million years ago. It depicts the Morrison formation in Colorado. The Morrison formation during this time period had much warmer and tropical climate than todays climate. Carbon was also extremely high at 3000 ppm significantly more than even 67 million years ago. Sea levels were 200+ meters higher than today. The climate change exhibit we visited here was covering a global heatwave which took effect 56 million years ago. This heatwave doubled atmospheric carbon and led temperatures to rise about 6 degrees globally. Data used to figure out past climate are fossils that showed trends in animal development to better suit changing climate and that showed more evidence of insect feeding during this period in time.
Overall this excursion was a good time. And although I had visited this same museum in the past I ended up learning a lot as I was really reading through taking in the information rather than browsing like I usually would at a museum.