Paleonet: Designing the next generation museum: Life after old-school geology exhibits

[Whitey Hagadorn]

Colleagues:

If you are interested in helping the general public understand what it
is we do and why it is important, please consider participating in our
theme session on this topic at the upcoming GSA meeting in Denver. This
theme session (Earth System Science in Museums) focuses on addressing
the widening gap between developments in scientists' understanding of
the complexity of the earth system, and our ability to convey that
knowledge to the general public. Museums are at the front line of this
issue because of their role in informal science education, and as this
gap widens, they are positioned to become the leaders of earth systems
science education. The problem is that most museums don't know how to
effectively teach the complexity of earth systems in a way that spans
demographics and yet still engenders the spark of discovery. 

To investigate this issue and share ideas on how to address this
widening knowledge gap, we have designed a GSA topical session to bring
together scientists involved designing past/future earth science
exhibits to discuss the challenges and potential of conceiving,
designing, building, and implementing effective exhibits and programming
that address earth system science. The basic goal is to explore how to
move beyond the classic geology exhibit of systematically displayed
mineral specimens to compelling and interactive displays and programming
that address and teach the underlying processes of the earth system from
the center of the planet to the top of the atmosphere while engaging the
public at multiple levels (i.e. across a range of demographics) and
engendering the spark of discovery in visitors. The overarching themes
to convey will focus on effectively delivering the complexity of earth
systems in a museum setting. The themes will include temporal and
spatial scales, remote sensing, the use of models, and uncertainties.
Additional education topics could include mechanisms for high impact
outreach and the citizen science research opportunities that are unique
to museums. 

We are looking for a wide range of perspectives on this broad topic and
would greatly appreciate a submission from you. The session, titled
"Earth System Science in Museums: Tapping the Potential to Engage the
General Public in the Complexity of the Earth" is sponsored by the
Geoscience Education Division and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
To submit an abstract to session T80 please go to
http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2010AM/cfp.epl. We are planning a reception
following the session to continue with informal discussion of the
presentations. If you have any questions or would like to discuss ideas
for a submission please don't hesitate to contact one of us.  Please
feel free to forward this message to colleagues whom you think might be
interested

Sincerely,

Whitey Hagadorn, Ian Miller, and Kirk Johnson 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80205
jwhagadorn at amherst.edu 
ian.miller at dmns.org 
kirk.johnson at dmns.org

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after Aug 1: 
Department of Earth Sciences
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80205

until Jul 30: 			
Department of Geology		
Amherst College			
11 Barrett Hill Road		
Amherst, MA 01002		
http://www.amherst.edu/~jwhagadorn
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