NOAA and Exploratorium to Bring Earth Science to Life

Scientists and Museum Staff Meet at ESRL

Katy Human
NOAA Earth Science Research Laboratory

August 17, 2009 — The whole of Planet Earth just won’t fit inside a museum — even at the cavernous Exploratorium, a renowned science center in San Francisco.

So, Exploratorium staff spent a week this August at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., brainstorming with scientists and researchers about how to convey Earth science to the public in an engaging and fun way. They had already toured NOAA offices in California and Washington, and plan to visit others.

“This visit has been incredibly stimulating, and also humbling,” said Mary Miller, online media producer for the Exploratorium and director of a new educational partnership between NOAA and the Exploratorium. “There’s this amazing sense of mission and responsibility. NOAA scientists are … just so interested in having the public understand what they do.”

In July, NOAA and the Exploratorium publically announced a five-year partnership to co-develop live, interactive exhibits, online learning experiences, professional development workshops, and more.

“This partnership is intended to engage visitors in the process of discovery, in the excitement of exploration, in the intrigue of problem-solving, in the appreciation of the beauty and fragility and majesty of our world — all with a special focus on oceans and climate and stewardship of the planet,” said NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco at a NOAA-Exploratorium press event in July.

The Exploratorium, a “museum of science, art, and human perception,” has long excelled at developing hands-on, experiential exhibits, said Exploratorium senior scientist Thomas Humphrey. Visitors can swirl up a tornado from rising mist or investigate the motion of spinning discs.

Now, Humphrey and Miller say, the museum’s exhibit staff have been challenged to develop a new approach to communicating environmental and Earth system science. Initial ideas include instrumenting the museum with state-of-the-art NOAA equipment, letting visitors explore data through NOAA visualizations, and giving visitors access to real-time greenhouse gas and pollution data collected at NOAA’s tall tower sites near the museum.

Future projects might also include hands-on exhibits and interactive Web sites that inspire and inform the public about phenomena such as flooding, tsunamis, El Niño, and local and global fisheries issues, with a particular focus on climate change.

The Exploratorium is creating a special online and museum presence for NOAA’s ocean exploration vessel, the Okeanos Explorer, to educate and engage the public about the process of scientific discovery and ocean exploration. It will feature ship blogs, video and audio clips from recent discoveries, vessel tracking using Google Earth, and live streaming, high-definition video from the ship during its research missions.

While at ESRL, Miller, Humphrey, and their colleagues — Exploratorium associate director Robert Semper, artist Susan Schwartzenberg, and program and project coordinator Kate O’Donnell — spoke with dozens of NOAA scientists about their work and ideas for the partnership. They also discussed key environmental issues, including greenhouse gas monitoring, ozone depleting gases, drought monitoring, flood forecasting, and more. This fall, the Exploratorium and NOAA will set up a private blog site where staff from both organizations can post and comment on ideas for exhibits and other collaborations.

ESRL Director Sandy MacDonald said he hoped the Exploratorium could help NOAA communicate more clearly about climate change. “The climate change problem is probably the most important danger to humanity that we face this century,” MacDonald said.