Hi, you're listening to Cultivate
Curiosity, a podcast that inspires the
next generation to stay curious.
Cultivate Curiosity is brought to you by
the Emerald Coast Science Center, a
nonprofit.
Interactive science museum and steam
educational facility in Fort Walton Beach,
Florida.
This podcast is perfect for anyone curious
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You never know what we'll talk about
next.
Hi, my name's Jacie, and I'm your
host for this week's episode of Cultivate
Curiosity.
And in this episode, I want to
take you kind of behind the scenes
and talk about how we create different
exhibits at the Science Center.
Some of the exhibits we do purchase
from retailers, but then also we do
create some of the exhibits that we
have as well.
So some of these exhibits that we
have purchased are like our light Zillow,
which is really awesome.
It's like a giant light bright, and
we get to create different things on
it.
The imagination of our visitors is
amazing.
And then we also have the Pin
wall exhibit that we bought recently that
was really cool.
We've also gotten our robotics exhibits
when we first moved, and we also
have gotten the Pendelux exhibit, which is
another recent exhibit as well.
So some of them we purchased, but
then other ones we do create as
well, which is like our Bones exhibit
that I'll talk a little bit about
later.
So some of the exhibits we also
curate because we may purchase certain
parts of it, but we are actually
building things together to make a whole
exhibit.
So that's like our sea turtle conservation
station and some other exhibits.
But I will definitely talk about the
sea turtle conservation station later as
well.
Now I also want to talk about
how we update or change exhibits to
sometimes make a better experience for our
visitors or just to update it to
be a little bit better.
So two of those that I have
recently seen be updated at the Science
Center are the Sea Turtle Conservation
Station.
We added a sea turtle light portion
of that exhibit so you can see
what the different colored lights do and
how they affect a sea turtle seeing.
So that's really important because if you
have white light out near the beaches,
you're going to confuse them and they're
going to be disoriented.
They might not go out into the
water, especially sea turtle babies that
have just hatched from their egg and
such.
And so it shows you that there
are certain lights that are really great,
such as the red lights, orange lights
are kind of okay, but they can
still see them a little bit, and
it has those little filters.
That way you can see how the
different lights are seen from a sea
turtle's perspective.
And so that was a really cool
addition to that exhibit.
You also can do things like measure
a sea turtle and think about how
you would be able to help the
conservation of the one based on some
cards that we have.
So that's pretty cool.
And then we had a pavilion outside
that just kind of had nothing in
it.
And we brought it to life by
adding the wild weave, which is something
that Harley specifically was working on.
And so the wild weave is just
a weave, a really big weave that
you can add whatever you would like
into it.
So we have some fake flowers.
We have some other things that you
can add, but then we also want
you to kind of walk around the
science center in the backyard and find
something from nature to put in there,
too.
So there's also two chalkboards where you
can draw nature on there as well.
But we just added that to the
pavilions.
That way it's a cool exhibit and
it's not just sitting there not being
used.
So sometimes we're able to update or
change and add new exhibits to spaces
that weren't necessarily being used for
anything just yet.
Since we're talking about exhibits, I
definitely want to talk about the new
space exhibits we got through funding from
the Air Force Research Laboratory or AFRL.
We got quite a few really awesome
new space exhibits, so I'm just going
to briefly talk about a couple of
them.
But you should definitely check them out
anytime that you can come into the
museum, give us a visit.
And they are all out on the
floor in the main gallery room.
So the first one is the Big
Dipper.
You can see the Big Dipper from
the perspective of Earth, the rocket
launch.
You can learn about pressure and launch
a small rocket.
Different worlds, different weights.
You get to compare gravity on different
planets in our solar system using apples,
actually.
So that one's really fun.
Space colony.
You get to build a space habitat
using Legos steering with thrust.
This one, I think, is my favorite.
Dock the space shuttle with the
International Space Station using the air
thrusters.
So the space shuttle is actually on
a gear, and the gears have grooves
on the outside.
And so you have two air thrusters
like you would have on a space
shuttle.
There's two places where pressurized air
comes out to kind of help you
rotate the gear.
And so you're trying to get the
space shuttle to be pointed straight at
the space station.
And there's a little red light that
pops up when it's correctly in position,
so that way it can dock on
the space station.
So that one is really cool.
You also have pressure suit, and this
helps you understand the effects of air
pressure on the human body.
So another exhibit I mentioned earlier
that we are creating is the Bones
exhibit.
So it's almost finished, thankfully.
I'm so excited about that.
But these are bones, most of them
specifically skulls that have been
collected.
And they all have been humanely collected.
Some are replicas, so they're not actually
a skull of said animal, but they
are a replica that looks exactly like
it.
So we have different animals, including
mammals, birds, reptiles, and then we also
have a shark jaw and two arachnid
molts on display in this Bones exhibit.
So this is a really great way
to learn about what the skeletons, the
different animals look like, especially
when we have the arachnids on display.
They have an exoskeleton, they don't have
an endoskeleton, which is an inside
skeleton like we do.
They have it on the outside, the
exoskeleton.
So we're just showing you guys the
differences between different skulls and
stuff like that.
Just so that way you can see
how animals are different.
And we have signs that say like,
the different animal, their scientific
name, their common name, where they
usually live, how long they usually live,
and then on the back of each
sign, it's double sided and also just
has some fun facts about these species.
So I've honestly learned quite a lot
about each of the species just by
helping with the signs.
So I'm really excited for that to
be officially done so that way you
guys can explore the Bones exhibit and
learn a lot about different animals.
There is actually like a little bit
of an extension of this exhibit in
the animal hallway, so it's going to
be skulls as well, but they're just
a little bit too big to have
with the rest of the Bones and
the Bones exhibit.
So they're going to be along the
wall and we're going to make signs
kind of similar to those signs that
are in the Bones exhibit to go
on the wall.
So that way you can learn about
those animals as well.
That is also still in the works.
So we're almost done with that too.
I want to talk into about another
exhibit that we got actually before the
space exhibits, the Battleship exhibit.
So this exhibit is so cool.
Most people know how to play Battleship,
but have you really ever played it
so giant and almost it's not life
size, but they're definitely a lot bigger
than your normal Battleship games.
So it's super fun.
It's wheelchair accessible.
And there's actually a way for you
to talk to the other person through
like a doorbell system, but you're able
to say like, this is my spot
that I want to hit, and then
you can let them know, did they
actually hit your spot or not?
Instead of having to just talk to
them, you're kind of talking to them
through something similar to what you
would talk to if you both were
on different ships.
So that's pretty cool.
We also updated an exhibit.
The space exhibits took over the spot
by the astronaut where there was a
space TV.
So we have a TV with some
space information being displayed every
day.
And so we were able to move
that and we moved it close to
where the sea turtle Conservation Station
is.
And we actually are playing an ocean
related video now.
So that video is really cool.
It goes through from the very top
of the ocean all the way down
to what we can assume is the
bottom of the ocean.
It shows you the different animals that
live in the ocean and what level
they would live at.
And then how far down has someone
dived?
Where are different submarines gone?
How far down have they gone?
So that is really cool.
I'm glad we were able to switch
it up and add a different little
aspect to the ocean area that we
have.
And then I just want to talk
about two other exhibits that are still
in the works for us.
So we have a riptide simulator exhibit.
It's almost ready, I think.
So we're very excited about that.
It'll actually go near that ocean TV.
So this was something that we worked
with another organization, the Emerald
Coast Fitness Foundation, to put together.
And we had Jeff, who is someone
that has worked on our exhibits, he
actually built this exhibit.
So we are so happy about that.
It's going to simulate how a riptide
occurs, so that way we can show
you guys so you can learn more
about the ways that you would successfully
make it out of a riptide.
Because unfortunately, riptides are
dangerous and they happen here on the
waters quite often and we just want
to bring more awareness to it.
So we're really excited to get that
exhibit out soon on the floor.
And then we also do have another
exhibit, a new wentz microscope we will
be having soon.
It's going to be updated and we'll
put it alongside the old wentz microscope
that we have in the main gallery
room.
We saw that I think it was
when Harley and Diane went to ASTC,
we saw they had some new and
improved wentz microscopes with some
really cool slides that they were able
to provide as well.
So I think we're just figuring out
what we're going to have the wentz
microscope held in because there's not a
base for it just yet.
But once we get that figured out,
then we're able to get that on
the floor as well.
So a lot of exhibits you can
either purchase as a museum and then
you make it your own, which we
generally do at the science center.
We add things.
We make sure that everything that we
put out on the floor has some
science aspect to it, even if that
includes just having a sign out there
that talks about the science behind the
different things.
So like the Battleship exhibit, we're
going to be adding some signs that
talk about the science behind Battleship.
And we can always put a spin
on things, too.
I think probably my favorite one that
we've done that with is the space
astronaut photo op.
So it's a space astronaut that you
can put your head where the astronaut
helmet is and, like, it's a full
body, so you look like you're an
astronaut, too.
And we actually put signs up around
there talking about how spacesuits work,
how they're beneficial, and other stuff
about being in space as an astronaut.
So we really tie in those things.
So you're able to make exhibits your
own in some ways.
So I think that's all I wanted
to talk about for this episode.
Just a little bit about how we
curate exhibits and some of the new
ones we recently got and some that
are coming soon.
So thank you guys for listening, and
we'll see you guys in two weeks.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's
episode of Cultivate Curiosity.
If you have any questions, feel free
to email us at socialmedia@ecscience.org.
Tune in for our next episode in
two weeks.