As a follow-up to my posting about learning about bubbles that "glow in the dark" under UV light during the recent museum conferences in Denver, I should point out that the Tekno Bubbles company sells the special formulation that makes the bubbles that glow under a blacklight. As far as I can tell, the (very cool!) effect doesn't work with regular bubble solution.
With a recent redesign of the POW! website, I wanted to make folks aware of a new batch of FREE exhibit resources on the site.
Need some exhibit ideas? Trying to find the perfect vendor for fake food or UV lights? Do you want to add to your professional resource library by downloading some articles about topics like Prototyping? You'll find all these and more at the Free Exhibit Resources section of the POW! Website.
If there are additional resources you'd like to see, let us know in the Comments Section below.
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The Association of Children's Museums (ACM) held their annual conference last week in Denver. Here are some of my takeaways, in no particular order:
• Joan Almon, of the Alliance for Childhood, related this scary statistic: School-age children in the U.S. spend 44 hours per week in front of screens (computer, TV, GameBoys, etc.) but only 30 minutes per week playing outside.
• Don't visit the Denver Art Museum with a briefcase or laptop bag.
• Soap bubble solution can be made to glow under "Black Light".
• Great museums have all the right people "on the bus".
• Conversational presentations are STILL better than PowerPoint sessions!
What were some of your takeaways from this year's ACM or AAM conferences? Share your thoughts in the Comments Section below!
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Johnny Lee is currently a Graduate PhD student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who, amongst his other projects, has been sharing ways to "hack" (in the positive, original sense of the word) the Wii Remote (Wiimote) to create amazing low-cost projects like digital whiteboards and desktop Virtual Reality displays.
Johnny is sharing his computer code in a totally open source way and also uses YouTube to disseminate his projects and research! Check out his "Procrastineering" blog as well.
What does this have to do with museums? Well, Exhibit Developers, Museum Educators (and Visitors!) constantly struggle with creative and appropriate uses of technology in museums. (Which when most people use the word "technology" in an exhibit context, inevitably means "computers".) This is especially true given the scary statistic that school-age children in the United States spend on average 44 hours per week using "screen based" (TV, GameBoys, Computers, etc.) technologies, but only 30 minutes engaging in outdoor activities! Do we really need to provide more screen time for young visitors to museums?
From the standpoint of both cost (Wiimotes run about $40, and the other materials Johnny Lee uses for his hacks are of the Radio Shack variety) and creativity (even thoughtful computer software is not nearly as engaging as messing around with a "cool" technology like the Wii remote to make new creations) consider how you could replace some of the staid technology in your museum with a place to hack Wii remotes!
What are some of your favorite "non screen-based" uses of technology in museum exhibits? Let us know in the Comments Section below!
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Chief Instigator
Paul Orselli
Long Island, NY, United States
I’m an instigator, in the best sense of that word.
I like to mix up interesting people, ideas,
and materials to develop amazing interactive exhibits.
I run my own company called POW!
(Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) on Long Island.
My Complete Bio
