HR: 0800h
AN: ED21A-0055    [Abstracts]
TI: Using Immersion to teach Global Climate Change
AU: * Sumners, C T
EM: csumners@hmns.org
AF: Houston Museum of Natural Science, One Herman Circle Dr., Houston, TX 77030 United States
AU: Handron, K
EM: handronk@CarnegieMuseums.org
AF: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 440 Forbes Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 United States
AU: Reiff, P H
EM: reiff@rice.edu
AF: Rice Space Institute, 6100 Main St. MS 108, Houston, TX 77005-3555 United States
AU: Law, C C
EM: colinlaw@mac.com
AF: Rice Space Institute, 6100 Main St. MS 108, Houston, TX 77005-3555 United States
AB: Students are increasingly jaded to programs that preach, and museums are increasingly finding it difficult to attract students who can retrieve information quickly from the internet or cable TV. A new medium of immersive theater can now engulf the viewer in the subject, bringing a novel view to the exciting new data sets and images now available. By telling a compelling story with characters they can identify with, global climate change can be experienced and its effects brought home in a dramatic and effective way. We have developed several shows highlighting climate change (Powers of Time, Secrets of the Dead Sea), and are developing new shows (Earth's Wild Ride, Earth in the Balance) which can be used to take the visitor into the past or into the future. Clips from the shows and evidence of their effectiveness as an educational tool for Earth science will be shown. If possible, our new portable dome system will be set up in the poster hall for longer live demos of our shows.
UR: http://earth.rice.edu
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting