I know it’s been awhile since I actually spoke about my work, what I am doing day to day. I’m sorry for that but there’s a good reason – my responsibilities have changed, dramatically, excitingly, but I am not yet ready to describe it.
However, glancing at the photos on my phone today, I realized I could still share a number of photos, with captions, to give you a taste of some of what I’ve been working on (if still absent the exact reasons why – and for that I continue to ask for your patience).
This is a 3D print of a bat skull. Working with AMNH Mammologist Nancy Simmons, and colleagues at the Burke Museum, we are exploring ways to bring CT scans (in this case, of bats) into both our classrooms (as with the Visualizing Science course) and to our visitors (through Hall-based carts). These prints are MUCH bigger than the original animal but that of course allows us to observe small aspects in greater detail – and put out finger in its mouth to feel those teeth!
Youth in our new Visualizing Science course go behind the scenes with Nick Tailby in the Division of Physical Sciences, to explore their labs. This five-month long after school course is introducing youth to how scientists across the Museum disciplines utilize digital tools of science visualization in their research, from Anthropology and Geology to Paleontology and Mammology.
The folks from Looking Glass Factory paid us a visit to show us their Holoplayer One and other upcoming AR tools. Here is a frog (or is it a toad?) and as you rotate your head right and left you can watch it change over its lifespan. (And yes, I just happened to have a handy seltzer siphon to make it look like it spent its years waiting to be spritzed.)
I spoke earlier about our exploration of how to utilize CT scans – a form of digital specimens developed and researched by AMNH scientists – into both our youth programs and into our Halls. One approach is to put these scans (of bat skulls) onto touch tables. This a photo in our temporary development space; I look forward to getting this table in front of both visitors and our youth learners next month to see what they take from the experience.
These are youth in our Visualizing Science course learning about some of the earlier tools scientists used to visualize science, looking at archived books from the 17th century, like Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (the first book to illustrate insects and plants as seen through a microscope). This special room in our research library requires two people, each with their own key, in order to gain access.
Taking inspiration from the influential Google-staff authored book, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, we spent two afternoons recently sprinting over 5 hours through a design process that generated ideas taking to the next level our early prototype for visitor interactions with astro data on our Astrobulletin screen. This photos shows more than two dozen ideas we generated, with different colored and sized stickers used to focus our attention on the strongest ideas.
Yes, bat skulls again – the same CT scan series shown above. This is another exploration of ways to use CT scans for learning – using a mobile app viewing what I call tangible augmented reality (using that Holocube on the left side) to trigger the experience of holding and investigating the skull to support a scientific investigation. And yes, this is in the Hall of New York State Mammals, on carts, in-front of a display of bats (to offer the experience in context).
