Fuel Cell Exhibit Consortium · Fuel Cell Exhibit Consortium Summary Report ... there was money to...

Fuel Cell ExhibitConsortium

Summary ReportPrepared by Redmond-Jones & Associates

This report was compiled and illustrated by Redmond-Jones &Associates as part of a contract with Breakthrough TechnologiesInstitute, Inc.

Redmond-Jones & Associates2607 Seventh Street, Suite FBerkeley, CA 94710510-883-1335

All photos and illustrations © Redmond-Jones & Associates except those on page 5, courtesy of Fuel Cells 2000 and on page 6, courtesy of General Motors.

NOTE

This report was prepared for the Breakthrough TechnologiesInstitute, Inc., under subcontract to Argonne National Laboratory.Breakthrough Technologies Institute cannot guarantee the accuracyof the data presented, nor does it necessarily endorse or concurwith the report’s conclusions.

Breakthrough Technologies Institute, Inc.1625 K Street NW, #725Washington, DC 20006202-785-4222

Report No. ANL/OF-00405/200

DISCLAIMERThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of theUnited States Government. Neither the United States Government nor anyagency thereof, nor The University of Chicago, nor any of their employees orofficers, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability orresponsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information,apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would notinfringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercialproduct, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, orotherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement,recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agencythereof. The views and opinions of document authors expressed herein do notnecessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agencythereof, Argonne National Laboratory, or The University of Chicago.

ContentsChapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2 How a Fuel Cell Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 3 Exhibit Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 4 SciTech Hands-On MuseumAurora, IL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 5 Long Island Children’s MuseumGarden City, NY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 6 Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryPortland, OR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 7 Fort Worth Museum of Science and HistoryFort Worth, TX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 8 Children’s Discovery MuseumSan Jose, CA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 10 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

ForwardWe started Breakthrough Technologies Institute in 1992, andfrom the beginning wanted to include science education. Weworked with the Nevada Department of Education forexample, developing science boxes that teachers canduplicate. Out of that we also developed a substantial interestin working with museums.

Initially we received funding from the Department of Energythrough Argonne National Laboratories. Within that fundingthere was money to develop travelling suitcase exhibits.However, we realized we didn’t have sufficient funds to dowhat we liked, and it also occurred to us that after wedeveloped the travelling exhibits what would the follow-upentail? Travelling exhibits would require maintenance, baby-sitting, and so forth.

Then, through discussions with Beth, this project ideadeveloped and one of the things that made it appealing wasthe potential for wide dissemination. So the thrust behind thefunding is spreading the word.

�Bob Rose, Executive DirectorBreakthrough Technologies InstituteJanuary 2001

Bob Rose at January kick-off meeting

1

Introduction

Chapter 1

IntroductionDesigning effective museum exhibits takes a combination ofcontent knowledge, understanding of visitors, and “tinkering”skills. Just as classroom teachers are uneasy teaching subjectmatter with which they are unfamiliar, science museum exhibitand program developers are unlikely to take the initiative topursue a topic of which they have little backgroundunderstanding. By forming a working group of museum exhibitdevelopers, we hope to not only support these museums’ effortsto create and test new fuel cell exhibit ideas, but also infuse themuseum community with excitement about fuel cell technology.

Project goals:• To create a collaborative working group of

exhibit developers from geographically diversemuseums.

• To produce and test multiple strategies forcommunicating concepts related to fuel celltechnology to the general public.

• To disseminate information about hydrogen fuelcells to science museum visitors and staff.

Redmond-Jones & Associates recruited six museums toparticipate in the project. In January 2002, the six exhibitdevelopers, content experts from Fuel Cells 2000 and Redmond-Jones & Associates staff met for two days in Berkeley, California.At this meeting, participants discussed the differences betweenthe participating museums—the group includes technology,children’s and hands-on science museums—their targetaudiences, and their ideas about what makes “successful”exhibits. The group also discussed the science of fuel cells andbrainstormed ideas for exhibit prototypes.

During the following months, each participant developed aprototype fuel cell exhibit. The developers were asked to createan exhibit component that was “hardened” enough for museumvisitors to use without staff assistance, but still flexible enoughthat it was possible to make changes to label text or mechanicaloperations in response to the results of visitor evaluation.Redmond-Jones & Associates travelled to each museum and

2

Introduction

conducted visitor evaluation with the prototype, and suggestedchanges based on the results.

The project put no constraints on communication goals ormethods—developers could tackle any aspect of fuel celltechnology they thought appropriate for their museum’s visitors.Each developer was given a $5000 budget for materials; stafftime was paid by the museums. During this time, oneparticipating museum dropped out of the project due to staffchanges within the institution.

Consortium Members (left to right):Ted DeJong, Exhibit Developer, SciTech Hands-On Museum

Tom Nielsen, Exhibit Developer, Children’s Discovery Museum

R.L. “Chip” Lindsey, Director of Visitor Programs, Fort Worth Museum of Scienceand History

Bob Reynolds, Lead Electronics Developer, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Paul Orselli, Director of Exhibits, Long Island Children’s Museum

Not pictured (consortium organizers): Beth Redmond-Jones, President, Redmond-Jones & Associates

Penny Jennings, Exhibit Developer, Redmond-Jones & Associates

3

How a Fuel Cell Works

Chapter 2

How a Fuel Cell WorksThere is a quote from Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island: “Yes, myfriends, I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel,that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it . . . will furnish aninexhaustible source of heat and light . . . and . . . as long as theearth is inhabited, it will supply the wants of its inhabitants.”The fuel cell is a way of making that come true.

Basically, a fuel cell takes hydrogen andoxygen and harnesses the reaction of thetwo. By doing so it produces usefulelectricity and heat. Because it’s anelectrochemical process, it is inherentlymore efficient and there is no pollution.There is no combustion, no pollutants, no carbon dioxide. You are using acarbon-free fuel so you have a carbon-freeexhaust. This fundamental operation hasno moving parts.

So this is the holy grail for a lot of people. It is both stable andscalable. Fuel cells can be combined in stacks to increase voltageto useful levels, so it can be as small as a battery or as large as apower station—from tiny, remote sensing stations ontelecommunications towers to really big multimegawattoperations.

Fuel Cell FamilyMost fuel cells use hydrogen. Some use carbon—this is thefamily known as metal air fuel cells. Metal air fuel cells don’t usefuels in the same way that hydrogen fuel cells do. In theory,anything that you can oxidize works as fuel.

This is a family of technology, with the members of the familydistinguished by the nature of the electrolyte which in turndefines the temperature of operation. We are dealing primarilywith the PEM fuel cell in which the operative piece, themembrane, is plastic (note that while PEM is used as anacronym for “polymer electric membrane,” “proton exchangemembrane,” or “proton emitting membrane” they all refer to thesame type of fuel cell). These are very scalable and verymanufacturable.

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Fuel Cell SystemRight now, most fuel cells operate on natural gas as the inputfuel and process the H2 out of it to produce AC power and heat.You need a fuel processor, what is called a reformer. These can bepowered by natural gas, diesel, sewage sludge, waste gas fromfeed lots—there are already installations running on thosesources and others. In this process called reforming, the mostbasic way is to boil it which is about 80–88% efficient, and inbig systems 90% efficient. Anything that has hydrogen in it thatyou can separate is a potential fuel. Most are hydrocarbon fuels.

If you had a solar cell that could generate sufficient electricityyou could break water into its components, which means youcould break the H2O up for the hydrogen.

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ApplicationsGeneral Motors just put together a car in which the fuel cells arescattered about the platform. It looks like an old Formula Onecar; like a skateboard. There are also auxiliary power units thatare being built that have applications in the trucking industry.Right now some truckers idle all the time to run theirtelevisions, air conditioners, etc., resulting in tremendous wasteand pollution. They could be using fuel cells to supply thatauxiliary power.

Other applications for fuel cells include construction equipment,portable generators, buses, bicycles, three-wheel vehicles,motorcycles and scooters (particularly in Asian countries wherethat is the dominant form of transportation), wheelchairs,vacuum cleaners, soft drink machines, breweries, camping andRV units.

Fuel cells can generate a power supply from one kilowatt in a continuum up to 250 kilowatts. They can be used for everything from small portable units up to baseload powersupplies. The movie industry uses DC power, and they are onthe road all the time so that is another opportunity for using fuel cells. Motorola is working on cell phone applications. InAnchorage, International Fuel Cells is supplying fuel cells for a mail processing plant that can operate off the grid, which is a very interesting application. They are using phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC).

Fuel cells are also highly reliable which, for example, is appealingto credit card processors, the ultimate middle men. When theirsystems are down they lose money, so it would make sense forthem to invest in a gold-plated power supply.

Fuel Cell Transit Buses in Chicago

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Today’s car has a conventional engine up front, a drive train, andseats on top. What General Motors did was realize that you don’tneed to put fuel cells into this conventional structure, so theyproduced a thick, skateboard-like platform in which the motorsare in the wheels. Fuel cells have the ability to change the waywe think about things. With cars, for example, we can think inany terms we want—it liberates us from the box. Fuel cells havethe potential to change the way we think about energy as well ashow we use energy.

Web SitesMore background information about fuel cells can be found at

Smithsonian Institution's Collecting the History of Fuel Cellswww.americanhistory.si.edu/csr/fuelcells/

How Stuff Works: Fuel Cellswww.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm

Science Wire: Watt’s A Joule?www.exploratorium.edu/theworld/energy/joules.html

Fuel Cells 2000www.fuelcells.org

GM uniquely combines by-wire technology with fuel cells to package everythingfrom engines to steering and other controls below the floor of the vehicle.

Chapter 3

Exhibit PrototypesAs we recruited museums for the consortium, we were asked thesame questions over and over: “What do you mean by‘prototype’? What are we required to produce?”

Our answer was: we expect the level of finish may vary frommuseum to museum, depending on the developer’s process, theexhibit’s goals, and the museum’s audience. For example, somedevelopers tend to jump right in and start building, messingaround with objects and effects, then worrying about labels andmessages and what goes where later on. On the other hand,some work with a cardboard mock-up first, using commonobjects (e.g. a funnel and a flashlight, color xerox, etc.) to getand idea of whether the activity they’re planning clearly relates tothe messages they’re trying to convey. Then they move to a‘prototype’ stage, to work out the mechanisms, wording of text,placement of images, buttons, etc.

What we mean by ‘prototype’ is something beyond the mock-up,something that we could ask visitors to do on their own, withouta developer standing there holding the bits together. It might behelpful to do uncued observations, so we can look at attractingand holding power of the different exhibits. We don’t want toshoehorn everyone into using the same process or coming upwith the same results. It’s not a competition, it’s an explorationof many possible ways the topic can engage museum visitors.

At the two-day “kick-off ” meeting, we discussed these ideas inmore detail, as well as the challenges related to incorporating fuelcells—stationary black boxes with no moving parts—in hands-on exhibit components.

Challenges we identified:• A working fuel cell is a stationary black box.

• When you start up a fuel cell by addinghydrogen, there is a delay before it begins toproduce electricity.

• It’s hard to see the connections between the fuelcell and the thing it powers, just a wire runningfrom one to the other.

“The way I see it, having thereal deal on the floor in away that people see ascool and interesting is achallenge, because it’s ablack box . . . . What is outthere that’s doing thereaction in a bathtub, nota thimble? I wantsomething big, somethingexciting.”

�Chip Lindsey

7

Exhibit Prototypes

• There are a lot of concerns regarding the safety ofputting a tank of hydrogen gas in a public space.

• The existing demonstration kits, available forclassroom use, are too small for use on the floorof the museum.

• Visitors may not be interested in learning aboutunfamiliar technology.

• Using a computer interactive to explain the fuelcell is like using one black box to explainanother. Computers usually offer one-sided,linear experiences, so they don’t stimulate dialogor experimentation.

Potential approaches we discussed:• If the visitor is required to put effort or energy

into activating the system, they’ll be more likelyto wait to see a result.

• Use a path of flashing lights to show how thehydrogen moves through the fuel cell.

• Have a big payoff-something dramatic happensat the end.

• Keep the fuel cell constantly running so visitorsdon’t have to wait for the reaction to begin.

• Keep it simple, focus on the basics, break downthe process into components and describe eachone.

• Use language visitors are familiar with.

• Show example of local fuel cell use.

• Link to breaking news about new fuel celltechnologies.

• Use computer animation in which visitors canplay with the variables to see changes in theoutput.

The following chapters describe each developer’s prototypes, and the results of Redmond-Jones’ two-day formative evaluationvisits. Sources for the materials used in the prototypes are inChapter 10.

8

Exhibit Prototypes

9

SciTech Hands-On Museum

Audience & Context

“We’re a small museum, twelve years old, with about twohundred experiences on the floor. We are not a children’smuseum; we are supposedly for all ages. The museum wasstarted by Ernie Malamud, who was heavily involved in theoriginal ring at Fermi Lab. The Exploratorium was his model.He felt if you build simple exhibits that are scientifically correct,people will want to come to a science center to learn science.

As a result, our exhibits are Exploratorium-like; not fancy, butscientifically correct. You can have signage which is just words,words, words. Well—people don’t read. I learned the hard way,through the process of elimination, what not to do.”

Chapter 4

SciTech Hands-On MuseumAurora, ILDeveloper: Ted DeJong

Fuel Cell exhibit prototype on the exhibit floor at SciTech

10


Ted’s Initial Concepts

“I also had another idea when we weretalking about efficiency. You have threetracks with three cars, representing aregular car, an electric car, and a fuel cellcar. A pendulum hits them with the sameforce, the same amount of energy. Youcan see that this one goes so far, that onegoes farther, etc. It’s a 3-D bar graph.

If the difference between the three carswas the elasticity of energy and one wasa soft spongy rubber ball (for example,billiard balls are 100% transfer) you couldsee this visibly.”

The balls come up to atrough and because theballs are a different size youget a separation.

There’s one container forhydrogen (for example, blueballs, all one size).

To the right there’s acontainer for oxygen withgreen balls that are anothersize—a little smaller.

On the hydrogen side youhave a selector mechanismwith a slot big enough fortwo balls, so two hydrogendrop out at a time.

On the oxygen side oneoxygen ball drops out.

The hydrogen and oxygenballs drop together into abucket so you have threeballs that make water.

11


Prototype Development

“Hydrogen atoms are represented by 1" diameter balls.Oxygen atoms are represented by 1-3/8" diameterballs. The ‘hydrogen atoms’ are fed into the left handmetering wheel and the ‘oxygen atoms’ being fed intothe right hand metering wheel. The space betweenthe two metering wheels simulates the ‘electrolyte’ ofthe fuel cell. When the two ‘hydrogen atoms’ arereleased from the left side they each lose an electronand pass as H+ ions through the electrolyte via anacrylic tube, where they meet with the single ‘oxygenatom’ and rejoin the two electrons to form a ‘watermolecule’. The movement of the electron across the‘electrolyte’ is represented by a series of chase lights.The electrons pass through the ‘load’ (light bulbs) andrejoin the H+ ions on the right side of the ‘electrolyte’.

Acrylic tubes guide the balls from the meteringwheels to the dump mechanism where they cometogether to form a ‘water molecule’. When leaving thedump mechanism the three balls are separated fromeach other, with the two small balls directed to thebase of the left conveyor belt and the larger diameterball to the base of the right conveyor belt. The ballsare carried to the top of the exhibits via the conveyorbelts where they are recycled.

We originally planned on constructing frame of anglealuminum. We changed to AGAM because of ease ofassembly and savings in labor. We chose to prototypewithin what would be a frame for a permanentexhibit. We decided to make the frame large enoughto allow for easy access and possible changes whenprototyping.

The drive system consists of a bicycle chain supportedby four sprockets, two 6" in diameter and two 3"inches in diameter. The 3" sprockets are located on thetop and bottom axles of the drive assembly. The two6" sprockets are located on the axles that turn thedelrin metering wheels. This two to one ratio results intwo turns of the hand crank to one turn of themetering wheels. The hand crank is 6" in diameter. Ananti-reverse gear on the drive sprocket preventsturning in reverse.

Ted’s first version, ready for testing.

Metering wheels release two “hydrogens”for every one “oxygen”.

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The ball guides, tubes, and dump mechanism are constructed offour different sized acrylic tubing, determined by diameter ofballs used. After considerable trial and error, wooden balls wereselected over the original rubber balls. Rubber balls are much tobouncy and do not slip against each other. Colored plastic ballswith slick surfaces would probably work the best but we werenot able to find any of the correct size.

Considerable time was required to construct the tubes anddump mechanism. The guide tubes were constructed toincrease visitor interest by having the balls go through a seriesof bends. For prototyping purposes the balls were hand fed intothe top two openings. Buckets are located under the dumptubes to collect the balls after they complete their journey.”

Visitor EvaluationTed’s plans included a row of LED chase lights triggered by thehydrogen balls passing through the “electrolyte”, and conveyorsto carry the balls back to the top of the system, These were notinstalled yet at the time of the visitor evaluation.

On the first day of testing, we were only able to complete a fewinterviews before we had to stop to make repairs to themechanism. We completed seven interviews—three of whichwere pairs of kids working together, for a total of ninerespondents. Of these, six were between the ages of 8 and 10,two were teenagers, and two were adults.

• Four individuals said that the exhibit was aboutmaking water. When asked what made themthink that, these visitors responses included: “Itstarts with hydrogen and nothing happens untilthe oxygen gets there,” “The blue and yellowmix” and “It’s H2O when they mix together.”

• All thought that turning the crank and watchingthe balls roll down was fun.

• Four thought that following the path of the ballswas confusing.

From Friday’s interviews, we had the feeling that visitors’attention was focused on the lower right hand side of theexhibit, where the balls dropped down and were sorted into twobuckets. The label at this point showed the hydrogen and oxygenatoms joining to make water.

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We made substantial changes to the labels, to see if we couldmake them tell more of the fuel cell story, including how anelectron is split off and takes a separate path around theelectrolyte, making electricity. We conducted 12 visitorinterviews on Saturday, with the following results:

• No-one said that the exhibit was aboutmaking water.

• Four visitors said it was about how a fuel cellor battery works. When asked what madethem think that, these visitors said, “BecauseI know how a battery works,” “The title andthese labels” “It’s talking about howelectricity goes through” and “The title andthis label and this label”.

Kids really enjoyed playing with this Fuel Cell Exhibit. Didthey learn how a fuel cell works? Our evaluation data,though a very small sample, seems to indicate that kids weremore interested in the mechanism and its action than in themessage. However, they did make a connection between theexhibit, the chemical process of mixing hydrogen and oxygento make water, and fuel cells. This is a pretty good start.

Did changing the labels help? Not a lot. Our sample wasVERY small, but it seems as though making the labels moreapparent and numbering the steps in the process made itseem more complicated, and more confusing. I don’tthink it helped visitors understand how a fuel cell works.On the other hand, adding the words “In a fuel cell,”and “Fuel cells make electricity with no smoky exhaust,only water” to existing labels did seem to reinforce theconnection between the mechanical actions and the fuelcell topic, at least for adults.

Revisions & OutcomesTed and his crew continued to work on the exhibit,installing the conveyors for the ball returns and the LEDchase lights, then conducted additional visitor interviews.

“You have to tear people away from our exhibit, adultsand kids love turning the wheel, watching the balls gothrough. Were the staff educated? Yes. I think the wholestaff knows now much better how it works.”

Ted’s revised prototype

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Long Island Children’s Museum

Audience & Context

“We say that our audience is children ages two through twelve,and their adult caregivers (since kids can’t drive themselves tothe museum). However, as with most children’s museums theage of most of our child visitors is in the single digits frombirth to ten. Then the hormones kick in and we don’t see themagain until they bring their own kids.”

Paul’s Initial Concepts

“Maybe this is hand waving, but this may get people tounderstand. I might have luck sucking people in, includingscience-shy parents, with a pachinko machine. I played withthe first part of the machine back at the ranch and my non-science colleagues were able to get how it works.

“No one is really going tounderstand fuel cellsunless they understand thebasics, unless they can doit themselves. My seven oreight-year-old isn’t goingto get the whole thing, butmaybe later in junior higha light goes on: ‘Hey! That’swhat we played aroundwith at the museum!’”

Chapter 5

Long Island Children’s MuseumGarden City, NYDeveloper: Paul Orselli

Long Island Children’s Museum’s Bricks and Sticks gallery

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A pachinko machine is like a pinball machine but thereare no electronic parts. The electron ball bearings wouldmake little dings as they bounce through the machine.They could ding a bell or make something spin.

Farther downstream the hydrogen reconnects, andconnects up with the oxygen (which I’m still workingout) to reform into water. I’m willing to fake the thirdstep. At the end you collect all of the components.Maybe the kids could collect them and put them backtogether, which would get across the idea that you haveto work to produce energy. There may be a crank tofeed oxygen in. The pieces that dump out the bottomare formed together to make H2O.

Or, start with a reservoir of water. They have to break thewater up into its constituents and shoot hydrogen intoone side and oxygen into the other. A slot mechanismseparates the electrons and protons. It all flows downinto the reservoir and becomes water. I like the idea thatit starts out water and ends up at the bottom as water.”


“My exhibit was a physical analogy of the first part of theelectrochemical process that occurs with Hydrogen in a Fuel Cell.

Visitors turned a crank to move balls representingelectrons so they could temporarily ‘detach’ from theHydrogen atoms represented by red Sintra® disks. The ‘free’electrons fell onto a spinner to show ‘work’. The ping-pongball electrons fell into a central reservoir where they couldbe joined to the Hydrogen atoms again.

The parts used were: ping-pong balls, Red 3mm Sintra®,sheet aluminum and pop rivets to form the little carrierson the chain-driven conveyor. The ‘spinner’ was formedfrom 1/4" aluminum rod and attached to a small bearingso it could rotate freely. The conveyor assembly wasconstructed of chain, shafts, and sprockets purchased fromMcMaster-Carr. The crank handle was also a standardMcMaster-Carr item. All of the materials were mounted to1/2" MDF and faced with 1/4" clear acrylic for protection.”

Paul’s pachinko machine prototype

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Visitor EvaluationOf the first 12 interviews, only one visitor thought this exhibitwas about electricity. Other respondents mentioned “makingfuels” or “making things run” or “fuel” and three mentionedelectricity, power or energy in their responses to “What can fuelcells be used for?” Still, it seemed that none were able to make aconnection from the mechanism to how a fuel cell works, orwhat a fuel cell could be used for. Three visitors said they wereconfused by the spinning paddles.

We were also having some technical difficulties with themechanism—the ping pong balls tended to get stuck betweenthe gear and the back panel, requiring a grown-up (Penny orPaul) to reach in and free them. Several visitors made suggestionsabout adding shielding to keep the balls from getting stuck orpopping out of the exhibit.

Next we strategized ways to make the “making electricity”message stronger. The only changes we could make quickly wereto the labels, so we tried splitting the “breaking hydrogen apart”and the “making electricity” messages, which had both been partof one long label, into two separate labels.

We placed the “making electricity” label next to the spinningpaddles, and changed the wording to read “The electrons canmake enough electricity to turn a fan, run a car, or even power amuseum (In our model, they make this wheel spin).”

Revisions & OutcomesVisitors seemed engaged by the mechanism, and eight visitors(both adults and children) said the exhibit was about “spinningthe wheel” or making the balls go up and around. One girlexplained that a fuel cell “works like a Ferris wheel and clears outthe environment.” Another girl thought it would be very usefulfor scooping ice cream to make ice cream cones, and anotherthought it would be good for starting up cars without pollution.

This may not be an effective analogy for atomic particles movingthrough a fuel cell, especially for young children (or adults)unfamiliar with elements and atoms. This exhibit seemed toanswer visitors’ question, “What can we do next?” more than thequestion they weren’t asking, “What do fuel cells do?”

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Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Audience & Context

“There is a catch phrase we use to describe what we do:‘We putthe wow in science’. We serve families. In that category we servechildren under seven and the adults who are with them. We alsodo exhibits on aging, so we cover the age range. We train about700 teachers a year and we are a training center for NASA. Wealso have a big outreach program, taking exhibits to schoolsand fairs. As part of this fuel cell project, I would like to developsome component that outreach can use.

We are a museum of science and technology, though there isnot as much technology as I would like to see. We have fivemajor exhibit halls: Life, Earth, High Tech, a Turbine Hall, and alarge changing exhibit hall.

The Turbine Hall is on the site of an old power generating plant,and there are laboratories associated with each of the halls. Thechanging exhibit hall hosts traveling exhibits and is also used totest out exhibits that we build. Most of the exhibits that webuild travel. In the Turbine Hall we have engineering activitiesthat are very much iterative. You can build a sailboat and see if itworks; build a structure and make it shake to see if it is sound.”

Chapter 6

Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryPortland, ORDeveloper: Bob Reynolds

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s Turbine Hall

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Bob’s Initial Concepts

“I think it’s important for our museum to show a working systemthat includes a working demonstration, a solar model, and a fuelcell model. The show can be separated in space and time. I’dalso like to have a computer kiosk that shows an animatedversion of how the fuel cell works.

I haven’t come up with a mechanical model that explains thefuel cell as thoroughly as I think I need to. We generally have awide age range at the museum and I don’t know if you can dojustice to young kids so I think the target audience for thisexhibit is eleven and up. We also have a local connection to asewage plant where a fuel cell has been going for a couple ofyears. Another thing we could do easily that would beinexpensive is press clippings. We have done that in past years(with the El Nino effect, for example).

I though about doing fiber optics internally, showing what’shappening inside a fuel cell. Early on I wanted to try to leverageout labs to have staff on hand to explain this. I see this as a realopportunity to talk about technology in general and use this asa case study. For example, just because someone has a goodidea doesn’t mean an infrastructure can be developed.

When we were building the High Tech Halls several years agowe decided on divisions such as Robotics (which came outhighest on a visitor survey), Computers, and Transport. Fuel cellswould clearly fit into Transport. Then we would tie it in withlearning standards. We could talk about the different aspects ofthe technology: the people involved, the inventing process, howthings are manufactured.

We are talking about technology in general. In this little cornerwe’re talking about robots, and through that we talk abouttechnology in general. So I could see this as another windowand through that we could talk about the economy driving it,how people came up with these ideas, what the infrastructureconsists of.

It may come down to showcasing products as they hit themarket. That may be as good a hook as anything and it may getpeople’s attention.”

“It’s the interactive part I’mhaving trouble with. Whatcan the visitor do? You canflip a switch, turn the loadon and off, but what’snew?”

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“I started by purchasing a fairly impressive fuel cell demo unitfrom fuelcellstore.com. It includes an electrolyzer, dual fuel cell,solar panel, load module and meter module.

The demo gear has been running in our physics lab since mid-March, 2002. It has been very useful to us as we’ve learnedabout fuel cells, but has proven to be a bit intimidating forvisitors. We added some interpretive graphics. Several labstaffers worked up a pretty good rap. It’s a good prop foreducator led demonstrations, as it provides a model of ahydrogen production, distribution and consumption system,but I decided it’s just too complicated for a visitor’s firstexposure to the subject.

After a bit of experimentation, the physics lab lead educatorremoved the solar panel, (which had been supplying power tothe electrolyzer), the meter module and the load module. Wepowered the electrolyzer with a small power supply, whichallowed us to generate enough hydrogen and oxygen to runthe fuel cell continuously, without the burn hazard presented bythe spot light we had been using to illuminate the solar panel .We wired in several small motors, with propellers attached, as aload. (We use the same motor/propeller assemblies in other labprops, usually powered by identical motors, equipped with handcranks, which serve as generators.)

There are a couple aspects of the demo setup whichmay actually give false impressions. First, since theelectrolyzer produces both hydrogen and oxygen, itmade sense to run the fuel cell on both. While it runsvery efficiently this way, it’s not quite realistic. As Iunderstand it, most commercial fuel cells use air, ratherthan pure oxygen. It is supplied to the cell by a fan orlow pressure compressor.

I was also concerned with the amount of condensationwhich appeared on both sides of the cell. While I washappy to see water on the oxygen side, where we wereclaiming it was being produced, I wasn’t sure how toexplain it collecting on the hydrogen side. Theelectrolyzer bubbles both gasses through columns ofwater. I guessed that the hydrogen was picking upwater vapor as the bubbles popped at the water’ssurface. I was determined to eliminate the wateraccumulation on the hydrogen side, if possible.” Demonstration kit in the Physics Lab

20


Prototyping observations

“Running on air and dry, compressed hydrogen, I still see water drops on both sides ofthe cell, though much less than with the electrolyzer equipped demo setup. In fact, Inow see more water on the hydrogen side. I know the membrane must be moist towork. I guess the very small amount of water produced is being absorbed by themembrane and then being evaporated and pumped away by the airflow on theoxygen side, or forming drops on the hydrogen side where the gas is very dry.

I’d like to show water flowing out of the air side of the cell, but not much is produced.I’m not above adding a few drops of water to the collection cup to get the pointacross.

I tried adding some glassware to show the hydrogen and air bubbling throughcolumns of water. It does show the hydrogen consumption rather nicely. The floweventually stops when the cell has been deprived of air or the electrical load isremoved. However, in my simplified prototype, the motors continue to draw currentlong after they have stopped turning, and as long as they are drawing current thehydrogen bubbles continue. I felt this could be confusing and decided not to usebubblers (besides, all that glassware was scary!)

I attempted to achieve interactivity by controlling the flow of hydrogen. I gave the cella fairly heavy electrical load and a constant supply of air from an aquarium pump. Iclamped off the hydrogen supply about an inch from the cell. It took several minutesto see a significant change in electrical output. I had a six inch piece of fairly soft hoseconnected to the unused port on the hydrogen side of the cell. It was clamped at theend to prevent hydrogen from escaping. I thought it was interesting that after a fewminutes with the hydrogen supply clamped off, the short piece of hose was completelycollapsed. Those hydrogen ions really want to get through the membrane!

I’m a little concerned that the only way I’ve found to make the cell interactive is toshow it failing for lack of oxygen. My main message is that oxygen and hydrogen go in,and electricity, water and a little heat come out. At least reviving the cell by refreshingits air supply brings us back to the main message.

The only other path to interactivity that occurs to me is to allow the visitor to controlthe size of the electrical load. Within the range of electrical loads for which the cell wasdesigned, changing the load doesn’t have much effect on the output voltage. Onlywhen the cell is badly overloaded does it fail to keep up with the load. This seems tome to be an activity about properly matching a fuel cell to a load—an engineeringactivity that a user of a fuel cell equipped product should never have to deal with.

I was determined to keep it simple and use only a single cell rather that a fuel cellstack. A single cell only produces about 0.7 V. Not much will operate on 0.7 V. You can’tlight an led, 1V lamps emit a dull orange glow, at best. A single cell is easier to explainthan a stack, but harder to turn into an interactive without cheating.”

21


A Simplified Prototype

“I decided to assemble the simplest, most transparent fuel cellsetup I could, then try to make it interactive. I purchased twoPEM fuel cells, one to display exploded and the other for theinteractive. I connected a compressed hydrogen cylinder,through a regulator and transparent hose, to the hydrogen sideof the cell. Another short piece of hose connects the oxygenside of the cell to a small plastic funnel. A rubber bulb from acamera lens duster is positioned about one inch from themouth of the funnel. This separation, I hope, avoids theimpression that the cell is some sort of compressed air machine.The air flows through the cell and back to atmosphere. A smallplastic cup below the air outlet port collects any liquid waterwhich is produced.

I thought the motors with fan blades we used as electrical loadsin the lab might be interpreted as windmills by some visitors, soI replaced them with two motors from the Lego® Mindstorms™

kits. One motor drives the gear train of a small Lego® car, whichis up on blocks. The other motor drives a Lego® Movie BackdropStudio set which moves a paper backdrop behind the car.

When a visitor pokes the rubber bulb, it sends a puff of fresh airto the cell and makes everything run for about two minutes. Byadding a resistor as an additional load, I can adjust the run timeper puff of air down to a few seconds. The resistor doesn’t giveus any visible payoff for the current it consumes but doesdemonstrate the maximum load for the system and our abilityto adjust run time.”

Bob’s prototype set up, ready for testing.

22


Visitor EvaluationTesting began Friday afternoon around 1 PM. While it wasoccasionally necessary to shoo Bob and other staff away from theexhibit, Penny recruited and interviewed 15 visitors, shooting fora broad range of ages, and equal gender representation.

Of 16 visitors interviewed, four “got it”. When prompted, thesevisitors said that hydrogen and oxygen or air went into a fuelcell, and water and electricity came out.

Seven visitors of varying ages said they thought fuel cells couldbe used to “run” things, but were unclear about what goes into afuel cell (answers included “air and water” and “energy”) andwhat comes out.

We started Saturday with a discussion of how to improve theprototype and make the fuel cell system easier to understand.Once again, the exhibit graphics came under the gun (in partbecause they are the easiest components to change withouthaving to redo mechanical components.)

On Friday we had observed that visitors were mentioningbatteries more than expected, and we related this to theproximity of the label comparing fuel cells to batteries near theworking fuel cell model. On Saturday, we cut the exhibits “maintext” label out, separating it from the exhibit title, and switchedwith the battery comparison label. We also observed that in thefuror of setting up all of the components on Friday, we hadforgotten one small label in the shop. We added this label, whichsimply read ”Fuel cell” to the working fuel cell to see if directlabeling would help visitors know what it was they were lookingat, and therefore make more sense out of the explanation.

It worked. All of the visitors interviewed during prototypetesting who were over 10 years old got the main message of theexhibit.

Revisions & Outcomes

“Within the museum, the prototype development and testingfueled an on-going discussion about what makes a goodexhibit experience. This exhibit prototype proved to be apowerful inspiration for the few 13 year old kids who get reallyinto it. This is the kind of topic that is really inspiring to a few,and the exhibit serves to get the words into the vocabulary ofthe others who use it.”

23

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

Audience & Context

“Our target audience is children ages three to eleven and theadults who bring them. Our demographics include a highpercentage of Spanish-speaking visitors and we areencouraging more, so bilingual labeling is a big focus.

Part of our collective idea of what our image is about is trying toconnect visitors to the real deal in an extraordinaryenvironment, not on the Web or through the WorldbookEncyclopedia. Sometimes this means complete immersion,sometimes we use small table top exhibits, but they have to becompelling. We are looking at stay time as an indication ofsuccess as well as how visitors are using the exhibits. Anotherindication of success with an exhibit is that there are multipleentry points—it’s good for a three-year-old and for a 103-year-old. Multiple entry points are also a good idea because no oneapproaches an exhibit the way you think they will, or from thesame point, and no one comes to an exhibit as a blank slate.They also have to be simple.”

Chip’s Initial Concepts

“I’m in line with the idea of breaking this down to somethingreally simple. At the Exploratorium they pose the question:What is the difference between a motor and a generator? Guess what? There is no difference. You get the idea that energyrequires work because you’re turning a crank. For kids, the ideaof energy is magical. A battery is dead—you get a new batteryand it’s good. Why? They don’t know. The energy is here, butthey don’t know where it comes from.

We have the option for the real deal with electrolysis andrecombination in a fuel cell.

Some of the off-the-shelf kits are encouraging to me. If they’reworking well enough that they have it on the market, thereought to be a way it can be relatively intuitive. I’d like to have

Chapter 7

Fort Worth Museum of Science and HistoryFort Worth, TXDeveloper: Chip Lindsey

24


people get their hands on a generator, crank it up, and splitsome water. Having them see it go back to the fuel cell isgoing to be magic.

I would like to keep it basic and understandable. Let’s startwith water as a way to illuminate it and involve people in it.You split water, you recombine it in a fuel cell, and you havethe funny by-product of electricity. And your muscle hurts soyou know how it works.”

Prototype Development and TestingChip mounted a reversible fuel cell in a plexi-fronted cabinet,with a hand-crank generator at one end of the system,and asmall fan on the other. Visitors can crank the generator tocreate hydrogen within the “cell” housing, then flip a switch torun the cell the other direction and watch the fan draw power.To see the tiny hydrogen bubbles, visitors look through alighted magnifier (the top of a desk lamp) mounted to thefront surface of the case.

Fort Worth Museum visitors working together to make hydrogen.

25


On Friday, Penny talked to 22 visitors about the exhibit. Ofthese, 20 responded that the exhibit was “about” electricity;making, generating, or storing it. Seven seemed to get a deepergist of what was going on in the exhibit—six visitors said a fuelcell “stores energy”, one called it a “water battery” (referencingthe exhibit title).

Many visitors related to the generator—they recognized thattheir cranking was making electricity—but didn’t get any newideas about what a fuel cell does or could be used for, beyond“making electricity in small amounts” or “when the power goesout.”

Several of Friday’s visitors asked for more of an explanationabout what was being demonstrated. One visitor said that heknew a little about fuel cells, but didn’t get anything new aboutit from the exhibit. Another visitor who had previous knowledgeof fuel cells said he liked seeing the conversion of hydrogen andoxygen into electricity, but wanted to see a bigger fuel cell andmore description.

Eight visitors complained that they were confused by trying tosee the bubbles. The label text said “Can you see the bubbles onthe metal screen?” but even with the magnifier, the bubbles werevery difficult to produce and almost impossible to see.

At the end of the day, Chip and Penny discussed ways to changethe text to provide clearer directions and explanation of what thesystem was trying to show. We composed new text for the “TryThis” label, and added text next to the switch and a “So What?”label to test on Saturday.

On Saturday we tested two versions of the original prototype.First we tried changing the labels, and then we removed themagnifier to see if that made it easier for visitors to see—and“get”—the whole system, including the fuel cell.

Adding more labels didn’t seem to increase our success rate. Ninevisitors were interviewed, and although all of them said that theywere creating or making electricity, only three said that the fuelcell “stores” energy or electricity, and the others were vagueabout what a fuel cell does. No one mentioned hydrogen. Onevisitor said the confusing part was “What it’s for—I guess you’dhave to read it.” Observations of visitor behavior led us to thinkthat visitors were spending most of their energy trying to seebubbles, and that they were not seeing the fuel cell as animportant part of a system.


Revisions We tried removing the magnifier, which seemed to be attractingattention but not yielding any kind of satisfying experience forvisitors. Perhaps it was this change, or the higher percentage ofadult visitors who agreed to be interviewed, that made the thirdversion seem more understandable. Ten out of thirteen visitorssaid that the fuel cell “stored” energy, and three of thesementioned using hydrogen to make electricity. Two visitors saidthey thought there was too much signage, that it was “a lot toread.”

After two afternoons of watching visitors using the prototype inthree different iterations, it seemed like the main message thatthis reversible system was sending was that if you put energy intoa fuel cell you can get it back out later. Of forty-seven totalvisitors interviewed only six mentioned hydrogen, althoughmany were looking for bubbles. Five said the exhibit was aboutan “alternative” or “clean” source of electricity.

• Most visitors recognized that turning the crankswas generating electricity.

• Many visitors understood that putting electricityinto the fuel cell was supposed to producebubbles of gas.

• A handful of visitors went a step further, to talkabout the fuel cell “giving” or making electricitythat could be used for various purposes,including cars or home appliances.

Outcomes

“Prototyping gave us confidence that a fuel cell exhibit has agreat deal of potential as an interesting subject and importantmessage.

The project pushed the museum’s traditional attitude towardprototyping—usually things are almost finished, this was a veryrough thing to have out on the floor. They stretched their ideasof what was OK, in part because of the project stipulations thatthe prototype being flexible and not ‘hardened’.

The exhibit also attracted a lot of attention, the phone wasringing off the hook with calls from organizations and agenciesinterested in fuel cells. Our director even brought several boardmembers by to see it.”

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27

Children’s Discovery Museum

Audience & Context

“Children ages two through eight and accompanying adults areour core target group. I have my own alternative vision of whatthe museum should be aiming at. I think there is value inthinking about it not as a museum for children, but a museumabout children. So it is a museum for anyone interested inchildren, including children themselves.

We provide a setting and opportunities for visitors to get toknow one another better. My approach wouldn’t dare explainhow a fuel cell works. It would be an odd visitor who would beinterested in that. We’re not a science center, we are a generalmuseum.

Chapter 8

Children’s Discovery MuseumSan Jose, CADeveloper: Tom Nielsen

Children’s Discovery Museum’s Power Girl and a few of her devices.

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The context we would be interested in putting this in is anexhibit that has been on the floor for ten years, ‘CurrentConnections,’ funded by a local utility and relabeled two yearsago. We created a mini power grid in the museum with five orsix generators scattered throughout the museum that areinterconnected. At each generator there is some payoff if yougenerate power (e.g., a streetcar moves, a plane flies), but youalso send some of the power you produce to the centralgenerator. At the central generator, visitors can decide where tosend the power. But we found that engaging in the exhibitsrequired some visitor investment and we experienced the sameaudience split that Chip mentioned in terms of interest inenergy exhibits or lack thereof. So we came up with a relabelingstrategy.

Power Girl has cool sneakers and is of vague racial origin. Ioriginally named her Peggy Powers but everyone said no so hername is now Elena. She is at each power station. Elena is alwaysmaking inventions using electricity, so her friends call her PowerGirl. The Power Girl’s ‘but’ is central to the labeling strategy.”

Tom’s Initial Concepts

“I thought that children might be interested in what adults arethinking about fuel cells. Why is everyone interested? Whatproblem are they trying to solve? So I’d put the issues on thetable that people could relate to. We just endured a summer ofrolling blackouts which helped to get across the idea that thereis not an endless supply and that a solution will take some ofthe best minds. I’d like to relate fuel cells to all of these issues.

There is another exhibit that is the hit of the bunch. You have tolift bowling balls to the ceiling and it cranks a fan.

We did try solar, but if you have a ten watt bulb in a doll houseand we only get three watts of power on a cloudy day, you getinto the question of why isn’t the doll house light working.

I hope you can see that it’s not easy to incorporate a black boxelement like a fuel cell with the hyperactive exhibits we’redoing. We’re hoping that the Current Event story line will do it. Itmay be just another graphic with some objects on display.”

Power Girl decided toconnect her inventionstogether with wires tolight up her doll house,

butshe discovered that shecould not play with herdoll house and run herinventions at the sametime.

Can you help PowerGirl light up her dollhouse?

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“The key components of CDM’s exhibit are:

• A modified version of ‘The Exhibition Set’ from the FuelCell Store. We didn’t need the solar cells or motor theyusually supply, only the Electrolyzer, Storage tanks, andFuel Cell.

• A Macintosh iMac Computer, with an ADB I/O interfacebox to connect to the fuel cell. I wrote the software usingSupercard, a Rapid Application Development tool.

• For the Hand-cranked Generator, a surplus stepper motorand a rectifier that I designed.

• For the Electric Flower, a small DC Gear Motor, and six LEDinfinity lights. The latter solved the tricky problem ofgetting the very low voltage output of the single fuel cellto do anything useful or interesting. They are designed touse a single AA cell, with a tiny circuit that continues todraw power from the battery even when its voltagedrops. Plus, they come in a nice range of colors. They werereally a key to this design. One of the goals of the PowerGirl Exhibits, long before there was a Power Girl, was thatthere should always be some intrinsic use for the powerthe kids generate.”

Tom’s prototype

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OK! Stop crankingnow—my ElectricFlower is working!The fuel cell is makingelectricity from theHydrogen yougenerated! Let’s seehow long it can run.

Visitor EvaluationWe ran into some difficulty interviewing children—many wereshy about discussing the exhibit, and several had a hard timeexpressing themselves because of limited English. We spent sometime observing visitors and discussing their behavior, and thenrecruited and interviewed 18 visitors, including nine adults andnine kids.

Kids liked turning the crank to make bubbles in the water, andwatching the “power in” line on the graph change in reaction totheir cranking. Two of the nine kids described the exhibit beingabout making electricity to turn the flower, but none mentionedthe fuel cell or hydrogen.

It seemed that visitors were missing the idea that they weredirectly effecting the system, because kids were cranking andcranking, so the flower rarely ran down. Saturday morning Tommade some changes to the exhibit, to see if we could engage kidsin more active experimentation with the fuel cell. Our hope wasto give kids the opportunity to see a whole cycle of change, fromthe stationary flower, through generating electricity to run theflower, to the flower using up the hydrogen they had generatedand to feel like they were affecting the system. He changed:

1) The on-screen graphics. Once visitors had generated enoughhydrogen to run the fuel cell, Power Girl appeared on screenwith a caption reading, “OK! Stop cranking now—my ElectricFlower is working! The fuel cell is making electricity from theHydrogen you generated! Let’s see how long it can run.”

2) The load on the fuel cell. Tom added a 5 ohm, 5 watt powerresistor connected to the fuel cell in parallel with the motor andLEDs. It draws about 1/2 watt of the cell’s output power. Addedto the 1 watt that the motor and LEDs consume, the resistorcauses the fuel cell to deplete its supply of hydrogen morequickly, so that the flower would “run down” faster. We hopedthat kids might get the idea a little better if the system wasn’talready running when they first approached the exhibit.

On Saturday, our results were quite different. Penny recordedobservations and interviews of 14 visitors—4 adults and 10 kids.The kids were very reluctant to answer questions, but observingtheir behavior told a lot. All four adults were overheard readingout loud and explaining the system to kids and responded withanswers like, “fuel cells help with pollution more than the energycrisis.” Of the ten children observed, five showed the type of

“Fuel cells help withpollution more than theenergy crisis.”

New label added to thecomputer display duringtesting.

31


“I’ll help you, I’ll get thatpower for you!”

behaviors we were looking for; two took it to extremes we couldnot have predicted.

The first surprising child was an eight-year-old boy who didn’twant to be interviewed, shrugging or giving single-syllableresponses to the questions. However, when left alone to play hecranked, watched, waited for the flower to run down, thencranked, watched, and waited some more. Then he went to gettwo more kids, and showed them how to do it, explaining, “nowyou’re making enough” when the flower started up. The secondsurprise was another eight-year-old boy—this one was caught upin the drama of Power Girl’s dilemma. Whenever the flower randown, he’d tell his mom, “She says keep cranking, the fuel cellneeds more hydrogen!” and cry “I’ll help you, I’ll get that powerfor you!” He also explained to his mom that, “it’s continuing towork from the hydrogen generated—it stores it and the fuel cellkeeps using it.”

Other kids cranked, watched the graph and the flower, waitedfor the flower to run down, and cranked some more; one younggirl cranked the exhibit then went to the dollhouse to see if thefuel cell was having an effect there.

This exhibit seems to convey some basics of fuel cell systems tochildren and adults. A few adults asked for more informationabout what was happening inside the fuel cell, but many visitorsseemed satisfied by the challenge—help Power Girl run her fuelcell—and got the message that fuel cells run on hydrogen and ittakes energy to make hydrogen.

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Revisions & Outcomes

“It’s always nice to have my informal observations of an exhibitconfirmed—or challenged, on occasion—by more structuredevaluation. Such behavior, of course, is greatly prized bydevelopers as indicative of some success.

I can add that as of Jan 2, 2003, the exhibit still functionsperfectly, and I often observe visitor interactions that confirmmy opinion of the project’s success. I am glad in retrospect thatwe took the time to make a finished exhibit that is a long termaddition to our museum, rather than only a prototype.

As to our process, I will mention what seemed to me from thebeginning to be a key element favoring success: the pre-existing context of the Power Girl exhibits, which made it mucheasier to find it a home at CDM. I am glad that the ground rulesof the collaborative allowed us the freedom to to use thisleverage.”

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Summary

Chapter 9

Summary

Project OutcomesDid we succeed in our goals? At the summary meeting inOctober 2002, the developers regrouped to discuss the project.

Goal 1: To create a collaborative workinggroup of exhibit developers fromgeographically diverse museums.

This might not have been worth it, except the details thatusually bog down a project like this one were all taken care ofby Redmond-Jones & Associates, so it didn’t take too muchadministration on our parts. Just a chance to work on the ideaand an instant group of colleagues, we didn’t have to round upsupporters or do too much research.

�Tom Nielsen

In terms of the goal to foster more interplay, that’s the trickiestthing. Geography definitely got in the way. If there’s a round twoor a round three, it would be good to bring the feedback fromthis round back into it. I think our round will help people whoare just starting out now, the evaluation results and the contactswe’ve made.

�Paul Orselli

It was definitely disappointing that just when we got somegood information from the evaluation, it was over. The exhibitsstarted building on what we’d learned, we ended up withdivergent approaches. I think now I would approach my exhibitdifferently.

�Chip Lindsey

We had a busy production schedule this summer, so I hadlimited hours to work on my exhibit. It came down to the lastminute and I had to go with what I had going.

�Bob Reynolds

“I ordered a fuel cell from aTexas company, but whenit came I was kind ofscared to try it. But then Iheard about Bob Reynold’sprototype, and I wentahead and tried it—and Ididn’t blow anyone up! ”�Chip Lindsey

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Summary

I appreciated that is was on one topic, it kept us focused. Wehad to make a decision pretty quickly; you can’t really make aprototype for what I was working on, so I had to build it as apermanent thing. I spent about 200 hours on is, but now I thinkit’s working. It turned into a pretty major project. I did most ofthe work pretty much on my own.

�Ted DeJong

Fuel cells brought a different set of challenges. We were tryingto get a new topic into museums, I think we would have had aneasier time with recruitment if it was a more familiar topic.

�Penny Jennings

If it had come through the usual channels, I probably wouldn’thave had the opportunity to do it, the administration wouldhave said we were too busy. Luckily, I’m in a position to carveout some time for a project like this, mostly because I’m onsalary.

�Bob Reynolds

The allure may lie in the fact that the background materials andthe resources were all lined up for us, things we might not havehad time to look for ourselves.

�Chip Lindsey

Typically funders don’t understand that getting a visitor tostand still for two minutes is already a huge challenge.

�Bob Reynolds

Maybe that’s another strength in numbers thing. Fundereducation, helping them understand what our challenges are asmuseum developers, and that the risks of trying new things canbe worth it.

�Tom Neilsen

“This has been veryinteresting. I think thereason more prototypingdoesn’t happen inmuseums is becausepeople say, ‘I want my ideamore fully formed before Ishow it.’”�Paul Orselli

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Summary

The consortium was less of a group process that we had hoped,mostly because the developer’s plates were already full with ‘in-house’ projects. We tried to create an electronic collaboration(using email and web ‘chat’) but this is still based on face-to facerelationships. The two-day kick-off meeting was a good start, butnot enough to build the trust and understanding of oneanother’s areas of expertise to make electronic communicationamong the participants seem worthwhile. Also, because theemphasis of the project was on individual exploration andinnovation (different museums, different audiences, differentapproaches) it seemed less relevant to discuss ideas with oneanother ‘If I had a problem or question, where would I go? Toan expert, not another lost soul.’

The web site turned out to be a good way to see what the otherdevelopers were working on, what was working and what wasn’t,but it mainly benefitted the developers at the end of the project.

The web site ended up being a great tool for informing otherstaff at the museums about the project, showing them that theconsortium was real. It was also a prod, to get the developersworking when their ‘turn’ for evaluation was getting close.

Two evaluation visits, with time to tinker in between, mighthave worked better. Instead of two days of evaluation back toback, maybe one day of evaluation then a month to tinker, thenanother day of evaluation. Or start with the two day meeting,each developer builds a prototype, we test them, then get backtogether to talk about how the results will influence the exhibits,then have another period for revision and further evaluation.

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Summary

Goal 2: To produce and test multiplestrategies for communicating conceptsrelated to fuel cell technology to the generalpublic.We tested five strategies at five different museums, in New York,Illinois, Texas, California, and Oregon. Exhibits were on themuseum floor for a minimum of two days each. A full report ofthe exhibit evaluation can be found at www.fuelcellexhibits.ws.

It’s interesting to note that the early exhibits were similar, andthe later exhibits were similar. If I was going to do it againnow, I would probably adjust my approach based on seeingthe evaluation results.

�Paul Orselli

Goal 3: To disseminate information abouthydrogen fuel cells to science museumvisitors and staff.At all participating museums there has been interest in theproject and the exhibit topic by staff from diverse departments,including public programs/education, exhibit technicians,evaluators, fundraising, and administration.

As of January 2003, exhibits are still up and running at SciTech,Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and Children’sDiscovery Museum. Oregon Museum of Science and Industrystill has the college-level demonstration kit running in thePhysics Lab with facilitators helping the public understand thesystem.

“Headline: Paul Orselli saysevaluation results could beuseful!”

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Resources

* URLs for product distributorscan be found in the Web Sitessection on page 39

Chapter 10

Resources

Parts Lists

SciTech Hands-On Museum:

• AGAM Aluminum Modular Display*

• Plastic sheet & tubes from AIN Plastics*

• Various sprockets, hardware and Delrin rod fromMcMaster-Carr*

Long Island Children’s Museum:

• Ping-pong balls

• Red 3mm Sintra®

• Sheet aluminum and pop rivets to form the littlecarriers on the chain-driven conveyor

• 1/4" aluminum rod attached to a small bearingso it could rotate freely.

• Chain, shafts, sprockets, crank handle fromMcMaster-Carr*

• All of the materials were mounted to 1/2" MDF,faced with 1/4" clear acrylic for protection.

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History:

• Ecosoul™ regenerative fuel cell kit with smallelectric fan*

• DC wheelchair motor

• Custom made hand crank mechanism

• Large view voltmeter from Sargent Welch*

• Custom made voltage regulator

• Illuminated desk magnifier modified to fit theexhibit case (later removed in prototypeevaluation)

• Radio Shack™ switch and LED indicator

Fort Worth close-up

Long Island close-up

SciTech close-up

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Resources

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry:

• PEMFC-Kit from the Fuel Cell Store*

• Compressed hydrogen cylinder and regulator

• Transparent hose

• Small plastic funnel

• Rubber bulb from a camera lens duster

• Small plastic cup below the air outlet

• Two motors from the Lego® Mindstorms™ kits;one motor drives the gear train of a small Lego®

car, the other turns a Lego® Movie BackdropStudio set which moves a paper backdrop behindthe car.

Children’s Discovery Museum:

• Modified ‘Exhibition Set’ from the Fuel CellStore*

• Apple iMac computer, with ADB I/O interfacebox to connect to the fuel cell

• Modified surplus stepper motor and rectifier (for the hand-cranked generator)

• Electric flower: small DC gear motor and sixLED infinity lights

• Added during testing: 5 ohm, 5 watt powerresistorChildren’s Discovery Museum

close-up

Oregon Museum close-up

* URLs for product distributorscan be found in the Web Sitessection on page 39

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Resources

Product DistributorsAgamwww.agam.com

AIN Plasticswww.tincna.com/ainp/division/project/html/home.html

EcoSoul™www.ecosoul.org/html/fuelcell/fuelcell.htm

Fuel Cell Storewww.fuelcellstore.com

Infinity Lightwww.theledlight.com/infinity.html

McMaster-Carrwww.mcmaster.com

Sargent-Welchwww.sargentwelch.com/ec/products/

Breakthrough Technologies InstituteBreakthrough Technologies Institute has a variety of programs; theirgoal is to educate the average person about new technologies. Theyissue technology updates and a variety of publications including:

The Online Fuel Cell Information Centerwww.fuelcells.org

Fuel Cell QuarterlyA quarterly newsletter dedicated to reporting on key events andopportunities in the fuel cell industry.

The Fuel Cell DirectoryA comprehensive listing of fuel cell manufacturers, researchers andconsultants, suppliers to the fuel cell industry, utilities, associationsand interested government agencies.

Fuel Cell Exhibit ConsortiumMore photos and the entire evaluation report are on-line atwww.fuelcellexhibits.ws

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