Museums Teaching Planet Earth - 1999 Patricia Reiff, Rice University Carolyn Sumners, Houston Museum...

Museums Teaching Planet

Earth - 1999

Patricia Reiff, Rice University

Carolyn Sumners, Houston Museum of Natural Science

Jay Apt, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Dar Roberts, Dylan Prentiss, UC Santa Barbara

Tamara Ledley, TERC Inc.

Neal Desai, Sybil Media

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999

Rice UniversityHouston Museum of Natural Science

Carnegie Museum of Natural HistoryUCSB, TERC, Sybil Media, SkySkan

The need

Educational, safe, real-time exhibits for museums and schools

Planetariums considered “boring”: needed new look, new drama (new customers!)

High-definition content for immersive planetarium shows and HDTV

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



The (potential) Customers

Hundreds of museums and science centers (6 in present online network)

Thousands of teachers and schools

New technology (and old technology!) planetariums

HDTV producers

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Products under Development

“Earth Forum”: interactive exhibit or problem-solving field trip experience

Globe Theatre Productions:immersive high-resolution digital theatre

“Earth Update”:information display system

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Component One:

Earth Forum Earth exhibit organized by

continent and resource Can run as problem-solving field

trip for school classes (36 at once) Version 1.0 previously created

using private resources Has been on display at HMNS

since fall 1994

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Earth Forum: Content and Structure

Africa - Food Asia - Atmosphere North America -

Fresh Water South America -

Biodiversity Europe - Energy Oceania - Oceans

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Earth Forum: main menu

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Earth Forum: population graphs

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Earth Forum: Accomplishments

Major software revision to version 2.0 allowed use of updating imagery

“Wild Blue Planet” opened CMNH June 1998 to rave reviews

Version 2.1 embodies improvements in imagery and layout

Featured in “Science Quest”, national public television show April 6, 1999

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Earth Forum at Houston Museum of Natural Science

From “Science Quest” broadcast, April 6, 1999

QuickTime™ and aComponent Video - YUV decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

ESIP-3 Reviews

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Wild Blue Planet at Carnegie Museum of Natural History

From “Science Quest” broadcast, April 6, 1999

11 school groups this year so far (@$135 for 90 minutes): 351 students total

QuickTime™ and aVideo decompressor


ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Component Two: Globe Theatre Planetariums being revitalized by

new technology Multiple linked projectors allow

wrap-around digital imagery Shared immersive experience

brings many new customers to existing venues with relatively small additional resources

“Way of the future” here today

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Globe Theatre: dome projection

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Globe Theatre: Content and Structure

3, 4, or 6-projector systems yields panorama, full view, or full dome, respectively

16 GB/minute data rate (each projector driven by separate computer).

20 minute show requires 5-7 2-minute segments

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Globe Theatre: Accomplishments

HMNS system installed November 1998 with major cost sharing (3 - 1).

First shows “Magnificent Journey” and “Cosmic Mysteries” opened December 1998

HMNS has doubled planetarium revenues Next show “Destination: Moon” under

development for July ‘99 opening

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



First in the World (December 98)

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Globe Theatre: Increases revenues Dec 97: $13.4K vs. Dec 98: $30.9K

(130% increase in revenues) Jan 98: $10.4K vs. Jan 99: $27.2K

(161% increase) Feb 98: $ 9.7K vs. Feb 99: $24.8K

(155% increase) Visitors, Dec 97 - Feb 98: 25,083

vs. Dec 98 - Feb 99: 41,784 (+67% increase in visitors)

ESIP-3 Reviews

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Component Three: Earth Update Macromedia-7 based information

system, safe for unattended use(web browsers are too slow and can easily reach sites which are inappropriate for children)

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Component Three: Earth Update

Earth imagery automatically updated daily for museums in our network (“push”) oravailable on-demand (“pull”)

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Component Three: Earth Update Macromedia-7 based information

system, safe for unattended use Earth imagery will be fully

updateable remotely for networked museums (“push” or “pull” system)

Personal version will have hot links to update imagery or to view web resources, even when run from CD, but will still be safe for children

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Earth Update: Content and Structure Organized by science content

(Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Geosphere, Biosphere, Cryosphere)

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Each content section has “topics”, “what’s hot”, “latest data” and who/what/why/how buttons

ESIP-3 Reviews

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ESIP-3 Reviews

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Each content section has “topics”, “what’s hot”, “latest data” and who/what/why/how buttons

Central button explains how remote sensing can scan the Earth

ESIP-3 Reviews

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Remote sensing

ESIP-3 Reviews

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Earth Update: Accomplishments

Main splash page laid out Section architecture and splash

pages identified Sample section (atmosphere)

essentially complete Real-time data sources, topics

identified; much material already in hand

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Data products developed

Sea-level change graphic This example shows 13-m sea-level rise

ESIP-3 Reviews

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Earth at night 3 km VR movie (from DMSP database)(UCSB)

QuickTime™ and aCinepak decompressor


ESIP-3 Reviews

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Earth at night also available as animated GIF

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Some imagery developed by other sources (sea level with population density)

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Imagery from combined data sets (bathymetry, AVHRR, night lights)

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Clip adapted from IMAX for Globe Theatre

QuickTime™ and aAnimation decompressor


ESIP-3 Reviews

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1999 Plans Earth Forum: version 2.2 to be

completed and installed Globe Theatre:

“Destination:Moon” show (summer ‘99)Earth Through Time show (fall)Carnegie theatre installation (fall)interactive buttons (HMNS) (fall)

Earth Update: First full version (summer)

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Benefits to Customers

Demonstrated additional paying customers

Demonstrated “newsworthy” aspect - free advertising

Outreach avenues for other NASA missions

Create hi-def segments which can be used in many venues

ESIP-3 Reviews

May 11, 1999



Collaborations with other ESIPs Can incorporate many ESIP data sets

into Earth Update / Globe Theatre (have good ones??)

Advertising through NBC web site Joint CDs with PlanetEarthSci (?) Displays at ESIP-cooperating

museums (TerraSIP) (?) Intellectual property/data rights issues

- joint solutions to similar problems

Museums Teaching Planet Earth - 1999 Patricia Reiff, Rice University Carolyn Sumners, Houston Museum...

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