INCORPORATING LIVE SEISMIC DATA IN MUSEUM EXHIBITS: SUCCESSES, CHALLENGES AND TIPS FOR FUTURE COLLABORATION

The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) has created a wide variety of seismology related museum exhibits through partnerships with the USGS, UNAVCO, EarthScope, and a number of museums. The exhibits range in size from large permanent non-interactive displays to interactive components placed in a partner museum’s larger exhibit to self-contained interactive kiosks. While initially designed for free-choice learning environments such as visitor centers or museums, IRIS museum exhibits have also found useful application in academic classrooms, libraries and lobbies.

The large displays are focused on live data and many of the content topics in the Active Earth Display (AED), our interactive kiosk display, use live research data. For the AED, the live data updates each time the topic is accessed. The live data components allow visitors such options as viewing recent earthquake locations and waveforms, examining tectonic plate motion using UNAVCO’s interactive GPS data explorer, and plotting the seismic activity at Mt. Saint Helens as recorded by the PNW Seismic Network. Additional interactive pages with questions, animations and videos provide a story line and context for the live data.

While our efforts to create compelling earth science content and exhibits have met with a wide range of success, there are many challenges to address. Challenges include designing content for general public audiences using current academic research with reviews from the research community; display issues for hardware compatibility and longevity; reliability of external websites for live data feeds; and defining and addressing the goals and expectations of external partner institutions. Formative evaluation of the displays has also been an important component of the program, with the evaluations conducted either by museum partners or consultants.