T18 Innovation, Evaluation, and Best Practices in Informal Geoscience Education

Sunday, 16 October 2005
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

GEOSCIENCE, REVELATION ENGINEERING, AND THE UTAH SCIENCE CENTER

Paper number: T18-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:25 AM – 10:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

The Utah Science Center is a new 'third generation' interactive science center opening in mid-2007 in Salt Lake City. Its major objective is to empower the general public, particularly teenagers and adults, to begin to ask questions and to become interested in and aware of important scientific and technical topics and issues.

PlanetPlace will facilitate the projection and presentation of GIS--based data sets on a range of geoscience and Earth Science parameters, under the partial direct control of the lay visitor. The goal is for the visitor herself to see and perceive the correlations and relationships.

We will also include social, economic, and political data so the visitors can begin to see the complex inter-relations among all planetary--wide variables and phenomena.

Our goal is not to answer questions, but to induce the ASKING of questions--the empowerment of interest, curiosity, and critical thinking.

We will present our plans and empower critique, suggestions, and input from the session audience.