Interactive Sustainability Exhibit
As part of my college cornerstone class, my team of four took on the challenge of creating a children's museum exhibit focussed on sustainability. Our main goals were to make the exhibit interactive, and to provide kids around the age of 10 with an educational and memorable experience.
We decided to make a game that would teach kids about the environmental effects of hydroelectric power by allowing them to build their own hydroelectric power plant. Kids could choose to use regular dams or micro-dams, and could choose to use either one or two turbines per dam. The goal of the game was for kids to balance a strong power output with minimizing environmental impact. If the kids lit up more LEDs and produced more power they would gain points but raising the water level and causing more flooding would decrease their score.
​
This project was very involved and together, the four of us spent almost 350 hours over the course of two months planning, designing and building our exhibit. We then presented our finished exhibit to the public at the Boston Museum of Science on December 4th, 2021.
CAD
I managed the CAD for the base of our exhibit using SolidWorks. The top row of square holes would house selected dams. I decided to make the round holes to house the turbine game pieces to make it clear where to put the dams and where to put the turbines.
I designed the pieces to be flat so they could all be laser cut. This made it quick and cheap to create a durable base for the exhibit. I designed these pieces with tabs to make the assembly process easier. I led the assembly of the base after all the pieces were cut, and the tabs made it a lot easier to glue all the pieces together.
Soldering
I worked with my teammates to solder extension wires to all the LEDs so we could build circuits on a breadboard and control the LEDs with an arduino. I also soldered extension wires to all of the LED strips on our poster board.
Presentation
We presented our finished project on December 4th, 2021 at the Boston Museum of Science. It felt very rewarding to see kids approach our exhibit and start engaging with our game. The kids really enjoyed handling the gamepieces and observing the LED's light up in response to their choices. It was clear to me that we had created a fun, interactive, and memorable experience for these kids.
We also tracked player data and noticed that the average player increased their final score from their initial score, indicating that the kids effectively learned that balancing power output with environmental impact is beneficial to society.
​
If we had more time to improve one thing about our exhibit, I would have incorporated a built in screen into the posterboard. We displayed directions to the game on paper and not many of the kids read it. We often had to jump in and explain the main goal of the game. A built in screen seemed to wrok better for other groups and we could have used one to combine our instructions with our inputs on the computer.
​
I am happy with our exhibit and it was nice to see all of our hardwork and planning culminate into a beneficial experience for others.
Relevant Skills
SolidWorks
Used to design and manage part files for the gameboard in an assembly
Laser Cutting
Cut and assembled all of the game board
Soldering
Helped solder connections for many of the LEDS