It's now time to summarize the semester and my experience working at the Maryland Science Center as an Exhibits Intern. To recap, I really had no idea what to expect when I first started. Coming from a physics/science background, I only had one prior experience working at a museum – and that was doing research for a week at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Because of this, I didn't set out to do anything specifically, so I ended up dabbling in a little bit of everything. My class schedule only allowed for me to go in when the rest of the exhibits department was out of the office, but I did manage to catch the tail end of the workday every Friday from about 4pm to 8pm. Because of this, most of my hands-on experience was working with fabrication/maintenance (and some things left for me to do in the office).
Despite my schedule not matching up with most of the exhibit department office, I still feel that I learned a lot and got a really good feel for what goes into making exhibits at a science museum. I learned that Exhibits and Education were two separate departments, despite both influencing the experience for visitors and the fact that the education department were the ones on the floor often demonstrating and explaining exhibits. I also did not know that the Maryland Science Center is a privately owned museum, so money always needs to be considered in all of the things the museum is involved in.
In terms of exhibits and exhibit design in a science museum, I learned that there are many aspects which I previously looked over. Other than planning, there is fabrication, maintenance, audio/visual, and in some cases, exhibits are loaned and leased. I was surprised to see that the planning stage relies heavily on working with scientists and/or companies outside of the museum and even field trips in order to see something in real life before trying to replicate it for an exhibit. For example, ExxonMobil and NASA both have contributed largely to two separate exhibits in the museum. Also, the internet is an important tool in that many people in exhibits aren't necessarily scientists, so they need to quickly learn enough about a prospective topic in order to plan what next step to take in the planning process. I personally used Wikipedia a lot as a starting point for image searching or fact checking, as well as stock photo websites.
I learned that most things have to be made in-house. This includes anything from signs to the housing for TVs/monitors for interactive pieces (and the interactive software/video). There is also a lot of communication between different science museums. For example, I sent photographs of the Gas Model exhibit at the Maryland Science Center to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Many popular exhibits are copied to an extent from museum to museum – this is sort of similar to my experience in scientific research where you would try to replicate someone else's experiment as a starting point.
One thing that stood out was how everyone in exhibits, regardless of official job description, can at any time help out someone else. I know that my supervisor told me that it was common for people to help sand/paint. Another thing I did not expect is how the museum loans out some of their exhibits as well as leases some from the outside. This is important in both increasing visitors (because of visiting exhibits), and making money for the museum (by leasing out exhibits of their own).
I plan to return next semester and continue working in the exhibits department. However, this time my schedule should allow for me to go in during the workweek. I'm hoping that this will let me get more involved with the planning, and I want to be able to sit in on meetings as well. I have yet to use my science background to directly help in planning an exhibit, and since one of the things opening next semester will be astrobiology, I believe I should be able to really contribute.
One of the reasons why this blog exists is so that I could share my experience from the viewpoint of an engineer/scientist, so I will close with some advice/comments for “non-museum people”. More specifically, I suppose my advice is more catered towards science majors that want to see or try out what working in a education-based museum is like. For me, the most striking difference between this internship and the previous ones I have had at research centers is that I haven't really focused on one project at the museum. I have found myself searching for images and facts on Antarctica, astronomy, and extemophiles. I have also done some office work and wood-working. In the internships I have had in science research, you usually end up doing something over and over again with little tweaks. So far here, everything has basically been different, although I wouldn't say that this has been more challenging. Because I haven't really been involved with the planning process, I don't think I have had to use my creativity as I might have thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment