Back at the Museum

Hi everybody -- so this is the first post of the new semester. So far the biggest change has been that I've gone into work on Wednesdays. This has allowed me to sit in/participate in a couple meetings:

The first day back was February 2nd. There was a meeting with the advisers to the Astrobiology exhibit that morning. There were special education teachers, astrophysicists, planetary scientists, biologists and the like from places like Hopkins, the Space Science Institute, NASA and the Carnegie Institute. It was a bit daunting to be in a room full of such influential minds, but it didn't take long to get comfortable and partake in the discussions. The exhibit itself was still in its early/preliminary stages, so most of the talk was about general content.

During the meeting, we had a chance to go over the results of a recent poll study done about astrobiology and the public's opinion/knowledge on the subject. I was quite surprised at how many people were familiar with the more realistic science of it all. They knew about the potential for life on some of Jupiter's moons, life near hydrothermal vents, etc. However, what really struck me the most was the lack of understanding about how astronomers detect exoplanets. Many children especially know about telescopes, but I got the feeling that they believe planets can simply be seen in the pictures taken of distant stars. I'll touch on this subject again in the coming weeks because it inspired me to begin thinking of a prototype interactive that I want to try and make.

The following week, on the 9th, I attended another meeting but with only the people within the museum working on the astrobiology exhibit. It was interesting to see how ideas are discussed within by the people who are going to plan and build the pieces (who might not be experts in the field, but still have a great amount of knowledge through their own study). In fact, this meeting is going to be weekly, so I suppose it was lucky of me to be able to go in on Wednesdays this semester.

Next week I plan to pitch my idea for my individual interactive (about the radial velocity technique of detecting exoplanets) and also start working on a scale model of the exhibit space at 1/4" scale. Hopefully I will remember (and be able) to post pictures of the progress I am making with these two projects.