More California, new inspirations.

Author: ilamandarina in General on 02 Sep 2010 | 5 comments

Last year I visited California for the first time in 30 years, I served in San Francisco on July 4, 2009.

The northern and central California, its nature and its museums were a great gift for me. I shared gift through the post on my blog " Four museums, museum four different stories . " It said:

"As you see there has been a dull moment ... rather it has been an experience I wish it had extended a few more months ..."

A year later, still eager to continue extending the Californian experience, I started my second trip to the West Coast. This year we had intended to spend just over a month, keep working on more issues related to the project Expolab and participatory exhibits, together with the team at Tech Virtual Museum of San Jose and back filled with new proposals and fresh ideas.

Working at the Tech Museum in San Jose

Working with the Tech Museum has gone very well. We are completing a book on the experience gained during the months-long Expolab and have sent an article to the 11th International Conference on the Public Communication of Science. The Tech Museum is a museum committed to participation, and the proof are initiatives such as the inauguration of "The Tech Callenge Gallery" I attended last August 11.

The Tech President Peter Friess, inaugurated the exhibition offers visitors the more than forty new fully interactive experiments, explained by boys and girls themselves users of the museum.

This exhibition has been and is a learning process for all. On the one hand, children near the Tech Museum have learned from the process of creating the exhibition. Also known laws of physics relating to light, mechanics, fluids, among others, and then explain in understandable language, funny and captivating. They themselves are the protagonists and what communicators have understood. They appear in a video after each experiment present and visible in the room.

On the other hand, Tech professionals have shared many moments with the real protagonists of the museum and have lived close to the experience of visitors. So much so, that the president of the Tech Museum defined explanations of children as a measure of the center itself.

Finally, new visitors can experience and understand science through videos recorded by previous visitors: boys and girls mentioned. All the public, sooner or later, may be the protagonist of this exhibition "The Tech Challenge Gallery" because it is a process that will remain alive and active. The Tech Museum will create a new laboratory where children recorded explanations of what they have learned during the conduct of experiments and activities in the center. If they can explain, is that they have understood.

This exhibition, however, is not only aimed at smaller, older can also enjoy it. Initiatives like this help to involve more visitors to the museums, as well as help to redefine the proper role played by these centers in the XXI century. Museums and Science Centers are challenged by the needs of a new society and the popularization of new digital tools. This is a good response to this challenge!

A stroll through more than half a dozen museums

Despite spending many hours at the Tech Museum, this was not the only place I have visited these days. There have been many exhibitions and interpretation centers that have approached me and I have enjoyed: the Lawrence Hall of Science , the Chabot Space & Science Center , the NASA Ames Exploration Center , the Computer History Museum , the Oakland Museum of Caliafornia , the Petrified Forest in Calistoga, the Old Faithful Geyser area of Napa and wine or even the Exploratorium . In addition I have also had the opportunity to meet very bold initiatives like TechShop or Future Salon at the legendary Xerox PARC in Palo Alto.

Science Interactive: Lawrence Hall of Science

This museum was very pleasantly surprised me. There were many times when I thought: What a brilliant idea!. Not too big, but is full of interactive concepts supported by an interesting reality. One of the exhibits star shows the physics of motion thanks to the roller coasters and other theme park attractions. As explained by prototypes also because we feel dizzy or feel nauseous. Do not you think a great theme to attract children and adolescents?

We dedicate space to mathematics research topics such as nanotechnology and astronomy. But for me, one of the best themes discussed in this museum is the geology, as the Lawrence Hall of Science devotes an entire outdoor exposure to the understanding and experience first hand what is a failure, a fold, a river, a reservoir. All that with an incredible view over the bay of San Francisco and explanations connecting to personal experience with the real geological situation of this area.

Geología Geologia

Another nice proposal to enjoy and play the geology and paleontology is to walk through the Petrified Forest in Calistoga, north of San Francisco.

Astronomy: a double deal

The Chabot Space and Science Center is an impressive museum entirely dedicated to astronomy, cosmology, space aeronautics and everything that relates to space. Located in the beautiful hills of Oakland.

The center offers interactive science exhibits for people of all ages, activities monitored by volunteers, for example, the creation of a bracelet with material sensitive to ultraviolet light or building a solar car, a digital planetarium and several telescopes. It's funny how once finished the visit, out the door with a strange feeling, that when you grow up ... you'd be an astronaut!

The Ames Exploration Center at NASA also offers educational materials to bring astronomy, aeronautics and the work done by researchers to the general public. This unpretentious facility is located on the outskirts of the research center of NASA itself.

Under construction: the history of computing

My visit to the Computer History Museum was brief as it was only a tenth of what became this interesting museum. The Computer History Museum has narrowed its doors, without ever closing to prepare their own revolution, as currently advertised on its website. ! I look forward to the future opening of the museum of the 2000 early years of computing! Who knows? Maybe I can be an excuse for a third visit to these lands ...

In the midst of Silicon Valley, not only the history of computing is interesting. These lands are also spaces where applications work the digital age offers us and the participants get their hands dirty with silicones, metals, specialty cutters, sewing machines or lathes.

If you know what I like to build, thanks to TechShop surely you can get!

More sea ...

This year I have not repeated the incredible experience of visiting the Monterey Aquarium, but I have returned to this beautiful city. This time to dive into the sea aboard the Princess ship and whale watching. A sight to be applauded. The natural life in Monterey is overwhelming: whales, seals, otters, ducks, gulls ...

It's amazing how humans and seals share the beach!

Exploring participation in the Museums of the Bay

Motivated by the recommendation I gave Nina Simon , also visited the Oakland Museum of California where I was pleasantly surprised to meet a temporary exhibition dedicated to Pixar: 25 Years of Animation .

The exhibition " California History "makes it an attractive journey through the history of California from the incredible diversity of early Native American culture, through the gold rush and the growth of San Francisco, through the rise of Los Angeles and Hollywood, to the tumultuous decades of the 1960 and 1970. The exhibition ends with spaces dedicated to the memory of visitors, showcases interesting memories and spaces devoted to current problems and contemporary perspectives. A timeline where visitors can indicate what were the facts that have most influenced the course of the years we dismissed this graphic and interesting way.

Exploratorium, something incredibly wonderful

Obviously, this year also found a moment to return to visit the Exploratorium, the father of the interactive, the nest of creativity. I started playing again and amaze with their new interactive, this year devoted to the geometry. Hand in hand with Karen Wilkinson could better understand the interiors of such magical place. We visited the workshops, we talk with the engineers and volunteers, met educational and participatory strategy and let myself fascinated by the prototypes built by participants and visitors. The Exploratorium was at his birth, and continues 40 years later, a science museum specimen. Congratulations to the team!

More California, more ...

These are some of my experiences during these more than thirty days in California, but as always I still have more in the pipeline: more spaces visited, more people know, more conversations, more thinking, more ideas ... and a host of new inspirations that I imagine will germinate throughout the remainder of the year and beyond.

As I said once, there's no time to be bored. Visit California, the hotbed of Silicon Valley is an experience you would like to extend a few, many, months or occasionally repeat!

5 Responses to "More California, new inspirations."

Begoña says:
September 2nd, 2010 at 14:18
Hello Irene, I recently called your project newton tangerine, now I have been following your journey, how interesting to see first hand what is being done in the museums there to popularize science. A very unique trajectory yours! I congratulate
begoña
ilamandarina says:
September 2nd, 2010 at 21:50
Begoña Thanks!
I look forward to explaining what is done in the museums of the world you go visiting. It is a pleasure!
We are in touch!
Irene
Yolanda says:
September 7th, 2010 at 20:14
very interesting to me everything that you tell us, discovering new projects and making us move! keep it up
ilamandarina says:
September 8, 2010 at 7:57
Thank you Yolanda!
The truth is that it is a pleasure!
Regards,
Irene
Rachel says:
September 15th, 2011 at 19:32
Hello Irene, studied journalism at the School of Communication at the University of Havana, Cuba.
I am currently doing research for my dissertation, which is about cultural publications in the internet using web 2.0 tools, and in which the contents, meaning and even the type of communication will build together.
I come to you because I saw this link in the "co-creating cultures" and maybe you could help me find this type of platform, or pages, or magazines ... to form the test sample, as well as some literature on the subject.
You probably know a thesis on the reconfiguration of language and communication in these types of places I can recommend or help find, because for me, many important databases are prohibited.
I know that such requests are not very common, in fact, none of the people I've tried to contact me to respond. But my problem is that on one hand I love a lot of the subject, and the other is very difficult to work anything related to internet in my country for the tiny bandwidth you have and the minimum possible connections. So I do not have as much time as I would like to look for myself.
Is there any possibility to help me, or anyone you know?
My contacts are:
rachel@lajiribilla.cu
rachel.drojas @ gmail.com
Hottie your journey, indeed.
Thanks in advance

about me

I'm Irene, mandarin ila, curious and playful, who would like to understand why almost all things and the origins of the universe. Live fascinated by art, dance, shapes and colors. One day I felt certain that for me the science and art combined in disclosure. That day I chose to work as a journalist and science writer.
A little over a year Newton was born Tangerine as a blog. Its origin was in blogspot .
In 2010, tangerine moved to Wordpress and its timid beginnings are transformed into a business venture.
The Tangerine Newton is a project that combines science and technology with any other discipline, to create activities, exhibitions, meetings, and educational playthings. You can find more information on the web or follow each month on the podcast of science in Catalan of the Irene Newton Tangerine Tomàs Lapuente and Manzanares.