H2OME
Carnegie Mellon University
Fifth Year | Spring 2020
05-292 Learning in Museums
Professor: Marti Louw, In collaboration with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
INTRODUCTION
For our Learning in Museums project, we have created an activity booklet called H2OME, which is designed and written about the topic of Water.
Our hope is that the booklet provides a learning opportunity for museum visitors and their friends/family about the region’s water story, as well as their own personal home water story.
The booklet is designed for children in grades 3-5, but we highly encourage parents to participate in the activities as well.
In collaboration with Daniel Noh and Don Lee
Discover Interview Insights
Christine Mondor
The principal architect at evolveEA and educator at both Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham University, all while currently serving as Chair of the Pittsburgh Planning Commission.
- PWSA is a great resource for communication from the utilities companies to the people.
- Flush It! Is an interesting tool that allows people to see how long a flush from your home toilet in Pittsburgh takes to get to a treatment center. It could be interesting to think about how this kind of data can be incorporated to make the exhibit more interesting.
- One of the ways we can turn this exhibit into is just a very accessible, enjoyable platform where people can read more complex and complex data.
Mfon Ibekwe and Vasi Vijayashanthar
Mfon and Vasi are 1st year Phd students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. They are both advised by Dr. Jeanne VanBriesen, who is the Director of the Center for Water Quality in Urban Environmental Systems.
- Pittsburgh has a combined sewer system and is susceptible to combined sewer overflow (CSO)
- Large amount of data can be found online (such as Pittsburgh H20)
- Local water utility providers are working hard to mitigate water quality problems
Final Booklet
Prototyping Session
Case Study Subject: 7 y/o son with mother
The principal architect at evolveEA and educator at both Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham University, all while currently serving as Chair of the Pittsburgh Planning Commission.
- From outskirts of Pittsburgh (Dormont)
- Elementary school doesn’t really teach/focus on environmental issues
- Both mother and son have been to CMNH (the son has been around 5 times)
- The family does not use plastic bottles, and the mother has prior understanding of the importance of environmental awareness (water filter, turn off sink when brushing teeth, etc)
Procedure: The family was given a physical copy of the booklet, and were suggested to complete as much of the booklet as they could together. After a couple of days, we called back via Zoom to receive feedback, starting from general questions to more specific questions.
The interview was divided into three broad categories:
- Usability
- Engagement
- Learning/Content
and opened up to further comments at the end.