Gallery: The Key to Digital Learning? Bring It Into the Real World
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Connected Worlds, an installation at the New York Hall of Science, teaches kids about environmental science by immersing them in it.
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The waterfall sits between two walls, which stretch out into the museum’s cavernous Great Hall like a giant’s arms moving in for a hug.
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Projected on the walls, and on the floor between them, is a lush virtual world comprising different ecosystems, all dependent on water from the towering falls.
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When a kid standing in a particular ecosystem puts her hand to the wall, a Kinect mounted above the space triggers a projector, which makes a digital seed materialize above the youngster’s palm. She can opt to grow a small plant, which doesn’t require much water, or a large tree, which does.
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To make sure the ecosystem is getting the resources it needs, she must route water from the falls and other sources by arranging giant foam logs on the floor. As kids elsewhere plant their own flora, the water demands of the different areas change dynamically.
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The idea is to encourage kids to think about “sustainability from a systems-thinking perspective,” says Theo Watson, a partner at Design I/O, the Cambridge-based group that led the development of the installation.
