By Wendy Pollock and J. Shipley Newlin

Sound in an exhibition? Most of the time, exhibition planners think of sound as something to be dampened, controlled, or contained. The very term “sound bleed” suggests exhibits battling for attention in an atmosphere of cacophony.

In planning Wild Music: Sounds & Songs of Life, the exhibition team—an unusual partnership among ASTC, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), and the Music Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro—decided to approach sound from an alternative perspective. We would treat it as an element to be tuned and composed, as well as an opportunity to enrich the experience for visitors who are blind or have low vision. Funding from the National Science Foundation, Harman International, and NEC Foundation of America ensured that the team was well positioned for this task.

We also were encouraged by what we were learning from our science advisors who study natural sounds as “soundscapes” (the acoustical equivalents of biomes), not just birdsong extracted from its context or a frog’s call minus its chorusing kin. Why not regard the exhibition in a similar spirit, with an overall and positive approach to acoustics paralleling traditional approaches to visual and spatial design?

Of the many people who provided advice and expertise to guide us on this path, two were especially important in our experiments with sound: Walter Waranka, an access advisor we invited to serve on the exhibition planning team, and Philip Blackburn, the musician who ultimately composed the exhibition’s overall soundscape.

Strategies for interpreting sound

An employment consultant and president of the Minnesota chapter of the American Council of the Blind, Wally Waranka had participated in an ASTC Accessible Museum Practices workshop in 2002. His regular attendance at Wild Music planning sessions helped maintain a focus on the experiences of people with disabilities.

Waranka could see the potential of the subject for people who are blind, as he is. Whale song, bird and insect calls, human music, the physics of sound—all are part of the study of the biological origins of music. There would be plenty to listen to. But assuming we could achieve high-quality sound, how could we ensure that the sounds would make sense to those who can’t read signs? And what experiences could be meaningful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing?

With Waranka’s advice, the developers devised an array of strategies for
interpreting sounds. These included
• Braille and acoustic labels. Standardized locations make these easy to locate.
• Tactile relief models. In one exhibit, for example, whale models are associated with buttons that activate different species’ songs.
• Tactile diagrams. In an exhibit about animal vocalization, visitors can select a tactile sonogram of a bird, mammal, or insect song and insert it into a slot, activating an audio recording. In an exhibit about the human voice (see above), tactile diagrams illustrate the shapes of anatomical airways and working mechanical analogs.
• Experiences of sound as vibration. A spectrum analyzer that works through vibrating metal reeds allows visitors to both feel and see that single sounds are often composed of several frequencies. In the exhibition’s small theater, “bass shaker” speakers bolted under the seats let visitors feel low-frequency parts of the soundtrack, while limiting the spread of these hard-to-contain sounds into the rest of the exhibit space.
• Visual representations of sound. In a working model of a larynx, a fan blows low-pressure air through rubber flaps. By pulling on a control knob, visitors can stretch the flaps and bring them together, producing a sound that varies in pitch with the tension applied. Strobe LEDs help visitors see how vibrations make the sounds they hear—or to see sounds they can’t hear.

After constructing a series of prototypes with Waranka’s advice, we tested them with other consultants who had developed exhibits with people who are deaf and hard of hearing. We also tested prototypes during a session focused entirely on accessible design. This was attended by members of several Twin Cities groups that represent people who have personal and professional experience with disabilities.

Containing and controlling sound

In addition to making individual sound experiences intelligible to a wider range of users, we were committed to creating an overall sound environment that was meaningful and harmonious. With 32 interactive exhibits in a 4,000-square foot space, this required a variety of sound-containment strategies.

From among the more familiar, we adapted several that were best suited to the exhibition’s intent:
• Headphones. Although headphones have drawbacks, our musical consultants persuaded us that there was no way to achieve enough high-quality sound experiences without them. We were encouraged by the example of Seattle’s Experience Music Project, which makes extensive use of headphones. We chose lightweight AKG headphones and, to counter the potentially isolating effect, provided them for the most part in pairs.
• Near-field speakers. We mounted high-quality speakers at about ear height for an adult seated on a stool, and provided start buttons and volume controls to reduce unnecessary sounds when an exhibit is not in use.
• Enclosures. We constructed three types of enclosures: a professional music practice room; open, roofless carrels with nonparallel, insulation-filled walls to reduce internal reflection and sound bleed; and a theater that uses hanging baffles with other acoustic elements.

A positive experience for all

It was important to the Wild Music team that an exhibition about the deep roots and universality of music be broadly accessible and offer a rich and positive sonic experience. Not content with containing, controlling, and interpreting a collection of sounds, we decided to approach the entire exhibition as a soundscape—or, more exactly, three interconnected soundscapes.

Because the songs of birds, whales, and people are key strands in the biology of music, we organized much of the exhibition into thematic areas we called the Edge of the Forest, the Town, and the Ocean Deeps. Each is anchored by a schematic “set” and distinguished by a composition by environmental sound artist Philip Blackburn. The compositions create an acoustic niche both for exhibits that can be heard at a distance (such as a giant wooden xylophone) and for visitors’ conversations.

These themes were extended in a teacher workshop and public programs held when Wild Music opened. Whale expert Roger Payne, one of the project advisors, spoke about his research and played recordings of whale songs; we had to rent speakers capable of transmitting the vibrations of their deep bass notes throughout the museum. A local gamelan performed bird-related Indonesian compositions, and SMM’s teen volunteers shared pocket science demos with visitors.

Work in progress

Wild Music opened at SMM in March 2007. As it moves to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in June, we are just beginning to explore the possibilities for reaching new audiences through its rich sound experiences and themes. Evaluation suggests some fine-tuning that will help improve the visitor experience, but in general the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Visitors are telling interviewers that they appreciate the tactile experiences and the presence of Braille and acoustic labels, even though most haven’t used them themselves.

Wally Waranka reports that this is the first exhibition he feels he can navigate and enjoy almost entirely on his own. In fact, he has brought his colleagues in the employment agency to visit, hoping to inspire their approach to workplace accommodations.

From the July/August 2007 issue of ASTC Dimensions.

Wendy Pollock is ASTC’s Director of research, publications, and exhibitions. J. Shipley Newlin is program director for physical sciences at the Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul.

More about Wild Music and the exhibition tour

May/June 2007
IN THIS ISSUE

ASTC Dimensions last took an in-depth look at teacher education programs in science centers and museums in 2002. Since then, the No Child Left Behind legislation has altered the formal education landscape in the United States, and formal-informal collaborations have changed elsewhere as well. We asked museum educators to tell us how their professional development programs for teachers have changed and how science centers are maintaining the commitment to inquiry-based education in the face of the new expectations from public funders. This issues represents a sampling of their responses.

CONTENTS

• When Schools Meet Museums: Finding a Third Way, by Bronwyn Bevan
• Leave No Teacher Behind, by Linda Shore
• Partners for a New Era: The Challenge of the NCLB Funding, by Coleen Pelak
• Building Teacher Leaders: The Da Vinci Fellows Program, by Dave Smith and Tara Broczkowski
• What Teachers Told Us: Implementing Inquiry Learning for Schools, by Mary Ann Wojton
• Experience, Confidence, and Tools: The Grounding in Botany Program, by Martha Kirouac
• Field Trips for Teachers, by Christine Lewis
• Promoting Technology Literacy in Schools: A Museum of Science Initiative, by Cary Sneider
• Leveraging Training through Networks, by Eva Jonsson
• Learning Before 4: Science for Early Childhood Educators, by Cindy Detuelo
• Looking Beyond NCLB: Alternative Audiences for Teacher Education, by Pete Yancone
• Supporting Xciters: A PENCIL Project Program, Sheena Laursen

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By Bronwyn Bevan

Let’s assume that you, the reader, already believe that informal science institutions (ISIs) can be powerful centers of science learning expertise, resources, and experience in their communities. You know that visitors to science museums, zoos, aquariums, and the like can see, touch, explore, and imagine aspects of the natural world that often remain invisible, unnoticed, or inaccessible in people’s everyday lives. You know that ISIs draw on their spatial, temporal, textural, and material qualities to build a visitor’s sense of the connectedness, historicity, relevance, and salience of science, in ways that many other learning settings cannot.

Visitors often say to ISI staff: Why wasn’t science taught like this in school? That makes us nod and smile, or maybe shrug and smile. We informal educators have often been drawn to work in informal settings precisely because of these unique qualities—because of distinctions between the way science is taught and experienced in schools and the way we believe it is experienced in the real world.

That’s fine. But there is something else we know: ISIs, as places, as pedagogies, and as resources, are not accessed equitably. For the most part, our audiences are white, middle class, and college educated—populations that already actively seek and secure the resources they need to further their own learning and to create more seamless developmental environments for their children.

Many ISIs undertake special efforts and programs to expand their reach to new audiences, especially to community groups that have been historically underrepresented in the sciences. But by almost any measure, these efforts seem to have little overall impact on the demographics of our institutions’ regular visiting audiences, much less on expanding participation in science fields and studies.

Natural and best partners

At the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS), we believe that ISIs can contribute significantly to strengthening and diversifying participation in science. And we believe that schools are the natural, and perhaps the best, partners for any serious ISI efforts in this regard.

Schools are the key democratic institution in every community, working across all socioeconomic lines. While ISIs bring to the table ways of making science accessible, collaborative, tangible, and joyful, schools bring to the table ways of conceptualizing science as a coherent and systematic set of practices and ideas. Museums and schools need each other—and our colleagues in afterschool programs—to create the coherent learning environment essential for initiating and sustaining engagement with science.(1)

CILS sees the key constituency of classroom teachers as the linchpin for such collaborations. Teachers have much to teach us about our communities, about our children, and about being accountable for teaching practices. At the same time, ISIs have much to offer teachers, notably (a) strategies and resources for engaging and sustaining student interest in science and (b) science-rich professional communities that can nourish and sustain teachers themselves. Working together, informal and formal educators can expand their repertoires of practice so that science learning, across multiple settings, becomes more engaging and coherent for more children.

It is past time to move beyond the either/or proposition that seems to dog the ISI discourse about working with schools, or about ISIs’ role in expanding participation in science. There is a “third way” to be found in thoughtful collaborations between informal science institutions and schools. So what do such collaborations look like?

March/April 2007
IN THIS ISSUE

Historically, showmanship and science have been a popular combination in science centers. More than 91 percent of ASTC-member museums feature “classes and demonstrations” in their programming, and some of the larger museums also support a science theater program. But do these events make a lasting impression on visitors? Which techniques are most effective? How is the classic science show changing (or needing to change) to teach today’s audiences? What can science centers do to refresh their live science programs? In this issue, we look back to roots of science performance, share some research findings, and examine how some ASTC members are reinventing the science show.

CONTENTS
• Science Demonstrations: Hot or Cool?, by Eddie Goldstein
• Performing Science: A Demo and Drama Sampler, compiled by Carolyn Sutterfield
• Agreeing on Truth: The Continuum of Science Demonstration, by Richard Toon
• Shockin’ at The Bakken, by David J. Rhees
• People Presence: Why Live Demonstration Matters, by Dante Centuori
• Valued by Visitors, by Dawnne LePretre
• The Impact of Science Shows: A Research Study, by Wendy Sadler
• Animal Archive: A BIG Collaboration, by David Price
• Presenter’s Practicum: A Science Shows Workshop, by Walter Ginckels and Harri Montonen
• Staging Science: The Case for Theater in Museums, by Catherine Hughes
• Theater at the New York Hall of Science, by Marcos Stafne

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January/February 2007
IN THIS ISSUE

Call it the Age Wave, the Silver Tsunami, the Longevity Revolution. It’s the demographic shift we’re seeing as the “baby boom” generation, people born between 1946 and 1964, turns 50, 60, and more. According to ASTC’s 2006 General Member Survey, 33 percent of ASTC museums already offer programs “targeting senior citizens,” but it will require increasing levels of sophistication to address the needs and aspirations of the active, aging boomers. In June 2006, representatives of 25 U.S. science centers and museums met for three days in Washington, D.C., with representatives of organizations that serve older Americans at the local, state, and national level. The conference was organized by the SPRY Foundation, ASTC, and other sponsors, as well as being funded by the National Science Foundation. In this issue, we share insights, outcomes, and resources from that event and describe how some science centers are reaching out to 50+ audiences.

CONTENTS
• The Longevity Revolution: Challenge and Opportunity, by Russell Morgan
• Museums and Older Adults: A Senior Perspective, by Lynn Simmons
• Aging Reinvented: A View from the ‘Oldest’ State, by Gillian Thomas
• A Field Guide to the U.S. Aging Community, by Richard Adler
• In Their Own Right: Adult Learning at Explora, by Kristin Leigh
• Curious Scientific Investigators: A Cross-Generational Program, by Rick Crosslin
• Aging Resources
• What’s In It for Me? Attracting Older Adults to Museums, by Douglas Wagner
• Staying Sharp: A Partnership for Brain Health, by Michael Patterson
• What Research Says about Learning and the Aging Brain
• Mutual Benefit: Partnering for Learning in Tampa, by Terrie Nolinske and Ara Rogers
• Promoting Healthy Aging: The MetLife Grants, by Carolyn Sutterfield
• Aging for All Ages: A ‘Lifelong Learning’ Exhibition, by Paul Siboroski

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