Museums: ACS Earth Day 2005: Projects and hosted sites archive: Swain Library

Museums

Science North, Sudbury, Canada

Northern Ontario’s largest family education and entertainment complex.

Looking at Earth: Views of our planet from above have helped us to better understand the Earth. Examples of satellite imagery and aerial photography display how remote sensing is used for urban planning, geology, archaeology, military reconnaissance, environmental monitoring and natural disaster assessment. From the first aerial photos taken from balloons to images taken from space, looking at the Earth from above provides a unique and beautiful view of the natural and human induced changes that occur on our planet.
Earth Today: The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, landmasses, and life interact as global systems. Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet.

Atmosphere: Breathing Room: Take a breath! You’ve got a piece of the atmosphere in your lungs. We breathe about 20 times a minute. Our lives and the lives of most living things depend on the atmosphere that encircles the earth.

The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA

Global Climate Change: explore scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and the living organisms in all these domains. You’ll also get a sense of how scientists study natural phenomena — how researchers gather evidence, test theories, and come to conclusions.

Museum of Natural History, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, WI

Third atmosphere — free oxygen: About 2 billion years ago, free oxygen began to accumulate in our atmosphere. Organisms with traits of both blue-green algae and bacteria released oxygen as a waste product of their metabolism. In the next 1.5 billion years, atmospheric oxygen levels increased, carbon dioxide levels decreased, and an ozone layer formed. Without ozone protection, scientists think that the sun’s radiation would have prevented any animals from living on land.

Earth Never Sleeps: The land, seas, and air are in constant motion. Science Bulletins keeps you up to date with in-depth Feature stories about cutting-edge developments in Earth science, a weekly Snapshot of recent volcano and earthquake activity, and Earth Viz, a satellite’s-eye view of our dynamic planet.

Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia

Geoscience — The Earth: The universe can be defined as the whole of existing things from the scale of sub-micron to outer space. The Solar System is dominated by the nine planets that orbit around the Sun, one of which is the Earth. Many processes have shaped the Earth giving us resources such as minerals and gemstones, as well as creating landforms that give continents such as Australia their distinctive landscapes.

Ecology & Environment Galleries: The delicate interconnections between Earth’s physical forces and the living things that inhabit it is the focus of the Ecology and Environment galleries in the St. Louis Science Center.

Experimentarium, Tuborg Havnevej, Denmark

Dynamic Earth: Our Dynamic Earth covers an exhibition area of 800 m2. It is full of information about our fantastic planet. Feel an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale. Try to move your body against a fresh breeze in the wind tunnel. Is your body powerful enough to generate sufficient energy to power a television set?

The Environment Floor: Get in touch with the Environment! Climb across a 20-foot Rock Wall, then learn how we produce energy from coal, waves, wind and more at E-Quest: Exploring Earth’s Energy. In the Estuary, create deltas at the Stream Table, and don’t miss the Touch Tank where you can pat a live sea creature. You can also get face to face with snakes or other creatures throughout the day in The Green House.

The Adventure Tower: Adventure Tower is packed with dynamic, interactive, and, above all, educational science activities that represent the Museum’s six scientific concept areas: Earth Science, Creativity & Invention, Sound & Light, Air & Space, Health, and Energy.

AirPlay: Air roars, whistles, and sighs, ruffles, gusts, and whispers. You can’t see air, sometimes you can’t even feel it. But it’s all around us, all the time. You can find the “footprints” air leaves behind in AirPlay.