Exposition Park Museum Tour, with Science!
TourJeremy Stoller, California Science Center, USA, Lila Higgins, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, USA
Bugs, Birds, and a Big Spaceship! Spend a day at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Science Center. Visit NHM’s innovative Nature Lab, explore the all new Nature Gardens, and experience firsthand how to become a citizen scientist. Then get up close to a flown space shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, and see what’s coming in the Science Center’s planned expansion, the Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center.
This is a full-day tour, including lunch and requires 20 people to run.
8:30am: Meet at the conference hotel and board bus to Exposition Park.
9:00 – 9:45am: Arrive NHM
9:30am – 12:00pm: Citizen Science Workshop
Can you connect people to nature with a mobile app? Can non-scientists help to answer real-world questions about the nature of cities? The Citizen Science Program at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) answers “Yes” to both. At this two-hour workshop, you will learn how @NHMLA is using citizen science, mobile apps, and web technology to connect its visitors and members to nature in Los Angeles.
The workshop is designed to be indoors and outdoors, as we provide hands-on training to showcase how NHM incorporates the iNaturalist mobile app into citizen science program.
You’ll learn:
- Why NHM has made citizen science an institution-wide initiative
- How citizen science and iNaturalist are incorporated into exhibits spaces
- How citizen science is contributing to NHM’s research on biodiversity in urban Los Angeles
- How to use the iNaturalist mobile app, and then apply that training to make contributions to NHM’s Nature Gardens Survey
- How citizen science data is mined from social media sites
This workshop is designed for all museum practitioners who want to learn how mobile technology can help achieve a mission-based, institution-wide initiative. Learning outcomes will be relevant to people at all levels of their organization.
12:00pm – 1:30pm: Eat lunch at NHM, followed by a short walk next door to the California Science Center.
1:30pm – 2:30pm: Space Shuttle Endeavour
Known as the “jewel of the fleet,” the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour made 25 trips into space, traveling nearly 123 million miles around the Earth before its 12-mile journey through the streets of LA for its final mission at the California Science Center. View the space shuttle Endeavour and meet members of the Science Center’s exhibit development team, who will present a behind-the-scenes perspective on this national treasure.
2:30pm – 3:30pm: Air & Space Center Preview and Prototype Crit Room
Dr. Ken Phillips, Curator of Aerospace Programs, will give you a sneak peek at plans for the upcoming Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center. This 188,000-square-foot addition to the California Science Center’s main building is scheduled to open in 2018. Then get a special opportunity to play with several prototypes of interactive exhibits planned for the new galleries, and tell us what you think! Exhibit Development staff will be on hand to answer all of your questions about the project and hear your feedback.
3:30pm – 5:00pm: Journey to Space: The Exhibition and Free Time
Dr. Ken Phillips will tour you through our current traveling exhibition—Journey to Space—developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota and the California Science Center. It explores some of the most fascinating and challenging aspects of living and working in space as humans prepare for bolder and more distant missions. Afterwards, you are free to explore on your own until closing.
5:00pm: Meet the bus and head back to the conference hotel.