Monitoring Our Water | NC Museum of Natural Sciences

The Nature Research Center encourages visitors to engage with and become a part of the ongoing research at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Several interactive touchscreen applications were developed by Small Design Firm to help facilitate this interplay.

On the first floor of the Research Center, an embedded touchscreen acts like a window into the surrounding streambed scenery. At this station, visitors collect microinvertabrates and tallying their populations to determine water quality.

On the third floor, geologists are trying to determine what may have left trace fossils on a 500 million year old slab of rock. A touchscreen allows visitors to navigate high resolution photography of the surface of the rock, discovering fossils along the way. Video projection from above illuminates key features on the surface of the slab specimen.

Visitors are again asked to take on the role of scientist when analyzing the DNA of several species at the Natural History CSI interactive. By using DNA barcoding, visitors discover the true identity of a species. They learn how modern science is used to solve real mysteries every day.

Touchscreen Interactives | Nature Research Center | NC Museum of Natural Sciences |  Raleigh, NC | art director & project leader | 2012