It鈥檚 one thing to study how the relief and albedo of the ice sheets affected weather patterns during the Last Glacial Maximum 20,000 years ago. And it鈥檚 a whole other thing to develop an interactive, engaging museum exhibit on the subject for general audiences. But that鈥檚 just what teams from the (CIRES), the (NSF NCAR), NOAA and ATLAS managed to do.
Millennia ago, ice sheets formed over huge swaths of North America that were nearly as tall as some of our continent鈥檚 highest mountains. They were so massive that they essentially created their own weather.
Former CIRES postdoc Dillon Amaya (now at NOAA鈥檚 ) along with Kris Karnauskas, CIRES fellow and associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, with NSF funding.听
Researchers long hypothesized that the ice鈥檚 massive scale during the Last Glacial Maximum was enough to block the jet stream and change weather patterns sweeping in from the Pacific Ocean. For example, back then the area around what is today Southern California was much wetter while the Pacific Northwest was relatively drier. Today that is reversed.
Through advanced computer simulations, the CIRES team discovered that albedo creates a cooling effect that alters atmospheric circulation in ways that cannot be explained solely by the sheer size of ice sheets. Albedo is a measure of the amount of light reflected off of a surface鈥攁nd ice sheets reflect a lot of sunlight, significantly impacting wind patterns. The research showed the Pacific Ocean was the driver behind the changes.
Translating Complex Research
In spring 2022, ATLAS offered a class called Design a Science Exhibit for ATLAS and Computer Science students. It centered on designing approachable museum exhibits that translate hard science for everyday people. Led by ATLAS director Mark Gross and adjunct faculty member Wayne Seltzer in collaboration with Eddie Goldstein from the Denver Nature and Science Museum, student teams partnered with researchers and museum specialists to prototype exhibitions that incorporated coding, materials selection, fabrication and storytelling.
Gross notes, 鈥淲e should be teaching our engineers to communicate with broad audiences, particularly around climate change. We might do good science and engineering, but we鈥檙e not always good at communicating it to the public.鈥�
A team of CU Boulder students formed a group to translate the CIRES ice sheet research into an exhibit prototype, including, ATLAS PhD student, David Hunter; Natasha Smith (MS Environment, Environmental Policy); and ATLAS undergraduate students Caileigh Hudson, Logan Turner and Julia Tung.
Seltzer explains, 鈥淭he that inspired this exhibit is not all that accessible to readers who are not climate scientists. The students focused on what they decided was essential knowledge鈥攖he factors that result in an ice age and how computer models can help us predict climate change.鈥�
Experimenting with Form
The team originally conceived of a sandbox as the project medium. As you moved the sand around to build different topographies, visual projections overlaid from above would show how weather patterns change. The idea made sense in theory, but practical stipulations (sand can be challenging to manage in a museum space) pushed the team in a different direction.
Hunter details this evolution, 鈥淲e made little blocks that represent [topographic features], and then you could put the blocks on top of each other so you could sculpt [a landscape.] As a team, we went about designing and building the whole rig and had a prototype by the end of the semester, and we got to show it alongside everyone else's work at NCAR.鈥澨�
NSF NCAR science educators were so impressed with the prototype that they invited the team to work on a permanent installation.听
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Making it Real
The biggest challenge then became orchestrating all the different people and components involved in developing a functional exhibit that could live for the long-term with as little ongoing maintenance as possible. Hunter notes, 鈥淭here鈥檚 the digital prototype building, but then there鈥檚 the physical make-this-real part as well as the education part and ensuring visitors would get the right message.鈥澨�
After two years of iterative collaboration with scientists, curators, coders, fabricators and educators, the exhibit is now officially on permanent display at the Mesa Lab Visitor鈥檚 Center. Thousands of guests each year will be able to explore how massive ice sheets can alter the climate in surprising ways.
Amaya related, 鈥淭his was probably one of the most gratifying experiences of my scientific career. It's not often that a piece of research like this leads to such tangible educational outcomes, so I'm super proud of our team for seeing it through! It's my hope that this exhibit can help illustrate some of these exotic climate interactions so that visitors can leave with a better physical intuition for how and why things were so wildly different.鈥�
If you go:
1850 Table Mesa Drive
Boulder, CO
Free Admission
Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. 鈥� 5:00 p.m. MT
Saturday, Sunday & Holidays: 9:00 a.m. 鈥� 4:00 p.m. MT
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