Project

Modeling Change

Providing the public with an immersive, interactive climate change learning experience

Modeling Change is an interactive experience for public audiences based in the Cohen Center for Interactive Learning at GMRI which was developed to educate public audiences about climate change. This 90-minute exploration dives into past and future ecosystem changes and the impacts of climate change in the Gulf of Maine and provides a more resonant, engaging learning experience for adults.

Project Goals:

Create an interactive experience for public audiences focused on climate change.
Deliver the program to over 400 participants in over one dozen events.
Provide public audiences with an opportunities to experience LabVenture content.

For Modeling Change, we used our combined expertise between interactive education and community engagement to develop and deliver a learning experience for adult learners that incorporated climate-ecosystem models. We extracted and refined portions of our LabVenture content, activities, and interfaces for use with adults and facilitated a program to surround these tailored resources.

The experience focuses on the local impacts of climate change in the Gulf of Maine through the lens of two key species: lobsters and black sea bass. Through interactive multi-touch technology, educator presentations, and facilitated discussions, participants learn how ecosystem modeling allows us to understand the relationship between species and their environment, and what the Gulf of Maine will look like in the future.

Adults gather in a large dimly lit room and look at a colorful digital display of the Gulf of Maine on a wall on the left side of the photo.

In early 2019, we developed the experience with lessons learned from other community engagement programming we’ve conducted in mind. With that work completed mid-summer, we piloted the program with internal and external audiences. Following the pilot program we delivered Modeling Change to general audiences through public programming and co-hosted events with local organizations. While the project period is complete, we expect to offer the program with regularly moving forward.