The Museum of Future Government Services - The Future of Education
The education section of the exhibition focuses on the concept of learning through experience, social gaming, and simulation. It uses tactics of interaction and engagement to draw participants into a subject in order to experiment and make discoveries at their own pace while following their own interests. This is a compelling alternative to traditional education techniques with didactic characteristics and maintaining a pace of education that keeps an entire classroom in sync.
In one part of the room is a table with several iPads placed on it. Each iPad is running software for simulating the development of plants by mixing their genetic code. Visitors can sit down and begin adjusting the genetic structure of their plant organism in order to modify various attributes to suit their desired outcome. As they modify their plant, the 3D model on their iPad also appears on the large projected display in front of the table. Observers can monitor the various plants being designed at that moment, and classrooms and educators in remote parts of the world can interact with the participants on screen.
As visitors create their own plant designs, a series of BioBot 7000 genetic 3D printers are producing plants based on designs from former visitors. The printed plants are used in displays mounted along the wall.
When the plants have finished printing, they are displayed inside glass domes and lit from beneath. Due to the optical properties of the material they were printed from, the plant absorbs the light from underneath and emits it through it’s surface.
On the opposite side of the room is an interactive sandbox based off of the work of Oliver Kreylos at UC Davis. The sandbox engages people to modify terrain in order to affect weather, control the distribution of water, and experience the power to terraform their environment to suit a variety of purposes.
Production of the Future of Education section was headed by Marcin Ignac, and development and modification of the sandbox table was by Jonathan Chomko of the Fabrica Urban Codes Studio, as well as Zaza Zuilhof and Pierluigi Dalla Rosa of Tellart.
