The NATURE RESEARCH CENTER in Raleigh, North Carolina, has the capability to connect to all 1.5 million K-12 students in the state, as well as to students around the world. For its Opening, the NRC conducted 2 global town halls, courtesy of Time Warner Cable. During these town halls, CanopyMeg Lowman hosted conversations with scientists around the world — India, UK, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Philippines, Costa Rica, North Carolina, and Amazon. Here are a few letters written by students in rural India, who experienced the thrill of connecting to millions of global students who were watching the broadcast! These students are studying elephants in their schools, as part of a conservation program for their region called the Western Ghats.
Below Bhaskar writes about the incredible opportunity extended to the students both from the US and from India in connecting to the Global Town Hall Program:
We had chosen the subject of Trees and Elephants and how important it is to conserve the woodland forests for the conservation of elephants and the supporting environment. We engaged in direct conversation with the Mahout community to build a dialogue of understanding how elephants can play a role culturally and through natural history.
In the first phase, 17 students from the US as part of the ClicaAbroad workshop were taken to two elephant camps in Karnataka State and they spent time documenting the fascinating life of the Mahouts surrounding the National park. Due to the conflict with school holidays, they couldn’t be present for the opening of the global town hall event.
Later I took a group of 35 school children from Sri Vani School in Bangalore to the surroundings of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve to a local school COPS in Gonikoppa to interact with them and also experience the forest, elephants and surrounding biodiversity. I am enclosing some of the write ups from the students on their experiences and the images.
High-tech tables bring museum exhibits to life (WRAL.com)
Two tables with responsive surfaces display deeper detail about specimens in the Museum of Natural Sciences new Nature Research Center.
Nature Research Center is dream come true for museum director (WRAL.com)
Betsy Bennett, director of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, has been working for years to open a new wing focused on scientific research and interactive exhibits to bring people closer to science and nature.
Workers prep for Nature Research Center opening (WRAL.com)
Almost 200 people worked feverishly Thursday to prepare the new wing at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for its grand opening Friday evening.
A New World (YouTube.com)
The Daily Planet, a new spherical theater at the Nature Research Center of the North Carolina Museum of Science in Raleigh, receives its globe markings.
Below is a message from Gary Braasch and photo gallery from the grand opening of the Nature Research Center and The Daily Planet at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, April 20-21, 2012, Raleigh NC:
I want to bring in this great example of informal science and climate education — the new Nature Research Center wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Director Betsy Bennett and Center director Meg Lowman (of “Canopy Meg” tropical forest fame) have magnificently brought active science, art, photography, the skills of museum architects & designers, sounds, and even food and drink together into an immersive and engaging learning experience. My portfolio of images from the opening of the Center last week is now up at http://www.braaschphotography.com/NCmuseum/index.htm The museum website is http://naturalsciences.org/
Also my app Painting With Time: Climate Change is now available for iPhones as well as the iPad. We added a slight charge so we could do more with the app and give half the proceeds to Union of Concerned Scientists. Link to the app on Apple Store is http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/painting-time-climate-change/id519699889?mt=8 We are very interested in making this platform more useful to educators and welcome ideas and examples of how it is being used.
Dr. “CanopyMeg” Lowman and Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete guide us on a walk around the wall built at Zhara Church Rainforest in Ethiopia. The Zhara wall was possible thanks to efforts from scientists, donors, and the TREE Foundation.
This video contains excerpts from the documentary film “Church Forest” by Peter Eliot Buntaine & Greg Vander Veer. Find out more here: http://www.churchforest.com
Brazil is home to the Amazon rain forest, a unique ecological expanse that makes up close to 30 percent of the Earth’s remaining tropical rain forests and provides habitat for thousands of native plant and animal species. Unfortunately, over the past 40 years, 20 percent of the Amazon has been deforested. Some scientists are concerned that in the next 20 years the percentage of deforestation will double and leave the forest at just over half of its original size. This is not just an environmental catastrophe; loss of the Amazon will create mass floods, emit mass amounts of carbon, and kill the indigenous creatures that depend on its unique conditions for survival.
The roots of this mass destruction can be traced back to the Brazilian government’s economic policies that create a huge demand for farm, pasture, and ranch land. Large corporations are allowed to exclude between 80 to 90 percent of any agricultural profits from their taxable income, making the Amazon’s rich soil extremely attractive to investors. Local farmers cannot compete, however, with the high prices these corporations are willing to pay for land, and are forced further into the forest in search of available land, which they then clear.
Many have a hard time understanding why people are willingly destroying the land that sustains the earth. Safe in their accredited masters degree programs and behind their computer screens, they forget that subsistence farming still has to exist, despite the fact that much of the best farmland is occupied by corporate farms – many of which do not even produce food for human consumption, but are feeding the livestock which also roam the cleared forest floor.
Roads are also carving much deeper holes in the Amazon, as once corporations have left an area, the roads they’ve left behind are often claimed by squatters. Under Brazil’s law, once squatters have lived on a plot of land for five years they gain legal ownership of it. This has led to an increase in land thievery, and with too few inspectors assigned to supervise thousands of square miles of forest, it is extremely difficult to monitor.
In an effort to thwart carbon emissions, major corporations including General Motors, Chevron, and American Electric Power have setup donations to the Nature Conservancy, which work to preserve land in the Amazon and around the world. According to Mark Schapiro, the Editorial director for the Center of Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, this has created its own set of issues, as indigenous peoples living in the now preserved areas are suddenly prevented from using the land they’ve lived from for generations. The environmental reserve agents, called the Green Police, have the right to arrest these residents and often direct their enforcement. Schapiro says, “at people who live there, as opposed to these kind of black market operations” that hunt and trap illegally on the same land.
Another legal characteristic that encourages deforestation is a tax on land that is considered unused. If land is cleared it has lower taxes as it is deemed “being used”, and landowners that clear their land with no intention of farming are able to economically benefit from this.
In 2008, Brazil’s government enacted legislation to slow deforestation of the Amazon. Beyond enforcing stricter surveillance and repercussions for those convicted of forest clearing offences, the legislation also focuses on creating a federal force to battle environmental crimes. Economic action was also included regarding rural credit and land tax policies, as well as protecting the land around new roads.
The Amazon is the final great frontier of rain forests, and Brazil must continue to enforce environmental laws and policies if we hope to preserve the life within it and prevent more carbon from entering the atmosphere.
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Meika Jensen is a freelance writer and aspiring graduate student looking to study the development of communications as it relates to public opinion. Follow her on Twitter @MeikaJensen and always feel free to drop her a line and strike up a conversation.
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(Raleigh)—Nature never sleeps, so the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will open its new wing, the Nature Research Center (NRC), with a 24-hour grand opening beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 20. This celebration is expected to attract 50,000 visitors and capture global imagination, national recognition and local attention, while maintaining a commitment to environmental sustainability. The 80,000-square-foot expansion includes several green features including LED lights from CREE, a green roof to reduce runoff, water collection in cisterns and photovoltaic panels. Invitees include Governor Beverly Perdue, Legislative leaders, NRC supporters, visionaries in sustainability, and “rock stars” in science like Mark Moffett, Jane Goodall and Paul Rose. To prepare for the grand opening of the new wing, the Museum will be closed Sunday, April 8 through 5 p.m. April 20.
A dazzling display of lights, roving street performers, musicians and internationally known scientists will greet visitors as we publicly throw the doors open to the Nature Research Center unlocking “how we know what we know” to the public, who will discover science in a whole new dimension.
Education will play a starring role in all activities – from global town halls in the SECU Daily Planet on diverse topics such as health, sustainability and forestry – to programming about leading edge research before visitors enter. Of course, once inside, visitors will be immersed in interactive science and technology exhibits and have the opportunity to perform science activities in our investigate labs and explore research collections in our high-tech Naturalist Center with interactive touch tables. They will even experience what it feels like to ride inside a submersible 2,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and predict the weather in the WRAL Storm Central exhibit.
4 p.m. Pre-show and Procession
Friday, April 20
Visitors can listen to the smooth sounds of the Shaw University Jazz Band directed by Charles Brown beginning at 4 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., a procession from the Governor’s mansion begins with dancers from the African-American Dance Ensemble, the Paperhand Puppets and International Focus of Raleigh, 25 local international groups dressed in native costumes, led by Sir Walter Raleigh.
5 p.m. Opening Ceremony
Actor Ira David Wood III and Chuck Davis, founder of the African-American Dance Ensemble, will officiate the opening ceremony. Waters collected from rivers, oceans and lakes around the world will be brought to the stage to symbolize the global nature of the Nature Research Center and acknowledge the life-giving waters of planet Earth. Specially commissioned vessels created by Seagrove clay artists and a single large pottery font created by Mark Hewitt will be used to connect culture with nature during the ceremony.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the doors of the Nature Research Center will open with the cutting of a native plant and flower bower across the doors of the new wing. Following the opening ceremony the Nature Research Center will be open for tours around the clock. Walk-throughs will continue through the evening, overnight hours and into the next day until 4 pm on Saturday, April 21. The entrance will be through the main doors on Jones Street with visitors exiting over the skyway bridge that crosses Salisbury Street into the main Museum building. Exhibit areas will be open and staffed to provide an interactive experience and an array of activities to enjoy. The 24-hour celebration concludes at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 21 with a citizen science charge led by Dr. “Canopy” Meg Lowman, Director of the Nature Research Center inviting visitors to personally engage with science by connecting to one of a myriad of citizen science opportunities.
NRC Highlights
SECU Daily Planet
The SECU Daily Planet is a three-story multimedia program area that employs unique audio and visual technologies. Visitors can view images of the natural world from 40 by 40 foot screen from all three stories. They can also listen to presentations from researchers as they talk about their current research.
Exploring the Deep Sea
Visitors can get inside a model submersible and take a virtual tour 2,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and hear about scientists talk about their research on deep-water corals.
Window on Animal Health
Visitors can watch and interact with scientists, veterinarians and pre-veterinary students conducting animal handling, animal checkups and minor surgeries. There will be an audio and visual component to this lab which gives the public opportunities to ask questions, meet the veterinary services staff and learn about veterinary medicine. An example of this is a recent exploratory surgery to remove a mass from a Gecko.
Investigate Labs
There will be three Investigate Labs (Biodiversity, Science Modeling, Micro-world) where visitors can work alongside scientists in hands-on research.
Meet the Scientist
Visitors will also have the opportunity to talk to researchers in special areas around the NRC as these scientists conduct research on climate change, population movements around the globe, meteorites or looking into deep space.
Citizen Science Center
Visitors can learn how to become a citizen scientist on a number of very interesting projects like bird-banding, observing chimpanzee behavior, or the “School of Ants” project that identifies thousands of unknown ant species in and around North Carolina.
Daily Planet Café
Visitors can eat, relax and engage in conversation at the NRC’s street-side café and talk to scientists in an informal setting about their area of research. In many ways this café will be like a sports bar for science.
WRAL Researching Weather Platform
This exhibit uses real artifacts, instruments and data to research and predict weather. An interactive area will let visitors see how rockets, weather balloons, thermometers and wind/water gauges to provide a glimpse of what real-time weather is like in several different locations throughout the western hemisphere as well as access to these locations via a webcam.
WRAL Storm Central
Visitors can track a hurricane or predict tomorrow’s weather and compare their prediction to WRAL Meteorologist, Greg Fishel’s based on information from the National Weather Service, maps, and Doppler radar technology. They can even determine how cloudy it will be, if the wind will be blowing, or whether there will be any precipitation.
Prairie Ridge
There will be activities at the Museum’s field station, Prairie Ridge Ecostation, during the 24-hour grand opening of the NRC. Family-friendly outdoor citizen science projects will be held on the hour on Friday, April 20 from 8 to 11 p.m. (frog calls and moths) and on Saturday, April 21 from 7 to 10 a.m. (bird banding) and noon to 3 p.m. (reptiles & amphibians and bird nests). Prairie Ridge Ecostation is located at 4301 Reedy Creek Road in Raleigh.
Partners
Burt’s Bees—April 20 is also Earth Day, so once again, the Museum has partnered with Burt’s Bees to present Planet Earth Celebration in conjunction with our 24-hour opening. This is the fourth year that the Museum has joined forces with Burt’s Bees to put on this earth-friendly celebration and provide awareness and education to the public about more sustainable living. The Burt’s Bees Tent sale will also be on site at the 24-hour opening providing 70 percent off many of their all natural health and beauty products.
NASA—Visitors can hear from retired astronaut, Dr. John Grunsfeld at the opening ceremony. Grunsfeld logged over 58 days in space on five shuttle missions, including 58 hours and 30 minutes of spacewalk time. He also visited Hubble three times, performing a total of eight spacewalks to service and upgrade the observatory. Currently, Dr. Grunsfeld is the Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. He now oversees all planetary missions as well as the Hubble and (future) Webb telescopes. The Museum is pleased to pleased to partner with NASA for the 24-hour grand opening continuing a more than decade long relationship.
North Carolina Science Festival—The grand opening of the Nature Research Center is a signature event of the North Carolina Science Festival. The annual Triangle Science and Engineering Expo features hands-on activities and demonstrations for the science enthusiast. On April 20 from 4 to 11 p.m. at the new wing’s grand opening, you can celebrate science with more than 30 Expo exhibitors, including Triangle STEM organizations, universities and local scientists. To find more events near you, visit www.ncsciencefestival.org.
“Raleigh’s New World” highlights 24 Days of Deals and a Trip to the Amazon in celebration of the opening of The Nature Research Center, an innovative 80,000-square-foot wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. This new museum will bring research scientists and their work into the public eye. The 24-hour opening celebration begins at 5:00 p.m. on April 20, 2012.
