The Magic Circle

1
The Magic Circle
Virtually Possible Saturday 2 June, 1415
N 11
Maya Halevy Bloomfield
Science Museum Jerusalem
2
The mission - The holistic view

• To create a Magic Circle between the Physical and
  the Virtual Museums.
• The idea evokes many kinds of questions
• Strategic questions (what, for whom)
• Financial questions (economic models)
• Technological questions (how)
• And more

3
For whom we are designing the website

• The most accessible to us our Museum visitors
  
• The most needy Teachers that teach science and
  need support
• The non-visitors the surfers that only visit
  our website
• We have 3 times more web visits than Museum
  visits, and we know much less about them

4
For our Museum visitors

• We have some knowledge about their reasons for
  visiting the Museum
• Families - for recreation
• Students Teachers - for learning in a different
  environment (informal)
• Youth and Adults - for social reasons
• But through the Web - do they need or want the
  same?

5
What is the "Web mission"?

• For the Visitors
• To serve them better (information content)
• To involve them more in the Museum
• For the Non-visitors
• To change the surfers into our new public
• To share our treasures with more people then
  we can serve "on site"

6
What will be the Economic Model of the extensive
website

• Public service with public support for specific
• target users?
• Service only to members? (individuals schools)
  
• Part of our development and running budget of
  all
• projects and exhibitions?
• Cooperation with business strategic partners?

7
New tools?

• What are the tools we should use on the web?
• Web 2 Wikis blogs Podcast
• or keep it Web 1
• What should be the media interface in the
• physical Museum
• Kiosks? PDAs? Mobiles? RFID?
• There is a tension between the desires of the
• current users versus the perceived desires of
• the future users Should we serve all?

8
And now to the content

• In the Museum we try to show the "real stuff"
• Artifacts and / or phenomena
• And on the web?
• Should we try to do the same with virtual tools
  
• Simulations of real phenomena live camera from
  the
• exhibition floor Web-cast of Museum events
• Or should we add what is less available on our
  physical
• museum research as the third leg of the Magic
  Circle
• _at_ Museum
  _at_ Home/school
• _at_ Research

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Two pilot projects from the content point of view

• For teachers
• I. "Musag- Mutsag concept - exhibit
• For the general public
• II. The Brain website

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I. Mutsag - Musag exhibit - concept

• our new web mission for the teachers
• Narrowing the gap between Science Museums and
  Schools
• Looking at our exhibits from a different point of
  view
• The teachers point of view
• As a continuation of the "Pencil Project"
• Narrowing the gap between research laboratories
  and classroom blackboard
• The Museum as mediator through Using
  communication tools of scientists to teach
  science .

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I. Mutsag - Musag exhibit - concept

• We try to take the teachers point of view
• New criteria for choosing the concepts and the
  exhibits we work with.
• Involving teachers as part of the development
  process
• Using Content management tools for easy
  retrieval for the teachers and learners needs
• Preparing ready- made recipes and designing new
  platforms for uploads and shared student
  projects,
• but not less important
• Changing our physical exhibits to support the
  Magic Circle

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I. Mutsag - Musag exhibit - concept

• Using communication tools of scientist
• to teach science
• www.mada.org.il/pencil/
• www.mada.org.il/pencil/english.html
• What robot makers can learn from octopus arms?
• The lab of Dr. Binyamin Hochner, Dep. of Life
  Sciences,
• Hebrew University
• The use of computers as a research tool for
  developing drugs
• The lab of Prof. Amiram Goldblum, School of
  Pharmacology,
• Hebrew University
• Research uses of the confocal microscope
• The lab of Prof. Rami Rahamimoff, School of
  Medicine,
• Hebrew University

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I. Mutsag - Musag exhibit - concept

• Octopus
• Description of the research with visual
  information about the experiments
• Scientific Poster as a model for teachers
• Scientific article notated
• Interview with the researcher - in his/her
  laboratory
• Relation to the curriculum
• Questions to the researchers
• These will be implemented on our new Brain
  website

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II. The Brain Program

• 5 year program as a cooperation between our
  science museum
• and the Center for Neural Computation at the
  Hebrew University
• The website, following the development of the
  program,
• is build on 3 legs
• _at_Museum _at_Home/school
• _at_Research
• http//www.mada.org.il/exhibitions/brain/english.h
  tml

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II. The Brain Program

• _at_ Museum Short descriptions of the various
  exhibitions
• Exhibits explanation
  (some on line)
• Articles links
• _at_ Home / On-line and off-line experiments
  you can do at home
• school after or before visiting the
  Museum
• _at_ Research in General Popular articles
  written by scientists
• 
  Nobel laureates in brain research
• From the Lab From the researchers
  laboratory
• Blog Written by a PhD student with
  the help of some friends
• All linked together

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Summery

• We chose to serve first
• the needy- the teachers with the Musag-Mutsag
  project
• Youth Adults (visitors and non-visitors) with
  the Brain program
• To focus on a Web mission of
• Serving our visitors better
• the success factor will be repeat visits to our
  website as
• well as to our physical Museum
• Making some of them involved
• The success factor will be the use of platform
  for uploads

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Summery cont.

• To use a combination of economic models- free
• Public service with public support for schools
• Part of our development and running budget in
  the Brain program
• Use of technology
• We build a content-management platform we are
  trying to implement
• WEB2 tools just for those who are willing
  to become active
• We dont invest now in technology on the
  exhibitions floor
• Content
• We would like to add what is less available on
  our physical Museum
• Research as the third leg of the Magic Circle
  through close
• cooperation with scientists as part of our
  Science in Society mission

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The next Initiative

• For the Families and Young children (especially
  girls)
• Cross Media with three partners
• TV childrens channels
• Popular educational website
• Our science Museum.
• The content will be focused on
• "doing research - become part of a scientists
  team"