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Making science fun
New interactive museum opens
(Published May 3, 2004)

By COURTNEY A. BURNS
Staff Writer

Downtown Washington has a new science museum aimed at making science fun and applicable to everyday life.

The first interactive exhibits at the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, located at 500 Fifth St. NW, allow visitors to learn such facts as how their genes compare to a fruit fly’s and that global warming can be measured by examining the rings of a tree.

The museum, which opened April 23, was funded by Daniel Koshland Jr. in memory of his wife of 52 years, Marian, who died in 1997. Marian Koshland was a member of the National Academy of Sciences board and made major contributions to the field of immunology and molecular biology throughout her career.

After her death, Koshland asked National Academy of Sciences President Bruce Alberts what kind of contribution in his wife’s name he could make to help the organization, and Alberts suggested the museum, Koshland said.

"I agreed without finding out how expensive it was," he joked.

Alberts and Koshland started out by visiting science museums from Chicago to Beijing.

"Nobody had done quite what we had in mind," Koshland said.

What makes this science museum different from others, Koshland said, is that it uses high-level science from the Academy’s reports and "we’ve reduced that in a way that is really fun."

Some of the features that visitors will find in the "Global Warming Facts & Our Future" exhibit include hands-on displays of how much hotter Earth will get due to the greenhouse effect and a map that shows where climate changes have affected parts of eastern Maryland via flooding.

The "Putting DNA to Work" exhibit, located at the back of the museum, showcases a display that tells what percentage of the genes in a monkey, a weed and yeast are the same as a human’s, a movie that shows how DNA can exonerate innocent people who are convicted of crimes and a display that shows how DNA can be used to rapidly identify infectious diseases, like the SARS virus.

Koshland explained that the museum’s exhibits relate big global issues to personal issues. One display in the museum gives suggestions as to how people can make changes in their lives to reduce global warming, like driving their cars at a slower speed to use less gas.

The exhibits, while the main attraction, are not the only service of the museum. Museum Director Patrice Legro said an internship program will feature Banneker Senior High School students helping visitors with hands-on demonstrations in the museum.

The museum will also offer free field trip packages to school groups of 35 students or less, according to Erika Shugart, the museum’s online media and education director. The field trip program will entail students filling out work sheets, based on information in the museum, and then meeting to discuss what they’ve learned and how to solve a problem like global warming, for example, Shugart said.

One group of students from West Springfield High School in Fairfax, Va., who got a preview of the museum, "complained that they only had an hour in the museum," Koshland said. "That’s the kind of complaint we like."

A focus group from Ballou Senior High School is scheduled to examine the DNA exhibit this month, Shugart said.

Regular admission for the museum is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens, children and students and members of the military with proper identification.

Koshland said he expects most visitors to the museum to be "an average person coming to Washington who is interested in science and wants to know the background." He noted that his favorite museum patrons, in the trials that have been done so far, are parents and their children.

"The parents like to read everything and the kids push all the buttons," he said.

During the five years that it took for the museum to be completed, scientists had to work closely with the museum designers to make science and aesthetics came together, Alberts said.

"If it was up to the scientists, we would have pasted up sheets of textbook paper," he joked.

The National Academy of Sciences is part of a group of academies whose mission is to "provide knowledge and guidance to policymakers and citizens to help them shape the future of our society." The National Academies also includes the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. The academies’ reports are expected to form the basis for all exhibits featured in the museum.