On February 1st I went to the Museum of Science in Boston to observe how
technology is used as not only an enhancement to the exhibits but as a teaching
method. Two exhibits really stood out to me, the first exhibit was called Beyond
the X-Ray and the second was called Weatherwise. The x-ray exhibit showed the
progression of medical imaging technologies like x-rays and ultrasounds. In
addition to using actual x-ray images to show the advancements, an image of
a 3-D ultrasound as well as computer programs we setup to allow the view to
act as a radiologist would. The computer programs would show a patient and
explain a little bit of information such as their medical history and what their
symptoms were. Using a series of multiple choice questions and following the
guide the program would prompt you to read the x-ray, determine a diagnosis,
and inform the patient about the best course of treatment. I found the diagnosing
program to be the most helpful and educational because it forced me to do more
then read. In order to follow the prompts on the screen and deliver a diagnosis
and treatment I had to really understand what it was that I was looking at and
how to understand it. Had that program not been available to visitors of the
museum, I would have probably walked right by the exhibit and not have looked
back.
The next exhibit that really stood out to me was an exhibit about the
advancements in meteorology. Suprisingly I spent most of my time in this exhibit.
The exhibit was setup as a series of living rooms with large television screens
broadcasting WBZ 4 meteorologist Mish Michaels reporting on various weather
facts and interviews. In one room was a television that aired interviews that Mish
Michaels had done with survivors of New England weather tragedies. From Hurricane
Carol and Edna who rocked the Eastern Coastline in 1954 to the Blizzard of ’78
survivors and their families shared their stories and how if meteorologists could have
been able to predict storms like these days in advance, the outcomes would have been
completely different. In addition to real time weather forecasts for the city of Boston
there also was a computer program that like the first exhibit I visited, put all the
information I was learning into use in a practical situation. The program had visitors
pretend to be Captain of a steamship called the “Portland”. Using tools like a barometer
and a map I had to decide as if I was the captain of the “Portland” whether or not it
would be safe to set sail. If I had done all the readings and the measurements
accurately and decided it would be safe to sail then the passengers would live and the
storm would not cross our path. However, if I had failed to read the instruments
correctly and decided to sail, the storm would sink my ship, killing all the passengers on
board.