May The Innovation Be With You



On Wednesday, after playing email ping-pong with our contact Emily, we were able to find a time to go down to the Science Factory, check out the facility, and converse about our new mission.

The Science Factory impressed us tremendously. As a multifunctional venue, the Science Factory hosted over 40,000 people last year. The growth has been unprecedented and challenging to keep up with.

Fortunately they have been granted the extra space to expand, allowing them to add new and ambitious exhibits. They have a hefty fundraising goal of three million dollars and have raised 40% of their final goal.

This November they are having a variety of events, such as last Friday's auction and open bar event. Their big event for the month is a day of fundraising on the 19th! A week before, they are having a Star Wars themed weekend, in which they hire jedi's, decorate the exterior, and change normal exhibits to Star Wars theme. This is where we come in!

Our mission is to create two or three interactive exhibits for Star Wars weekend!

 The first step was to make sure our team had seen Star Wars to get a full nuanced understanding of the theme.

Emily was rather straightforward with our mission, but the only ambiguity that arose during our meeting were questions related to budget. After settling that with professors and reporting back to Emily we have progressed into the brainstorming and testing phase.

Our methods for brainstorming include: googling other science centers for children around the country, creating a survey for our classmates to get feedback about their experiences with Star Wars and science museums.

The next step is to create and test ideas. Emily gave us a list of past ideas as well as links to articles about the event to give us an idea of the venue, space, and ethos of the event.

This week our group plans to meet daily to keep pitching exhibit ideas. Until then we will keep brainstorming. Stay tuned!!

Pictures for the week!

Image result for lancaster science factoryImage result for lancaster science factory

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