You haven’t seen a blog lately as I’ve been taking an overdue vacation. This time I’ve been determined to turn off my continual focus on COSI – no calls in, no checking daily attendance reports or e-mail. For the most part I’ve been disciplined and it’s been good for me.

I lost a little control yesterday, though, through an experience that reminded me how powerful our brand has become. Dottie and I were eating at a restaurant when the manager was doing his guest service thing and stopped at our booth to chat and see how our experience was. Finding out we were visiting far from Ohio he
asked if that was our car with the COSI identification on it. (I won’t detail-but we do promote COSI on my car). When I said yes that it was and I worked there I was treated to some wonderful reminiscing on his part about his great experiences at COSI while growing up in Ohio.

So here I am far away from Columbus reminded once again of the power of the experiences we’ve offered to the over 20 million people we’ve touched since opening.

That’s it–I’m done–back to a few more days of vacation. Btw -this was composed on my iPhone–haven’t been using my computer either

The challenge to helping people see science as interesting and decipherable is to make it relevant and approachable. COSI has been tackling this through our special monthly Science Days, but I wondered how we were going to take the topic of material science and bridge the gap.

Watching the day unfold, though, assured me that we’re more and more finding the partners who can help this happen. Honda was there with an entire car frame and many hands on examples of how different materials are being used in automobiles to help with safety and fuel savings. GE engines were represented with fascinating pieces from a jet engine showing the way in which composites and different alloys are supporting improved engine efficiencies and safety. Ohio State University’s Center for Advanced Materials Research had a host of activities staffed by undergraduate, graduate, and even post-doctoral students eager and skilled at sharing some of their work.

I was just as fascinated as our guests to see a table top scanning electron microscope probe the wing of a butterfly as the efforts to tap biomimicry becomes a hot new realm of research. (Think about millions of years of experimentation that nature has gone through in developing the incredible characteristics of creatures, plants and organisms large and small. Think the “shark skin” swimsuits of the Olympic swimmers that were so good as to now be banned. Think how burrs sticking on your clothes or dog’s fur inspired the ubiquitous Velcro).

Simple demonstrations of levitating transportation possibilities (using super cooled magnets) offered compelling discussions around a science cart. And then our regular sponsor Time Warner and their nationwide commitment to science and math learning, partnering with science centers around the country, seems always to offer a popular table with the hands on components they bring.

There is a lot of discussion at COSI and among science center colleagues about how to facilitate engaging change for our guests in compelling ways. Changing an exhibit hall or bringing in a major temporary traveling exhibition like Titanic are very costly.

Do you engage with our cart and guest experiences when you come to COSI? Does having the chance to talk with and learn from a researcher, chemist, engineer, or enthusiastic volunteer add to your experience at COSI such as during our Material Science Day? As we put more effort into providing a bridge between industry and research and our guests, Science Days are a potential important tool. Let me know how well it’s working for you.

I remember hearing that some young teenager had built a huge Lego® model of Titanic the first time it was here in 2005. That mention had faded in my memory until I heard that we were getting the model boat again. Seems it was still intact –and now that I’ve seen it I can imagine why!

I admire people that have the creativity, patience, and passion to create something as detailed as the Titanic model made of Lego® pieces. With my ADD nature I can’t even read one book through at a time—I’m always bouncing back and forth between interests. A Titanic ship like that would end about 1/8 done at best if I was set to the task, never to be finished.

Fourteen feet long, approximately 25,000 Lego® pieces, and incredible detail. Make sure to take a close look at it when you come in—the model is truly impressive. A then 14yr old Columbus resident John Mangini created this masterpiece, and now he is a sophomore at OSU studying to be an engineer.

Partly what we strive to do here is to motivate people—to learn more about themselves and their world. What do you think motivates a person to put that level of effort and attention into a project like this huge Titanic model?

I had family drop in today from Cleveland as they’ve never been to COSI. I thought today might be a bit quieter being earlier in the week—but I was pleasantly surprised to the contrary.

Turns out that today was also our annual Teacher Fair which continues to expand with well over 300 teachers “dropping in” for it. As we continue to grow in its role as a “convening place” and a convener, it’s interesting to see how something like the Teacher Fair gains momentum.

Teacher Resource Fair

Our friends and science education partners from as broad a group as the Columbus Zoo, Metro Parks, to OSU and Nationwide Children’s Hospital have filled Gallery 1 with their materials about the various ways they can provide materials and resources to help teachers with their efforts to stimulate and encourage interest in science, math and technology.

Being a former teacher I made sure to chat with some of the educators to get their perspectives on the fair as a resource—finding out that some had come from as far as Cincinnati!

Then, throw in over 600 kids in groups, a few thousand guests and members coming for the day, and a host of summer “campers” tapping our galleries and WOSU’s media lab as special resources and we had that “three ring circus” feel that is becoming more common.

On top of that you could watch a fitness study going on in Labs in Life and we had another first-come, first-served preview day for our Adventure experience, all with their special appeals.

Yes, I might have thought it would be a quieter day for visiting family, but that just isn’t happening at COSI lately—and I love it.

Adventure was closed before I even interviewed here back in 2005. Yet I heard as soon as I joined the team here that many people loved Adventure and they often were asked at the front desk about when it might be re-opened.

I didn’t know where the lights are in Adventure and certainly didn’t want to stumble around in the dark, so it wasn’t until we started discussing the possibility of using it for special member and camp-in occasions did I even get a chance to step inside this very different experience we’d built into COSI. It was impressive, but still left me wondering as to how it worked with guests.

People kept telling me that there were Adventure enthusiast that came over and over to learn the various and increasingly complicated secrets, moving from one level to another. I still wondered how prevalent that was –a group of gamers who latched onto it or a broad group of our guests.

The idea of an area that encouraged the “process” of science by asking questions, testing hypotheses, and learning as they guest proceeded was different and appealing to me. But there was still the cost of staffing, refreshing, and reawakening the experience.

As we continue to revitalize, refresh, and reopen sections of COSI, we finally got to the point of giving serious consideration to Adventure. We’d been trying it out with special events and groups, but I still hadn’t seen Adventure in action. Our management team decided the time was right to give the space another chance with a slightly different business model and tapping the thespian talents on our team for staffing. We agreed on a twelve month trial to assure a full year cycle of opportunities.

The public “sneak previews” just started and I finally came into the space at the back of a group to get a feel for the experience. Watching guests dance to the opening intro on request gave me an inkling that they were getting into the moment. The door opened and the group quickly moved into the maze of exploration areas and started their quests.
I hung back, watching, moving from area to area observing the intent way in which couples or families were going about each activity and test. I saw a space that had open doors and a few people in it. I wandered in behind them only to have the statures almost immediately jump into action and the doors close. So it was a little hard not to talk with the two fellows in the space with me. They turned out to be a father and his son in his young 20’s. And I’m glad I did start talking with them.

They stood there with flashlights and notebooks in hand, proceeding to explain that when the son was thirteen, along with his 11 year old brother, they came over and over to Adventure. With their flashlight they found inscriptions, kept notes to decode them, tested their guesswork, and over the course of the year cracked the codes and moved to different levels.

The father, who turned out to be a physician, shared that when they saw the news that Adventure was going to be re-opened, they had to come down and reengage with the experience. They intended to come back with family to explore again as well as see Titanic. They had dropped their membership after Adventure had been closed, but now they were looking at becoming members again.

I was flabbergasted—here I was talking to one of the devotees I’d heard about on my first random walk through the experience along with our guests. Odds are that there were others here that day—first-come first-served tickets were gone within an hour of opening.
OK—I have to go follow another group, but I’m starting to become a believer—Adventure certainly has its own special experience qualities.

Do you have memories of Adventure?
Have you come to one of the Preview Days? Are you planning to come on August 3, 8 or 15th for one of those previews? I’d love to have your feedback on us re-opening Adventure this September. Are you going to come back and pick up the codes where you left off?

How I wish I could be part of this!

Yesterday it was announced on the Today Show that RMS Titanic, Inc. (our Titanic exhibition partner) has assembled a team of scientists and notable scientific organizations (like Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and will be conducting a 20 plus day expedition to deepen the knowledge and preservation of the Titanic. We had heard some advance possibilities when we first were negotiating to bring the the largest traveling Titanic exhibition to Columbus, but had not heard anything for some time.

Remora 6000 Launch

This is going to be an incredible opportunity – and with the expedition launching August 18 it will take place during the last days of COSI hosting Titanic. What good fortune with the schedule!

As the press release announced, the “expedition will employ revolutionary acoustic imaging, sonar technologies and high resolution optical, video and 3-D imaging to provide the first comprehensive view of the entire wreck site with unprecedented accuracy and clarity.” This work will let them “virtually raise” the Titanic –something physically impossible and increasingly more important as the boat continues to be degraded from the elements and living organisms around it. (You can see the full description of the expedition at our website!)

So how will we at COSI be taking advantage of that story as it unfolds and the discoveries that come from it? How can COSI be flexible enough to capture the interesting elements of the Titanic expedition that is part of our “real science” focus? (And let’s admit, it isn’t all on-the-edge-of-your seat excitement doing science – some of science is “boring” collection of data, waiting for equipment to be repaired, etc. But that is part of the process of science we’re trying to help people understand—the science is only as good as the data you collect and interpret correctly).

I don’t know the answers to the questions I’ve posed – but I’m counting on our creative team to find ways to reveal and connect with the expedition work as it takes place. We have been informed that there will be ongoing video feeds and photo postings through Facebook – so that will be one portal we’ll all have into the expedition’s work.

Stay tuned!