Good Morning!  It has been a while since my last post, but that means we have been very busy installing the exhibit. (yay!)

The project I will be posting about in this post is unique from what we have been doing in the past few weeks.  This week we began work on an awesome interactive in the exhibit.  In my Masters program I learned there are basically two general forms of interactives: self-guided and guided.  In a guided interactive there is often a docent/volunteer or staff member who leads the visitor through the interactive, activity, or experience.  These are very popular in larger museums, with large exhibit space. My personal favorite is at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in the Prehistoric Journey exhibit.  At the end of the exhibit there is a window into a large room where paleontology volunteers are clearing/cleaning fossils.  There is always something being done because the Colorado region is an excellent place to find fossils.

In Up, Up, & Away we do not have enough space to do guided interactives, so we have several self-guided interactives, which also very successful and effective in all sizes of museums.  A self-guided interactive is when instructions or a prompt is present at an activity/interactive, allowing the visitor to become engaged in the exhibit at their leisure.  I honestly love this type of interactive, so I was very excited when I got to pitch an idea for one of the interactives in the exhibit.

This particular interactive allows the visitor to have their own superheroes to become part of the exhibit.  (This method is called extending the experience)  The idea came from a mixture of my mom's first grade class room and a dry-erase board interactive we have in the CU Museum of Natural History (the museum my masters program is based out of).

In the interactive prior to this one the visitor will be able to make their own superhero.  Then the visitor can take their superhero to this interactive and attach it to a chalkboard we have set up. Kids and grown-ups of all ages can participate and draw out their own comic strip using magnetic props and their own superhero.  Afterwards the visitor can leave their superhero for others to see or take it home.

Example of what it will look like.

Stay tuned!  Pictures of construction and installation coming soon!

-Christina