Voices of Science: A Case Study of NCAR's "Climate Future" Exhibit

Exhibits engage and inform. At the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) Mesa Laboratory Visitor Center, exhibits also serve as the backbone for our informal and formal education programs and materials. Over 80,000 visitors come to the Mesa Laboratory each year to learn about weather and climate. In the summer of 2002, NCAR opened "Climate Now" and Climate Past", the first two galleries of a new and extensive climate and global change exhibit. Workshops, classroom activities, teaching modules, special events, and web activities all have been created within UCAR's Office of Education and Outreach based on the integrating Earth system themes of the exhibit. It took two years to add the final and more sensitive component of the climate story, "Climate Future," which was unveiled last fall. While putting our institution's science and scientists "on the exhibit floor" has become a priority for our multimedia exhibit development, it offers challenges and pitfalls that are unique and may be of interest to others who communicate to the public about weather and climate. This presentation will review the development of "Climate Future," NCAR's newest climate gallery, and offer strategies for using real science and real scientists to successfully communicate current research.