Mapping the Great Lakes
Sloan Museum of Discovery
Bringing the Gallery to Life
Boss Display worked with the Sloan Museum of Discovery — a family-friendly education center in Flint, Michigan — to create an exhibit for its new Discovery Hall science gallery, the centerpiece of a major $30-million building renovation. Museum leaders envisioned a water table area focused on the Great Lakes, whose waterways play a crucial role in maintaining the region’s diverse communities and economies. In partnership with Grand Rapids-based design firm Xibitz with concepts from Haizlip Studio and CambridgeSeven, Boss Display brought the vision to life with a STEM-centered design that allows young visitors to play and experiment with the simple physics of water, while showing the vital ways the Great Lakes affect the lives of local residents.
A View From Space
To tackle the broad and varied topics surrounding the Great Lakes theme, Boss wanted a unique design that would accommodate as many features as possible. While water table exhibits typically flow downhill from one end to the other, the Sloan Museum project features a central water source that feeds a pair of long waterways on either side. The higher middle section takes the shape of the Great Lakes and includes additional graphic details taken from satellite imagery. Channels of water flow from the Great Lakes area, simulating rivers and tributaries, like the St. Lawrence Seaway that connects the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
Visitors can send balls into the open top water vortex and marvel as they swirl down the funnel.
Twists and Turns
To attract guests walking though the main Discovery Hall, Boss Display included a range of eye-catching features throughout the water table area. Above the far end, a waterfall tumbles from a hanging ceiling fixture and spills onto a large iceberg sculpture. With help from a laminar fountain, visitors can launch plastic balls to the top of the waterfall and watch them fall back to the table among a sea of smaller floating icebergs. Just upstream, guests can crank an ancient simple machine — known as an Archimedes screw — to lift water into a bucket that tips and spills onto the large iceberg. The hands-on fun continues at the table’s opposite end, where a series of movable dams and locks leads to a fog-filled fountain.
“Boss was great to work with, they incorporated our ideas into the design with a lot of creativity and made great suggestions for improvements. Our new Great Lakes Water Table is now the most popular exhibit in the entire museum.”
Science & Industry
While the water table shows off the physics of hydrodynamics with unique fountains, pumps, and even a water jet blaster that moves spinners and rings chimes, the Great Lakes theme provides an opportunity to explore how water power shapes our everyday lives. In the central Great Lakes area, where magnetic cranes lift shipping containers onto small floating boats, interactive displays recreate the water cycle with cloud-shaped fountains that rain when guests turn a hand wheel. Downstream, a hydroelectric dam feature simulates how water can move a turbine to turn on lights inside a neighborhood of miniature model homes. With weather, industry, electricity, and more, the Sloan Museum water table is truly a world of its own!
Guest can transport water up and into the Tipping Bucket by rotating the Archimedes Screw.
Features:
Iceberg and waterfall | Water drops from a clear plastic pool hanging from the ceiling, creating a waterfall that lands onto a large foam iceberg, which doubles as a cover for a pump and mechanical area.
Archimedes screw | Guests turn this ancient pump design by rotating a handwheel to dump water onto a sculptural pad that allows the water to drip into a bucket that eventually tips and spills onto the large foam iceberg.
Ball launch | A plastic ball rolls down a track and into the path of a water jet, which launches it up onto a hanging water pool that feeds the waterfall.
Floating icebergs | Made of foam and HDPE plastic and tethered to the water table, artificial icebergs move and bob to simulate naturally free-floating icebergs.
Bilge pump faucets | A hand lever operates a simple bilge pump to spray water onto interactive toys.
Magnetic cranes and boats | Placed along the shore, rotating magnetic cranes lift cargo components from floating tugboats and barges that flow downstream.
Boat docks | As boats float down the table, connect them to any number of docks to unload your cargo.
Hydroelectric dam and illuminated houses | Learn how energy is made by operating a gate on the hydroelectric dam to move larger amounts of water through the turbine. Watch the lights turn on at nearby set of plastic houses.
Squirt guns | Blast a water jet onto durable plastic spinners and a set of chimes.
Build-a-fog pipe | Create your own pathways with clear plastic tubing, and then watch as fog passes through the tubes and out the end.
Ball blower and track | A blower machine launches plastic balls up a clear polycarbonate tube, onto an overhead hanging track, and into a swirling water whirlpool.
Whirlpool display | Turning the handwheel collapses the funnel shaped water vortex, turning the handwheel back causes the vortex to form again.
Rain cloud fountains | Using the handwheel, visitors can make “raindrops” fall to the table from a set of cloud-shaped water features.
Bernoulli fountain | Balance a ball on a stream of water to see Bernoulli’s principle of hydrodynamics in action.
Fog mushroom fountain | Water spills evenly out a central tube, creating a circular mushroom-shaped sheet of water. Mist is pumped inside the falling water (and then contained) for added effect.
Lock and dam area | Users can lift and relocate tabs that create small dams and channels to control the flow of water from the Great Lakes area to the hydroelectric dam.
Duplo building area | Create miniature masterpieces along the Great Lakes with the popular kid-friendly building blocks.
Fishing pond | Magnetic fishing rods and fish located below the hydroelectric dam offer guests a chance to test fine-motor skills.
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