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By Courtney Morin ’10
Students in a Technology Clinic class presented their final report to the New York-based Nurture Nature Foundation concerning educational exhibits and a marketing plan for a proposed flood museum in Easton.
Tech Clinic is a hands-on course founded in 1986 that brings together students from different majors to help solve real-world problems of a business, nonprofit organization, or government body.
The students’ mission was to create ideas and exhibits that focus on flood-related issues of immediate local importance for The Flood Project of the Nurture Nature Center. The center will be located at the former VFW building at 516 Northampton Street and run by the foundation.
The students created interactive exhibits and multimedia presentations designed to engage the Easton community and the College with issues surrounding floods. They include an interactive computer game, a documentary, a video lesson, a web site, a floodwall, a water entranceway, and an art component.
The computer game, titled “Dam Manager,” will teach the social and technical aspects of managing a flood control dam. The documentary consists of various interviews with numerous individuals, workers, residents, and business owners affected by the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Easton floods.
A video lesson on water cycle and floods was designed for viewing at elementary schools before visiting the museum or as an alternative to a field trip to help generate interest in the museum.
“My main role in the project was looking into an art exhibit in the flood museum and to see what art has contributed to the subject. Also, I worked on the floodwall exhibit, an interactive display that shows historic flood levels set against Easton landmarks to provide visual scale to visitors, and the entranceway, which will project water footage on all sides of the visitor in the entrance hallway,” says Mark Panny ’10 (West Cape May, N.J.), a history and government & law major.
The art aspect and other marketing tools can be used to broaden the museum’s scope. The students are hoping that using the arts will bring about other possibilities, including social events, exhibit offerings, and a diversified audience. The main goal of utilizing the arts at the Flood Project is to show a more personal aspect of flooding.
Other students involved in the project are civil engineering major Andrew Baldridge ’10 (Oreland, Pa.), anthropology and sociology major Amanda Berger ’09 (Parkland, Fla.), biology major Julie Pollack ’11 (Scarsdale, N.Y.), history major Sarah Reddan ’09 (Monroe Township, N.J.), and Julia Sorkin ’09 (Whippany, N.J.), a double major in economics & business and psychology. The faculty advisers were Dan Bauer, professor of anthropology and sociology, and Dru Germanoski, VanArtsdalen Professor and head of geology and environmental geosciences.