Date: Fri 07-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A11

Quick Words:

Barnum-geography-Earth-water

Full Text:

(feature on "Earth 2U: Geography" Exhibit @Barnum Museum, 3/7/97)

Everything, Even In CT, Has To Do With Geography

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

BRIDGEPORT - What do you do with your water when you are brushing your teeth?

Which uses more electricity in a year: an electric clock, a VCR, an aquarium

or a window fan? If world population reached five billion in 1987, when will

it reach six billion - 1998, 2010 or 2025?

These questions, their answers and how they affect someone living in

Connecticut similarly and differently from how they affect someone living on

the other side of the planet are each addressed the traveling exhibit "Earth

2U: Exploring Geography." The exhibit is a Smithsonian Institution Traveling

Exhibition Service (SITES) show, organized by SITES and the National

Geographic Society.

Right now the exhibit is visiting The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, the only

venue "Earth 2U" will visit in the Connecticut-New York-Massachusetts area

this year. In anticipation of the popularity such an exciting, enjoyable and

yes, educational, exhibit should warrant, The Barnum Museum has booked a

double block of time for the traveling SITES; the exhibit will remain at the

Main Street museum until August 31. Bridgeport is the fifth of 39 cities the

exhibit will visit during its run.

So why geography? Why a world geography exhibit - with a site-specific

Connecticut installation added by The Barnum staff - in Bridgeport, a city

with ten of the state's top tourism attractions?

"This exhibit was formed to fill the needs of children who are missing out on

their geography," explained Amanda Rivera Lopez, curator of education, The

Barnum Museum. Ms Rivera Lopez offered a guided tour of the exhibit last week,

one day before it was to open to the public.

"Americans between the ages 18 to 25 have the least amount of knowledge of

geography," she says. "Why is this? We don't know. But the hook of this

exhibit is that every one of us is tied to geography every day. We are trying

to drive home the connection between land forms, living things and natural

habitats."

P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), the namesake of the 104-year old downtown Bridgeport

museum, was a 19th Century entrepreneur, journalist and showman. Directors of

the museum are quick to point out Barnum not only brought the wonders of the

world to America, but he brought the wonders of America to the world, as well.

"Barnum was committed to exposing people to new things, especially global

things," Ms Rivera Lopez pointed out. "He brought things to this state; he

took his show on the road. Circuses became a great place to be exposed to

things from around the world. To people of the 1800s, cultural differences

were astounding."

Astounding differences can often lead people to forget how actions in one tiny

part of the planet can affect resulting actions in another part. So what

better location than The Barnum Museum - a monument to a man committed to

bringing the world to his backyard - for such a bright display of information.

No world traveler would ever set off without his or her passport, and neither

do visitors to "Earth 2U." Regardless of which path visitors choose to follow

through the exhibit, the starting point is the same: A kiosk where Seymour B.

Earth - a spindly-legged, cartoon crow, the tour "guide" sports a safari hat

and a tunic with a world map cleverly drawn into it - is introduced, and

passports are picked up by each visitor.

At each of the three main stations of the exhibit - "Landscapes/Landshapes,"

"Population" and "Everyday Things" - "travelers" have questions posed to them.

To find out the answer is where the passports come into play: The correct

answer is stamped into each traveler's passport. Organizers hope, of course,

exhibit visitors come up with the correct answer to each question before

having their passport stamped.

The exhibit is designed with children in mind, but the illustrations, hands-on

activities and spectacular photographs will appeal to all ages. Ms Rivera

Lopez said the median age organizers aimed for was a typical fourth grader,

but younger children and older students, and adults, will appreciate and learn

from every facet of the exhibit.

"Landscapes/Landshapes" is the most earthy part of the exhibit. While the

other two sections concern objects found around each of us and how resources

are limited, "Landscapes/Landshapes" defines exactly where each area of Earth

is located and what makes up its geography. Using large-scale, dramatic

National Geographic photographs, topographical models and easy-to-understand

keys, visitors learn the difference between mountains and hills, plateaus and

plains. Children can pull up a stopper-plug-like mechanism within each example

to see exactly what kind of material makes up the ground of Africa's Serengeti

National Park, for instance.

In "Population," a digital "real time" population clock tracks the world's

population by the second. Interaction is again the main focus of this section,

as push-button activities answer questions, and manual turntables introduce

visitors to children who have made a difference in their area of the world.

While visitors are at the museum, the population clock may announce another

100 new additions to the world's population. Any age will be impressed to see

how quickly another dozen people are born. This, in turn, is what organizers

want visitors to think about: If this many people are being born right now,

where are they going to live? What are they going to eat?

Everyday Things

The section that brings geography into everyone's backyard is "Everyday

Things." Set up to resemble anyone's kitchen, the section includes an oven, a

refrigerator, a spice cabinet, even a kitchen sink.

Everything comes from somewhere - this is the message "Everyday Things" gets

across. Where water comes from and where it goes once it is rinsed down the

drain; where spices are derived; where chocolate chips come from; and what

forms bread - a staple food around the world - comes in depending on where in

the world it is found... all are tied to geography.

"Messages aren't just given once," Ms Rivera Lopez pointed out. "Children

sometimes need to be told things a number of times before something sinks in.

That's why these same ideas are stressed again and again.

"And everything," she emphasized, "is connected to geography."

Ideas may be repeated, but they are done so creatively, not so it is evident

visitors are learning. The importance of water seen in the kitchen sink of

"Everyday Things" can be correlated to the answer of one of the puzzles of

"Population" (What are the four things everyone needs in order to survive?)

Some ideas of geography start making sense long before visitors leave the

exhibit, while other ideas will not start connecting together until visitors

return home.

The spice rack, with its drawers full of fragrant offerings, will remind

visitors of pizza and cookies; the pull-out information slates above each

spice drawer will connect where each spice comes from... Never knew the

ingredients for pizza sauce were so worldly, did yo u?

Sewing Machines

& Submarines: The

Barnum Installation

In keeping with that many museums choose to do while playing host to a SITES

exhibition, The Barnum Museum has added its own site-specific show to coincide

with "Earth 2U."

Curated to complement the SITES exhibit, the museum is housing "Connecticut:

Small is Beautiful," which presents the geography of the southern-most state

of New England. It also showcases Connecticut's history as an industrial and

manufacturing center since Colonial times, producing everything from tools and

toys to sewing machines and ball bearings.

The smaller exhibit ties Connecticut in with world geography by using and

comparing the same terms heard in "Earth 2U": water, plains, farmlands,

geography. A magnetic map of Connecticut allows visitors to learn how varying

land is within the border of the third-smallest state in the country, and the

different industries found in each corner of the state as a result. A

topographical map of the state is easier to understand after having gone

through the SITES exhibit, which describes how such maps can be read.

Although the Connecticut installation is the first thing any visitor is going

to see upon entering the museum's Special Exhibitions Wing, Barnum Museum

curators were careful not to make it the main focus of the room. Just as

Connecticut is important to each of its residents, it is not the focus of the

world.

Rochel Berman, a public relations consultant working with The Barnum Museum,

was also at the preview tour last week. She shared the excitement of the

gathered guests.

"`Earth 2U' is the kind of exhibit one can go through two or three times and

still not see everything," Ms Berman said, much like the same words one would

use to describe the Smithsonian Institution's holdings. Sounds like the SITES

people used just the right amount of its resources in the exhibit: Enough to

fulfill on one visit, but enough to allow new discoveries in subsequent ones,

too.

By the way, the organizers of "Earth 2U: Exploring Geography" have the same

suggestion your mother always told you when you were brushing your teeth: Turn

the water off! While Mom may have said it was OK to turn the water on, then

off, to rinse your toothbrush before continuing, "Earth 2U" organizers suggest

taking it one step further:

Use only one glass of water while brushing your teeth, and keep swishing your

brush in the same glass.