15 Letters Introduces Hands-on Approach To Education At The Chicago Botanic Garden

PR Log (Press Release) – Sep 14, 2009 – Chicago – 15 letters, Inc. today announced it has been selected by the Chicago Botanic Garden to design interactive, educational kiosks to complement exhibits at the new 38,000 square foot plant conservation laboratory and research facility. The technology offers guests a true hands-on experience and a glimpse into the science taking place in the state-of-the-art research center.

15 letters, a Chicago-based interactive design company developed eight interactive, educational touch-screen kiosks that will enable Garden visitors to get a hands-on experience in understanding the essential role plants play in every day life and the critical role garden scientists are playing to preserve and better manage natural plant communities.

Each kiosk is designed within a workbench and will include a touch-screen, speakers and other interactive elements that will support the scientific concepts covered within each bench. The kiosks will feature unique, participatory games, videos and simulations for users to play with and learn from. Each will be physically located in front of a glass wall that separates the laboratory from a visitors’ gallery and each kiosk will focus on teaching a specific educational concept through the use of a participatory simulation.

The simulations range in activities from allowing visitors the ability to create their own flowers that attract specific pollinators to driving a tiny camera drill below the surface of the earth and photographing the organisms that live there. “The interactive exhibits are designed to be accessible to a broad audience and stimulate knowledge through play,” said Mark Rattin, president and creative director for 15 letters.  

“Each of the eight interactive touch-screen exhibits in the new Rice Plant Conservation Science Center is dedicated to a specific lab in the facility,” Rattin continued. “We created interactive game-like simulations that will allow visitors to manipulate an environment and see the outcomes of their actions. This hands-on approach to education is becoming more commonplace as museums and research centers are encouraging the development of the next generation of scientists.”

Research laboratories featuring interactive kiosks include:
•   Harris Family Foundation Plant Genetics Laboratory
•   Economic Botany Laboratory
•   Reproductive Biology Laboratory
•   Dixon Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank Preparation Laboratory and Seed Bank
•   Herbarium
•   Population Biology Laboratory
•   Soil Laboratory
•   Abbott Ecology Laboratory

Each kiosk will connect via an internal network and the computers that will drive the kiosks will be housed on site in a temperature-controlled setting and connected to the content management system (CMS) and device control system. The CMS will allow scientists to edit current content within the kiosk system as well as publish new content. This system will have a dedicated computer terminal to operate it and it could be updated remotely through a Web-enabled system.

15 letters is building off its tremendous success in designing award-winning interactive kiosks for the Pritzker Lab in the DNA Discovery Center at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. The company developed 42-inch touch-screen displays that allow visitors to explore the museum’s DNA research projects.

The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center opens to the public Wednesday, September 23. The Chicago Botanic Garden located in Glencoe, Ill. and is open every day from 8 a.m. to sunset. More information about 15 Letter’s interactive kiosks is available by visiting http://www.15letters.com/CBGproject and for additional details about the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, please visit http://www.chicagobotanic.org/research/building/index.php.