The Problem
A significant player in the education of the general public is a network of
informal educators such as museums. While many Americans visit museums as
part of elementary
school educational field trips far fewer adults and teenagers regularly visit
the museum. It takes advertising campaigns and blockbuster type shows to garner
the interest of this segment of the population. The crisis that most museums
face is highlighted in the Hollywood Comedy “Night in the Museum.” The
lead character in that movie survives his encounters with the exhibits which
come to life each night and ends up creating a media event that results in increased
patronage of the museum. When teachers take their class to the museums, some
kids might say “Oh I’ve seen this already” or “This is
boring.” That type of reaction is likely due to the problem museums face
today competing with television, movies and video games for educational and entertainment
sources. Their static displays cannot compete with these more entertaining media
forms and in the case of video games, user interactivity. The internet is even
a stronger competitor in this realm and is even successfully competing against
television and film.
The purpose of the proposed invention by the students at the Edgewood Fine Arts
Academy is, to not only educate the public about the monarch butterfly and its
life cycle, but to educate viewers about recent technologies and what the future
holds for robotics, all while combining and expressing art and creativity. Our
goal would be to combine the technologies of robotics with art in order to create
a multimedia presentation of museum exhibition quality, and perhaps stimulating
interest in science, robotics, and art in those who view our project. The net
result will be that our client, the Witte Museum, will experience increased patronage
due to our exhibit and thereby be more effective in serving the educational needs
of the metropolitan area of San Antonio, Texas.
An important aside to our use of robotic technology will be to educate this same
public that robotics is not at all like the Hollywood images seen in film and
television. Robotics technology, or more specifically Mechatronics, is where
the new careers will be and that jobs exist today in this field which has been
formed by the convergence of several traditional fields. This trend has been
studied by the community and technical colleges in Texas and a report was authored
by Jim Brazel and others which details the specifics of this convergence in the
workforce towards careers in Mechatronics. (Mechatronics a technology forecast,
implications for Technical & Community colleges in Texas.)
Students of San Antonio area schools will benefit from this project by learning
about butterfly behaviors and its lifecycle while simultaneously learning about
robotics and new technologies. The Witte
Museum and its H-E-B Science Tree house
Museum, located at 3801 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78209
will benefit from this project because they have agreed to install this exhibit
once it is completed.