New Exhibit on Community-Driven Innovation Opens at Pacific Science Center
SEATTLE (PRWEB) November 01, 2018 -- Pacific Science Center’s newest exhibit, Block by BLOCK: Innovating From the Ground Up, challenges visitors to think about using their skills and abilities to come up with new solutions to pressing issues in the community. Block by BLOCK: Innovating From the Ground Up is on display through early January.
“We start by igniting curiosity in children, and we are equally focused on fanning the flames of curiosity throughout adulthood,” said Will Daugherty, CEO and President, Pacific Science Center. “The Block by BLOCK exhibit encourages visitors, and our community, to discuss, debate and collaborate on opportunities and challenges in which science and technology play roles. As an example, the acute homelessness crisis in our region demands curiosity, empathy and innovation.”
The exhibit notes several innovative projects in which people used their passion and skills to create new approaches to problems ranging from the waste and environmental damage of the textile and disposable plastic industries to food safety for allergy sufferers. The highlight of the exhibit is The BLOCK Project, a local father-daughter architecture team’s innovative response to Seattle’s homelessness crisis. Their compassion and architectural skills inspired them to design an integrated solution that encourages the whole community to get involved. The BLOCK Project builds sustainable 125-sq-ft homes for people experiencing homelessness in the backyards of willing Seattle homeowners.
“We don’t think The BLOCK Project will end homelessness through housing, but by changing the way people view homelessness,” Sara Vander Zanden, Executive Director, Facing Homelessness, which manages The BLOCK Project. Facing Homelessness matches residents with hosts, a case manager and social services, and also recruit the volunteers who fund and build the homes.
Guests will be able to tour a model BLOCK Home and learn about the Living Building Challenge, the green-building certification BLOCK Homes are designed to achieve. Tablet-based augmented reality shows the home’s sustainable electrical and water systems, while an immersive video plays an interview with Bobby, the first resident of a BLOCK Home.
To kick off the opening of the exhibit, Pacific Science Center is hosting a panel, “Community-Driven Innovation,” and exhibit preview this evening, Nov. 1, which is free to the public.
Block by BLOCK: Innovating From the Ground Up is now on display through January 6, 2019 in upper Building 3. This exhibit is included with general admission. Pacific Science Center opens at 10 a.m. every day and closes at 5 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. on weekends.
PHOTOS of Block by BLOCK: Innovating From the Ground Up available for download here.
About Pacific Science Center
Pacific Science Center is an independent, not-for-profit institution in Seattle and has been a gateway to access to science education and innovation for over 56 years. The institution's mission is to ignite curiosity in every child and to fuel a passion for discovery, experimentation, and critical thinking in all of us. Pacific Science Center's award-winning, interactive programs reach more than 1.1 million people each year – in their communities across the state of Washington, classrooms, and on the Seattle campus and at Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center. Pacific Science Center began as the United States Science Pavilion during the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Millions came to explore the wonders of science during the World’s Fair and upon closing ceremonies, the Science Pavilion was given new life as the private not-for-profit Pacific Science Center, becoming the first U.S. museum founded as a science and technology center. On July 22, 2010 Pacific Science Center was declared a City of Seattle Landmark.
Liisa O'Neill, Pacific Science Center, http://www.pacsci.org, 2066696914, [email protected]
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