Chicago Botanic Garden Kiosks

We 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.

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. We created interactive game-like simulations that will allow visitors to manipulate an environment and see the outcomes of their actions.

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

Part of each kiosk was also information on all the scientists that do research work at the Botanic Garden. We created over 20 mini-documentaries for the scientists that are responsible for the primary research in the facility. These short films profile each scientist giving vistors information on their backgrounds and area of research and what they do at the garden. Since each kiosk is associate with an individual lab space visitors to the garden get a chance to learn about the people they actually see working in the space.

Each Kiosk also picks up a custom RSS feed that will allow visitors to learn about timely information and events going on at the Garden as well as request more information about information presented on a kiosk by typeing in their email address. The kiosk system will email a custom email to the visitor so when they get home they can spend more time learning about specific science and conservation concepts.

Each kiosk connect to a central server and video switcher via an internal network and are connected to a content management system (CMS) and device control system. The CMS allows scientists to edit current content within the kiosk system updating it and keeping it current as well as publishing new content to the system, a great way to keep the information relevant and timely.