In coordination with Cornell, the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY developed an interacive traveling exhibition for science museums called When the Earth Shakes. The exhibition shows how engineers at NEES sites study earthquake effects with networked experimental facilities. It includes a simple hands-on shaketable for K – 6 children to learn the basics of dynamic response and structural reinforcement and an interactive tsunami tank that allows users to experiment with wave-structure interaction. The exhibition reaches over 100,000 people annually.
As part of the larger exhibition, five 90-sec. videos have been produced that feature earthquake footage, real engineers and experiments, and describe how their work is making our built world safer through research. The videos won several awards, including 1) Silver Davey Award, 2) Certificate of Merit from the Chicago Film Festival’s INTERCOM video competition, 3) Bronze Telly Award, 4) Bronze Award at the Millenium Awards, Award of Excellence at the 15th Communicator Awards, and 5) Silver Award at the Horizon Interactive Awards. Cornell, RPI, and the Sciencenter won the Most Effective Education, Outreach, and Training Activity of the Year recognition from NEESinc in 2009 on behalf of the NSF-sponsored Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation.