The "See-For-Yourself" subtitle is the primary message communicated throughout the exhibit, supported by the design and graphic treatment of the exhibit, as well as by specific component activities and through label copy and sidebar texts. It creates a framework that places visitors and their thinking squarely in the center of the exhibit experience. How do you "see-for-yourself" in this exhibit (and in general)? By Investigating - that is, by asking questions, searching for evidence and drawing conclusions.

The exhibit is divided into three sections.

1. What's Happening? The Lure of Questions, visitors gain practice asking questions and coming up with their own theories.
2. Check It Out The Search For Evidence, visitors can design and carry out investigations to test their theories with the aid of user-friendly equipment.
3. You Know It (...Or Do You?) The Art of Drawing Conclusions, visitors get a chance to interpret results of experiments and draw their own conclusions.

What's Happening?

A critical aspect of thinking like a scientist is the ability to ask the right questions. This section of the exhibit is devoted to questions. The elements within this area of the exhibit are created to provide visitors with opportunities to ask questions about the world around them.

What's Happening? is centrally located within the exhibit allowing visitors to begin investigating with questions in mind. Visitors can return to this space after exploring other sections of the exhibit to ask new questions, reflect upon their experiences throughout the exhibit, or relax and observe others engaged in activities about them. Comfortable seating and windows to each of the surrounding areas of the exhibit facilitate this process. Graphics are used to illustrate the universality of human curiosity.

Within the lure of questions area visitors can examine a variety of mystery objects from old fashioned tools and trendy kitchen gadgets to natural wonders. Questions posed in each area of objects will lead visitors to theorize about what they are, where they are from, or how they were used. Current visitors can review previous visitors' quotes via flip books to assist in formulating their own hypotheses and can add their own ideas and questions. Black box mysteries provide visitors with tactile and auditory experiences to invite additional questions and theories.

A resource area complete with visual and auditory flip books and "learn more about it" books allows visitors to take a closer look at the numerous ideas presented throughout the exhibit.

This centrally located exhibit space can also serve a variety of functions. Informal interpretation can be accomplished in this quiet place. This area may also act as a meeting place for visitors including school groups.

Check It Out

In the Check It Out area visitors utilize scientific methods of investigation to explore phenomena which affect everyday life. Here visitors make predictions, design and carry out investigations and collect and interpret data to test hypotheses. Visitor-friendly equipment and challenge cards prompt visitors to search for evidence which can answer questions posed by the museum. Visitors are also invited to design investigations to answer their own questions. At many of the exhibit components, visitors can use a computer and video camera to record their questions, experiment ideas and conclusions for others to view. Within Check It Out graphic sidebars highlight current scientific research related to these investigations.

In the Solar Car Workshop, visitors can design, build and race a scale model solar car to develop and test theories. Visitors are challenged to create the fastest car, design a car which is able to carry a lot of weight, or invent a car which can run on the least amount of light. Visitors can further investigate by changing the car's wheel design, rubber band transmission, and the weight of the chassis at a pit stop station. At a central racetrack, cars race against a split-second timer to measure performance.

A series of surrounding investigation stations allow visitors to explore the elements of good solar car design. Visitors can check out the properties of solar cells, conduct a roll-down test to examine the rolling friction of various wheel designs, or create a belt drive system to test the effects of different gear ratios on a transmission.

A variety of additional stations in Check It Out afford visitors the opportunity to collect and display data. In each of these activities, visitors can choose a specific challenge or design their own experiments. At the Temperature Measurement Station, visitors use digital thermometers connected to a computer to investigate whether Styrofoam cups really insulate better than paper cups, or search for evidence to see if blowing on hot liquid really cools it down. The Penny Lab prompts visitors to predict whether old pennies are heavier or lighter than new pennies. Motion Match gives visitors a chance to analyze a computerized distance graph, using their own body movements and a motion detector.

You Know It! (. . . Or Do You?)

How do we know what we know? Why do we believe what we believe? Are the conclusions we draw about the world around us based on naive notions or scientific investigation. In the two areas of You Know It! (. . . Or Do You?) visitors test their theories related to gravity and scientific claims.

Gravity Matters, an area adjacent to the Forces and Motion exhibit, explores the history of conclusions humans have drawn about falling objects and how things move. From Aristotle and Galileo to the Hubble Telescope, conceptions and misconceptions surrounding gravity are examined. Visitors draw their own conclusions regarding this mysterious force by relying on experiment. The Drop Stop allows visitors to recreate Galileo's famed "Tower of Pisa" experiments, but this time with clocks and sensors that provide vivid quantitative data.

Defying gravity is also explored in this area of the exhibit. A stage is available to provide an arena for formal demonstrations. Here, a live person is precariously balanced on a towering pedestal. What makes this demonstration safe? Or is it? Visitors conduct experiments to test their hypotheses related to balance. Balancing nails and creating mobiles are a few of the activities which show visitors that assumptions are sometimes misleading, and that by investigating new conclusions can be drawn.

How do we interpret evidence?

Can a single piece of evidence be construed in more than one way?

Does the analysis of a collection of objects lead to only one explanation or are several alternative hypotheses possible?

Which is the most convincing? Reliable?

Visitors weigh their evidence to determine the age and use of the midden.

Was this site a seasonal campground or a shellfish processing station?

At an Idea Exchange near the exit of this area, visitors cast their votes. Finally, visitors are presented with a series of stories in the media today. How can evidence be examined to help draw reasonable conclusions regarding UFO's, global climate change, medical claims, and a variety of conflicting stories we hear about all the time?