Archive: Around Town

Visitors to Ocean Bound!, the Sciencenter’s newest exhibition, will experience the underwater world as never before as they gain new appreciation for the importance of watershed health. Ocean Bound! opens to the public at the Sciencenter on Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5. 

Ocean Bound! introduces visitors to the sights and sounds of watersheds through interactive exhibits that feature stunning high-definition media, and challenges them to make choices that protect watershed health. In a truly immersive experience, visitors will pilot a full-size submersible vehicle from mountain stream to ocean, exploring various flora and fauna that occurs on the way.  Interactive 3-D watershed models allow visitors to explore how water moves through a watershed.

“The exhibition presents four themes,” shares Tim Scott, director of exhibits at the Sciencenter and lead developer for Ocean Bound!. “We introduce basic watershed science, help visitors identify threats to watersheds, highlight how science is finding solutions to watershed problems, and challenge visitors to adjust their own personal behaviors to better protect watersheds.”

With fun, hands-on exhibits that invite visitors to divert pollutants away from storm-water drains and help water navigate safely to sea, Ocean Bound! engages, educates and empowers as it links personal behavior to watershed and ocean health.  Through play, even very young children are encouraged protect watersheds inside the Riverside Clubhouse exhibit.

“Ocean Bound! was inspired by our own remarkable waterways here in the Finger Lakes region waterways and the local research being conducted to protect them,” says Lara Litchfield-Kimber, Sciencenter deputy director and principle investigator for the Ocean Bound! project. “Developed with a $750,000 grant from NOAA, Ocean Bound! provides a powerful reminder that all of us - no matter where we live - live in a watershed and there are things each of us can do to protect it.”

Ocean Bound! will be on display at the Sciencenter from February through May.  The exhibition will then begin a 7-year national tour and reach over 1 million visitors at science museums throughout the U.S. and Canada.

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