BioTinkering Lab
An on-floor biology lab at The Tech Interactive that earned the 2019 Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience for the institution. I served as Project Director on the Tech's Health and Biotech exhibitions team.
What it is. A drop-in, demonstration-led extension of the BioDesign Studio model on The Tech Interactive’s floor. The Tech Interactive received the ASTC Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award (Visitor Experience, large-institution category) in 2019 in recognition of the lab. The award is institutional, not individual.
The problem behind it. BioDesign Studio was a destination. Visitors had to commit to a long-form interaction. The Tech needed a complementary surface — same content lineage, lower commitment, more frequent staffed activations — that could pull casual visitors into the synthetic-biology floor on a regular schedule.
What I did. Project Director on the Tech’s exhibitions team. Build partnership with Local Projects. My slice was the lab’s content design and on-floor staffing model: which activities got rotated, what the script looked like for a five-minute encounter versus a thirty-minute one, how to keep the demonstrators from burning out on repetition.
Awards
- ASTC Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award, Visitor Experience (large institution), 2019. Awarded to The Tech Interactive.
Collaborators
- The Tech Interactive — institutional home and award recipient
- Local Projects — interactive design and build partner
Press and references
Related projects
- 2013–2017
BioDesign Studio
$5M permanent exhibition on synthetic biology, with a working biological design lab on the museum floor, tangible-tabletop microbe simulators, live cell-culture stations, and visitor-runnable design tools.
- 2013–2015
DIY Genetics Exhibition
Multi-year exhibition initiative at The Tech Interactive on synthetic biology and genetic engineering for the public. Backed cumulatively by $4.5M in foundation grants to The Tech.