St. Albert students can set off on a climate change quest this month with the help of a fish made of shirts and a sheep wearing boots.
The Our Climate Quest: Small Steps to Big Change exhibit opened at the Telus World of Science – Edmonton Oct. 5. Created by Ontario’s Science North science centre, this exhibit uses plain language and hands-on activities to help visitors understand the science of climate change.
“We all know climate change is happening around us,” said Marie McConnell, staff scientist at the Telus World of Science. Instead of focusing on doom-and-gloom impacts, this exhibit aims to explain how global heating works and what they can do about it.
“It puts power back in the public’s hands.”
What’s with the sheep?
Guests at the exhibit can check out the ecological impacts of fast fashion (as illustrated by a fish sculpture made from recycled T-shirts) and use a see-saw to determine how many trees they’d have to plant to offset the carbon footprint of a new laptop (hint: a lot). They can also hear how global heating affects Inuit communities, see the effects of clouds and angles on solar panels, and feel the difference the greenhouse effect makes on solar heat.
The exhibit also features video displays with climate trivia, a carbon-capture pinball machine, a puppet gallery, and a statue of a cartoon sheep wearing rain boots.
That ovine oddity is Sheepy, who has starred in Science North’s permanent climate change exhibit for decades, explained McConnell. Voiced by comedian Rick Mercer, Sheepy co-hosts an interactive presentation in the exhibit that runs through the basics of global heating with the help of Canadian scientists.
McConnell said her favourite part of the exhibit was the station on why some greenhouse gases trap more heat than others. It comes down to atomic bonds, she explained. Oxygen has two tight bonds (represented at the station by two balls bound by two stiff springs) and has little room for energy. Methane, in contrast, has four looser bonds (represented by five balls bound with loose, wobbly springs) and can absorb plenty of heat.
“It’s possibly my favourite physical analogy that I’ve ever seen in an exhibition,” McConnell said.
Scattered throughout the exhibit are simple actions people can take to act on global heating, such as going meat-free one day a week or writing to your MP about it. McConnell said the Telus World of Science has installed solar panels and EV-charging stations in recent years to address climate change.
Edmonton resident Riley Tanner said this exhibit was a really good interactive way to teach youths about climate science.
“Our generation has done a lot of good work to fight climate change, but their generation is the one that’s going to have to solve it.”
Tanner’s daughter, Amelia, said global heating was important because it changing our weather and melting the ice on which animals in the Antarctic lived.
“It’s going to change the way we live and what’s going to happen to our lives.”
Our Climate Quest runs until Jan. 5, 2025, at the Telus World of Science. Visit telusworldofscienceedmonton.ca for details.
