1. Main Entrance
What to do:
Look and admire
the sculpture.
Consider how
information affects our lives
Consider how
all life is a product of a chemical code
Contemplate
how you would have interpreted the DNA instruction manual
Think about
going into the exhibition rather than standing here all day.
What to do.
Pick up the swatter
Stop swatting
other people with it
Swat any of
the objects on the bench
See if you can
pick what has DNA in it and what doesn't
Try to break
the record of swattings
Try not to break
the swatter.
What to Do
Look at the giant
pin tip
Examine the cell
on top
Wind the pump wheel
to see how huge this pin is
Wind the pump wheel
the other way and zoom inside the cell
See how the string
of DNA chemicals is deep within the cell
See how the order
of the chemicals makes up a code
This code represents
everything about the plant or animal it's in.
Frame 1. Big Frame
D1: There are 100 phone books in
this pile. If you wrote down all of the "letters" in human DNA, it
would take a stack of books this high to fit them in!
Frame 2. Small Frame
D1: And this amount of information
is in every one of the 3 trillion cells in a human being!
D1: That's amazing!!
Frame 3
D1: What, that's its such a big number?
D2: No, that the phone books haven't been
pinched!
What to do
Pick up the phone
and dial a number
Wait for someone
to answer
They will talk
about how big human DNA is
Hang up and
try again - you'll probably get someone different
Listen to all
the interesting facts about the human DNA
Listen to the
boring ones too
What to do.
Place a tile
under the viewer
Select the various
magnifications and see what you can see
See how the
cells all specialize into their own areas
See how they
all carry the same manual
See how they
only read the bit they need
See how these
are only cartoons
(Check out the
stump for some info on real cells!)
What to
do.
Get 4 people to sit
on the 4 letter seats
When a letter appears
on screen, try to match it by bouncing on that letter seat.
This sort of DNA
letter matching is going in in every living cell thousands of times a second!
If you get a letter
wrong its like when a mutation occurs
The counter tells
you how many letters have been typed
The faster you go
the faster you "replicate" the DNA code
There are 3 billion
DNA letters in the human DNA code
How long would it
take to "type" the human code?
What to do.
When you've stopped
mucking around sticking bits on the scarecrow....
Spin the two
windmills
The two faces
that appear on the bottom when the wheel stops are the "parents"
Each parent
has its own DNA instruction manual that will mix to become the child
Try to imagine
what their child might look like
Stick the pieces
in the tub onto the scarecrow to make it look like a child of the two parents
How many different
possibilites were there?
What to
do.
Choose a set
of cards from one of the letterboxes
By following
the instructions on the cards in careful order, move the Gene Machine to
create a picture
Notice how each
instruction produces one small part of the overall picture
Notice how each
instruction is made up of many letters of the alphabet - just like DNA
"spells out" genes
Think how many
instructions it would take to draw a very complicated picture
Choose some
cards from the "Mad Scientist" letterbox. Mix them up and follow
the instructions.
Does what you
get make any sense?
You have started
"Genetic Engineering"
What to
do.
Pretend you are about
50 years into the future
Prepare to be "tested"
Place your hands
and arms into the testing receptacles.
Follow the instructions
on the screen
See what our future-test
ATM discovers about you
Note that this testing
unit is a figment of our fertile imaginations and may bear no relationship
to reality
Except for the faulty
cash machine - some things will never change.
11.
Deluxe Nutrition Actualiser
What to
do.
Think about all
the different characteristics that you can find in plants and animals
(Hardness, softness,
size, shape, texture, heat, shelf life, disease resitance, taste, colour...)
Follow the on-screen
instructions to choose the characteristics you want in your food
Select the insta-grow
option
(All organisms
currently take time to divide, replicate and grow. Our futuristic
vending machine has an insta-grow feature that manipulates the growth gene
so you can get your food now. Who knows if we will ever be able to
do this for real)
See your chosen
food fall into the display chute.
Read the information
about what you have created.
What to
do.
Step
into the drivers seat.
Push the accelerator
The "Drive-In" quiz
will commence
Follow the instructions
on the screen
See how many questions
you get right.
The winner* gets**
a free bag of pop-sprouts***
* "The winner" is
marketing term only and has no basis in reality
** "gets" means
"doesn't get"
***A new taste sensation
of brussel sprouts modified with popping corn genes - available soon at
your local G-Mart
Note: Employees (or
their clones) of "The Grass is Greener" may not enter.
What to
do.
Stand on one of the
weigh pads
Consider the question
posed and the cases for and against
Decide which way
you will vote
Stand on the appropriate
pad
Consider the next
questions
Who should be deciding
these issues?
Who is deciding
these issues?
Can the weight of
public opinion really make a difference?
How many kids opinions
does it take to make an adults opinion?
Why are you still
reading this when there's serious questions to consider?
Frame 1:
D1: When we think of Genetic Engineering we often think of Cloning. Movies like Jurrasic Park made us aware of it, then Dolly the Sheep came along and proved it was possible.
Here in the "Think Tank", we take a look at Cloning and some of the movies about Genetic Engineering. Just how much is fact and how much is fiction?
Frame 2:
D2: A water tank! That's fun
- who thought of that?
D1: (Proudly) I did - it looks good
and
it has a clever name
Frame 3:
D2: Right. Just like me.
What
to do.
Step inside the Think
Tank
Be amazed at the
fascinating stories
Learn about cloning
and identical twins
Discover where Hollywood
got it right and where it got it wrong
Please don't poke
holes in the tank walls - (we don't want information leaking out.)
Frame 1:
D1: Mankind has been manipulating genetics for as long as we have historical records. By choosing particular plants and animals to breed, man has influenced the genes of our modern day plants and animals.
Frame 2:
D2: But that's not Genetic Engineering
is it?
D1: Well not exactly, but it is certainly
Genetic "Guidance" and can have dramatic results
Frame 3:
D2: So what's the difference?
D1: Breeding takes longer, is less
precise and you can't mix between species.
Frame 4:
D2: Oh! So its like the difference
between Aussie Rules and Rugby?
D1: No comment.
What to do.
Dogs are the species
with the largest variation of types of any animal in the world
Today's dogs are
a direct result of man's breeding intervention or "unnatural selection"
Examine the illustration
of the wolf - this is an artist's impression of what the first dog may
have looked like
Examine the other
dogs
All of these dogs
are descendents of the wolf
Notice how huge
the differences are.
Consider, however,
what makes them similar - both in looks and behaviour
Please don't feed
the dogs (mind you they are looking pretty thin!!)
Frame 1:
D1: In the future, shops and supermarkets may specialise in products that are genetically created or enhanced. Just about everything we buy could be affected.
Genetic Manipulation (GM) of foods is only just starting - but who knows where it will head.
Frame 2:
D2: So Genetic Engineering could affect
everything from apples to avacados?
D1: Yep
Frame 3:
D2: From Biscuits to Bacon Rashers?
D1: Too right
Frame 4:
D2: From Cough Syrup to Clothing?
D1: I think we've got the idea
Frame 5:
D2: (trailing off in the distance) From
Dingo droppings to Dung beetles, from Echidnas to Electric Eels.........
D1: Sigh
What to do.
Have a wander through
the G-Mart
Be sure not to touch
the merchandise
Consider how some
of these products might sell in the future
Would you buy them?
Can you think of
any others?
(If so, please tell
us - we are always looking for new products and services to satisfy our
customer's every need)
Frame 1:
D1: The DNA code is like a very long strings of letters one after the other. Even though there are only four distinct letters (C,G,A,T), the order and lengths of the strings of letters can tell us where they came from.
Frame 2:
D1: By comparing one string with another we can tell if it came from the same person or not. And we can get these samples from all sorts of things - like blood or hair or skin.
Frame 3:
D2: So what good's that?
Frame 4:
(A child is walking past with an ice-cream. The child is crying, the ice cream has a big bite out of it.)
D1: (seeing what has happened) Well for one thing - in a crime we could take a sample of saliva and compare it with a suspect - and see if they were the culprit!
(D2 looks very guilty)
What to do.
The top string of
letters represents a section of DNA of a suspect in a crime
Each of the strings
below it were found at the crime scene
Was the suspect
at the crime scene?
Frame 1:
D1: These stumps provide lots of further fascinating information, images, interesting facts and additional references for those who want to find out more about this incredible subject.
Frame 2:
D2: Right! So if you're stumped
- find a stump!
D1: That was very clever
Frame 3:
D2: If you WOOD like to know more -
make sure you don't BARK up the wrong TREE
D1: That wasn't quite so clever
Frame 4:
D2: Don't go out on a LIMB - we've
got a BRANCH office near you
D1: Well that was just plain silly
Frame 5:
D2: LEAF your troubles behind......
D1: (Hand over ears - running away)
Aarrgghhhhh!
What to do.
Select the exhibit
you're interested in with the trackball
Work your way through
the information at your leisure
If what you want
is KNOT on this stump - it may be on another one
(Sorry about that)
Frame 1:
D1: There are lots of tricky words
in Genetics. "Eggspurt" is an exhibit that helps you to find
out what they mean.
Frame 2:
D2: "Eggspurt"!!! Groan. Did
you think of that?
D1: Yes! I'm quite proud
of that one.
Frame 3:
(D2 leaving)
D1: Where are you going?
D2: Im going to the people who control
exhibit names - there's got to be a law against that one
Frame 4:
D1: Hmmph - he can't take a yolk.
What to do.
We don't know yet
