Concept
There is a box of tiles with cartoon pictures on them of various organisms
eg dog, tomato, mosquito and frog. The tiles can be placed under the microscope
and the wheel turned to change the magnification factor which makes the
onscreen animation zoom in all the way to the level of seeing the instruction
manual in the cartoonified cell's pocket.
Physical interface
The exhibit will consist of a large microscope on a bench top with
a bin containing the tiles. There will be a wheel that can be turned in
either direction to adjust the magnification (it will stop when it reaches
its limit at either end of the magnification scale). When the wheel turns
the microscope lens will move up and down above the tile.
Interaction
By turning the wheel the user moves the lens up and down above the
tile. In actual fact the wheel will advance or reverse the animation onscreen
frame by frame to make it appear to be changing the magnification. The
initial image will be of the whole organism as you zoom you see the skin
getting bigger then see cells then an individual cell then the instruction
manual in the pocket of the cell with the text visible saying something
like. "How to be a dog" on the cover and we see the book o[pen to chapter
five which says, "chapter 5 how to be a dog leg skin cell". There could
be one tile that is an inorganic thing like a car and when you zoom in
it says "only living things contain dna"
Information provided by exhibit
This exhibit reinforces the concept that every cell every organism
contains the instruction manual for the whole organism but that individual
cells specialise. It shows that dna is very small and that all living organisms
contain it.