When working on the design and implementation of any project it is of vital importance that a strong set of working criteria are established for the purposes of evaluating the subsystems created for the project. In our case, the most important criteria we developed were the following: durability, cost, maintainability, and how well it conveys the message. Durability and maintainability were chosen as a criterion because we know our client wants the exhibit to last them as long as possible while minimizing upkeep, so they can achieve a return on their investment. Cost also plays into the role of helping our client achieve a return on their investment, as we want to finely balance making something reasonably affordable for our client while maximizing the use they will get out of the exhibit. Finally, we are evaluating the subsystems based on how well they can convey the learning outcomes to our client’s audience, if our exhibit fails to achieve this well, it is a failure.
For the purposes of easy evaluation and breaking down of work, the exhibit was broken down into the following subcomponents: ice core slider, drone, content, video hardware, and the overall table and top. The ice core slider and drone are together as they are the subcomponents that are designed to add the hands-on functionality to the overall exhibit, therefore these need to score highly when it comes to conveying the learning outcomes well. The ice core slider subcomponent is designed to show children how permafrost changes the soil beneath them using visual depictions of changing soil layers over time. The drone is there to demonstrate one of the many methods that scientists use to investigate permafrost. The content subcomponent is intended to cover all of the content that is to be shown on the exhibit, this varies from the content seen on the screens to any text that is shown on the physical exhibit as well. This subcomponent is of vital importance as they will solidify the larger connections from the exhibit and its hands-on components to the science they are trying to convey. The video hardware subcomponent will implement the necessary components to display any of the video content created by the content sub team. Finally, the tabletop component is the overall component that will tie everything together, as everything mentioned beforehand will be placed on the table at one point. This is the subcomponent breakdown of our team's permafrost exhibit.
