writing

science center and children’s museum label writing

In late 2019 and early 2020, I illustrated and wrote the scientific text for the All About You gallery labels. The gallery delivers interactive health and fitness experiences from the perspective of playing. 

Here six of the 14 science panels currently in the All About You gallery. The gallery is expanding and will have additional panels. I illustrated the scientific content (Andrea Cardinal developed the overall graphic design and layout). The labels were created in Adobe Illustrator and printed second-surface to non-glare acrylic. Panel dimensions are 43 cm x 43 cm (18″ x 18″).

Exhibit Name
Bones!

Target readers
Middle school and older
Parents and caregivers

Text
Weight-bearing activities like walking, running, jumping, climbing and lifting are especially good for building your bones. Your bones become stronger by getting thicker where muscles pull on them.

Exhibit Title: Hear!

A Text: Every sound you hear is made up of vibrations at many frequencies and ranging in loudness.

B Text: Your ear receives vibrations and converts them into signals, which travel through your auditory nerve to your brain, where they are interpreted as sound.

Many parts of the brain are required to identify what makes the sound you hear. These parts of your brain learn which sound patterns are language, laughter, crying, animal calls, or the sound of a bat hitting a ball — and regognize them almost instantly.

Exhibit Title: Look!

A Text: Your depth perception allows you to see how you relate spatially to obects and shapes around you. Seeing with two eyes gives you a three-dimensional view, but visual cues allow you to see depth with just one eye.

Exhibit Title: Pull!

A Text: Most physical activity helps your muscles become stronger and improves your coordination. Even though you can do push-ups or jump off the ground, your muscles only pull.

B Text: Muscles contracts when myofilaments are stimulated to slide along each other. You have large muscles for gross motor movement, like jumping, and small muscles for fine motor movement, like writing your name or drawing a picture.

Exhibit Title: Try!

A Text: Your brain is always doing more than one thing at a time. Some parts of the brain control your muscles, while other parts do things without your having to think about them.

Exhibit Title: X-Ray

A Text: Your skin and muscles let more X-rays pass through them than your bones do.

B. Text: X-rays have shorter wavelengths and higher energy than visible light.

The Enigineers On A Roll II Simple Machines Playscape

I illustrated these labels and wrote the scientific text in a series of short poems for parents to use in engaging their children with educational interactives about simple machines. These are six of fifteen labels in the Engineers On A Roll exhibit installed in 2016 at the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

These labels were created in Adobe Illustrator and printed second-surface to polycarbonate. Diameter: 14″ (35.5cm).

The balls that arrive here have traveled quite far,
And the farther the balls roll, the faster they are.
And the faster they go as they reach the last bend,
The more likely they are to shoot off the end.
But they cannot fly off the track, try as they might.
You see, there’s a guardrail to keep them from flight.

To get on the track, balls ride a conveyor.
A kind of flat pulley with cleats like a tray or…
A wall that keeps objects from rolling down low.
For as things rise up higher, their energy grows.

No, you can’t see it growing, these spheres don’t change size.
It’s when they start moving, you’ll soon realize…
They’re gaining potential on their upward ride,
That’s energy that has not yet been applied.

But, when the balls drop — when they fall on the rack,
It turns into kinetic, as they roll down the track.

A ball in this auger will roll through the floor
On an inclined plane wrapped ’round a cylinder core.

This gadget lifts balls right out of your fingers,
Into a tube, where a ball never lingers.
Outside of the tube the air pressure is hig
Compared to the pressure inside, which is why
The air takes the ball in a WHOOSH, explained truly…
…By Sire Isaac Newton and Daniel Bernoulli.

Way up at the top, each ball drops through a hole
Then it lands on a rack, wher the ball starts to roll.
Most times, balls will follow the track where it leads,
But Once in a while, balls will reach faster speeds.

Some quick balls will fly off the track, and they’ll soar…
In an arch through the air and they’ll land on the floor.
Or when they come down, they might land on your head,
Or they might hit your brother or sister instead.

But once on the ground, the balls lie quite still.
Until they are moved by some Jack or some Jill.

A ball that’s in motion will tend to keep going
Along the same path without speeding or slowing.
Unless there’s some force that will act on the ball,
As when kicked by a kicker or blocked by a wall.

The kicker counts how many balls it lets by
And as balls approach, in the blink of an eye,
Its solenoid armature pops out and, POW!
…the ball shoots as far as the wall will allow.