Why we spent so much money on our diorama
Why did we spend so much time and money on building an Everglades diorama?
That is a great question.
Every time we went back to Michael’s to buy more items for our Everglades diorama, Dr. Buncher commented “MIT will never believe we are spending so much money on the diorama.”
Our Everglades diorama is an important educational tool for teaching people about the complex ecosystem and unique biodiversity found in the Florida Everglades. The diorama provides a three-dimensional representation of the various habitats found in the Everglades including marshes, swamps, and mangrove forests; we even included an airboat since our team went on an airboat ride last December.
Our diorama illustrates the interdependence of the plant and animal species found in the Everglades and shows how human and natural activities can impact this delicate ecosystem. Our goal is to have our hand-made diorama help people understand the importance of conservation and restoration efforts to protect the Everglades and its diverse wildlife. 95% of our diorama is made from scratch with 3-D printed parts, including our world-famous frogs.
We think our diorama can be particularly useful for students in science classrooms or for visitors to a nature center or museum. We are trying to contact our local children’s museum to see if they are interested in showing our diorama. It will enhance learning by allowing people to visualize complex concepts and see firsthand the relationships between different species and their habitats. In this way, our Everglades diorama can help promote environmental awareness and conservation efforts especially to people who have never visited the Everglades. Believe it or not, there are many people who live in Miami who have never visited the Everglades even though it is only 10 miles away from downtown Miami.
We are going to bring the diorama with us to EurekaFest along with our AI frog device, an Oculus, and our presentation board. This way, the visitors at our table will get a real feel and look of what we accomplished the past few months. Well worth the money and time spent. Just ask Dr. Buncher.
