By: David Lafleur
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
A refreshing approach: Students create virtual exhibition to inspire water conservation
Photo Credit
David Lafleur
When making a fresh start, we often aim to improve the lives of ourselves and others. Alongside resolutions to better our personal health and fitness, we can also make our planet healthier — by taking simple actions.
RIPPLE EFFECT is a new, virtual museum exhibition designed to help Canadians conserve fresh water. While most Canadians are blessed with an abundance of clean fresh water, that is not the case for everyone. We are not immune to global warming, and one of its effects are increasingly arid areas. Although an abundance of water for the majority makes it easy to forget that we need to treat fresh water with respect, it’s essential to ensure we conserve water for the future — while saving energy and money along the way.
Visit the RIPPLE EFFECT exhibition
I completed the SHAD 2021 program — a STEAM and entrepreneurship program — where my team and I created the RIPPLE EFFECT museum exhibition.
The RIPPLE EFFECT concept is that small changes in our everyday lives can have a wide-reaching impact. In the case of fresh water conservation, it does not take much before one person can save swimming pools full of water, and one person is exactly where the RIPPLE EFFECT starts!
Inspired in part by Ingenium, I used Blender — a free 3D creation suite — to create a virtual exhibition and along with my team, filled it with compelling content. I learned by doing and from free online tutorials and resources. Anyone with a computer, a good graphics card, and enough patience and perseverance could follow a similar path and create a virtual exhibition like this.
This exhibition was created to get Canadians thinking. What small change can you make today to conserve fresh water? What would you add to the RIPPLE EFFECT virtual exhibition? Did it inspire you to make your own virtual exhibition?
I would like to thank Ingenium for the opportunity to share the story behind RIPPLE EFFECT, SHAD Canada for the inspiration, and most of all my SHAD design challenge teammates Nicole Laurin, Sydney Nguyen, Rally Lin, Audrey Wang, Emily Kim, Tim Zou and Laura Gu.
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David Lafleur
David is a creator, maker, STEM enthusiast, SHAD fellow and aspiring software engineer, currently in grade 12 at École secondaire catholique Garneau in Ottawa. He is curious by nature and Ingenium museums have been a big part of developing his love of science and technology. David’s interests include 3D graphics design, mobile app development, singing, music production, and sharing his passion to use technology and outreach to make the world a better place.
