The Global Water Center’s Mobile Discovery Center invites attendees to better understand the global water crisis.
About 2.2 billion people around the world do not have access to clean water, said Margie MacFarland, who travels with the Mobile Discovery Center. Around 2,300 people die every day.
The Mobile Discovery Center is a series of trailers set up in the parking lot in front of the IMAX theater in the Opry Mills Mall.
Upon arrival, visitors pick up a wristband which they scan on a series of screens as they walk through the exhibit. The bracelet allows visitors to follow the journey of one in four people and their experience of the water crisis. Reynold from Haiti, Elena from Mexico, Benedicto from Tanzania and Desmon from Indonesia are available as storytellers.
The Global Water Center also funds the Water Mission, which implements water systems in different parts of the world. The storytellers come from the contacts of the Water Mission, according to MacFarland.
In the exhibitions, visitors can read about the impact of the water crisis and learn how some of these problems are being solved. Visitors can take quizzes on water and scan QR codes that show how the pipes work in the mobile center.
“So our goal in this exhibition is not to make people who live here in the United States feel guilty about having water available,” MacFarland said. “But we just want to point out that this is not the case for everyone around the world. And it is our goal to achieve this for everyone around the world. ”
Outside, a number of interactive exhibits show how water is filtered with chlorine, using the example of spheres of different sizes that filter an exhibit. Participants can try different pumps to see how much effort it takes to pump rubber ducks into the tube.
Other interactive tables show how outside toilets work, with visitors pouring a bucket of water at enough speed to make golf balls disappear in a pipe, and how solar power works with the invitation to cover the panel to show the lamp go out.
“We are not water converters. We’re not the people who set up these systems, ”MacFarland said. “But we offer all these organizations a platform to exchange best practices and share what works and what doesn’t.”
The final part of the Discovery Center is an immersive domed theater that shows an approximately eight-minute film about the water crisis.
The Mobile Discovery Center will be open November 10-14 at the Opry Mills Mall.