Precious Materials

With Precious Materials exhibit, visitors learn about materials found in nature (wool, nacre, petroleum, etc.) by matching those materials with clues about their unique properties. This interactive can be played in single-player or two-player mode. Each player has a set of 10 clear acrylic pucks that are embedded with natural materials and have unique RFID tags on their underside. Clues are presented on the player’s touchscreen, and they must determine the material that those clues are referring to before the clock winds down. To answer, the player places a puck on an animated panel. An embedded RFID reader scans the tag from the puck and the user is presented with a different animation based on their response, and points are awarded based on correct answers.