Rain Forest Trail and Living Treasures of the Congo Gallery

小行星9552543 野生动物保护协会将利用这一年的奖励来推进他们的"雨林小径和刚果画廊的活宝藏"计划。"这是一个雄心勃勃的2900万美元，6英亩的户外展览区的第一阶段，重点是刚果雨林和室内环境教育综合体。 野生动物保护协会在中非的一些地点进行广泛的实地研究，并在纽约的设施中收集了重要的热带非洲野生动物。 刚果雨林/环境教育中心将包括三个主要的解说区和一个教育资源区。 NSF被要求支持刚果雨林综合体的两个组成部分，即雨林小径和刚果画廊的活宝藏。 热带雨林步道，室内和室外元素，将是一个完全沉浸式的展览，游客将被非洲雨林的复制品所包围，并将有机会遇到各种生活的居民，并体验其生态系统的功能。 他们将拥有进行科学观察的经验，从而深入了解科学家的工作方式。 这种设计技术的目标是“超越传统动物园展览的有限范围（简单地将动物描绘为对象）”，展示动物和植物群落在生态系统中的相互作用。 生活宝藏画廊将是一个4000平方米。英尺该空间致力于介绍雨林居民的多样性，他们的环境适应性和复杂的相互关系。 画廊将分为四个区域：生存适应，巨型脊椎动物的森林，相互关联的森林和看到看不见的。 将开发许多互动装置，使参观者参与实际活动，并将制作材料，将展览主题与教师和学生的正规教育议程联系起来。

9552543 Gwynne The Wildlife Conservation Society will use this one year award to move forward their planning for the "Rain Forest Trail and the Living Treasures of the Congo Gallery." This is the first phase of an ambitious $29M, 6 acre outdoor exhibit area focusing on the Congo Rain Forest and an indoor Environmental Education Complex. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) conducts extensive field research in a number of central African sites and has an important living collection of tropical African wildlife in the New York facility. The Congo Rain Forest/Environmental Education Center will include three major interpretive areas and an educational resource area. NSF is being asked to support two components of the Congo Rain Forest complex which are the Rain Forest Trail and Living Treasures of the Congo Gallery. The Rain Forest Trail, with both indoor and outdoor elements, will be a total immersion exhibit where visitors will be surrounded by a replication of an African rain forest and will have the opportunity to encounter a variety of its living inhabitants, and experience how its ecosystem functions. They will have the experience of making scientific observations thus gaining insight into how scientists work. The goal of this design technique "is to move beyond the limited scope of traditional zoo exhibits (which simply portray the 'animal as object')", toward a presentation of animal and plant communities as they interact within an ecosystem. The Living Treasures Gallery will be a 4000 sq. ft. space which is dedicated to the introduction of the diversity of rain forest inhabitants, their environmental adaptations, and complex interrelationships. The gallery will be divided into four areas: Adaptations for Survival, The Forest of the Megavertebrates, The Interconnected Forest, and Seeing the Unseen. Numerous interactive devices will be developed to engage the visitor in hands-on activities and materials will be developed that link the themes of the exhibit with the agenda of formal education for both teacher and students.