Polar Outreach Catalogue

In 2009 the Norwegian Museum of Science, Technology and Medicine won a prestigious US award for its IPY outreach project – the Klima X exhibit. Visitors to the museum had to don waterproof rubber boots before entering the exhibit, which won the Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Best Visitor Experience.

The Klima X exhibit shows visitors the causes and effects of climate change, introduces them to research in the field, and helps them to understand how political choices, technology and consumer behaviour can minimise the negative impacts. When ice melts it turns into water. Visitors experienced this firsthand as they waded through water over their ankles in the 400m2 exhibit space.

Klima X was opened on 11 December 2007 by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), who was in Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. The exhibit – which drew at least 350 000 visitors – closed in December 2009.

Among the visitors were more than 100 000 schoolchildren. In 2008 alone over 500 classes participated in the educational programme targeting lower-secondary and upper-secondary school pupils. The museum also held a Klima X lecture series. Due in great part to its winning the Leading Edge Award, the exhibit drew a large number of visitors from other museum facilities.