Worlds Best Visitor Experience

"This is like winning museum Oscar", Museum Director at the Norwegian Museum of Science & Technology, Hans Weinberger said. He is proud to represent the first museum to win the award in Europe.

The Leading Edge Award is an annual award to members of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). There are over 2500 science centers in the world today, and ASTC is the largest organization for these. The Science Museum in London and The Science Center in New York is among the members of the organization.

This year the organization awarded prizes in three categories.

- We were nominated in the category "best visitor experience" for the exhibition Klima X. Just being nominated is an honor. To actually be awarded in sharp competition with the Science Museum and seven other nominees is almost unbelievable", the head of the Science Center at the Norwegian Museum of Science & Technology, Jan Alfred Andersson said.

Foto: Norsk Teknisk Museum
Publikum på Klima X styrer fjernstyrte båter til klimavitner over hele verden.

Wade in the water
The Klima X exhibition looks at what is happening to the climate, the research behind the knowledge, and how our policies, technology and consumer behavior can counteract the negative effects.
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When the ice melts due to global warming, the sea level will rise. Thus, in order to enter the exhibition, visitors are required to put on yellow rubber boots custom made for the event. You literally wade around in water to the top of you leg in the 400 square meter showroom. In addition, the boots are used for the interactive exercises.

The idea is, according to the Museum, that the exhibition concept gives visitors an unforgettable experience that stimulates many of the senses as well as it engages the visitors by interactivity. You can f.ex. travel with remote-controlled boats to visit climate witnesses in places such as China, Greenland, the US and Nepal.

Opened by Nobel Peace Prize winner
Foto: Anita T. Munch
- I'm impressed by this exhibition and Norway's global vision", chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri said in his opening speech when Klima X opened.

The timing of the opening coincided with Pachauri´s visit to Norway when he, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He opened the Climate X together with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in December 2007.

Since then the wet exhibition has been visited by hundreds of thousands of people.

Klima X received the prize for "its unique application of new ideas and promising practices, demonstrating creativity and extraordinary performance."

Klima X was one of 22 outreach projects that received support from the International Polar Year in Norway.

The exhibition is made in technical cooperation with the International Polar Year, and The Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO), The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET), NILU - The Norwegian Institute for Air Research, The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), Statistics Norway, SINTEF, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), SINTEF, Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), University of Oslo (UiO, Bellona, Zero and The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF)

Foto: Norsk Teknisk Museum
Klimaendringene er en av vår tids viktigste utfordringer. Barna vet det allerede.

Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award.

The Norwegian Museum of Science & Technology