When Micron announced its $100 billion plan to build computer chip factories in central New York, the company also promised funds for the community. One of the most tangible results of that promise is now a reality: the newest exhibit at Syracuse’s Museum of Science and Technology.
The exhibit takes apart the mystery of high-tech gadgets, which run with the help of memory chips the company will soon be producing near Syracuse.
East Syracuse Minoa school student Alana Tubeville helped make some of the robots that are part of the new exhibit. She’s been fascinated by STEM for a while.
"Me and my grandpa, we would make robots and I would actually bring him to our science fair we had," Tubeville said. "This was just an amazing opportunity. I want to go into STEM, I want to be a mechanical engineer."
It’s that interest in STEM studies that this exhibit, called “DECONSTRUCTED: Semiconductors and other Secrets Inside Everyday Technology” wants to cultivate. MOST Exhibit Curator Emily Stewart said that means many of the displays will be under the hood type things — the taking apart of a video game console or a virtual reality headset.
"A lot of them are what some people call digital natives," Stewart said. "They're very used to these technologies, but not very familiar with what happens inside of them. I think there will be a natural interest in what's happening inside these things that they're really familiar with and know how to use really well. We want them to be part of the story of making them."
East Syracuse Minoa 8th grade science teacher Jason Fahy agrees. Looking at the tiny circuits and chips that make up a mobile phone, makes science real.
"It's a reason for science, rather than science in a vacuum," Fahy said. "It creates a purpose for science, a purpose for engineering, and not just for the project, but for their future in the community."
This is the most interactive exhibit at the MOST. Micron’s Amy Henecke said kids need to touch and feel to really appreciate how tiny computer chips make things go.
"We have them build little — they're called wheel bots," Henecke said. "They put a battery and some wires together and then all of a sudden when they connect it all, it starts moving. You should see the kid's faces when that starts to happen because they're not expecting it. Then we can go through the idea of well this is sort of a basic electrical circuit."
The exhibit is up a half a flight of stairs from the entrance to the MOST, and is the biggest in the museum. Changing colored lights highlight stem skill stations. There are touch pads galore, with huge buttons activating a screen describing practical uses of computer chips.
It’s not just circuits and high-tech glitz. It also makes a concerted effort to show the history of memory, which is at the core of what a computer chip is. So a wampum belt, used by Native Americans to remember events, is a few yards away from a floppy disc, which leads into a deconstructed cell phone. Micron’s Robert Simmons said that history can’t be overlooked.
"This exhibit gives folks a historic context to understand where we've come from to where we're at," Simmons said. "Without that historic context, young people who enter into semiconductor industry or other tech fields, they also lose sight of why their roles are so important."
The exhibit is open to all visitors of the MOST and will be the focus of some STEM camps. A $500,000 grant from Micron funds the permanent exhibit which MOST Director Lauren Kochian calls transformative.
"The exhibit itself really brings something different that we've never had before," Kochian said. "We've never had such a high-tech, cutting-edge, huge exhibit itself. The partnership with Micron has also included a lot of programming and programming support. They have helped us grow a lot of really important STEM education programs for students, which is ultimately equally as important as the exhibits."
