Ocean under the Cosmos

An interactive physical model with an informative website that educates people on the diversity of the ocean. There's so much to explore in space but there's just as much to explore under the cosmos.

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Inspiration

Our group is made up of 4 members from the Student Center Program's Council (SCPC), a student organization that plans around 50 events per year. We recently had a major event where we rented out the Georgia Aquarium, so fish were still on our minds. We also thought that a model aquarium would be a great platform to showcase a combination of art through fish, while also being able to creatively incorporate technology using a QR code system.

What it does

Ocean under the Cosmos is an educational tool intended to teach younger students about the diversity of the ocean, with a focus on the different depth regions and their corresponding life. This project accomplishes this using a combined physical and digital approach. The physical model displays cutouts of varying organisms, placed correctly in their depth regions. On the back of each physical model is a QR code, which directs the user to a Notion site with more detailed information about the organism.

How we built it

We built Ocean under the Cosmos by first using a laser cutter to cut out and engrave all the organisms, as the laser cutter had time constraints. Afterwards, we simultaneously painted all organisms, while constructing the tank using wooden dowels and superglue. The painted laser-cut organisms were then suspended from the wooden dowel frame using fishing lines at the correct height corresponding to their depth level. Finally, finishing touches such as LED stars, decorations, and a surrounding enclosure were added to complete this project.

Challenges we ran into

Availability of equipment was a significant challenge, as we knew we would only have access to the laser cutter for the first 5 hours, but we overcame this challenge by planning to do all required cutting and machining in the initial phases. Furthermore, we did not come prepared with .dxf files and were forced to find free-use stock .dxf files for all our organisms. This could have been avoided with hand-made .dxfs in the future, but we found a sufficient number of designs for our project. Time spent making each individual organism was likely the largest challenge, as each design had to be individually laser-cut, painted, and carefully tied into the frame.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of how much our group was able to accomplish from scratch, using completely raw materials with the single exception of the .dxf files. Going from raw plywood, dowels, and various other art supplies, we were able to construct a beautiful physical model of the ocean, paired with a seamless QR code process guiding learners towards additional facts and information on a digital website, all within the span of 24 hours.

What we learned

We learned essentially everything we needed to build this project on the fly, as none of our members had extensive experience in anything related. From laser cutting and engraving organic shapes, joining round wooden dowels with cardboard buffers, creating a Notion site, and building a combined physical and digital model, all of this was new information for our entire group.

What's next for Ocean under the Cosmos

While nothing concrete is in the works for Ocean under the Cosmos, we think that a similar concept could be successfully applied to other physical systems, including the Solar System, layers of Earth's atmosphere, and different biomes on land.

Built With

  • craft
  • laser-cutting
  • notion
  • paint
  • woodworking
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