Summer and Water

-from the Head Curator

'Dig deeper' into Lake Cahuilla with the touchscreen

Though summer is a slow time in the Valley, visitors still come out to the museum.  Today we had a family of 7 so interested in the story of water in the Imperial Valley that they stayed for over an hour! They explored our topographic Lake Cahuilla map, including each of the 'dig deeper' images that can be pulled up to learn more about what life was like at different time periods around the lake. The drawing of the megaladon was the definite favorite for the kids!

They watched the entire 18 minute video Early History of Water in Imperial County by Brian McNeese and the Imperial Irrigation District. "I didn't know that!" was heard a lot!











Summer is a time to test out ideas and get feedback, and this family was nice enough to look at our Roadrunner test panels and tell us what they liked best.  Surprisingly, it was the scientific name: Geococcyx californianus!

Testing information panels to see what people like

New Water Video Playing

-from the Head Curator

Power of Imperial Valley with test seating area and new video

After extensive testing of videos in the exhibit today, thanks to IID we have installed the new Brian McNeece Early History of Water in the Imperial Valley video into the exhibit.  It is now taking the place of the IID Down River video in our Power of Imperial Valley exhibit.  IID has also included closed caption for the new video, increasing the accessibility of the video to meet visitor expectations.

One of the constants in any museum exhibit is testing to see what visitors like and want in their museum. The original Down River video had an average visitor stay time of about 17.9 seconds. This increased when a seating area was installed in front of the video, but still remained low.  Only about 7% of museum visitors stopped to watch the video for even that long.  During the month we tested the Water video, many of our visitors stopped to watch it, and 18% watched the entire video (about 17 minutes)-high for an exhibit video.  We are hoping to have an equally positive response to the new video in its new home as part of Power of the Land.

 Over the next 6 months or so we'll be testing out seating arrangements, and other additions to the area, so visitors will still get to participate in changes and give their opinions on what works in the area.

We would like to personally thank everyone who came into the museum during the month we were showing the History of Water video for all of your positive feedback.  If you haven't seen it yet, come check it out!