Exhibit: Below the Surface

Porous media are everywhere – also in the natural underground. But what do porous media have to do with evaporation and the drying of soils? Which role does high evaporation play in agriculture and what impact do different climate conditions have on the soil?

Our digital exhibit shows invisible porous media processes like flow, transport of dissolved salts, and the deformation of the soil that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Animated science illustrations show different weather and climate situations: the impact of rain or dryness for the soil and the atmosphere. The visitors can test their knowledge with a quiz and immerse themselves into the world of porous media.

The SFB 1313 team conceived and realised a digital and mobile exhibit. The app „Below the Surface: Making the invisible visible“, an interactive and transportable exhibit that explains complex processes in porous media, such as flow, transport, and deformation in an easily understandable and appealing manner for a broader scientific and nonscientific audience. We use it for different occasions and events. For example, for pupils' workshops, but also as a science communication demonstration model during scientific workshops.

We worked together with an external creative team, consisting of Charlotte Hintzmann, Matthias Ries and Rasmus Borkamp, who helped us to elaborate further our ideas and to develop further our concept. They were responsible for the storytelling, the illustrations, the animations, and the coding. SimTech supported us and covered the costs for the exhibit corpus, so that the design could fit in with the rest of the above mentioned exhibition.

The app shows an illustrated landscape with a field plant. Users start three different weather scenarios via touch. The imaged landscape, more precisely a single spinach plant and the subsurface underneath, reacts to:

1. rain and normal temperature;
2. to moderate sun radiation and normal evaporation; and
3. extreme heat and drought, fractures in the soil, high evaporation, and salt precipitation. To further illustrate the third scenario, heavy rain meets dry soil. 

A little earthworm also reacts to the different weather situations and, through its actions, increases the target audience's awareness of the effects of the weather on the environment, thereby reinforcing the knowledge transfer.

The invisible porous media processes are illustrated and animated in an appealing and easy-to-understand way for the two target groups “children” (from the age of 6) and “(young) adults”. The entertaining and animated science illustrations make it fun for young and old to use and learn. The worm's reactions are funny and illustrate the situation on display. The animations are designed as videos that briefly and concisely convey what is actually very complex content. The individual video sequences last between approx. 20 and 40 seconds. The following three weather scenarios are presented:

• Scenario 1 “Rain”: The ambient temperature is moderate and it is raining. The rain falls on well-saturated soil and penetrates easily into the soil. The soil is able to absorb water very well and the water and dissolved nutrients in the soil reach the plant through the roots. The focus lays on the porous media processes “flow and transport”.
• Scenario 2 “Moderate solar radiation with moderate ambient temperature and wind”: The sun is shining and the ambient temperature is not too hot or too cold. Water evaporates from the ground. Evaporation is accelerated by steadily increasing wind. The focus is on “evaporation”, a coupled porous media process.
• Scenario 3 “Hot temperatures, cracks in very dry soil, salt precipitation and heavy rainfall on dry soil”: The ambient temperature is very high, the soil is very dry and the field plant is not sufficiently irrigated. The heat and strong evaporation cause cracks in the soil and salts that are already in the soil are transported to the surface by capillary forces. The salt deposits cause the soil to become infertile. Subsequent heavy rainfall on the dried out soil makes it clear that the soil is not able to absorb the water well. It runs off or seeps into the large cracks. The focus here is on the porous media process “deformation” in relation to crack formation and salt crust formation.

At the end of each weather situation, visitors can test and deepen their knowledge of what they have just learned by means of a multiple-choice quiz. There are two levels of knowledge transfer: firstly, the appealing, animated illustrations, which provide an easy introduction to the topic. This level is intended for both target audience 1 and target audience 2. Secondly, there is a specially designed multiple-choice quiz that asks in-depth questions about the content and is aimed at target audience 2. The quiz can be done as often and as long as desired.

SFB 1313 exhibit part of SimTech exhibition

The exhibit was firstly introduced during the SimTech exhbition "Simulated Reality" that was shown at the City Hall Stuttgart from 26 September to 13 October 2023. The exhibition was a cooperation with the city of Stuttgart.