The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History will design, construct and circulate a 3,000 square foot travelling natural history exhibition on the biology of sharks to 15 museums and more than 1,000,000 visitors nationwide. The exhibition will include mounted specimens, artifacts, models and replicas, and interactive exhibition elements. It will provide visitors with a picture of the undersea world of sharks, their diversity and abundance; with an understanding of the basic biology of sharks, including sharks' differences from bony fish, their fossil and current natural history, reproduction, and behavior; and with an appreciation of the interaction between sharks and humans in history, in myth, and in man's current intensive use of ocean environments. A teacher's guide and school loan study kits of objects and artifacts will be available in each museum location. Substantial prior analysis of visitor misconceptions about sharks has been done, and formative evaluation will be used to select exhibit components and interactive technologies. The $400.00 cost share is 52% of the project total.
