The 100th Pennsylvania Farm Show has come to a close for 2016. If you had visited this years event, we hope you had a few minutes to experience the PA WoodMobile.
The PA WoodMobile is a 34-foot traveling exhibit that educates younger Pennsylvania residents and students about the richness of PA’s forests and the economic impact of the PA’s hardwood industry. Originally introduced in 2002 and having taught more than 145,000 students about wood and forestry, this newly constructed WoodMobile features exhibits, information and interactives detailing the abundance of resources from our forests, sustainability of the industry as well as the dangers to our forests from insects, plants, humans and even Mother Nature.
In total, the WoodMobile involved 12 partners for the build and 60+ financial contributors all over a 6 month period under the design direction of the purpose1 team, before debuting to over 72,000 visitors at the 2015 Pennsylvania Farm Show.
The process of building began with multiple brainstorming sessions, which were captured by an evolving floor plan created by Todd Nicholas. When we at Purpose1 initially learned of the opportunity to be the driving design force behind this mobile exhibit, there were many ideas, opinions and objectives that had to be considered before building out the trailer. Every object placed in this small space was positioned to feel as though you are taking “an educational walk through Penn’s Woods.”
A view of the WoodMobile with the floor roughed in looking toward the rear access gate. The WoodMobile’s walnut and maple floors with logo inlays, along with an organically shaped path down the center, split the trailer into two educational sections of forestry stewardship and the industry centered around wood.
During the development process of the project, Mark Scheller, the six-time Wood Floor of the Year winner, became a major creative contributor by implementing new method for molding and placing free-form curves. Unlike the traditional method of constructing a mold to shape flooring strips and a using a template to cut the existing wood floor to fit the shaped wood, Scheller constructed an original mold inspired by a tool he refers to as “the Infinite Curve.” This tool acted as a mold for the wood floor and provided a perfect ledge upon which a router tool could ride and cut out a template of the curves.
The construction of the log shell for the wood species identification game as seen in the title image of this blog (Title image courtesy of ydr.com), provides visitors with an effective way of learning about the 12 primary hardwood species in the state by simply rotating the internal portion of a log and identifying the wood type after examining the tree’s seed, leaf and corresponding wood sample
The interpretive graphics throughout the space were designed by Julia Reddy and can be found on the Deptartment of Agriculture’s WoodMobile page.
The WoodMobile was made possible thanks to an educational initiative brought about by the Pennsylvania Hardwood Development Council (part of the Department of Agriculture), along with generous donations from Deer Park Lumber, the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association and many others who saw the value of the Hardwoods Industry in PA and its influence around the globe. As Dr. Bender often states, “Wood is part of the answer to the environment’s problems.”
Have a mobile exhibit concept for which you are seeking a partner to get your message on the road? Contact us to get started and see the finished WoodMobile exhibit by visiting https://www.purpose1.com/woodmobile/