Canada Science and Technology Museum

The institution originates from the science and technology branch of the defunct National Museum of Canada. The National Museum of Canada originates from an institution formed in 1842, although its science and technology branch was not formed until 1966. Baird was hired as the museum's first director in October 1966 to help oversee the design and installation of the science and technology museum. 21st century In 2000, the National Museum of Science and Technology was renamed the Canada Science and Technology Museum. In 2012, the museum was prompted to modify a travelling exhibition on human sexuality after receiving criticism from select groups and James Moore, the minister of Canadian Heritage. The museum removed a video covering masturbation from the exhibition and placed a minimum age requirement to view the exhibition. The museum was forced to close its doors to the public in September 2014 after it found high levels of airborne mould in the building, and its southern wall risked collapse. In November 2014, it was announced that the building would remain closed to the public until 2017, as a part of a C$80.5 million overhaul of the building's interior and façade, and expand the building's exhibition space. During the building's closure, the institution lent out the museum's exhibitions for public display. As a result of the renovations, portraits of Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame inductees were removed from the museum and relocated online. In 2018, the museum announced it had suspended large-scale collecting efforts, until new storage facilities at the Ingenium Centre were completed, and its excess items were moved inside it. ==Grounds==

The museum is situated in Ottawa, adjacent to the Sheffield Glen neighbourhood on St. Laurent Boulevard. The museum building is situated next to the Ingenium Centre, a building that houses Ingenium's research labs and storage facilities for museums operated by the Crown corporation, including the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum. Prior to the construction of the Ingenium Centre, the site was occupied by the museum's observatory; which was dismantled in 2016. The grounds of the museum includes a park in front of the building, and includes a pathway that leads to the building's entrance. Building The museum first occupied the site in 1967, having repurposed a pre-existing bakery and distribution centre for its own use. The 2014 to 2017 renovations also saw a number of improvements added to the building, including seismic upgrades to the facility, and a complete replacement of the roof which also supports photovoltaic panels. The façade at the entrance of the museum features an articulated roof. The building's entrance is cladded in a white ceramic material that doubles as a projection screen. In total, approximately of ceramic material was used throughout the building's façade. To accommodate the colder climate, the ceramic white tiles were installed with Neolith stone slabs. Use of the Neolith slabs also allowed NORR to incorporate sharp angles and smooth expanses into their building designs. A three-minute looping video is played on the LED surface, with a second phase of the film projected on the flat ceramic wall facing St. Laurent Boulevard during the evenings. The interior entrance of the museum features an interactive light and sound display inspired after auroras. The building's contains five main galleries, a temporary exhibition space, an artifacts gallery, creative spaces and classrooms, theatres, cafeterias, boutiques, and offices. The building contains over of exhibition space, including a temporary exhibition hall for travelling exhibitions. The museum's chiller boiler system provides localized heating and cooling controls, and is designed with glazed walls from the exhibit spaces, acting as a functional exhibit for the museum with its colour coded piping. ==Exhibitions==

The museum organizes a number of permanent, temporary, and travelling exhibitions. The museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions place an emphasis on being interactive with visitors. Some exhibitions feature exhibits with corporate sponsors, such as the ZOOOMobile, a car building station sponsored by Michelin. Permanent exhibitions include Artifact Alley, an exhibition at the centre of the museum that features over 700 artifacts on display; the Sound by Design, an interactive exhibition where visitors can try a variety of instruments and musical inventions; and The Great Outdoors, an exhibition on transportation and outdoor recreation. Wearable Tech is a permanent exhibition at the museum which displays a variety of body-worn artifacts drawn from the museum's collections, including a modernized amauti, Google Glass, and Newtsuit. Crazy Kitchen is an exhibition that explores human perception, and is the oldest permanent exhibition maintained by the museum. Crazy Kitchen and the locomotives installed inside are the only remaining exhibits that date back to the museum's opening in 1967. Since its renovations in 2017, the locomotives have formed part of an exhibit on steam power, being exhibited next to a steam engine from a Canadian Coast Guard ship. ==Collections==

s on display in an exhibit on the technology's evolution and its impact in Canada. The museum's collection preserves objects and data relating to the scientific and technological heritage of the country. The museum's collections originates from a small collection of artifacts transferred to the institution from the defunct National Museum of Canada in 1966. The collection is organized into eight categories, communications; computing and mathematics; domestic technologies; energy and mining; industrial technology; medical technology; scientific instruments; and transportation. The permanent collection also contains several smaller collections. The CN Photo Collection is a collection of 750,000 photographs dating as early as the 1850s. The collection was donated to the museum by the Canadian National Railway in 1999. The collection was purchased by the museum for C$35,000 in 1980. The museum also has a collection of radio artifacts numbering 70 pieces; and a collection of 60 kites, primarily from Asia. The museum's medical collection also has a medical collection numbering over 8,000 pieces, most of which originated from the former Academy of Medicine Collection. All items that are deaccessioned from the museum's collection must be approved by its board of trustees and offered to another museum before it is disposed of through other channels like Crown Assets Distribution. Notable items Model 4929 used for the 1939 royal tour of Canada Notable artifacts related to transportation include the last spike for the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway; a McLaughlin-Buick and railway car used during the 1939 royal tour of Canada; the ''Bras d'Or'' prototype hydrofoil; a Popemobile, donated to the museum in 1985 by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; and a Henry Seth Taylor steam buggy, the first automobile produced in Canada. The museum acquired the steam buggy in 1984. Notable computational artifacts in the museum's collection include two Millionaire calculators; and the DRTE Computer, which was gifted to the museum in 1968. from the museum's collection on display Other notable artifacts in the museum's collection includes an electronic sackbut; the first electron microscope produced in North America; and George Klein's prototype for the world's first motorized wheelchair. The Canada Science and Technology Museum acquired the prototype from the National Museum of American History in 2005. ==Research==

In the first 20 years of operation, the museum's collecting and research efforts focused on "type collecting," as curators attempted to assemble a collection of different types of machines, and researched only their function and internal operations. A shift towards public history and exploring the cultural role these technologies played in society did not emerge until the 1980s. The museum hosts a research facility for the University of Ottawa known as The Living Lab, which provides university researchers with a space to conduct research with children outside a "sterile laboratory environment". The museum publishes an academic journal known as the Material Culture Review in partnership with the Canadian Museum of History since the 1970s. The journal provides a forum for research on historical artifacts collected by Canadian museums. ==See also==