Scoop the Poop!
Each September, ECHO, a science and nature museum in Burlington, Vermont, ships a fold-out mailer to hundreds of educators across the state. As it unfolds, the mailer reveals instructions for booking an ECHO field trip, information on upcoming special exhibits, and—on the reverse side, once fully unfolded—a free poster for teachers to display in their classrooms.
The annual poster design comes with a few parameters: it typically relates to the current special exhibit at the museum. It’s always educational. It tries, when possible, to present learning outcomes that connect back to the museum’s mission of stewardship for Lake Champlain. And—of course—it has to be fun.
So how do you connect conservation outreach, simple machines, and promotion for an upcoming Rube Goldberg exhibit? You design a Rube Goldberg machine that empowers a dog to clean up its own poop. Obviously.
Enter: Scoop the Poop!, an adorable, hand-illustrated endeavor to help Rube the Dog keep Lake clean in true Rube fashion. As Lead Designer and Illustrator, I collaborated with ECHO Educators Liz Greenberg and Eli Phillips to design and illustrate the poster and supplemental educational materials.
Project team
Project Directors: Liz Greenberg, Eli Phillips, Nina Ridhibhinyo
Lead Designer and Illustrator: Ky Chevalier
Creative Director: Carolyn Crowley
Awards
First Place, Educational Publications, Materials and Kits
New England Museum Association Publication Awards, 2025
Awarded to Scoop the Poop! Classroom Activity Guide
Educator’s guide & poster
The printed mailer folds out to reveal information about ECHO Field Trips, a preview of upcoming special & permanent exhibits, and a full-bleed poster on the reverse side.
In addition to designing and illustrating the guide’s contents and poster, I also managed the production process, including file setup, proof review, and approval.
Printed Dimensions: 5.5 in x 8.5 in (folded) / 22 in x 17 in (unfolded)
classroom activity guide
To supplement the classroom poster and provide opportunities for deeper engagement with ECHO’s temporary Rube Goldberg Exhibit, I collaborated with ECHO Educator Eli Phillips to design a supplemental Scoop the Poop! Classroom Activity Guide for educators. The full guide contains an introduction written by Eli, a basic overview of simple machines, and three Scoop the Poop!–inspired activity pages scaled for basic, intermediate, and advanced learners.
The Classroom Activity Guide is available for free download on ECHO’s Website.
The Scoop the Poop! Classroom Activity Guide was awarded first place in the Educational Publications, Materials, and Kits category of the 2025 New England Museum Association Publication Awards.
The basic activity sheet introduces young learners to the concept of Rube Goldberg machines by inviting them to color in Rube’s poop-scooping contraption.
The intermediate activity sheet invites learners to apply their knowledge of simple machines to label the machines that make up Rube’s creation.
The advanced activity sheet challenges learners to imagine and draw their own Rube Goldberg contraption that uses simple machines to scoop Rube’s poop.