Ask Slashdot: What Should a Children's Computer Museum Look Like? (yourobserver.com) 133
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: If you're a wealthy techie looking for a way to establish your legacy, the City of Sarasota has a 117,000-square-foot children's science museum that's vacant and could use a little TLC. Housed on prime Bayfront property, the building that once housed the Gulf Coast Wonder and Imagination Zone might make a fine children's computer museum.
So in case any of those CEOs who stress the importance of getting children interested in CS are reading and want to put their money where their mouth is, any suggestions about what a kids' version of the Computer History Museum should look like? Something like an Apple Store? Microsoft Store? Something else?
There's often criticism about the ways computer science gets taught in schools -- so leave your suggestions in the comments. What would a good children's computer museum look like?
So in case any of those CEOs who stress the importance of getting children interested in CS are reading and want to put their money where their mouth is, any suggestions about what a kids' version of the Computer History Museum should look like? Something like an Apple Store? Microsoft Store? Something else?
There's often criticism about the ways computer science gets taught in schools -- so leave your suggestions in the comments. What would a good children's computer museum look like?
Re: (Score:2)
And with lots of pastels and cartoon images.
Surprisingly on point AC1P. Bright colors. Big, readable signage that looks fun. Easily cleanable floors. Large interactive exhibits featuring tech they don't see at home--in general, computer screens, mobile phones, tablets, etc. are pretty passe. So super new or super old.
For anything of historical significance (mainframe & punch cards et al.), make sure they can't reach it. Not necessarily behind glass, but if kids can touch it you're guaranteed to find gum in your tape reel and half a toots
Re: (Score:2)
make sure they can't reach it.
Better yet, make a stripped down demo that you can touch to demonstrate how the old tech worked.
Re: (Score:2)
If it's to be half decent as a museum - it needs an entire room devoted to Turing and Bletchley Park and if anybody can do it - a working replica of Christopher - the machine that broke ENIGMA.
That was the start, not only modern cryptography but of the entire computer age - every modern CPU is really just a Turing machine after all, and we are long past the nearly 50 years of secrecy and denial - it's time the man got due credit for his role in winning World War 2. Turing, more than any other single person,
Re:Say what now? (Score:4, Insightful)
every modern CPU is really just a Turing machine after all
No it is not, and neither was the Enigma cracker.
No idea why /. is full with comments of people who don't grasp the differences between a turing machine and a turing complete machine/language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
BTW, if you need another term to throw around without grasping what it is/how it works: basically all modern CPUs are "Von Neumann Machines", enjoy!
Re:Say what now? (Score:4, Insightful)
We're talking about a children's museum. The relatively subtle difference between a Turing Machine and a RAM based CPU is not actually at a level where I think they are suitable for a children's museum.
Christopher was not a Turing machine and nobody claimed it was - but then, it wasn't a computer either. It wasn't programmable, let alone reprogrammable. It was essentially a mathematical pattern matching machine that was used to brute force the code-breaking. There are elements of it's architecture which later computers replicated but the key design was very different and it was a single-purpose machine. Even Turing wouldn't have called it a version of his idealized mathematical concept known as the Turing Machine.
A CPU with memory and instructions however, are about as close as we could get to building something which is meant to contain an infinite length piece of paper.
Random Access Memory was, to my mind, really just a major optimization over his sequential access model.
http://www.groklaw.net/article... [groklaw.net] This article explains the point better than I can.
Education is a skill known as a lies-to-children. You start with simple, but flagrantly untrue, explanations - which makes more complicated lies understandable and you don't get to anything resembling 'true' explanations until grad school.
For children - a Turing machine is the concept that was realized in CPUs. That allows you to then go on and explain Turing-completeness and finally RAM designs with people who now understand the basic principles of computing.
Von Neumann's architecture differs from Turing machines in being about something fundamentally different. Turing was developing the early stages of computing theory (though he had set out to do something very different - attempt to create a new language for expressing mathematical proofs in) while Von Neumann's was an engineering design - the seperation of data and instruction while both are in the same basic format (and possibly even on the same medium) was a way to practically put Turing's pencil-holder into the machine itself, but it was an engineering concept.
Both are still fundamental to how computers work to this day - and for children's level education that's all you can or OUGHT TO try and teach. You can't possibly teach the next level to somebody who hasn't first heard this lie. That's not how education works or ever can work because it isn't how human brains learn things.
Re: (Score:2)
Both are still fundamental to how computers work to this day
Turing machines are absolutely not fundamental to computers. I doubt there ever existed a hardware Turing machine. They are mental construct, that is all.
Von Neumann's was an engineering design - the seperation of data and instruction
That is not the fundamental of Von Neumann computers, the fundamental is the fetch, decode, execute cycle in an random access memory. Most Von Neumann machines don't even distinguish between code and data.
Christoph
Re: (Score:2)
I dissagree - fundamentally what makes a computer a computer is the ability to change the programming. Christopher COULDN'T be reprogrammed, it's instructions were part of the physical layout - not changeable. This was fine since it only had one task. But there was no way to reuse it for any other task.
The GPS can be reprogrammed, and they actually are with regular firmware updates. It's not about how instructions are stored, it's about whether they exist distinctly from the circuitry that operates on them.
Re: (Score:2)
I dissagree - fundamentally what makes a computer a computer is the ability to change the programming.
Then you disagree with 99% probably 100% of all teachers teaching computer science in university.
Re: Say what now? (Score:1)
And a point occupies no space, and a plane extends to infinity in all directions.
We get it. But it doesn't matter in this discussion.
Re: (Score:2)
Technically, a Universal Turing Machine can emulate any other Turing machine or any other process we normally refer to as computation. Not all Turing machines are UTMs. Turing machines as a class, or a UTM in specific, can emulate any computation*. Proofs do not necessarily involve UTMs, but rather construct Turing machines that do something.
*The Church-Turing thesis is that any computation can be emulated on a Turing machine. Without an ironclad definition of "computation" it can't be proven, but so
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
As an interesting and unrelated example of my point. Why do rainbows look like rainbows? You probably learned in school that water droplets act like prisms and breaks up white light into it's constituent colours - producing the rainbow.
You probably did an experiment where you held a prison to the sun and saw a rainbow.
That's a prime example of lies to children.
Because that thing you drew on the paper wasn't a bow. The lie explains the colours but it ignores how millions of raindrops can work together like o
Re: (Score:1)
Why do rainbows look like rainbows? You probably learned in school that water droplets act like prisms and breaks up white light into it's constituent colours - producing the rainbow.
That's a prime example of lies to children.
No, that's a prime example of explaining a simplified subset of facts to children so that they aren't overwhelmed by a deluge of information they aren't prepared to handle. There is no lie involved and ranting that there is makes you sound like conspiracy theorist whackjob.
Re: (Score:3)
Why do rainbows look like rainbows? You probably learned in school that water droplets act like prisms and breaks up white light into it's constituent colours - producing the rainbow.
That's a prime example of lies to children.
No, that's a prime example of explaining a simplified subset of facts to children so that they aren't overwhelmed by a deluge of information they aren't prepared to handle. There is no lie involved and ranting that there is makes you sound like conspiracy theorist whackjob.
The ability to break down knowledge into bite size chunks is not all that common. All too often the "explainer" gets sidetracked into minutia, or gets impressed with hearing themselves talk. Meanwhile the poor kids, or the person asking, gets overwhelmed, as they try to process it all. And usually they fail. Which might explain the failure of science to get through to a lot of people.
Re: Say what now? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
If you're going to break down the concept of color by referring only to frequencies, then "monochrome" is meaningless anyway and you are just as wrong in your attempted pedantry. Color is defined by the frequencies we perceive with our eyes and our brain interprets. If those frequencies exist and are recognized, then color "exists". You might as well say that sound doesn't really exist because it's just a pressure wave and our mind interprets the impulses coming from our ears. You can argue it's true, b
Re: (Score:2)
I prefer to think of it in a different way. Human bodies are equipped with powerful radiation sensors, though they are only sensitive to a small section of the EM-Band they can, within this band, detect radiation with pin-point accuracy (including using triangulation to determine origin distance), and sort them by frequency and intensity.
The brain takes all this data to construct the 3D picture we see of the world. We don't see objects, we detect some of their radiation (most of which is reflected solar rad
Re: (Score:2)
As an interesting and unrelated example of my point. Why do rainbows look like rainbows? You probably learned in school that water droplets act like prisms and breaks up white light into it's constituent colours - producing the rainbow. You probably did an experiment where you held a prison to the sun and saw a rainbow.
That's a prime example of lies to children.
So you turn it into a huge dissertation. One doesn't teach children - or anyone for that matter - by dumping a load of information on them.
It's like the time a fellow asked me about a tuned cavity used in a local radio repeating station. Understandable, because in a world of tiny equipment these fairly large tube thingies look a little out of place....
Noob:"What's that?"
Me: "That's a tuned Cavity for our repeater system"
Noob:"What's that do?"
Me: "It provides really sharp filtration on the RF sig
Re: (Score:2)
Well yeah, but please note that I wasn't using 'lying' in a negative connotation, I was explaining that it's a required part of learning to learn simpler, but untrue, versions of reality first.
I still don't think the difference between Turing-Machines, Turing Complete Machines and modern day CPU's are appropriate material for a CHILDREN'S museum. Hell most adults don't know it.
Re: (Score:2)
Turing machines are a mathematical concept, extremely useful in proving things about computers. Stick a Turing machine display somewhere for the kids that will be interested in that. Call it a really simple description of a computer. Don't mention Turing completeness. Heck, don't mention universal Turing machines, since they're more complexity than you want to throw at a kid.
Re: (Score:2)
The difference between science and religion at school level isn't that one tells you truths - they both lie, but science tells lies to help you on a path towards truth while religion tells lies to prepare you for bigger lies.
Now I know why not Blaise Pascal. You are attempting to build a worldview based on an extremely narrow interpretation of fact- and 18 years from now you're going to be a grandfather because of it. Religion too, has truth, but you're going to learn that far too late for your little g
Re: (Score:2)
The prism explanation does extend itself to explain rainbows, with a little work. Observe that the white light coming in is turned into colors at different angles. Therefore, if you were some distance from a prism of a certain orientation relative to incoming light, you'll see it as red. The next prism, at a slightly different angle, will show as orange. Work with that, and you can come up with an explanation for a rainbow.
Science isn't there to tell you lies. It's there to tell you partial truths,
Re: (Score:2)
Most of the computers of historical significance are Harvard architecture, not Von-Neuman. Punchcard based systems are basically all Harvard based, because it is pretty hard to fill a hole in a punched card at runtime.
Re: (Score:2)
Harvard architecture is: separation of data and instruction cache. And is still the same as Von Neumann, no idea what you wanted to say. No change in the "fetch, decode, execute" cycle of an CPU.
Harvard architecture exists since the late 1980s / early 1990s, everything that is of historical interest is before that time, so you got id double wrong.
because it is pretty hard to fill a hole in a punched card at runtime.
And nevertheless every computer just did that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Are you an idiot?
Von neuman architecture has a combined program and data memory space. The Harvard architecture does not, it has separate data and program memory pools. Ever heard of "smashing the stack?" That is only something you can do on von Neumann machines, as it exploits the fact that such machines have combined program and data memory space, by hiding program code inside a trojanized data element, then jumping the execution pointer to its location with a stack overflow. Harvard machines are physical
Re: (Score:2)
Seems I forgot to answer.
You are wrong.
Harvard architectures only have separate cashes for code and data. They all reside in the same memory, this: Harvard machines are physically incapable of that happening Is completely wrong.
Ah, seems I answered to your previous post ... Harvard machines could never do that, instead, they could shuffle one card in the execution pipeline out for another, that had differently punched holes, which is totally not the same thing.
There never was a Harvard machine at the time
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, that's going to impress a 10 year old. He sure will be listening attentive when you explain to him the intricate details of statistics and probability and how the hundreds and thousands Bombas made the task of breaking cryptographic code easier.
No later than here he'll pull out his cellphone and play Angry Birds while you drone on.
Re: (Score:1)
Which is why you don't do it like that.
You show a piece of gibberish text. You talk of how ENIGMA created a code that was considered unbreakable.
Then you show this machine with the lots of cool spinning wheels and you show how you can type the gibberish in one on end and it spins around... and spits out a message that makes sense.
And then you talk of how doing that saved millions of lives because it meant the generals knew where the enemy's submarines were, they knew where the enemy was moving it's tanks -
Re: (Score:2)
No modern child is interested in that.
Re: Say what now? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Why not Pascal? Or aren't his mechanical Pascalines enough like a computer for you?
Re: (Score:2)
They aren't computers at all. They are mechanical calculators - we've had those for the better part of 5000 years. They steadily progressed and no doubt they deserve to be shown in such a museum - but they rather peaked with the Hollerith Tabulator.
Going from counting aids to reprogrammable computers was a quantum leap, and it took a complete rethink of the fundamental principles of mathematics. Three people did that rethink: Alonzo Church, Kurt Godel and Alan Turing - but Alan Turing was the only one envis
Re: (Score:2)
Charles Babbage then? His looms were reprogrammable, even if he used punch cards for memory. Those three were hardly the first.
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/
Cambridge, UK (Score:1)
We have one in Cambridge, UK. It is pretty fun, my son loved it. Basically couples retro gaming with a suite of Raspberry Pis and other "learning" computers from the last few decades.
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
Re: (Score:2)
Lots of hands on activities (Score:5, Insightful)
It should be designed in such a way that kids can actually make the exhibits work, not just tell them how it works. All other considerations are secondary. However, dramatic comparisons like an IBM 350 disk unit displayed alongside a modern mSATA drive will also make an impression.
Re: (Score:2)
This. Get some programmable toys for them. Google has some great examples, like programmable fairy lights, and of course classics like turtle graphics (with a real turtle robot).
Re: (Score:3)
Just what I was going to say. I take my boys to a local children's museum (Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady NY) and they love working with all of the exhibits. Half the time, they don't even realize they are learning. They are just having fun and are picking up scientific concepts as a side effect. It works really well. If you just have a bunch of exhibits that kids need to look at but not touch, they'll learn something, but not as much as if they can interact with the exhibits.
Re: (Score:2)
Make it interactive (Score:3)
Just take a few big strokes from other computer museums and make most displays as interactive as possible. Obviously talk about video games too. Throw in some robot programming workshops with mini robots doing stuff in an arena for a few minutes. Offer free apps for kids to take away some concepts and continue at home.
Re: (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The Walk-Through Computer (1990, 1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
A what now? (Score:1, Interesting)
That sounds like a huge waste of money. And for a really stupid cause. So you want kids to be interested in computers? Why? So they'll do your job for minimum wage in 18 years?
Computers aren't this magic thing that you have to be raised with or you'll "just never get it." You can learn at any age.
I think they should put the money into the actual education system instead of trying to trick kids with a knockoff edu-tainment "museum."
Re: (Score:2)
Some of us enjoy programming and think somebody else (like kids) might enjoy programming too.
Just because you hate your job, doesn't mean other people can't be good at it either.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is the golden age of the guy that comes in, after the monkey solidly wedged the cart into the shit pile, to pull it back out, and who gets good money for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some of us enjoy programming and think somebody else (like kids) might enjoy programming too.
This is a about a computer museum, not programming museum. Don't think the two are the same.
Since this is slashdot:
A computer is like a car.
A user is like a passenger.
A sysadmin is like a mechanic, keeping your car in good shape, upgrading it as needed, and making sure that those faulty air bags are replaced, and the tires rotated.
A programmer is like a cabbie.
- Good programmers are like good cabbies, who can choose different routes depending on circumstances, and make the ride as pleasant as possible.
- Ba
Re: (Score:2)
http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-08-07 [dilbert.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Because we already made "school" that education place where kids get bored to death, we still have a chance that "museum" doesn't get the same connotation.
Re: (Score:2)
I took my son to an ore boat museum in Duluth, without any expectation that he'd work on an ore boat someday. (Ore boats are actually fairly large ships.)
Probably a website. (Score:5, Insightful)
To play devil's advocate here, the idea of children's computer museums and science museums is nice and all, but realistically there's a reason why these things close down, and it usually comes down to not making enough money to keep the lights on. Perhaps a nice interactive science website with VR would be a better way to spend the money, rather than restoring a building whose design results in high upkeep costs, plus the cost of staffing and renting exhibits and so on.
I mean, the city of Sarasota was spending something like $150k+ in maintenance every year just to keep the building from deteriorating further. At ten bucks a head, it takes 15,000 visitors every year (almost 10% of their total during the final years) just to pay for the absolute minimum level of upkeep. I'd imagine the real numbers to keep the building in good shape were at least double that. A good target for a business is closer to 5%. Basically, that building is a money pit.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. A good website will last a lot longer and be available to more children than a physical location. Youtube-based guided tours of the virtual collection would probably be a lot of fun to watch if the presenters are charismatic.
Re: (Score:1)
Must suck to live in a country where museums are run by companies that need to make a profit.
Last Saturday we had the KAMUNA in my town "KArlsruher MUseums NAcht", Karlsruhe Museum Night.
For 10 Euros (about $12) you can visit 16 museums and all related events (like music and talks) and can use all public transport till next morning 6:00.
We had close to 100,000 visitors.
Re: (Score:2)
Must suck to live in a country where museums are run by companies that need to make a profit.
That depends on what museum we're talking about. TFS implies this is more like a common science centre not a museum. A key difference in if something should be publicly funded.
If there is something of great historic significance then absolutely there should be a public fund to keep it going. If on the other hand you're creating a learning theme park for people with a very specific inclination towards a topic there's no reason taxes should pay for it. If people want such a thing then it should stand on it's
Re: (Score:2)
oh, oh.
Education should not be free?
Re: (Score:2)
If it was, the hills would no longer be alive with the sound of hillbillies!
Re: (Score:2)
oh, oh.
Education should not be free?
It most certainly should, but this is not education, it's a special purpose facility for people with a specific interest. The existence of this facility will not fundamentally alter your education, but may alter your interest in a subjection.
While we're talking about education, how about we fix the system that is known as student loans in America. The fact that your financial status rather than your academic results can affect you ability to go to university is something truly frightening. As I said, suckin
Re: (Score:3)
On a scale of suckiness this doesn't even register when we were discussing only yesterday that it actually costs money if you call an ambulance
It's off-topic, but even worse, it costs you money even if someone else calls you an ambulance. It must suck to have epilepsy or similar malaises and get ambulances called for you when you don't need them, but are powerless to resist them.
And even worse, "mental observation", which is used as punishment by some of our finest. Even if there's nothing wrong with a person, the observation takes place, and is billed to a "patient" who never asked for it nor needed it - it's enough to ruin someone's life.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Who said anything about profit? Most museums in the U.S. are nonprofits. They do, however, have to bring in enough money to pay their bills. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps a nice interactive science website with VR would be a better way to spend the money
Or if it is going to be a physical museum, then the majority of exhibits need to justify their not being on a web page. That means really hands on, tactile exhibits designed to give an experience that you can't do online.
And... "history of computing"? I don't think kids are going to be interested in the nostalgia of their parents' generation and coo over cases of Apple IIs and C64s, or queue up to play genuine Pong the way middle-aged nerds do.
Here's a silly, possibly off-topic suggestion that probably
Re: (Score:2)
The thing is, G.Wiz was all of those things. It still couldn't cover its ongoing costs. Now maybe it was mismanaged, or maybe they overestimated the draw of certain expensive exhibits that they were locked into a rental contract on... I couldn't say, because I haven't seen their financial
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
space war is hands on...
Re: (Score:2)
I was interested in looking at the new computer as a child - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_delay_storage_automatic_calculator [wikipedia.org]EDSAC this was it! The only one in the UK/World (dependent on your definition of computer) at the time. There were no old ones to look at!
Re: Hands on.. (Score:2)
"Oh, I was pretty interested in looking at old computers as a child."
there were NO _old_ computers, when I was a child, you young insensitive clod!
Have a look at the MOTAT in Auckland New-Zealand (Score:1)
A bit hidden on the site is one room (I almost missed it) with a small but very good set of hands on activities to learn about computers. A simple thing like coding your age in binary and boards to explain an experiment with AND & OR principles. Some games were also available
It shows also the evolution of computers. From an analog computer build in meccanno, an IBM 360 and so fort. I was particle impressed by the automatic analog switching telephone unit still functioning with rotary telephones. You can
Re: (Score:2)
The SFBay Area has three to emulate/draw ideas from:
The Exploratorium: Practically grew up here as a kid. More of a STEM orientated, the key thing was it was all HANDS ON.
The Lawrence Hall of Science @ Berkeley. Another childhood hangout.
The Tech Museum in San Jose. Just took my 13 year old here, he is hard to please. Just turned him loose and he had a great time. 3d Printing, robotics, network simulations, build-a-plane flight mechanics. I enjoyed it too!
robots (Score:2)
Maybe some programmable robots that can move objects from one bin to another based on some high level commands. (perhaps small and under a little bubble)
robot 1 (worker bot): goto A, pickup, goto B, drop, repeat
robot 2 (maid bot): find ball, pickup, goto A, drop, repeat
robot 3 (messy bot): goto B, pickup, random walk, drop, repeat
so with 7 possible commands there is a fair amount of programming of behaviors. might be overkill to try and also allow branching and conditionals.
Re: (Score:2)
I think "go to statement considered harmful" was about using "goto" when languages already had while and for loops. Some people took the headline and ignored the article, assuming Dijkstra meant it in the strictest sense possible. I think he wanted people using structured languages (Algol-family, Pascal, whatever) to stop using the construction when making simple and obvious loops that already fit in nicely with existing while-repeat structures.
PS - goto in Pascal (ISO 7185) permits you to jump to labels in
Re: (Score:2)
People then talked about "goto-less programming", which struck me as a terrible description. I always preferred "structured programming".
Re: (Score:2)
I always heard it was "structured programming". But I didn't start getting into programming until the early 1990's, and by then the term was pretty well established. (and the "go to statement considered harmful" paper was very old new)
Pointless (Score:2)
If you want to get children interested in computers and computer science, especially as a prelude to increasing their education in the same... I can't think of a more back-asswards way to go about it than sentencing them to a computer history museum. As interesting as the topic is to the geek and nerd, it's dull and boring and almost completely irrelevant to the call-to-action you linked to.
Don't confuse what you want to see with what is actually needed. A computer education center, which is what you're
Re: Pointless (Score:1)
It isn't necessary to get ALL the kids interested. Just to give the potential minority of fledgling nerds exposure.
Trying to achieve mainstream appeal is a distraction. This is Slashdot. Maybe you wandered in here by mistake?
Reading comprehension - you lack it (Score:2)
Try reading what I wrote moron. I didn't say it was necessary to get all kids interested, nor did I say anything about mainstream appeal.
And yes, this is Slashdot, where reading comprehension is a must. Go away until you've acquired some.
A children museum needs be be for adults (Score:5, Interesting)
A common mistake people do when making stuff for children is assuming that kids are dumb so let's make it simple for them.
Kids are not dumb and a good children's museum teaches the adults too. The only real difference is the "Adult" museums are more or less teach like the Victorian times quite expecting you to stay attentive with learning to be done via audio and visual learning.
A "Children's" museum offers the tactile learning as well and fully engages all the senses for proper learning.
I would make physical and manipulable exhibits such as not gates and gates and or gates either out of blocks or plumbing with color water. Then getting so far to make a 4 bit adder.
After you get that far then you can switch to electricity. Perhaps with a large quartz transistor and circuits. Where they can turn a dials and press buttons pull leavers to get the point.
The goal is to demistify computers to children and adults before you get to the other suggestions with robots writing code. But for the most part target towards teaching adults the concepts using as many stimula as possible.
Re: (Score:2)
have a look at this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Ancient computers and sun clocks (Score:2)
Replicas of ancient computers, like the solar system models, rope robots of the greek and romans, probably even ancient steam engines (even if that does not compute), maya calendar, babylonian number system.
Everything that is fascinating and/or math/science related. Variations of "abacus" . Inka number system and thread woven messages.
Various simple encryption methods, like the greek staff with wrapped paper around it, the grid based encoding schemes: chicken code and pig code.
Water clock of the romans ...
R
Steampunk in a Good Way (Score:2)
Also (one of) MONIAC, the Philips Hydraulic Computer was there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and currently there's a reconstructed Difference Engine (also in Mountain View, I think?). These objects make computing very
Fun (Score:1)
Mechanical computers: use colorful balls on ramps to perform basic addition and subtraction.Let them tinker with the ramps.
Blinkenlights. A big panel f
Re: (Score:2)
make it so that there is a supply of cheap things that kids can play with/shred to allow for interaction
items for your list
1 actual punchcards (bonus if they are decent copies of say IBM cards)
2 bundles of "microseconds" heck if they want to make bracelets out of them later good
3 tunnel parts that do the bolean math functions
make the concepts REAL
(heck go disney with it and have folks running about that recreate figures from computing history)
100,000,000 2N7000 transistors... (Score:2)
... and a pile of resistors for the kids to use.
Oh, and electrons.
It should look like this ... (Score:2)
"Look like"? (Score:2)
Something like an Apple Store? Microsoft Store? Something else?
So you're really just asking what it should *look* like? As in, what should the aesthetic design be?
Sure. Make it look like an Apple Store.
It seems like the bigger question should be, what should be in it? What should the exhibits be, and how should it work? Whatever the aesthetics, what are kids going to learn from the experience?
And I don't know what the goal is or what resources are available, but just to throw an idea out there, the first thing that popped into my head was (perhaps obviously) to
Re: (Score:2)
Something like an Apple Store? Microsoft Store? Something else?
So you're really just asking what it should *look* like? As in, what should the aesthetic design be?
Nah, he's asking whether it should be like an Apple store and filled with people or like a Microsoft store and usually deserted except for the people who work there... ;-)
The Walk-Through Computer (1990 (Score:2)
YouTube: "How Computers Work: A Journey Into the Walk-Through Computer [youtube.com] is an educational video produced by The Computer Museum and hosted by David Neil of PBS's Newton's Apple. Join David Neil and his four young companions on an entertaining and illuminating trek through The Computer Museum's one-of-a-kind, two-story working model of a desktop computer." Exhibit flyer [computerhistory.org] (pdf). Press kit [computerhistory.org] (pdf).
Boolean Logic (Score:2)
Free of Corporate Influence/Visualizing Basics (Score:2)
First off, while I'm sure it's important to get corporate sponsorships, the logos need to be only on the outside of the building and not inside. The purpose of the museum cannot be for companies to establish brand awareness and preferences - it must be to interest and excite kids about technology and where the future lies.
Don't focus on teaching kids how to use technology, focus on introducing the basic concepts which computing technology is based on. That means avoid rows of PCs letting kids design their
interactive (Score:2)
Give children something to do.
Things to poke, prod and make stuff happen. Don't show them a CPU, let them build logic gates that light shit up, make noises etc.
Give them control of a complex lock system on a constrained (miniature) canal setup where a barge represents a data and the routes dictate processing.
Show them to history of 'speak and spell', calculators, robotic fucking barney, other toys to see how computers have enhanced play.
Build a proper difference engine and let them program it.
Shit, they're
Why a museum? (Score:2)
Museum are about the past and are passive learning, how about something like Do Space in Omaha, NE? http://www.dospace.org/ [dospace.org]
Think of it like a high tech library
Computers available for the use of all
3D printers/laser cutter available http://www.dospace.org/technol... [dospace.org]
Tech activity kits for checkout: http://www.dospace.org/technol... [dospace.org]
Regular/Special Events (Girls Who Code, Cyber Seniors, software classes, etc.
http://www.dospace.org/events/... [dospace.org] , http://www.dospace.org/events/... [dospace.org]
Easy peasy... (Score:2)
Learn about the Ontario Science Centre during the mid-1970s. That place was super cool. Tons of interactive tech, huge lasers, giant Tesla coils and Van de Graaf generators, and of course, the Philips Coffee Machine (I'm still searching for the schematic, btw). "Coffee! Coffee. Coffee?" Oh, and none of this global warming boring-as-all-hell environmentalist crap.
Schanley? (Score:2)
Schanley, the city’s asset manager, regularly conducts walkthroughs of the former GWIZ building.
Am I the only one who read this as Schannel? I thought maybe this guy was a huge fan of Microsoft crypto...
Interactive displays is the way to go... (Score:2)
Static museums work for the visual arts, they are kind of a failure for anything else.
Have a display where kids can play videogames as they have been over the years, have another one in which they can update their bank account, another one in which they can use databases to track down a suspected criminals, another one in which they can create their own bit coin operated recreational herbs commercial web site.
Interactive Binary Number Display (Score:2)
A bank of 8 toggle switches with a light above each to show when they are turned on. Next to that, a 3-digit 8 segment display to show the 8-bit number corresponding to which switches are flipped. Maybe another one to show the ASCII letter corresponding to the number, when there is one.
You don't actually have to understand it to get something out of it. But you could also label each "bit" and its value as well as put up an ASCII chart for the older kids.
Literally just wall to wall video games (Score:2)
Getting kids to museums is hard enough but I feel like making them look at old technology (when the smartphone they're inevitably carrying in their pocket probably has more computing power than all of them combined) is a pretty special challenge.
On the other hand if you could tie it into video games at least they'd be able to do something interesting and entertaining while they're looking at all these old crusty machines. The evolution of video games, from Pong/Space Invaders to World of Warcraft/Call of Du
Why not ask some kids? (Score:2)
Something else to consider in this particular case is the mention of this being
Interactive FlipBits (Score:1)
It should include things like this: Interactive Art using FlipBits [vimeo.com]. Full Disclosure: Yes, it may be a shameless plug. But you asked for my opinion.