SCIENCE MUSEUM MAY BE LITTLE ACORN

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30560, 1 October 1964, Page 13

SCIENCE MUSEUM MAY BE LITTLE ACORN

[Specially written for "The Press" by

PRACTITIONER]

Last Saturday at Hornby ■ group of men began to convert a building, previouslyused for transit housing, into the first stage of a science museum. This was the start of a project that has been the subject of planning and negotiation for some years, a project that its originators hope will develop into an educational asset of considerable importance. It was hardly surprising that among the workers were representatives from the various levels of education. Teachers who have travelled overseas have, like so many other New Zealanders, visited and been vividly impressed by the splendid science museums in cities in Europe, the United Kingdom, the

United States, and Australia. A part of the aim of the organisers of this local museum is to build up a series of exhibits and working models to show the development and application of the main scientific principles on which are based the complex mechanical, electrical devices on whose correct functioning modern civilisation increasingly depends. As teachers, we are all aware that one of our greatest difficulties, in this age of bewildering change, is so to prepare young people that they will grow up into the fantastic world of to-morrow with minds confident and serene and not be mentally overwhelmed by the speed and

intricacy of the lives which they have to lead. We have all too little time to devote to such preparation. However, if “a picture is worth a thousand words,” a three-dimensional model is surely worth many more. Working models, especially when accompanied by suitable diagrams and descriptions, often prove to be the speediest and most satisfactory way of putting across ideas about anything and everything from Newton’s Laws to basic electrical principles and from the theory of flight to the action of various levers, screws and what you will. In recent years thousands of children have benefited

from their attendance often in class groups, at the Canterbury Museum, where they have learned much about early Christchurch, natural history, geography, astronomy and similar topics. It is to be hoped that in years to come classes of children—and children with their parents or friends—will be able to derive similar benefit, though on the technological side, from visits to our own Canterbury Museum of Science and Industry, this “little acorn,” which was planted on September 26, 1964, will grow into a fine structure housing hundreds of exhibits and holding a high place among the educational institutions of Canterbury and of New Zealand.