Create ... no questions asked ... no suggestions given

2012-01-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

The museums we visited in the Houston trip were nice. I am told they aren't the best in US but they were pretty good compared to what we have been to so far. In Austin, we love the children's museum but it's small and congested. The Houston children's museum was much bigger - and maybe we visited at a good time (Christmas when kids were celebrating at home).

What I loved is how much the kids got to experience. They are encouraged to explore, use all their senses ... there is stimulation, lots of materials/games/toys to try out whatever has struck their mind ... and of course the freedom to do it because they want to and not because they are supposed to.

Here's a photo of Amu making a building (none of the photos I am uploading are great - they are mobile photos). She picked up the idea of a building from the child who was doing it before her ... but no one told her that it's supposed to be a straight structure or that she should not have asymmetry or that it doesn't make sense to have a curved wall. She just built as she wanted :). It was a pleasure to see how it held her attention completely for almost 30 minutes and she was proud of what she had done.

Storytelling with an added dimension?

2012-01-19T11:56:00.001-08:00

One of the first things which Pranay was excited about was "4D". Now me ... I don't like 3D ... I feel sick ... so it had the exact opposite effect on me. But once I tried it, the 4th dimension really left me pondering why something so obvious wasn't obviously done. Before someone tells me that 4D isn't really a brand new invention - I accept - it's not path breaking technology. But 3D is all about enhancing the experience for the viewer and so is 4D. Imagine a story setting in the garden and it actually smells of flowers. Or if there is a fire, there's actual smoke (well not the kind which will hurt you).

The few times where Pranay has encountered the 4th dimension, he hasn't forgotten it. When we visited NASA, they showed a rocket blast off - the 4D effects were the vibrations and sound waves (as opposed to just the sound), the heat (not scorching but enough to feel it) and the smoke. He still relates to the smoke from the NASA rocket and talks about how much sound and air pollution the rocket launch would have caused, why it cannot be done in a building but has to be done in a really big field, how it would be nice to use magnets instead of wasting so much fuel ... it really left him with something.

Maybe the next time you and I tell a story or teach something, we can think of what can enhance the experience. We either think of a setting where the experience is left to imagination - or it has to be actual experience. How would it be to aid that imagination a little bit?

I don't have any of the blastoff pics ... didn't think to take any!! But here are some NASA snaps.

Learn to have fun

Create ... no questions asked ... no suggestions given

Storytelling with an added dimension?