A Trip to the Boston Computer Museum
On Wednesday, May 8th, the Seventh Grade took a field trip to the
Computer Museum in Boston. Accompanied by Mr. Bergen, Mr. Matlack, Mr. Carey,
and Mr. Slawsby, the students had a chance to explore the huge walkthrough
computer as well as to learn about various computer events in throughout
history.
The class was split into several teams, each headed by a different chaperone.
During the course of the trip, each student was assigned a time period of
several years and they were instructed to find out what happened during
that time period in the world of computers. One student from each team had
the same time period and the student who found the most information at the
end of the day, received several points for their team.
There was one other way to win points. While at the museum, Mr. Bergen
approached each student and had them pick a random computer question from
a stack of cards. If they answered the question correctly, they would receive
several points for their team as well.
At the end of the day, the teams' point totals were counted and the winning
team was given several boxes of donuts. The losing teams were forced to
settle with donut holes.
Below are some selected pictures from the trip, taken with an Apple
Quicktake camera!
Callie Gates just couldn't wait to get to the museum!
Several students interact with Eliza, the computer psychiatrist.
R.J. Pazmino tries her hand at controlling an advanced flight simulator!
During the trip, we found a backup power supply just like the one in the
student staff room. The only problem was that it was slightly larger. The
box is actually almost 8 feet tall!
In one corner, they had a SCSI interface card that stood over 7 feet tall.
It was covered with flashing lights that simulated moving data.
At one end of the Walkthrough computer, two students tried spelling out
messages on a giant keyboard and trackball.
Compare this student's size to that of the trackball. Pretty big, huh?
The monitor for the Walkthrough computer was over 20 feet high and displayed
everything from a world map to the popular game, Breakout.
Below the huge monitor were the enormous replicas of a high-density floppy
disk and a CD-ROM drive.
There was an Internet display at the museum and we were able to take this
picture of the Nobles webpage as viewed from a computer in the display.
At the end of the trip, all the points were counted and the team led by
Mr. Slawsby took first place! Donuts for everyone!
Mr. Bergen had quite the difficult challenge of handing out donuts on a
moving schoolbus!
As you can see, Mr. Slawsby was quite happy at his team's victory!
Upon return from the museum the students were asked several questions
about the trip:
· 1. What did you like/think was interesting?
· 2. What did you not like or were bored by?
· 3. What was your favorite exhibit?
· 4. What advice do you have for next year's class VI students heading
for the same trip?
What follows is a summary of their answers.
Josh Neckes writes:
I thought that the trip could have been a little more exciting. For next
year, I think you should try to add something to the trip, but I am not
quite sure what. However, some parts of it were pretty cool.
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Callie Gates writes:
I thought the trip to the computer museum was fun at first, but I think
we were there for a really long time. (So it got a little boring.) I liked
the doughnuts! It was a good prize for the team with the most right answers.
My favorite exibit was the huge computer!
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Liz Cespedes writes:
Ok: the trip to computer mueseum was ok, the conversational computers were
cool, but the computer that mewasured your hieght was really annoying. Note
to all future people to go to the compu. Museum: Skip the history section
and go straight to the computers that have games or interactive stuff on
them. Overallit was Ok.
-Liz
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Lulu Miller writes:
I really liked te huge (50 x) computer. I thought it was amazing that it
actually worked--the wonders of modern technology!! I didn't particually
enjoy searching for information on our years, but all of the life like statued
livened up the "journey" through the museum. I thought that the
most interesting exhibit was all of the fun computers..downstairs, especially
the 4 computer talking system. It was cool.
For next year you may want to have a different prize than donuts, because
no one was hungry by then. But that isn't too bad of problem. Definately
keep the freedom of wandering around for next year that was a magor +++plus!
Sincerely,
Lulu Miller
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Jess Lee writes:
My favorite part was the walk through computer. It was really interesting.
Most of the interactive computers- like the ones who could talk- were fun
to experiment with.
The worst part was the timeline, it was boring. My favorite specific exhibit
was the computer that could talk to you and be your psychiatrist. Next year
make the trip a little more fun oriented and you will get better involved
students and more energy for the trivia and stuff. ( like better prizes-
not breakfast:))The museum was different than I expected- smaller and had
a different aspect, or pint to it thatn I thought. Good trip over all
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Tracey Roiff writes:
Our trip to the Computer Museum was good. I liked being able to walk around
and just check things out. The interactive computers were fun, and I especially
liked the giant walk-through computer, it actually worked!!!! The donut
contest was a great idea, and so were the year questions, although it waa
somewhat boring looking for a good fact. Maybe in the future you can add
something, although there is not much I can think of. I liked the freedom
of being able to walk around. It was a fun trip!
From,
Tracey Roiff
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Alexandra Briggs writes:
I really liked the trip to the computer museum. The best part was the NEtworked
Planet, where we went to each machine and logged in. We also could see about
other people that were logged in. The one exhibit with the different years
was a little boring though. I suggest that when you go again next year you
should give us more time to use the huge computer. OUr group barely even
got to look at it. The activity with the cards and trivia was fun, but not
just because our group won. I liked the freedom that we had to walk around
and do whatever we wanted, And the huge computer we could walk inside was
AWESOME!!!!!
Alexandra Briggs
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Carol Bercovitch writes:
During our trip to the Computer Museum i thought that the Eliza the Psychiatrist
was really funny. But, I also thought thqt the giant keyboard exhibit wasn't
as cool as I thought it would be, the buttons don't actually move. i thought
the part where we had to take down the notes on a certain decade was really
boring, but our hard work paid off when we were rewarded with doughnuts
afterwards. I think for next years class, you should keep the doughnut part
and maybe spndmore time at the first exhibit with all the games like checkers
and the psychiatrist thing.
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John Berkowitz writes:
I thought that the trip was a little boring, but it was interesting. I enjoyed
the walk through computer. I liked the huge computer with games on it.
i think that we stayed there way to long and it got prety boring. i didn't
like learning about the history of computers. The best part of the entire
trip was McDonalds.
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Steve Woelfel writes:
I thought the trip was interesting and helpful to broaden my computer skills.
The games were a lot of fun. The best part was going to McDonalds.
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The trip was a huge success and thanks go out to all who made it possible!
Especially those intrepid chaperones!