P3D 10,000 people and a SaturnScope

[Alan Lewis <dlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday I was talking to the curator of the League City Texas One Room
Schoolhouse Museum, and the fact came out that they have had over 15,000
children attending the day long class re-enactments at the one room
schoolhouse over the past 5 years.  They are an interactive museum that
has one class of about 20+ students attend every day to experience an
actual day of learning as it was done in 1899.  Everything is done as it
would have been in 1899, the dress, the learning material, the
discipline, and of course the outhouse.

And, of course, the stereoscope.

They have included in the lesson, every day, the stereoscope and the use
of stereoviews in education.  They take this lesson seriously, and they
have had me take some stereoviews of the museum during the construction.
These are used as part of the lesson.

They pass around a stereoscope to all of the students so that they can
learn how it was done in 1899.

During the first five years they used one of my SaturnScopes as the main
viewer for about 10,000 of those students.  Now that the attendence is
over 15,000 they have two SaturnScopes.

I couldn't ask for a more difficult test for a stereoscope than this
accelerated aging study that they have carried out.  After the one
stereoscope had been handled over 10,000 times (by children) the only
problem they have is that the finish on the handle is wearing off.  From
what I am told by the curator, the children are very rough when handling
the stereocope. Partly from excitement, partly from being children with
a "toy".

It is especially gratifying to hear the reports about the students' new
found exitement over re-discovering stereo photograpahy, a lost artifact
of the late 1800's, but an important one in education.
-- 
_______________________________________________________________
Alan Lewis
mailto:dlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home of the stereo wedding package, and weekend stereo projects
http://www.arlington.net/homes/dlewis


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