Conference moira::naturism

238.0. "Educational Activities" by AUSSIE::BELL (Charitas Patiens est) Sat Apr 14 1990 09:19

    We (that's the whole family) ended up at the Power House Museum a few
    weekends ago, and I have just found time to write about it.
    
    The Power House Museum is an old Electric generation Plant that
    has been turned into a Museum (and do visit it if you are in Sydney).
    Its somewhat unconventional, very family oriented (special sections
    for the under 9's that held our kids fascinated for more than � an
    hour).
    
    There are sections on machines, trains (including a complete 19th
    century train and carriages), aircraft, many working demonstrations
    of simple (and complex) physical principals, and a whole section
    on the human body!
    
    The human body section covered many topics, my 9-year old had been
    though this section a few weeks before, with her school class, and
    led us to what she thought was interesting, at one point she picked up
    some obstetric forceps, and asked "what are these?", my wife answered
    "there used to help babies out of their mother, the Doctor helped you
    to be born with a set of those." 
    
    Part of this section included some exhibits designed to enable people
    to explore their feelings about their bodies, some mirrors with
    controlled distortion (adjustable) which made you look taller/shorter
    or fatter/thinner, and a wall which had photos of three naked people
    actual size on it (two men and a women) with their backs to you. Their
    faces had been replaced by face sized holes, and if you looked through
    the holes you saw, in a mirror, the front side of the photo with your
    face on a naked body. Our kids looked through the holes, made no
    comment and moved on. I did not hear any unfavourable comments, but
    then I was not around for very long (have you ever tried to keep tabs
    on three excited, active children?). 

Peter.