Fun and interesting for the whole family, the key concepts of the exhibition are aimed at five to 12-year-olds and centred on key stages 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum. Whilst particularly relevant to the National Curriculum Design and Technology area, the Design Works exhibition is also useful in the areas of Maths, Art and Science. Acorn's involvement further demonstrates its continuing support of the use of computers in the wider educational community and shows how computers can be integrated into the curriculum in an interesting, stimulating and exciting way.
Ruth Greig, Museums Coordinator at Acorn Computers, comments:
"Exhibitions are an excellent medium for education and entertainment and Acorn welcomes opportunities to become involved in computing and learning outside the classroom. The capabilities of Acorn computers in terms of graphics, ease of use and speed lend themselves to educational exhibitions such as Design Works, for instance our displays at the Science Museum and 'How to be Bottom' at the Barbican Centre."Ken Baynes, partner in Design Works' organisers Brochocka Baynes, comments:
"Having used Acorn computers previously, they were a natural choice for the Design Works exhibition. I knew that they would be capable of doing everything we asked of them and that they would be efficient and, importantly, robust. Another bonus is that many of the children coming to Design Works are familiar with Acorn computers and can therefore get to grips with the software immediately."Acorn's A3020 computers will be used throughout several areas of the exhibition: 'Building Structures', 'Using Colour, Pattern and Shape', 'Making Connections' and, specifically aimed at the under-5s, 'A Place of Our Own'. Software being used includes packages developed and adapted by Topologika, enabling the young designers to build and view structures in plan and 3D views. The Kaleidoscope software package is used to create a basic visual element, colour it and repeat and fracture it into extraordinary shapes and patterns, and Imagine is an art and design package to experiment with line and rotational symmetry, mapping, polygons, spirals, horizontal and vertical flips.
'Making Connections' will utilise software such as Spex - a package letting the designer create the layout of a bedroom, kitchen and living room, and additional software allowing the user to plan a town by arranging streets and houses, combining plan views with elevations of shops and other buildings. 'A Place of Our Own' lets the under-5s get to grips with a simple art and design program using Acorns equipped with touch screens and tracker balls.
Founded in 1978, with 1994 revenues in excess of £50m, Acorn Computers is the premier supplier of IT solutions to UK education and was the first supplier of 32-bit RISC based personal computers in 1987. Acorn works closely with a strong community of industry partners, users and software developers to provide innovative technology solutions for the education, consumer, publishing and international markets.
Acorn Computer Group Plc is the holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media. Acorn Computer Group owns 43% of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Online Media, a division of the Acorn Computer Group, was launched in 1994 with the mission to design world class, interactive multimedia products.