BS: Which exhibits would you say are the most successful in communicating science?
JC: As in a particular a particular scientific principle or - communicating
BS: Whatever scientific principle they're trying to communicate, would you say that some exhibits are more successful than others?
JC: Yes probably. Um - some are just more visual about what they show. I'm trying to think how you would. Something like the hot air balloon which is really really popular - I don't know how many people actually - because you can't feel the hot air - you can be told that that's hot air going into it you can be told that that's what's lifting and you can see the numbers going up. But I'm not actually sure how much that means. Particularly to children who are operating it and just want to see it go off.
I think that's probably true of quite a lot of the exhibits. And the same
with something like the Kugel. It's not until it actually goes wrong and
you can get children that have pushed it and you can say "right, now try
pushing it" and all of a sudden they've got this really heavy ball they can't
move but - because it moves so easily I think it's very difficult to make
that link - about it being solid granite that - you don't move and something
that turns very easily.
I think one of the ones that to me works really is the - Blacker Than Black,
which is so simple. I don't know if you've seen it, the hole and the light
goes in a straight line and it's actually white inside. And it's so simple
and yet when you open it up it still surprises people
and it just shows - it just seems to show the principle very well to me.
Another one I quite like which isn't on the floor at the moment was Flow Tank - they sent -it's the same kind of stuff that's in the orb and the - it was all sent in one direction and you could put shapes in the way of it and see how they affected the turbulence at the back. But because you actually got the physical line you could talk about - the ways it work and the way - cars and things were designed. We had a test run on the floor for a couple of weeks which had a lorry cut out in it and a sports car and you could see the difference in the aerodynamics and I thought that worked really well. Sort of showed - one would work faster than the other.Pushing holes in the air and so on.
Um - Some of them work well if people actually stop - and - look and read as well rather than - just pushing it off. Like the Ames Room is great but if you have to stop and actually look at all the different aspects of it rather than just go and sit in the chair and play with the furniture and things which, it sort of - for a lot of children it's kind of a Wendy House.
Um - the other one I like isn't on the floor at the moment. It goes
with the - the winter sort of exhibits. I think it went with Cool Science.
And you put your hand - oh there's two couple there that sort of talk about
feeling temperatures - and the idea that one you put your hand on a sort
of warm plate and one on a very cold plate for 20 seconds then put them both
on something that's the same temperature and the temperature seems to switch
over? And the idea that your hands and your nerves get used to the one idea.
And then, in relation to the hot, then that one is cold but in relation to
the very cold one the same thing feels hot and that sort of idea. And they
got another toilet seat one which sort of different - everything's at the
same temperature but metal transfers the heat so it feels much colder.
I suppose - in general I - I like the simpler exhibits for that sort of - that idea rather than the really computer based ones that - in the end you're just pushing a button, however much fun they are, it's not really - giving you that much to go into.