Walt Disney World opens an attraction Wednesday allowing kids to design their own ride, then experience it on a giant robotic arm simulator. It sounds wonderful.
“Sum of All Thrills” is the first ride in Epcot’s Innoventions pavilion, where businesses sponsor educational attractions. The ride is being sponsored by Raytheon, which also hosts the website MathMovesU , for middle school students.
“I did a lot of talking to kids before we got started. What I found is kids typically didn’t like math, and didn’t understand how it applied in their lives,” said Eric Goodman, Disney Imagineer and “Sum of All Thrills” project manager. “They always felt there was one answer, and that’s what you’ve got to do — find that one answer. What this does is show kids and adults the possibilities. If you have a math-controlling view, you get to control it.”
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That sounds fascinating! I’ve been reading Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert, about LOGO and empowering kids’ learning with computers. This had a similar feel for me at first. But I followed your link to the original article, and read this about the sponsor:
“Sum of All Thrills” sponsor Raytheon has nothing to offer the average consumer. But the high-tech defense and homeland security contractor does have jobs for those passionate about engineering…
That’s a show-stopper for me. War-mongers get way too much access to our children, and I have a problem with that…