Make a 3-D Viewer

Make a 3-D Viewer

You will need: Card, pencil, ruler, scissors or razor blade.

Without expense, you can make a stereoscopic viewer which will let your eyes play tricks with your vision.

With the aid of pencil and ruler draw a simple cross in the middle of a piece of thin cardboard. The legs of the cross should be about 2 inches long by half an inch wide. Cut the cross away, leaving the card intact.

When the cross has been removed, place the card at right-angles in a vertical position in front of a picture or photograph.

Look down through the cross at the picture (photographs of buildings give good results) and after a few seconds the picture will appear to stand out in three dimensions. It helps if you expect to see a three-dimensional view, as we so often see just what we expect.

Children learn best through doing

Before children can understand a thing, they need experience: seeing, touching, hearing, tasting, smelling; choosing, arranging, putting things together, taking things apart. Experimenting with real things.

Old-time school teaching used only words and the teachers thought children knew something if they could repeat it. Now we know better. To reach practical understanding we do not need to use many words with young children.

Children are clever. They learn a lot, without being taught. The greatest skill - to be able to talk, to communicate is learnt outside school. In the classroom it's the children who need to talk the most. Unfortunately it is the teacher who does most of the talking!