NICK.BROOK@cluthaleader.co.nz
History and creativity will combine in Lawrence tomorrow with the Wagon Wheels Workshop at Tuapeka Goldfields Museum.
From 9am to 12.30pm children aged 8-12 are invited to the holiday education day to build miniature wagons and race them over the rocky Otago landscape.
‘‘We’re helping children understand whole towns were built and thrived with only animals and carts to move everyone and everything in those days, and the most famous player was Cobb & Co,’’ museum manager and education officer Jess Weichler said.
Ms Weichler and volunteers including Dianne Eardley will also educate on the importance of potential and kinetic energy in society by helping the children construct models from recycled materials powered by elastic bands, and testing them for speed and distance on a simulated landscape.
She said Cobb & Co was an Australian brand so famous it became synonymous with colonial transport, and before copyright law, independent wagon firms would set up as ‘‘The local Cobb & Co’’ although they had no legal connection.
‘‘It’s a great way to engage our tamariki in our history, and also using that creative side of the brain . . . when you pair something fun with learning it’s easier to remember it and have positive associations with what you learn . . . and we’ll be using the many excellent examples of animal-wagon technology here at the museum to really help illustrate the period.’’
‘‘‘It’s a great way to engage our tamariki in our history, and. . .when you pair something fun with learning it’s easier to remember it . . . ,
