National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park Trip
Our Year 10 Computing students recently had the chance to step out of the classroom and into the fascinating world of computing history with a trip to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The purpose of this trip was to learn about the journey of how modern technology came to be. From the moment we arrived, we were surrounded by stories of how computing technology was born, from massive machines used during World War II to the modern and sleek devices we can’t live without today. We even got hands-on with some retro tech and learned about the incredible people who made it all possible.
Prisha Y and Blake S are two of the students who attended this trip – here’s what they had to say about their experience:
"Our trip to the National Museum of Computing was truly an exciting and inspiring experience as the museum was set on the original Bletchley Park, the British Government cryptography establishment during World War II. This is mostly infamous for Alan Turing and other agents who decoded German codes which had been encrypted with the German Enigma and Tunny Cipher Machines.
We started our day with a presentation to give us an overview of what the day would be like, and we got introduced to the very kind and welcoming staff. We then took part in a challenging quiz which taught us about many things such as floppy disks, which were used as storage devices. After, we got put into groups and went to our first station. We were also able to explore the von Neumann Architecture, which we are learning about in class. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about it, and we went on to discover more about computers through the 1950s, 60s, 70s and on. Exploring the old computer games made us wonder about the life of others before the range of technologies that we now have. Afterwards, we participated in writing BBC Basic, creating the snake game, which was fully enthralling. We enjoyed this activity so much because we got to code and play a new version of snake with a chaser and obstacles. We were all so impressed and thrilled with how it turned out that we took pictures to show our families.
When it finished, we were picked up by a different member of staff who then took us on a tour of everything there was to see and taught us about it. This was the highlight of our day because we got to use the Dekatron/WITCH, which is the world's oldest working computer, and it owns a Guinness World Record! We will be savouring this moment for a long time. We also got to have a go on some old games consoles, which was so much fun, we only managed to try a couple as it was so much fun and lost track of time. Our third workshop revolved around Robotics and AI, where we learnt about and discussed the history of robots, with the first-ever chat robot, Eliza, dating back to the 1960s. We also talked about Alan Turing’s test and his quote, 'A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.' Furthermore, we indulged in an interesting test by setting up our computers in pairs with bots and our other peers to check if it was a computer or a real human.
Next, we had a break for lunch. I enjoyed debating with my friends about what the best part was so far. For us, it was the Dekatron/WITCH. After lunch, we took part in a scavenger hunt, where we went around every room and answered questions about each of the computers that they had. We played a game called science fact or science fiction. It was very fun but challenging. We participated in a quick digital trail around the galleries, learning more information, stealing a glance at the Bombe, learning about the Lorenz Simulator, and a lot more. We really enjoyed playing and learnt about so many different robots. We were really surprised by George the robot, made during World War II; it was really funny when they told us that we had walked past him multiple times throughout the day and did not realise. We also did another quiz, which we had a lot of fun doing.
Overall, we had an absolutely amazing time at NMOC and will definitely recommend it to anyone who has not been there. We will be coming back. In our opinion, this was a 5/5-star experience, as we could not think of anything bad to say. We learnt a lot about Computer Science, and we felt extremely privileged to visit a place with the largest historic collection of computers."
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