
Miniature World of Trains™
committed goals are to
entertain and educate the general
public and to develop our facility for
the display and operation of transportation systems in miniature using a state
of the art model railroad infrastructure spanning significant portions of
the United States. Our S.T.E.A.M. Educational Programs will be an industry
leading program.
Also, MWOT™
will have a large indoor and future outdoor transportation and toy train
history
museum in its proposed large venue location.
The model railroad in the larger Miniature World of Trains™ (MWOT™) portion of the facility
will run numerous model trains that will
simulate the real railroads. This will allow use to use
science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics,
as well as the arts, to create a miniature world.
All computerized
functions of the railroads and highways,
including day and night operations,
will run the entire operation.
Including lighting effects to simulate day
and night scenes, including a thunder storm will be shown
in the miniature world.
Also, lighting effects in the miniature
buildings will add realism to MWOT™.
There will also be the opportunity for all ages to learn about
transportation systems, green technologies,
energy and computers used within
the larger MWOT™
venue where possible.
The MWOT™
venue will also offer "how to" / "do it yourself classes in conjunction with the
model railroad
industry's World's Great Hobby program and with major
manufacturers from around the world.
MWOT™
in the larger venue and the current leased location will educate children and
their families on issues of personal
safety when it involves transportation, computers and energy related
issues.
MWOT™
will focus on keeping children safe on the
internet
and
teach railroad safety to children, teens and adults via Operation Lifesaver.
Other programs pertaining to railroad and highway safety, disaster, high
alert and hazardous materials training and equipment requirements of first
responders and demonstrate the use of this equipment in miniature.
MWOT™ is creating a curriculum for the local schools
for our larger venue in conjunction
with the Greenville County School District and A.J. Whittenberg School Of
Engineering. MWOT™ plans to
partner with Greenville Tech, Children's
Museum Of The Upstate and the Roper Mountain Science Center
to create a
mutually beneficial relationships.
The primary educational goal is to
engage and excite children and young adults about the qualities, capabilities and functions of railroads, city
and town infrastructures in the modern world.
Visitors to MWOT™ will be able to see this realistic and prototypical
miniature world would operate through dense urban as well as sparse
rural landscapes. The purpose of modern railroads, to move heavy freight quickly,
efficiently and safely over long distances from factory to your
home will
be highlighted. This of course has great entertainment value but it also has
a not-so-obvious technical educational value.
When the physical operating Miniature World of Trains™ model railroad is
functioning, there will be facilities
built in not only to operate the
trains and surrounding devices automatically, but also to allow the public
to control some of the running trains. A mock-up of a locomotive's
operating cab to be located
in the future larger location, will provide the guest operator with a realistic interaction
with the controls to
provide a virtual reality setting for the
operator. The guest operator will, through the use of onboard on the
Miniature World of Trains™
model trains cameras, be
able to see the passing scenery from the vantage point of the train'
s
Engineer. This will not be a video game - this will be actual remote control
of the train resulting in actual
viewing of the results of the operator's
actions.
The critical educational opportunity will be the next step. The mock-up of
the locomotive cab will be portable.
It will be capable of being delivered
to a school classroom. Control of the train will be projected over the
internet from the classroom to the MWOT™
facility. Similarly and
simultaneously the visual field provided by the
onboard camera(s) will be
carried over the internet back to the classroom. Potentially this process
can be carried
out anywhere where the mock-up can be delivered and the
internet is available, world wide!
Aside from the sheer fun of doing this, the student(s) will be shown not
only what the railroads today do,
but also the underlying technology that
allows remote control of the model and remote viewing of the results.
This
remote control comprises a fairly complex set of technologies but the result
is immediately clear to the student.
Almost every student has some knowledge
of trains. The concept of a train is easy to accept at any level of
development.
The concept of remote control is obviously more complex but
there are many examples in our world today.
Coupling the train concept with the remote control concept allows the
student to accept the technology on
a familiar level. Again, this is not a
video game where the moving parts are all bits and bytes and images. MWOT™
enables a set of real moving objects to be controlled by a guest at a remote
location. Our space program (NASA)
is a marvelous example of highly sophisticated
technology and remote control, but the underlying technology
is complex,
there are many dangers, and we don't let very young students participate in
the control process.
With MWOT™ the student will first have the ability to operate a real
device remotely and then have the opportunity
to learn about the
technologies that support the remote control. The mechanical train models at
MWOT,
their control system at MWOT, the portable video cameras, radio
links of video, network servers and other
components, computer interfaces,
video displays, the locomotive cab simulator, and human user interfaces -
all are interesting topics to explore and all are at the heart of today's
advanced technologies.
Clearly, the level of comprehension of the technologies involved is a
function of the education and experience level of the students, but there is
something to be learned for all students. The "gee-whiz" factor is great. We
need to allow our students to be exposed to some "awesome" technologies in
order to peak their interest. Hopefully some of the students will be
challenged by the
technologies and choose to pursue them in their higher
education and vocational choices. Some may even
choose to pursue a career in
one of the many railroad industries. Modern railroads are not the dirty,
dangerous
and simple technologies of the past. They are technologically
advanced infrastructures that require employees
who can function in a
fast-paced high tech environment.
We need to improve the level of education of our students for tomorrow's
workforce. We know that the economic
development of the Upstate and the Carolinas
can be limited by the educational level of the locally available
workforce.
Anything that we can do to peak students
interests early in their
development can encourage
them to pursue technological careers that improve
their own job opportunities and enhance the economic
engine of the
Greenville area.
MORE INFO:
LEARNING STATION
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Frank Ruby
Found and President
02/19/17