PR92/3.4.95 

Light-hearted Learning With Acorn Computers at the Interactive 'Design 
Works' Exhibition 

- A Great Day Out for the Whole Family - 

Acorn Computers, the leading supplier of computers to UK schools, has 
provided the Design Works exhibition with 12 computers which will be used as 
the  exhibition continues its successful tour of the UK throughout 1995. 
Design Works is a fun and educational interactive exhibition full of 
opportunities for children to observe, experiment, design and make.   After 
visits to both  Birmingham and Edinburgh last year, the Design Works 
exhibition begins this  year's tour in Newcastle in April.  The exhibition 
will be located in the Laing Art Gallery, Higham Place and opens on April 
15th with a preview press day on the 12th.  After visiting Newcastle, Design 
Works will move on to Manchester and Belfast. 

Fun and interesting for the whole family, the key concepts of the exhibition 
are aimed at five to 12-year-olds and centred on key stages 1 and 2 of the 
National Curriculum.  Whilst particularly relevant to the National 
Curriculum Design and Technology area, the Design Works exhibition is also 
useful in the areas of Maths, Art and Science.  Acorn's involvement further 
demonstrates its continuing support of the use of computers in the wider 
educational community and shows how computers can be integrated into the 
curriculum in an interesting, stimulating and exciting way. 

Ruth Greig, Museums Coordinator at Acorn Computers, comments: "Exhibitions 
are an excellent medium for education and entertainment and Acorn welcomes 
opportunities to become involved in computing and learning outside the 
classroom.  The capabilities of Acorn computers in terms of graphics, ease 
of use and speed lend themselves to educational exhibitions such as Design 
Works, for instance our displays at the Science Museum and 'How to be 
Bottom' at the Barbican Centre." 

Ken Baynes, partner in Design Works' organisers Brochocka Baynes, comments: 
"Having used Acorn computers previously, they were a natural choice for the 
Design Works exhibition.  I knew that they would be capable of doing 
everything we asked of them and that they would be efficient and, 
importantly, robust.  Another bonus is that many of the children coming to 
Design Works are familiar with Acorn computers and can therefore get to 
grips with the software immediately." 

Acorn's A3020 computers will be used throughout several areas of the 
exhibition:  'Building Structures', 'Using Colour, Pattern and Shape', 
'Making Connections' and, specifically aimed at the under-5s, 'A Place of 
Our Own'. Software being used includes packages developed and adapted by 
Topologika, enabling the young designers to build and view structures in 
plan and 3D views. The Kaleidoscope software package is used to create a 
basic visual element, colour it and repeat and fracture it into 
extraordinary shapes and patterns, and Imagine is an art and design package 
to experiment with line and rotational symmetry, mapping, polygons, spirals, 
horizontal and vertical flips. 

'Making Connections' will utilise software such as Spex - a package letting 
the designer create the layout of a bedroom, kitchen and living room, and 
additional software allowing the user to plan a town by arranging streets 
and houses, combining plan views with elevations of shops and other 
buildings.  'A Place of Our Own' lets the under-5s get to grips with a 
simple art and design program using Acorns equipped with touch screens and 
tracker balls. 

Founded in 1978, with 1994 revenues in excess of #50m, Acorn Computers is 
the premier supplier of IT solutions to UK education and was the first 
supplier of 32-bit RISC based personal computers in 1987.  Acorn works 
closely with a strong community of industry partners, users and software 
developers to provide innovative technology solutions for the education, 
consumer, publishing and international markets. 

Acorn Computer Group Plc is the holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, 
Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media.  Acorn 
Computer Group owns 43% of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.  Online Media, a 
division of the Acorn Computer Group, was launched in 1994 with the mission 
to design world class, interactive multimedia products.