Scholarships to Spend the Summer Studying in Hawaii with Pacific Academy

How would you like to earn six college credits in one of the world’s most beautiful and culturally rich island cities, learning about America’s role in the Pacific Theater of World War II―at the very place where we were plunged into this global struggle? Well, there are scholarships available to do just that with The National WWII Museum’s Pacific Academy!

This summer June 11-July 9, 2016, The National WWII Museum will be taking up to 100 college students from across America to spend one month learning about the attack at Pearl Harbor and other subjects related to World War II and Hawaiian and Asia-Pacific history at Hawai’i Pacific University. This once in a life-time opportunity will put you learning under top faculty—including featured professor Allan R. Millett, PhD—who share expertise and passion for the study of World War II and the history of Hawaii. When you’re not hitting the books, you can take advantage of Oahu’s famous beaches and tropical setting along with its many attractions where your studies will even take you like Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona Memorial, Iolani Palace, and more!

Scholarships are still available on a limited basis rewarding $2,000 per student to spend the summer in Oahu with us. To apply, enroll in the Pacific Academy now and submit the initial deposit of $1,000 to reserve your space. Then, by March 18, 2016, tell us in a compelling and informative two to three-page, double-spaced essay on how WWII influenced the character of the Asian-Pacific world in the Twentieth Century.

Learn more about The Pacific Academy and the courses offered this summer here.

Have questions? Call our student travel experts at 877-813-3329 x514.

Sci-Tech Tuesday: There WERE computers in WWII

I frequently hear, and sometimes read, people saying that there were no computers in WWII. This is completely untrue. Today we think of computers as digital electronic devices, and in particular, devices using some kind of semiconductor to make switches.

During WWII there were many kinds of specialized computers designed to use mechanical methods to make calculations. True airspeed calculators, firing tables, and dead reckoning computers are the most common examples. They are examples of slide rules, which were commonly used for mathematical calculations just a generation ago (I used slide rules in high school, until the TI-30 calculator was widely available, in 1980).

The history of computers goes back hundreds of year. The abacus is 4,000 years old, but doesn’t really make calculations or count, it just handily holds information for reference. Pascal built a computer to calculate taxes. Charles Babbage designed a difference engine, and Ada Lovelace figured out how to program it, but that was mostly theoretical, as he never really got a working version. Most of these devices used gears and wheels and dials to take advantage of mechanical models of mathematical relationships.

If you know any WWII history, that last description probably calls to mind both the Enigma machine, and Turing’s Bombe. The Colossus was the first electronic computer—and it was designed to work in concert with the Bombe to break the Enigma’s ciphers.

During WWII the US developed it’s own large computer. The Harvard Mark 1 was a electro-mechanical computer built by IBM based on a design by Howard Aiken, and influenced by Babbage’s earlier plans.

The Mark 1 used electricity to turn wheels on rotors, powered with relays and controlled by switches. It was basically a series of connected adding machines, with mechanical counters embedded. The first program run on it was written by John von Neumann, who was comparing the efficacy of implosion and gun mechanisms to trigger the first atomic bombs.

The Mark 1 was replaced in series by models up to IV. The Mark III included more electronic components, tubes and crystal diodes. The Mark IV removed all mechanical components, storing memory in magnetic cores.

Howard Aiken, the inventor of all four computers, would be 116 on March 8 of this year. He died in 1973.

Posted by Rob Wallace, STEM Education Coordinator at The National WWII Museum.

Are you, or do you know, a science teacher of students in 5th-8th grades? We are looking for members for the 2016 Real World Science Cohort. Spend a week at our museum, learning all about how to teach hands-on science with connections to history and literacy. Apply now–applications accepted until March 4, 2016.

all images from Wikimedia Commons

Carnival Costume Pays Tribute to Andrew Higgins

Brittany Waggener wearing her costume in front of the Museum at Andrew Higgins Boulevard.

There’s one costume we’ve been seeing on the parade route down in New Orleans this Carnival season that has us intrigued. Marching down the streets in many parades is one Dame de Perlage who is paying honor to the Museum’s cross street Andrew Higgins Boulevard with an intricate beaded corset featuring a WWII amphibious invasion scene.

Dames de Perlage is a walking krewe of women who continue the beadwork tradition of perlage, and their theme this year paid tribute to streets in New Orleans. One Dame named Brittany Waggener, a fan of the Museum and PhD student in Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans, chose to make her costume to pay tribute to our cross street named for Andrew Jackson Higgins, the man behind why the Museum calls New Orleans home.

Dwight Eisenhower attributes Higgins as “the man who won the war for [America in World War II].” During the war, Higgins led a boat building industry in New Orleans that designed and produced the critical LCVP that allowed for successful amphibious invasions like the ones that took place on D-Day and throughout the Pacific. During the war, he employed over 18,000 citizens of New Orleans to produce boats for the war.

Over the past 7 months, Waggener has clocked nearly 200 hours creating this tribute to Higgins with hand-sewn beadwork. Her scene features an amphibious invasion scene with airplane and a Higgins LCVP with three figures in it. The three men in the LCVP represent two of her family members who served in World War II and a close family friend that served in the armed forces during the war: Charles E. “Doc” Hill, Charles Andrew “Andy” Waggener, and Houston Raymond “Ray” Gravely.

Waggener is proud that New Orleans houses our world class Museum, and has been giving patriotic throws for the veterans and active service members she has encountered along the parade route.