Meet Valeda: Computer Controlled Health Instructor
Robert Crown Center for Health Education female prototype teaches children about health.
You can probably ask any second grader in one of Hinsdale's or Clarendon Hills' elementary schools, "Who is Valeda?" and they'll be able to tell you. One of three in the world, Valeda is a female prototype that is used to teach children about health at the Robert Crown Center for Health Education. She was made specifically for the Hinsdale Health Museum 53 years ago, which was the first health museum in the United States. The name changed to the Robert Crown Center in 1974. Doctors and scientists took a cast of a 145-pound, 5-foot-7-inch woman from Cologne, Germany. A medical team was used to properly place her organs and the rest of her internal structure. It took five years to finish the model, which was then shipped from Germany and …
Sabrina Wu
4:12 pm on Thursday, September 16, 2010
That's awesome! I think it's terrific that kids in the Hinsdale area get to learn from a model that is based on an actual woman. According to the RCC, newer models are fashioned more like mannequins and don't reflect realistic proportions. Here's hoping Valeda's around for a long time. more ›