Happy Pi Day!

 

HAPPY PI DAY!

Travel Through Time - MOHAI

Time travel is high on my list of impossible things to do.  I would love to experience moments in history first hand (or at least observe them safely from a distance.)  That's why I love the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).  The history of Seattle, and to some extent the Pacific Northwest, is laid out in an entertaining and informative way.  Many icons from the past are on display along with interactive displays that kept all of us, from the 4 year-old on up, entertained.  The museum sits on the south end of Lake Union in a beautiful park that is perfect for picnics and boat watching.  http://www.mohai.org/

Playing With Fire or Amazing Candle Tricks - Science!

We love a good science experiment and we also love a good magic trick.  When we find something that falls into both categories it quickly becomes one of our favorites. (especially when you can do it with things you already have at home.)   We found out about the combustibility of candle smoke awhile ago but we still do it every few weeks because it's so cool.

Things you'll need:
a candle - paraffin works best
matches or lighter

Light the candle and let it burn for a minute or two.  Blow it out and let the smoke settle so it is streaming up from the wick. Light your match or lighter and touch it to the streaming smoke a few inches from the wick and watch the flame race down the smoke to relight the candle.

Why it works:
Fire needs three things to work: Oxygen, Ignition and Fuel.  There's plenty of Oxygen and your match or lighter is the ignition source, but here's where things get science-y.  When a candle burns, the wick is kind of like a focus point for the flame and the paraffin is the fuel source.  When you blow out the candle the smoke contains quite a bit of the vaporized wax.   Adding the flame back to the smoke allows the fire to trace it's source back to the wick.  If you start to far away the fuel will burn out before it reaches the wick, so it may take a few tries to get it right. 

Geocaching Part II - Travel Bugs and other Trackables

The Dead Are Rising, (And They Have Never Been More Adorable)

 

I talked about Geocaching, or Modern Treasure Hunting, in a prior post.  The hidden treasure nature of the game it the main draw for my boys, but they have started to explore the other facets.  Trackables are their new favorite.   A trackable is an item or tag that has been etched with a unique tracking number and is registered at one of the geocaching websites.  Once the owner places it in a geocache, any new finders of the trackable log their find online and move it to a new geocache.   Some of these trackables will travel many thousand miles all over the world (one's even been to the International Space Station!)  As for our trackables, our farthest traveled one has traveled 29,000 miles and counting

, but our current favorite is Run Frodo! which is currently traveling through New Zealand.

Kang The Slightly Menacing

Free Museum Days - First Thursday Free Admission

A trip to the museum is always high our list of things to do.  Whether historic (MOHAI, Museum of Flight) or artistic (SAM, Wing Luke), our family has a great time.  And the best part is, that most of them are free on the first Thursday of the month.  Every month we choose one museum to go to (sometimes more if we start early enough) and make a day of it.  Discussing and observing art and history from two different perspectives (4 year old and 11 year old) is an amazing and satisfying experience. http://www.freemuseumday.org/sea.html

MUSIC! MOSTERS! ROBOTS! - Experience Music Project/ SciFi Museum

Since the 1950's Science Fiction and Rock-N-Roll have gone hand-in-hand.  From the 1950's portrayal of the Greaser and Rock-a-billy stereotypes to the amazing sci-fi soundtracks of the 70's and 80's(Queen's soundtrack for Flash Gordon comes to mind) the two pop culture branches have been firmly entwined.  Which is why the EMP/ Science Fiction Museum is such an amazing place.  One half of the museum is dedicated to music with a special focus on the musical history of the Northwest (including great exhibits on Jimi Hendrix and the Grunge Era).  There are also opportunities for hands on exploration in the Sound Lab which features a variety of instruments and private recording room to experiment with.  The Science Fiction Museum contains a large collection of sci-fi memorabilia ranging from early pulp novels to current film and television.  Supplementing the permanent exhibits are rotating exhibits at both the EMP and Science Fiction Museum.  Past exhibits have included The Muppets, AC/DC, The Beatles and Alien Encounters.  Admission to one museum gets you into both.   http://www.empsfm.org/

Healthy Body, Quick Mind - Professor Wellbody's Academy of Health & Wellness

How do the choices you make affect your body?  And how do you pass that information to your kids in a way that will stick?  Introducing Professor Wellbody's Academy of Health & Wellness at the Pacific Science Center.  The Wellbody Academy is a new interactive exhibit that shows how your actions affect your health and well-being.  From the Calorie Conveyor Belt (figure out how many calories are in that doughnut, bacon, pork sausage, cake sandwich with a milkshake chaser you had for breakfast)  to the Interactive Sneeze (You will get wet) the exhibits are interesting and, more importantly, fun. Professor Wellbody's Academy of Health & Wellness officially opens on December 1st.  http://www.pacificsciencecenter.org/wellbodyacademy/Home

Watch The Sky Fall - Leonids Meteor Shower

It's not often that you can play Chicken Little, but this weekend is one of those times.  The Leonids Meteor Shower is an annual event as the Earth passes through the tail of  the Tempel-Tuttle comet.  The best viewing will begin Friday evening with the peak happening early on Saturday morning. (3:00 a.m.)   I don't usually encourage my 11 year old to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, but this may be an exception.  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121112-leonids-meteor-shower-shooting-stars-space-science/

Explore Another Planet! - Google Mars

Google Earth has changed the way we look at the world around us.  The ability to search, locate, get directions and see it from the street has both made the world a little bit smaller and given rise to an interesting version of hidden picture where people look for strange items in the satellite and street images.      (http://www.mapofstrange.com/ ) But now the good people at Google are setting their sights on a new planet to explore - Mars.  Using Google Earth you can change the settings to explore the surface of Mars including satellite images and ground images.  So if you feel inclined to explore but can't bring yourself to leave the house, turn you attention to the skies....from your very own couch. http://www.google.com/earth/explore/showcase/mars.html

Science Gone Awry - Glow in the Dark Bubbles

Sometimes what we set out to do and what gets accomplished are two distinctly different things.  Case in point is the glow-in-the-dark bubbles we attempted.  Having seen various incarnations of this project online, we decided to give it a try.  We started by putting some premade bubble liquid in a cup.  Next we cracked the glow stick and gave them a good shake to really get them going. After, we carefully clipped the end of the glow sticks and poured the contents into the bubble liquid. 

 (The glowing liquid appeared to be a bit thicker than water creating comparisons to molten lava.)  At first the liquids seemed to blend evenly giving us hope that our experiment would work, but after a few tries we realized that there was a definitely lack of luminosity in our bubbles.  We attempted another batch and this time gave it a vigorous mixing, but that only resulted in a more lackluster glowing. 

 In the end we admitted defeat and decided that the glowing liquid looked kind of cool in the glass.  Perhaps next time we will make liquid “fireflies” in a jar.