So. Much. Science.

SCIENCE EXPO A GO-GO: We'd had Saturday June 2 circled on our calendar for weeks. It marked the first (annual, we hope) Seattle Science Festival Science Expo Day. It was held at Seattle Center and there was sooo much to see and do!

Our very first stop was at the expansive and inviting booth staffed by friendly Seattle University student volunteers (and a few of their profs, no doubt). There were lots of hands-on activities for the kids, including experiment using paper soaked in red cabbage juice. The kids then used pens filled with solutions with various pHs, and they learned about acids, bases and neutrals.


Another station involved completing some squishy circuits using a battery pack, some wires, bulbs and a dough.

Here's Annabelle's finished project. She called it a Christmas circuit due to the multi-colored lights.

There were also some manipulative puzzles. Annabelle had fun with tanagrams ... 

... and CJ worked hard on a stacking puzzle involving four donut-shaped wood rings stacked largest on bottom to smallest on top over a post and then there were two empty posts. The challenge involved moving the 'donuts' to another post, stacking them largest on bottom to smallest. Sounds simple, right? Well the catch was that during your moving process, you could never stack a bigger donut atop a smaller one. (Yes, I realize a photo of this would have been helpful. Sorry!)

We visited with folks from Bellevue's Tyee Middle School, which has a super neat-o near-space satellite program. They told us that they worked with Paul Verhage of NearSys, a multifaceted organization, with interests in near space exploration, microcontrollers, robotics, space, and astronomy.

At the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab booth, the kids got to take part in some "CSI" type action, pressing their fingerprints onto a strip of tape and then painting a solution over them. Then a WSP lab worker rinsed the strips, revealing the fingerprints, and another lab specialist mounted them on a card for the kids. Cool!

We learned more about nanotechnology from North Seattle Community College professors. We learned that NSCC is "Seattle's Hub for Industry-driven Nanotechnology Education" (SHINE). NSCC is also home to Seattle College's RST (Ready! Set! Transfer!) Academy, a program for supporting pathways to a STEM-related career. both good things to know. CJ and Annabelle will be college aged before we know it!

At the EMP (Experience Music Project) booth, the kids were happy to have a chance to make some instruments. It was such a simple but great activity involving filling plastic Easter eggs with a combination of dry rice and beans. Slap a sticker on 'em to hold the egg halves together and presto! Instant percussion instrument!

Naturally, we had to check out the Aerojet booth. The company is a major space and defense contractor specializing in missile and space propulsion, and defense and armaments, and has locations across the U.S, including one in Redmond, WA.

From Aerojet, the kids got a free NASA coloring book and saw some models of spacecraft Aerojet has a role in. One of the models was of the Atlas V rocket, which is what was used to launch the Mars Science Laboratory last November. Turns out back in 2008, Aerojet shipped rocket engines for use on MSL. In fact, according to a 2008 press release, Aerojet provided propulsion for every phase of the mission Specifically, four Aerojet solid motors to provide one million pounds of thrust to the launch vehicle. The rocket's Centaur upper stage has 12 Aerojet 6 to 9-pound thrust monopropellant hydrazine thrusters to provide roll, pitch, yaw and settling burns and eight Aerojet retro-rockets for Centaur upper stage separation.

I thought it was interesting that Aerojet had signs telling people not to take photos of the models they had on display. I probably had a smirk on my face as I was thinking, "That's funny, cause I've taken photos of the ACTUAL SPACECRAFT."  Oh well. So, sorry, no photos of table top models. But hey, here's a photo I took of a real live rocket launch featuring Aerojet components!

Another business with a Redmond, Physio-Control, Inc. had a super high tech, automated CPR system on display at the expo called the LUCAS® Chest Compression System . In checking out their Web site, I learned Physio-Control was founded in 1955, and is headquartered in Redmond. Their site says they're the world leader in the development, manufacture, sale and service of external defibrillator/monitors and emergency medical response products and services.


We also checked out the large National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration display. CJ, especially, was captivated by it - specifically by a big ol' rockfish model they had on display. He had lots of questions about it.


From Seattle Department of Transportation employees, we found out about the need to replace the aged and increasingly decrepit old wood Elliott Bay seawall. It was built in the 1930s. Here's a photo of the construction. On the city's Web site, it's captioned "Piles and caps at Bay Street, May 14, 1934. Courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives #8835

Little did we know that all these years, "gribbles' have been eating away at it. What's a gribble, you ask? Why, it's a nasty little multi-mouthed crustaceans with seven pairs of legs that love to eat watery wood.
If you want to know more about Seattle's seawall problem and proposed solution, there's a whole lot more to read here: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/seawall.htm.


At an Explorations in Math booth, CJ and Annabelle had fun playing math games - and we got some cool swag, including a t-shirt and an Explorations in Math deck of cards that has a number of fun math games for the whole family. In case you're wondering, Explorations in Math is a Seattle-based non-profit organization working to build positive math cultures in elementary school communities. The deck of cards we received from them is a standard one, discarded by a local casino.  Love it!

This afternoon, we used the deck to play a game called Get to 100, where you're dealt a hand of 5 and you use your cards to create a set of one and two digit numbers to create a sum as close to 100 as possible.

On this hand, CJ got a swell sum of 99 - just one shy of 100.

At the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics - Pacific Northwest Section booth, we checked out mock ups of jet engines and Annabelle and a Boeing engineer discussed wing stress tests. BTW, the AIAA is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession.


Words of encouragement, tips and techniques were free at the "You CAN do the Rubik's Cube" booth. We took home a well illustrated solution guide and will be checking out their Web site, http://www.youcandothecube.com/.


While the vast majority of the booths we visited were outside, inside the Fisher Pavilion, all sorts of wonders awaited us!


A couple of very friendly guys working the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency booth were engaging and quizzed us on our environmental awareness. We won prizes (suckers and packets of sunflower seeds) for our (mostly correct) answers. The kids also played around with a slick game about air pollution, the ozone and more, called Smog City 2.

We picked up a Periodic Table of the Elephants from the American Chemical Society.   

At the Washington Industrial Technology Education Association booth, we visited with a couple of new age "shop" teachers who are extremely involved in STEM. At their display they had a beautiful guitar built from scratch, and a whiz bang "printer" that engraves any image or text on wood. Here, CJ and Annabelle watch the machine engrave their names on a wood business card.

And here are their cards, pictured with their fingerprints from the WSP booth.

From members of the Microsoft Research team, we were introduced to KODU Game Creator. At first glance it looks like a mix of Scratch, Roblox and Minecraft. How could CJ and Annabelle NOT like that?! Per its Web site, the program "lets kids create games on the PC and XBox via a simple visual programming language. Kodu can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, young children as well as adults with no design or programming skills." We watched some tutorials on their site today and it looks like a blast. We'll definitely be poking around the Kodu community in the days and weeks to come. In fact, Annabelle designed her very first Kodu game today.
 
Also from the Microsoft Research Team was a demonstration of KINECT for Windows WorldWide Telescope program. (Back during Husky Fest, we saw WorldWide Telescope used for their planetarium show.) There's a YouTube video demonstrating what it's like to have the universe at your fingertips. Check it out!
 
The DigiPen Institute of Technology had several laptops at their booth where people could play games created by the DigiPen community. We learned that the games could also be accessed via the Game Gallery portal on their Web site and checked them out at home. In case you aren't familiar with them, DigiPen is an education provider in computer interactive technologies. They offer graduate and undergraduate degrees, exploratory workshops and online for middle- and high school student, comprehensive high-school programs at locations across the United States and in Canada and continuing education opportunities for industry professionals. School reps told us there are about 1,000 students in their school at their Redmond, WA, campus. 
 
We chatted with Delbert Richardson, a cultural anthropologist and second generation story teller, of the American History Traveling Museum. He had a great display of inventions by African Americans.
 
At the Bellevue College booth, the kids dug for (real live dead) shark teeth in a sand filled kiddie swimming pool. There were also a number of primate skulls on display, and experiments involving magnetism. BC has a Science and Math Institute (SAMI). Turns out they even have a planetarium which offers shows to the public and all sorts of sciences events and activities for kids. We'll have to check them out!


And last but not least, outside, near the International Fountain, the kids got to walk through the larger than life colon. The colon/tunnel is named Casper, for Capture All Suspicious Polyps and Eradicate Rapidly.


TUESDAY TO DO LIST: Don't forget, Tuesday may be THE ONLY CHANCE YOU'LL EVER HAVE to observe the transit of Venus, a rare solar event.


Coming in in pairs separated by more than a hundred years, Transits of Venus are super rare. The transit happening this Tuesday is the bookend of a 2004 transit. So if you miss this one, you'll have to wait until the year 2117 for your next shot.


This transit will be widely visible around the globe. Cloud covering permitting, people on seven continents and even a small slice of Antarctica have a shot at seeing it. 

Graphic: NASA Solar Dynamic Observatory

If we're lucky, what we'll all be seeing (though a protective eye gear) is a red sun "punctured" by the circular disk of Venus.


The transit lasts nearly 7 hours, beginning at 3:09 pm Pacific Daylight Time on June 5th. According to NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, in the USA, the transit will be at its best around sunset. That's good, too.


If you plan on watching, remember - safety first. Do NOT stare at the sun. To check it out, you'll need a projection technique (like reversed binoculars onto a sheet of paper), or a solar filter (you can get them at some science supply stores, or a #14 welder's glass is a good choice, too). You can always check the Web, too, to see if a local astronomy club has an open to all viewing party.

You can also follow all the action online here: http://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/


CJ and Annabelle are ready - now we just hope the weather cooperates!

SIGNED ON THE DOTTED LINE: This weekend I finally got around to something I'd been meaning to do for weeks. I signed Annabelle up fora one-week Aerospace Camp Experience at The Museum of Flight. The week's theme is "Astro Gals"!


Here's the course description from their catalog: "If you can dream it, you can do it! Despite numerous
challenges, women have been an integral part of our journey to the stars! Campers will learn about the significant contributions that women have made to the exploration of the galaxy as astronauts, scientists, and engineers." Cool!


She'll be astro-camping August 6-10. She can't wait!