Shrinking

ALIEN INVASION: Today, be broke out one of the prizes Annabelle won during the Home Run Derby a week or so back - an space-themed Shrinky Dinks set.


Oh, how I love me some Shrinky Dinks. I remember being absolutely mesmerized by them as a kid. It was so much fun to watch the colored plastic sheets shrink right before your eyes to about 1/3 their size. It was like magic!


Today marked CJ and Annabelle's first foray into the Shrinky Dink world. They each colored an alien and some alien accessories (spacecraft, weapons, and such). 


After they cut the shapes out from the sheets, we popped them into the oven for one hot minute and PRESTO! 


Here is CJ's alien just before and just after baking.

While CJ's alien was in one piece, Annabelle's required some assembly. 

They played with their creations for a bit after baking, and for today's writing assignment, I asked them to each write their alien's backstory. What was its name? Where did it come from? And so on. 

Here's what Annabelle came up with. ...

The Firians are a species of alien never before seen. They live on the planet Heatup (HEET-up), which is made of pure molten lava. They survive because they have made very hi-tech suits that allow them to swim in lava. They also have gloves, shoes, and the suit has a helmet attached to it. The core of the planet is made of solid metal, and they will swim in the lava and secure their homes to the core. They do this so that their homes will not drift into each other. 

The planet used to be much like Earth, until the huge volcano, Erputeon, erupted. they usually use the words lava, fire, and flame as similar sounding words. Like this: "i lava you" (i love you).

In case their suit gets a rip, it is super thick. About as thick as a astronaut's suit, except lava proof. The suit is red and orange, the colors (presumably) of lava.
Now that we know about this species of alien, we believe there might be life on Mars.

The Firians eat rocks, and have very strong teeth. They also drink oil, which is very interesting to us.

This concludes the presentation of the Firians.

And here's CJ's account ...

Didnep is a LGM (Little Green Man) who is very small. As a child, Didnep wanted to become a hero. He studied why so many disasters happen on HKHKHLHHKJHLKKHJLK (his home planet). His species is Alien. When Didnep grew in to a teenager, he figured out why so many disasters happen in his planet HKHKHLHHKJHLKKHJLK. The reason is during its early years, there was a terrorist that planed to make disasters happen, and it was successful. When Didnep became a adult, he started getting a interest in volleyball. He even used volleyballs for soccer, basketball, football, baseball, and Monkey in the Middle. The rival of his planet is the Lorsoxians

STOOD UP: This afternoon Rick and I were going to listen in on a NASA Webinar about the Kepler mission. Unfortunately, the presenter never showed up. About 20 minutes after the start time, a guy who looked to be in his kitchen, using a web cam, came on. He apologized for the gone missing instructor's absence and started trying to fill time with random NASA education stuff. 

Fortunately, the hour wasn't a total loss, as one of the resources Mr. Fill-in shared was the NASA Aerospace Education Services Project's Resources Repository. It's a place to find and share educational resources. It's searchable by topic and grade level. For instance, if you use the search term "Mars" for K-12, you'll get 30 hits returned, including everything from PowerPoint presentations about MSL to an interactive Web site about geologists' roles studying samples from planets. In other words, it's a diverse and deep resource, and it would be a fantastic tool for any educator. Cool!

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Today, we checked in on Curiosity using the amazing "Eyes on the Solar System" software available online. You can track MSL's progress (along with the movements of other spacecraft and the planets) in real time. 

Look at how close Curiosity is to its target!!! The excitement is building here!

In the multimedia section of the site, we learned that today, Curiosity's RCE-A computer, which was swapped with the backup computer yesterday, is being cold reset, or rebooted, while in online, or backup, mode. 

We also learned that work is continuing regarding uploading updated flight sequences and communications parameters for Curiosity's entry, descent and landing and surface operations to the spacecraft. Yesterday,  mission controllers completed the 21st attitude control turn on MSL. The turn adjusts the spacecraft's orientation to keep its medium-gain antenna pointed toward Earth for communications. There is just one more attitude control turn planned before Curiosity lands. 

STRUNG UP: This afternoon, Rick and Ken helped the kids change the strings on their guitars.   CJ's guitar was a quick fix; Annabelle's pink sparkly number was a bit more of a challenge, but in the end, they both got restrung. Now, the kids have no excuse not to practice!