Freaky Friday

LESS TALK, MORE MONKEY: Today we took a long overdue field trip to Archie McPhee, easily one of the best stores on the planet. Seriously.

The fun starts in the parking lot, with all the wacky posters and a marquee that reads, "LESS TALK, MORE MONKEY" in huge capital letters. I rather like the message on the sign behind the kids in the photo above. I think being marvelously strange, alive and curious is a good way to live. :)

Within seconds, we stumbled upon a horrific clown mask. CJ enjoyed freaking me out with it.

We bought all sorts of 'must have' items, ranging from fingertip narwhal puppets to cupcake flavored dental floss. We also saw, for the first time, the incredible Wallingford Beast on display in the store.

Of course, it reminded me very much of Jake the Alligator Man, on display at Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach, Washington. Perhaps they're distant cousins. I'm glad that now CJ and Annabelle will have some freaky, ridiculous shrunken something in their childhoods, as Jake was such a memorable part of my early years.

SCHOOL STUFF: We did math today - pages in their Singapore math books, and I drilled them on multiplication problems when we were driving in the car. They also did more reading, or should I say more "Seussing"? They're still hitting the Seuss hard. Today's titles included "I Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street," "Sneetches" and "The Tooth Book." Mulberry Street was Seuss' first book, so CJ, who definitely has a historian bent, has been eager to get his hands on it.

PIGS IN SPACE: A couple of days ago, NASA announced more details about their involvement in the new "Angry Birds: Space" game ( http://angrybirds.com/space ). The roll out marked the first time a new video game had been announced from space and it included game play footage from space! The announcement was made by astronaut Don Pettit from the ISS. And NASA being NASA, it included a great physics lesson.



Stars in Our Eyes

HANGING IN THERE: It was Damn Near 60 degrees (F) today. That's right. SIXTY. I haven't felt air this warm since we were in San Diego 'round Christmas time. It was delightful.

The kids spent some time playing on the grounds 'round their Shoreline classes. I challenged them to each hang from a bar for 10 seconds. I thought that would be a complete slam dunk. Turns out we need to invest a WHOLE lot more time practicing the fine art of hanging out. They would hang for 3-4 seconds and then drop. Lame sauce.

Miraculously, when I told them that there would be no lunch if they didn't manage to hang on for 10 measly seconds, they each got it on the first attempt. How 'bout that!?

STILL SEUSSIAN: Though Dr. Seuss' birthday has come and gone, we're still in Seuss mode, as I got a rather sizeable stack of Seuss books from the library. The kids read "Horton Hears a Who," "Bartholomew and the Oobleck," "Horton Hatches an Egg," and "If I Ran the Circus" today and took Accelerated Reader tests on those titles. And when I shelved those titles they read, I grabbed a few more Seuss books they've yet to read. So Seussapalooza continues!

BUILDING BLOCKS: We missed LEGO class last week due to a dentist appt, but today the kids were right back at it. Annabelle's still working on a kit that is multiple 'pixel art' builds. Today's challenge was a crab. Tragically, one of his eyes was missing. That's why he became Patchy the Pirate crab.

STARGAZING: What a glorious night to check out the stars! Jupiter and Venus are Sooooo Briiiiiight! And Mars is twinkling yellow to rust above a full moon. Sweet!

Here's the moon rising over Queen Anne hill. Lovely!

Northern Lights and Launch Madness

SPARKLE PLENTY: As Annabelle and CJ sat at the kitchen island this morning working on their math (more multiplication exercises in hopes they'll actually start memorizing some more of the times tables), I couldn't help but smile at the sun glinting off Annabelle's tutu. Yes, people, you heard me right. SUN. Shining. In Seattle. In the morning.  No wonder the kids were both up shortly after 6 a.m.

On the other hand, the sun had the opposite affect on Kirby. She just stretched out and stayed put.

MARCH LAUNCH MADNESS: NASA held a press conference this morning to announce the details of the "5 in 5" event at Wallops Island, Virginia, later this month. It's called the ATREX mission, an acronym for Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment. We checked out the corresponding Web site with mission information: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex-nightlight.html

The purpose of the mission is to learn more about winds in a little understood region of Earth's atmosphere, 60 to 65 miles above Earth's surface, where winds rush at speeds of 200 to 300 miles per hour.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The area in question is lower than a typical satellite's orbit but higher than where most planes fly. NASA will launch a series of five sounding rockets - each  35 to 40 feet long - with just a minute or so between each launch. Lordy, how I'd love to see that!

                                Cute lil sounding rockets - Credit: NASA/Wallops

The rockets will ascend for 8-10 minutes, and once they reach their targets, they'll release a chemical tracer, trimethyl aluminum (TMA). The tracer will form white clouds that should reveal the nearly space winds. 

According to NASA, "This rocket experiment is designed to gain a better understanding of the high-altitude winds and help scientists better model the electromagnetic regions of space that can damage man-made satellites and disrupt communications systems. The experiment will also help explain how the effects of atmospheric disturbances in one part of the globe can be transported to other parts of the globe in a mere day or two."

More info is available here:  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex-nightlight.html

TEST TIME: This afternoon, the kids had their unit-end test on weather and air.  They have spent a couple hours the last couple of days quizzing one another in preparation. They both think their cramming paid off.  Annabelle thinks she aced the 20-question test; CJ thinks he might have missed 1 or two. They'll find out their results next week.

FREE TIME: This afternoon Annabelle spent some time upstairs crafting creatures with her K'Nex. After awhile she called me up to see a critter collection. This one way my fave.

NIGHT LIGHTS: I read an exciting story in the Seattle Times this evening. Due to the crazy huge solar flares recently, there's a chance we might get to see the Northern Lights in Seattle tonight or tomorrow. It would be after midnight. I am most definitely setting my alarm and getting up to check it out. If I see anything, you can be sure I'll be dragging everyone out to look with me!

WHAT HE SAID: This morning, my favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, testified before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee about the importance of funding NASA. I sure more people would listen to what he has to say. I think he's spot on about space program's role in our past and our future. The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xhc25v0DpJc

Super Tuesday

WE'RE WITH THE BAND: Just before midday we made our way to the University of Washington campus. There, we were meeting a friend and his band mates who need some publicity photos.

Because they wanted 15 damn dollars to park on campus, we turned around at the toll booth and parked several blocks away. The kids, Kennedy and I hauled equipment from the car to the west end of campus and met the group.

From there, we walked a few more blocks, deeper into the campus and to the waterfront. It was nice walking around buildings we usually just whiz by in a car. And, mercifully, the weather was cooperating - sunny skies and not too terribly much wind.

A number of the buildings we passed had to do with ocean sciences and/or fisheries. I pointed out to the kids that if they wanted to be water-related scientists, a great school is just 8 minutes or so from home!

Fortunately, the photo shoot went pretty well. I believe I have a number of images that should work for the band. The kids were really great during the shoot. They stayed (mostly) out of the way and played along the waterfront trail together.

PRIMARILY:  This afternoon, after doing some math and studying for their science test tomorrow, I asked the kids if they knew what Super Tuesday was. They made some comical guesses, all of which were wrong. I then explained to them that it is one (kinda big) step in the process to presidential election.

Happily, BrainPOP's featured movie today was Primaries and Caucuses. We watched their video a couple of times, and then the kids each took the review quiz. They did pretty well, getting 8 of 10 right. Afterward, they read the related Q&A about elections.

ACTING UP: This afternoon CJ had his acting class. He loves it as much as ever. On the way to the car he said, "This is going to be fun!" and on the way home in the car I asked him how class was. "It was great!"

That's high praise coming from a kid who basically isn't a huge fan of any other class about any other thing.

OVER AND OUT: This one's going to be short. I have a whole lotta Photoshopping to do.

Cool Science

POLAR SCIENCE: On Saturday, we returned to the Pacific Science Center's special event: Polar Science Weekend.

What a great experience it was! The kids picked up passports, which helped them navigate around the center, finding the different displays available. When they completed an activity, they got their passport stamped.

Highlights of our adventures included a sneak peak at "To the Arctic," a new IMAX film that will be premiering in April. We saw a special "Science on a Sphere" display about the poles. 

The kids made polar animal bookmarks, they visited with Coast Guard members who work in the Arctic - and tried on some made-for-the Arctic gear. They learned how the NOAA uses sonar to map images of the oceans' depths.  

At a booth sponsored by the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, the kids had a chance to drive a Martian rover.

They also had to size-up a scaled photo of a real Martian rover.

At the "Fishy Fluctuations" booth, they learned what it's like to be a big fish in a big ocean and about all of the challenges little fishies face as they hope to survive to become big fish. At "Air Flow in Polar Snow," they saw how airflow affects snowfall, and how that snow can turn into ice in glaciers.

They learned about different types of penguins and how they live, they got to touch and examine an ice core from Greenland, and they got to meet expeditionary artist Maria Coryell-Martin. They had fun with a big flow of silly putty representing a glacier's flow, and learned how infrared light is used to measure temperatures on Earth.

They also learned about how NASA measures sea ice thickness from space via a special satellite. They learned about where Arctic ocean water comes from, and participated in a hands-on activity about microbial life forms which live under ice. 

One of the most memorable booths was a salinity taste test station. There, they sipped salt-infused water, concocted to represent various oceans around the word, and compared the samples' salinity.

They made some pretty puckered faces at this booth!

They visited a mock of an arctic ice camp and learned all about the intriguing narwhal (as seen in the photo at the top of the blog). At the "Ocean Watchdogs" booth, they learned how scientists retrieve a 13,000 foot long string of scientific instruments anchored to the Arctic Ocean floor.

They also learned about how the density of the snow or ice affects water flow through it.

All in all, it was absolutely fascinating.

This morning, CJ and Annabelle wrote about their experience.

Polar Science by Annabelle

The Arctic and Antarctic are the Earth's poles. They are very important to some animals, like polar bears, penguins, seals and many, many more. We are studying the poles to see what we do to them and how we can stop global warming. Global warming is when we burn fossil fuels and it depletes the ozone layers, so the world gets hotter!

We need to learn about the poles to save the animals that live there, and get smarter. When you grow up, you may want to be a polar scientist. And help the animals that live there.

There was a polar science weekend where we discovered you could measure ice thickness from space, make a Silly Putty glacier, and learn how narwhals migrate! There was also a 3-minute clip of footage from the new movie "To the Arctic!"

The Arctic by CJ

The Arctic is a very dangerous place to study. But it can also be a great place to study. One reason being you can learn about the life on there.

If you want to try and live in the arctic, you'll want to bring some warm cloths and weapons. The male polar bear is 2x larger than its female counterpart. A mother molar bear is willing to die to save her cubs.

Since a male polar is stronger than a female, it is extremely hard for the female. It is most likely that a mother polar bear will have two cubs. It is rare that a mother polar bear will give up her cubs. 

We learned a lot at the Polar Science Weekend. For example, how much ice the Arctic had from 1972-2009. 

GOING UP: While Saturday had dawned a very gray day, by the time we got out of the science center, the sun was making a rare appearance. That made playing around the fountains lots more fun.

Since the sky was blue, we decided to use our soon-expiring annual passes to the Space Needle.

On the way up, we got a good look at the under-construction Dale Chihuly glass spectacle going up on the grounds at the foot of the Needle.

Since it was a sunny Saturday afternoon, the Space Needle was pretty packed, but we managed to spend a pleasant, leisurely hour or so on the Observation Deck. We had lovely views of Lake Union ...

A nice look at downtown ...

of course, Elliott Bay was beautiful ...

 

 and our neighborhood, Magnolia, was glistening.

BACK TO THE BOOKS: Annabelle was a little non-plussed with our 'normal' school day today. I told her every day can't be a Polar Science + Space Needle field trip, unfortunately.

We did math, some writing and some drawing. The kids used a simple tutorial picked up at the polar event to try their hands at drawing penguins and walruses. Here are CJ's creatures. He was having some proportion-related issues today, especially with the penguin. This head below is about 3x the size of the first head he drew, and he could have/should have gone bigger. He was aware of it, but not too terribly bothered by it and was happy to leave his second head as is..

Annabelle combined her creatures into one drawing and added an environment.

I complimented her on her shading on the walrus.

BACK TO THE BUILD: With news that SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket are assembled and upright on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, I figured we better get back on our model rocket building project.

Last week, SpaceX reportedly completed a successful "wet  dress" rehearsal, which is a full launch simulation with a planned abort at T-minus 5 seconds. As of now, it sounds like late April is the soonest the rocket might actually be launched. Which means we have plenty o' time to finish our model.

 

Today, Christian helped the kids with some parachute-related work.