PACSCI POLAR SCIENCE WEEKEND! Saturday we enjoyed what has become an annual event for us - attending NASA-sponsored Polar Science Weekend at Pacific Science Center. It's a great place to meet face-to-face with all sorts of scientists with interesting specialties.
We got there as soon as the event opened - 10 a.m., and for the next 90 minutes we made our way between booths. One of our favorite destinations is the narhwhal zone!
There, the kids got to pretend they were 'unicorns of the sea,' by strapping on tusks. Then, they were ready to play a narwhal migration game.
The kids braved the salinity taste test, got their hands on some glacial ice,and learned about how glaciers form and move.
There were a number of booths that addressed the issue of climate change on creatures of the arctic. In this "Seal Sleuths" game, the kids saw the dramatic effect disappearing ice had on seals' survival.
Less ice means more seals into the drink. Poor seals. :(
Tacoma's Point Defiance Zoo had info about arctic animals, including musk ox and polar bears. CJ and Annabelle checked out how their paws measured up to a polar bear's.
At a booth staffed by UW grad students, the kids played a game which demonstrated the delicate balance of the ice in the arctic. There were two types of squares, blue for water and white for ice. At the game's start there was an equal amount of ice and water. The kids took turn drawing cards, and those had real world things that can happen on them, like water getting warmer, volcanoes erupting, sunlight reflection, and meteorite strikes. They would flip the squares to white or blue, based on the pro- or con-ice cards and watch the domino effect.
At about 11:30, it was time for us to head to the IMAX theater for a movie, "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure."
Ernest Shakleton's expedition to Antarctica (1914-1916) in hopes of being the first man to cross that continent is, quite possibly, the greatest survival story of all time. It's the story of 28 men who worked as a team to overcome a series of monumental obstacles in order to survive nearly two years of being stranded in the Antarctic.
I read the book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" in college (named after the ship that became icebound, stranding the explorers), so I was very familiar with the trials the men faced. (Here's a photo of the doomed vessel, taken by the crew's photographer, Frank Hurley.)
The story was new to the rest of the family, and they were mightily amazed and impressed.
Afterward, we went back upstairs for some more exploring of our own. Even though they remembered (not fondly) the salty water taste from last year, the kids each braves a salinity taste test. They also checked out their temperatures with the aid of a heat-sensing FLIR camera.
They also got to use a probe to measure the temp of ice, dry ice and sand.
As we were making our way out of the event, we happened upon Live Science show starting. Lucky us! The show featured Dr. Mike Steele, an esteemed oceanographer from the University of Washington He specializes in the Arctic Ocean, and he conducted a number of fun experiments, most of them using liquid nitrogen.
After the show, the liquid nitrogen was poured out into the PacSci fountains. That was quite a spectacle of frosty fog!
HAPPY BERTH DAY: This weekend, we eagerly awaited reports from the International Space Station regarding the approach and connection of SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
Launched Friday morning, Dragon's thrusters had trouble once it reached orbit, which made for some anxious moments/hours. Fortunately, the crack SpaceX crew worked through the trouble and by Saturday, Dragon had been given permission to approach the station.
The approach and capture of Dragon by the ISS's Canada arm happened in the wee small ours of Sunday morning our time. Here's a video of the operation.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=160534571
On board the ISS, on Sunday, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield had this to say about Dragon's arrival: "What a day! Reached and grabbed a Dragon, berthed her to Station and opened the hatch to find fresh fruit, notes from friends and peanut butter."
HAT TIP: On Saturday morning, we tipped our red-and-white-striped Cat-in-the-Hat type hats to Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. Mar. 2 is his birthday, and we've taken to observing it annually with green eggs and ham. Newsflash - the kids actually ATE the eggs this year!
Great weekend for MPA!!!!
ReplyDeleteFirst time I heard that Shackleton story I was very skeptical. It is amazing.