Einstein = many cookies²

FINITO: We did it! This morning we filed our last homework assignment for our "Einstein: Special Theory of Relativity" Coursera class with professor Larry Randles Lagerstrom of Stanford. We were each 24/24 on the last problem set and aced our final tests, too. What an enormous RELIEF!!!

Over the past couple of days the kids and I each shared our course-related creative project on the class' discussion board. I posted CJ's Einstein acrostic poem poster here previously. And now, here is Annabelle's project; She did an animation of the pole in the barn (pseudo) paradox. Our professor always used characters named Bob and Alice in his examples, so they make appearances in Annabelle's animation. If the animation doesn't work for you here (click on the green flag to start it), then just follow this link ... http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10444785/
 <iframe allowtransparency="true" width="485" height="402" src="http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/embed/10444785/" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In news that should surprise absolutely no one, I decided to make some Einstein inspired cookies.

I made some that kinda sorta looked like him, and some with quotes from him. ...

                     
I also made some with concepts and formulas he made famous.

And some were recreations of white board drawings straight from lectures from our class.

Let me tell you, many of the creative projects submitted by others were amazing! I hope to share some of them here in the days to come.

CAMPOUT: We did some city camping this weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday nights, the kids made s'mores over a campfire for dessert, and they slept out on the deck.

 
On Saturday night, it started raining lightly about 2 a.m., so there was a sudden influx of fair weather campers and their ponies. ;)

IN THE CENTER: This afternoon, we headed down to Seattle Center, as we haven't been there in awhile. Around 1 p.m. it started becoming a lovely, clear blue skied afternoon, so our first stop was our favorite fountain.

 
We wandered around inside the science center for about a half hour before heading for the stage where a live science show would be performed. Today's theme: Zombie Fever!

It ended up being about pandemics and how disease can be spread. As part of the interactive show, the emcee chose four kids from the audience to play different roles.

CJ wasn't one of the original 'chosen ones,' but the kid next to him was. However, I could see that poor kid was growing increasingly agitated as the show progressed, and I could tell that he was coming down with some serious stage fright. He leaned over to CJ and started frantically whispering, trying to hand off the props to him. CJ, however, was so involved in the story on stage, he didn't hear him. I finally leaned in to CJ and told him to listen to the kid, and the poor kid quickly handed off the props and ran off, LOL. CJ was more than happy to play a zombie gardener.

Speaking of gardening, we planted a whole bunch more plants in the veggie garden this weekend and we went for a nice long walk on Sunday, during which the kids found a big grassy green hill to roll down.

This evening, while washing the car, the kids invented a superhero storyline involving the adventures of Soap Man and Wash Woman. They were fighting the villainous Rinse-o. It was pretty funny.