Project-Based

ELECTRIFYING: Another busy day around MPA. There were classes in the morning, where the kids worked on posters to help raise ecological awareness.

We worked on a couple of rebuild/refurbish projects in the early afternoon. By late afternoon, we moved on to electronics. Specifically, we cracked open a ScienceWiz "Energy" kit.

The kids read up on different types of energy, including kinetic and potential energy. They also read about chemical, electrical and nuclear energy. Then it was time to combine some different forms of energy to create a moving propeller! 

After they got it running, we asked them what would happen to the propeller if they switched the wires to different ends of the battery. ... They found out it reversed direction.

ON ALERT: Seeing the Northern Lights is a bucket list item for me and a good number of people I know.

I missed a SPECTACULAR Aurora Borealis show visible here in Seattle during the early morning hours of Mother's Day (despite the fact I was up and awake, grrr!). Maybe this weekend will be a different story ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!

Right now, forecasters give between a 67- and 75-percent chance of a geomagnetic storm occurring, according to SpaceWeather.com. The storm watch begins on Friday, June 3 at dark, and continues through Saturday night. 

Scott Sistek of KOMO news has a great article about the potential event online here: http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/northern-lights-might-be-visible-around-western-washington-again-this-weekend. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an update about it, as well:  http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/update-g2-moderate-watch-effect-4-and-5-june-utc-day

Speaking of the sun, here's a cool video from the Science Channel (courtesy of NASA research, of course), regarding the sound (yes, sound!) the sun makes. Data in the video is from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The video speeds up 40 days of recording into a few seconds. 

http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/how-the-universe-works/videos/this-is-what-the-sun-sounds-like/

The Run Around

SCORE!: We took advantage of a rare Tuesday afternoon game to enjoy some Mariners baseball at Safeco Field.

Boy, are we glad we went! It was a slugfest by the Ms. I have never seen the ball carry as well as it did on Tuesday. SO many moon shots were launched by Seattle bats.

Meanwhile, Mariners' pitchers Hisashi Iwakuma was dealing a gem. In fact, he was perfect (no runs, no walks) into the fifth inning. 

Since Kuma was pitching, we brought our stuffed Mariners bear. (Iwakuma means 'bear' in Japanese, and so he's nicked Kuma/the Bear.)  Kuma wears jersey #18, so I had to get a photo of our bear on the seat next to us.

Before the game, I took a photo of our bear and shared it on Twitter with the hashtags I know the scoreboard operators are looking for, and sure 'nuff, Kuma bear showed up on the big screen!

But back to the game. Bases loaded, as pictured below, was a common sight on Tuesday. 

In the end, the Mariners scored 16 runs (!) in 8 innings (they didn't need their bottom of the ninth). That run total tied a Safeco Field record. 

Things got so crazy, that at the end of the game, the Padres were bringing in position players to pitch. We saw a second baseman and the shortstop take the mound. It was pretty entertaining. Christian Bethancourt, pictured below, broke out a 53 MPH knuckleball at one point. The guys in both dugouts were laughing and getting a boot out of the show.

Here's a quick report from Annabelle about it all ...

Today at the Mariners game, we scored 16 runs! That ties the record for most runs per game at Safeco Field! After about the 4^th inning, there was no doubt that we’d win! It was really fun to go.
 The game started a bit slow. The Mariners hit their first home run in the first inning, and it only got better after that! In the end, the score was 16 to 4! I’m super glad we got to go and see this moment in Mariners history unfold right before our eyes!

One diversion we had during the game was some rustling behind CJ's seat. Upon investigation, the source was a butterfly that couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of the tight space.

 We used some paper to help scoop it up and out.

We're happy to report it was last seen winging its way over left field. :)

We capped off the fun day by roasting some marshmallows in the yard. We didn't have any chocolate bars to make s'mores, so we improvised with chocolate chips. It worked!

Tanks for the Memories

TANKS A LOT: Memorial Day, we headed north to Everett, to the Flying Heritage Collection's annual Tankfest event. 

There, we got to see an assortment of vintage vehicles in action. There was this old Plymouth found in a barn not too long ago ... 

There were personnel transporters of various vintages.

I liked this non-motorized one!

Here's another two-wheeled model, this one with a motor.

We heard the BOOM! of big artillery ... 

 and enjoyed the beats of Blue Thunder.

Here's CJ's review of our Tankfest experience ...

Tankfest Northwest 2016 was an event at Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection displaying, as its name implies, several tanks, primarily used in World War I and World War II. According to the schedule, the "opening ceremony" was supposed to be at 11:00 A.M., but was delayed by an hour, apparently to let people who were in line into the show. Tankfest Northwest's opening involved firing a tank-sized gun known as the Flak 37, which was very loud when fired. Apparently, the machine was used by the German military during World War II, originally using it as an anti-air weapon. Eventually, they discovered that it was effective against really most opposing weapons, so they used the Flak 37 as an "anti-everything" weapon, as the host put it.

Although the premise of an event where you could stay and learn about several different military vehicles sounded neat, there were less-than-impressive parts of the event. As I mentioned earlier, the event was delayed by an hour. Instead of having a large field for the tanks and vehicles to roll around in, there was a very small, fenced area for the tanks to rush through. Because the tanks were going by quickly, and the announcer was talking rather slowly, it could be difficult to actually learn about the tanks, or even keep track of them. Lastly, most of the audience had to stand on hard, hot pavement, packed against one another, which got uncomfortable very quickly. Being in the cluster could also make it difficult to see. 

Overall, although the premise sounded like a nice idea, I was not impressed with Tankfest Northwest 2016.

I'd like to say CJ was wrong, but his review is pretty spot on. The venue arrangement was pretty horrible./inadequate. 

My favorite part of the show was a spry little tank tearing around at up to speeds of 40 MPH.

And then there was the 'sideshow' part of the show, a guy from Tacoma pulling a lot of weight. Specifically, a Russian tank atop a flatbed truck.

The total weight pulled was 57 tons, per event organizers. Mark Kirsch, of Tacoma was the guy doing the pulling. 

 He kind of made it look easy!

All in all, it was an interesting day, and we saw things we'll never see elsewhere. But unless they change the layout of the festivities dramatically, I can't imagine ever going back.

Brick by Brick

SNEAK PREVIEW: Lucky Pacific Science Center members that we are, we had a chance to preview "The Art of the Brick" today. 

Named one of CNN’s Top Ten “Global Must-See Exhibitions,” The Art of the Brick" is a critically acclaimed collection made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world, the LEGO® brick.

It featured the creations of artist Nathan Sawaya. He's pictured below, in a video we watched while in one of the two interior holding tanks before one's let in the exhibit.

 The first antechamber has Sawaya's take on super famous classics, like Starry Night ...

 and The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

It was interesting in this section looking at the use of LEGO bricks on the flat/stacked vertically as opposed to ones where the nubs stuck out toward you (as in Starry Night).

I had CJ pose with Mona Lisa for scale. (Scale of Mona Lisa, not CJ, that is.) Most of the pieces in this first antechamber were done on a 1:1 scale.

I loved Rembrandt (below). It will shock you to know that the masses of two year olds brought to the art show by their parents who apparently thought it was a WORLD OF PLAYING WITH LEGO THINGS weren't as entranced by Rembrandt, or the Mona Lisa or any of it.

Don't get me wrong, I also like two-year olds. I just felt bad for all the pre- and primary schoolers who came to the LEGO exhibit thinking it was going to be a place to play with LEGO bricks. It was so very much not that. It was an art exhibit with artifacts made from LEGO bricks.

However, that fact didn't stop parents from letting their toddlers run unsupervised and climb all over the exhibits when we were there opening day. 

In one of the holding tanks pre exhibit, we were all specifically told to stay an arm's length away from all of the sculptures.

I can't tell you how many little people I saw literally climbing over the DO NOT TOUCH signs. 

I don't mean to sound like an old curmudgeon, but it was disturbing. 

 Despite the distractions young and old, we soldiered on.

 My personal favorite sculpture was a Moai scultpure, a/k/a an Easter Island head!

 It was masterfully crafted!

 Queen Nefertiti was also looking splendid.

Sawaya doesn't just do his own riffs on others' works. He is an artist in his own right. Here's a sculpture where the artist loses his own hands. Sawaya said it's his worst fear.

There was a cool gallery featuring photos were just a couple of elements were replaced with LEGO sculptures. 

 The sculpture below, "Be Different" was made specifically for the PacSci show! 

Below is the artist's self portrait. It was about 5-feet high. That's a lot of LEGO bricks!

Here's what the kids had to say about their sneak preview of the big show. Here's Annabelle's take. ... 

“Art of the Brick” is an exhibit at the Pacific Science Center about sculptures made out of LEGO bricks made by artist Nathan Sawaya. Nathan has been making these sculptures for a long time, and a surprising amount of them were on display at the exhibit. Most of the models (and some LEGO “paintings”) are actually 1:1 scale to their inspiration!
 The sculptures are crazy detailed, and I only saw one sloped LEGO brick in the whole exhibition! The sculptures were really awesome and even lifelike. My favorite was the Maoi statue. It was exactly to scale, but made entirely of LEGO bricks! Even though they are held together with super glue, the statues are very fragile, so you aren’t supposed to come within an arm’s length of them. But many little kids apparently thought the exhibit was “World of LEGOs” because they were super close to breaking every sculpture. But nonetheless, the exhibit was really cool and I thought his original sculptures were some of the coolest. I would recommend it on a day when it’s not very busy so you don’t have a heart attack from watching 3-year-olds almost destroy millions of dollars of work.

And here's what CJ had to say ...

"The Art of the Brick" is an exhibit at the Pacific Science Center featuring several pieces of artwork made by Nathan Sawaya, an artist who primarily works with the medium of LEGO bricks. According to the Pacific Science Center's website, "The Art of the Brick" was named one of CNN’s Top Ten “Global Must-See Exhibitions.” According to Nathan's website, previously a NYC corporate lawyer, Sawaya is the first artist to ever take LEGO into the art world and is the author of two best selling books. His unique exhibition is the first of its kind to focus exclusively on LEGO as an art medium and has broken attendance records around the globe. The creations, constructed from countless individual LEGO pieces, were built from standard bricks beginning as early as 2002.

At the exhibit, there were several pieces of art, both variations of iconic paintings rebuilt with LEGO bricks, along with original pieces made by Nathan. For an example of a LEGO variation of an earlier painting, Nathan built a 1:1 replica of the Mona Lisa using 4,573 bricks. Nathan said that the Mona Lisa was "likely the most famous painting in Western art," and explained some of the process of making the LEGO Mona Lisa. Apparently, Nathan decided to highly pixelate the brick replica of the painting, rather than trying to capture the details by using very small pieces. According to Nathan, people might have difficulty making out a blurred picture of his recreation from a blurred recreation of the real deal (I doubt that claim).

However, there were less-than impressive parts of our tour. (Hint: It had little to do with the actual art pieces.) There were several small children at the exhibit, frequently breaking the rules and being disruptive to other people's experiences. At the beginning of the tour, one of the employees set a rule that the closest you could get to one piece of art was outside of your arm's length; Unfortunately, many of the kids that were there desperately wanted to assemble and disassemble the sculptures. My mom's guess was that parents mistook the exhibit for a "Let's play with LEGO!" exhibit or something similar to that.

Hit Parade

SLUGFEST: Yes, it was a school night. More specifically, a school night before the Big Deal annual state standardized test. But the draw of Safeco Field is just too much to say 'no' to, so off we went.

Thanks to Rick and Rachel, we had awesome seats right behind home plate. That gave us a good view of all the action, from the umpires' pre-game pow-wow ...

to batters in the on-deck circle.

We could also see in the dugout.

And were close enough to home plate to see when the batters disagreed with the umpire's call. Clearly Kyle Seager didn't think that last pitch was a strike. ... 

We had a good enough view to call balls and strikes (not that our opinions mattered to the umpire.)

What a game it was. A slugfest for the Mariners, they scored 13 runs total, 9 more than they needed to beat the As last night. 

Good times!

BINGE WATCH: This afternoon, the kids and I had a semi-mindless manual labor task (attaching fasteners to little art objects), and so to keep our minds occupied while working, we watched a few TED Talks. 

First up was an interesting account that explained the scientific origins for the myth of the Minotaur. No surprise, it appears the myth was an attempt by a long ago civilization to make sense of their world. 

The talk was authored by Matt Kaplan, with animation by Artrake Studio. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/2aoIs-5zqoI

We also listened to a talk from "The School of Life" series of TED Talks. It was about being a good listener. The talk pointed out that being a good listener isn't something people talk or teach much about, but that it is a skill that can be learned.
https://youtu.be/-BdbiZcNBXg

We also watched four or so episodes of the series "How It's Made" on the Science Channel. We learned about everything from amplifiers to pliers, harmonicas to baseboard heaters, licorice to umbrellas, Ferrari motors to shoe polish. That show is always interesting.