Saturday, April 19th 2015
How I love Our Fair City (and my kids). Just a casual stop to check out a Cambridge Science Festival event yielded countless wonders.
Science Kids
First up, SNAP CIRCUITS. In other words, someone has come up with an electrical circuit board made up of parts that can be snapped together, so kids can tinker with electrical wiring without having to, say, solder and weld wires together with a soldering gun. (Not that I would want to deprive them of that pleasure, just maybe not yet.) This particular set comes with an actual real life engineer to whom you can direct your questions.
Snap Circuit
(Holy Moly: 100 electrical experiments for $30. I think somebody has a BIRTHDAY coming up. Also Mother’s Day… Father’s Day. Ho!)
Then, after passing on the opportunity at the Entomological Nutrition Booth to sample cookies made with ground LOCUST flour, Gavin found himself sparring a member of the Harvard Photonics Club in a heated game of Laser Chess:
Laser Chess
Say, whats this TUBE over here, graciously adorned with SPARKLY GEMS? Hm, nothing more than THREE MIRRORS inside. What happens when ClaraJane looks in there?
Curious TUBE
Just three mirrors is all it takes to make 100 of my favorite things:
Kaledoscopic KlaraJane
My kids are so seriously happy now, in order to explore more exhibits they take cooperating with Mom’s “Stick Together” Edict to a new level:
Stilling my heart at the Science Festival
I try not to swoon as I follow their lead to what’s next:
Surprise, a video game. But this one teaches MATH. It’s called “The Counting Kingdom,” and the programmer who created it is RIGHT HERE:
Jenna Hoffstein, Counting Kingdom Programmer
We each loved it. I am NO fan of video games. But given that my son has a gene addicted to them, something like this is just what the Mom Doctor needs to order.
Then a display of aeronautics. With just a big fan and some large straws, these guys created a column of air in which you could float lightweight things like balloons and propellors made from Dixie Cups. I got a clue as to how the objects STAY in the column and don’t fly out (the outside of the column becomes low pressure compared to inside, but I still don’t know why that causes the objects to stay in). [#BernoulliPrincipal]
ClaraJane particularly liked this exhibit on account of the scientist doing one of her favorite activities:
Cutting things with scissors
A quick stop by a model demonstrating the effects of Gravity on Time and Space:
Gravitational Effects on the Time-Space Continuum
And we’re back outside, in the fray of things launching explosively into the sky. Suddenly marshmallows are falling out of the sky and thumping on the ground all around. It felt like I was in a Pixar movie. Here’s our own Inventor Mentor friend we know from around school:
Inventor Mentor Rocket
You know, the old Soda and Mento Rocket trick. He also launching stuffed animals into the sky, and Gavin got to keep this one:
From the SKY!
Then it’s BUBBLE Time:
Bubble Girl
Bubble Heads
Bubble Shoes and Beard
Now we’ve got our Bubble Boots and Beard on and our experience is complete. Time to go. What a day!
circuskitchen 