Happy Birthday to Blog

by ryan

One year ago today the explainers had a dream to enter the online universe to communicate with each other, connect with former explainers and share some of the things that make our job great with the world at large. It has been fun to watch the blog grow from the first post to now. We have delved into controversial topics, exhibited great photography, talked about our favorite exhibits, and took time out to remember a friend. As of now the blog has had 119 posts, 171 comments and over 18,000 hits. Pretty cool! Thanks to everyone who wrote something and thanks to all the readers. I’m happy to be a part of a blog that contributes a unique perspective on museums and the people who work there. Kudos!

A Book I Like

by Anne

Some of you have started noticing the growing pile of books on my desk with interest. So, I’d like to recommend one of my favorite books on teaching and learning science: The Having of Wonderful Ideas by Eleanor Duckworth. This is a short, easy read that is eye opening and delightful. It is a forgiving book for daring educators; it reminds you that it’s worth trying out new ways of teaching and working through the difficult spots until something works. I love the way that she is so open about her own experiences–both the missteps and the successes. Also, she reminds us that children do have wonderful ideas about the way the world works, and we need to listen to them if we want to become good teachers. On second thought, just listening in general probably makes us better people. Anyway, happy reading.

Chain Reaction machines

by Luigi Anzivino

To look at individual photos, please look at the complete set. I’ve tried to include brief descriptions of the most intriguing ones, but it’s a daunting task to describe them all!

Chain Reaction is a P.I.E. activity in which participants get to build contraptions using a variety of materials: homemade switches, motors, re-purposed toys, and everyday and "art" materials are combined to set each other off. Each two-persons "team" gets a piece of real estate on a tabletop, and a specified input-output square. At the end of its run, each contraption will trigger the next one on the table; therefore each team’s creation contributes to the whole final performance.

The Learning Studio hosted a workshop for the awesome Exploratorium Explainers, much like the Marble Machines one that I got to participate in last year. Just like before, half of the explainers participated one day, and the other half the next: someone has to help those poor kids out on the floor to explore!

An extra motivation for the workshop was preparing for the upcoming Pi Day at the Exploratorium, when we will try to replicate a version of this activity of the floor, for the general public (Yikes!). So we provided each time with a Pi(e)-themed object to somehow incorporate in the contraption. See if you can spot them…

Oh, coincidentally March 14 (3-14, get it? Pi? Nevermind…) is also Einstein’s birthday, so there were a few Einstein-themed knickknacks too.

Once again I was amazed by the capacity this group has to create brilliant and fun machines in a really short amount of time, with elegant and somewhat quirky solutions to a variety of problems along the way. Go Explainers, go!

If you have any comments about the activity, either as a participant or as an external reader of this blog, that’s what the comment box is for. Go for it.

Museum of Natural History Notes (Part 1)

by ryan

I went to New York City last weekend and besides gorging myself on pizza and french fries, freezing my booty off, and laughing at people falling on the ice skating rink at central park – I went to a couple of museums. The big mama of NY museums is The Museum of Natural History (famous for disrupting Ben Stiller’s innocent attempt to have a slumber party on the grounds). They have all the things that kids sometimes ask us about (dinosaur bones, penguins, sharks) but also seem to have a very interesting relationship with interactivity in exhibits (more to come on this in Pt. 2)

But an interesting thing that I noticed as I walked through the human evolution section was that they also did a DNA extraction. In contrast to our set up however, they had an entire room dedicated to the experience. The facilitator (a high school teacher volunteering on the weekend) basically let the visitors do all the steps of the demonstration. The family that I watched do the experiment seemed independently engaged in the material. Apparently they have school groups schedule the experience in advance sort of like how we might do the tactile dome. It was illuminating to see the same procedure being done in a different way. It got me a little bit more excited about the DNA extraction, wondering if we could try a similar facilitation of giving the kids the instructions and letting them take control of the demo. Another contrast was how high tech and advanced the classrooms and models around were. While we have a industrial looking table and an ancient poster board, they have a shiny new classroom and 3-D models that are larger than life. But while these implements are nice, it seems better to me that we have more freedom and ability to adjust the demo to the group and the mood of the table. I want to write more later on the use of interactive exhibits that I noticed in the museum, but first here are some pictures of the DNA setup.

The instructions are very very similar yet written on a white board for everyone to see.

The classroom allowed separate groups to explore on their own and the colored chais add an important IKEA aesthetic to the experience.

The models were super cool and I especially liked the colors which made the cell look mysterious and beautiful.

Taxi Cab Captive Audience

by shoplifted

Last Friday night proved to be an interesting evening that climaxed with a taxi cab ride turning into a cabaret show at the drop of a dime.

It started out just like any old cab ride. We hopped in a DeSoto Minivan Cab at Church and Market. We expected merely a seven dollar cab ride. What we got is something that the four of us will never forget.

Confusion echoed through he cab as a loungy jazz tune started to play on the stereo getting louder and louder. The cabbie then broke out into song. He starts, “Why does my Aunt Peg have a mustache on her face, she doesn’t even know it’s there, it’s such a big disgrace. She used to be quite beautiful and lovely you see, but lately she looks manlier than me.” We laughed and laughed and he just kept singing it didn’t stop. It didn’t even stop when he stopped the cab. We tried to get out but he just kept singing about his aunt who has a mustache like Tom Selleck.

I guess it wasn’t too bad until he started trying to sell us cd’s. We gave him a nice tip for the entertainment value and we went on our way. We did manage to get a business card to keep up to date with Buzz Brooks’ blossoming career in the cab entertainment field. Check him out, and…

Beware of this cabbie

Total Eclipse of the Moon

by tribekat

Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart.  Nothing I can do. Nope, nothing.  Except hope for turquoise!  

Skydove? Skydivinged?

by tribekat

Like to stick your face in the Balancing Ball exhibit or out the window of your car when you’re going 180 miles an hour?  Me neither.  But I’m glad I jumped.

Thanks, mind!

by tribekat

Life is a gruelling series of pointless tasks. Or is it? Lore Sjöberg’s article on wired.com reminded me that things aren’t always as they seem. Here’s my favorite line from his story:

“One exhibit at the Exploratorium was able to convince me, in just 30 seconds, that a bronze sculpture of a hand was an actual part of my body. Thanks, mind! Good work there, getting my physical self mixed up with a cheap sculpture. I fully expect that one of these days my mind is going to convince me that my desk lamp is an extension of my physical body, and I’ll electrocute myself bringing it into the hot tub. “

Read the whole thing here.

So, instead of it being ironic that I had to read an article about the exhibits that I play with all day to remind me that it’s cool that I get to play with exhibits all day, it’s just depressing.  Get it?

Birds, Bees, and Forbidden Fruit

by Anne

If you want to recharge your flower dissection, then let me recommend Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Besides being beautiful and inspirational, it reminded me that fruits and flowers are so @#$*% exciting! This book cronicles one year of her family eating local food- either that they’ve grown themselves or that was grown within their county. I started reading this on the plane ride home from school last weekend and couldn’t wait to start picking apart plants with our visitors. It was a reminder of just how important the flower dissection really is. Even within a totally constructed environment, we can begin to explore the origins of our food.

The genetic diversity of the food we eat is dwindling at an alarming rate, and people are becoming less aware of it. I imagine that as people learn more about their food, the more they will start to ask questions, the more likely they will be to feel connected with the process, and possibly care about where their food comes from. Even when people begin to think about each of the fruits and vegetables they eat and wonder what part of the plant it comes from- that in itself is a great start. After that, they might start to wonder when it comes into season each year, and where it might have come from. They might also wonder where the seeds come from and what happens if you plant one. Unfortunately, the answer to that is not as straight forward as we might like it to be.

I was lucky enough to get to pinch hit for a flower dissection last week, and had an amazing time with a woman and a couple of 5th graders. Then, as usual, some kids showed up early for the cow eye dissection. Surprisingly, they took interest in the flowers and asked a lot of wonderful questions. Once they realized that the fruit they eat comes from flowers, which come from the seeds inside of the fruit, they got excited to go home and start planting seeds to see what will happen. Good for them- just try it, see what happens, wonder about it.