Belated Baleen

by Ann Bartkowski

Awhile ago, Karen, our resident biologist brought in a large chunk of baleen from the mouth of a blue whale that had washed on on a nearby beach. The pieces of this spectacular and spectacularly large animal were sent to all corners of the world for research and education, and the explo was lucky enough to get a piece. Karen tried to being it into a classroom in the museum while it was closed one Monday, but all the staff were so curious she only got this far-

The baleen was smelly, sandy and stupendous!

 

 

 

 

 

The baleen was so tough and rubbery, and was like thick strands of hair (it’s made of keratin!) It grew this beautiful pattern on the inside of the whale’s jaw:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This whale piece is going to be super cool to study and think about as we focus more on water as we get closer to the Piers!

Snake on a Ryans

by ryan

Saved from an unfortunate (but tasty) end

by josuecastellanos

So one day in April I felt like making BLT sandwiches for lunch club, and when I went to Safeway I discovered a lettuce that’s “so fresh, because it’s still alive”. So these lettuces come with the roots still attached, and I couldn’t bring myself to eat the little one. So I decided to try and plant the lettuce in a pot in the Bio Lab. Sadly, the Bio Staff evicted the lettuce and it died after a week of living on window sill at my house.

So this summer, one of my 8th graders asked if we could have a class pet. I suggested that if we could keep a plant alive for the summer, we could move up to higher life forms. I bought another lettuce, and we planted it and it lived pretty happily in my classroom for the 5 week summer.

Then it came time to figure out what to do with the lettuce. Around the same time, the last of our flowers in the planters at the “home” finally died. We bought some mini rose plants to put around the planter and in the middle, we planted the lettuce in late July and by September it was looking awesome!

The best part, started about three weeks ago when the lettuce started blooming! Little buds started appearing around the 15th and as of November, this is what the lettuce looked like. I don’t think there are any other lettuces growing in the neighborhood, so I doubt it’ll ever be pollinated, but it’s pretty cool to look at!

Haiku Take Over

by Aiona

A couple of weeks ago several Explainer managers from partnering museums came out to tour the Exploratorium Explainer program. Together we picked an exhibit that really spoke to us, the strobe-o-scope, and wrote haikus, Explainer style. The first one we created by combining words we independently wrote down on separate sticky notes. I’m impressed we made it rhyme. The rest are individual creations. Perhaps we’ll get haiku contributions from Texas, San Diego and Oklahoma soon.

 

Here’s to the subtle art of science haikus. Enjoy!

 

Self Expression
Blurred Connection
Click Play Stutter
Free Reaction Shutter
_____

Picture moved with time
Fun transformed though
A quiet click
2 seconds, don’t think
_____

I am continuing to
Learn and play as change
With every day being new
_____

Walking by looking
I consider erasure
Will I hurt feelings?
_____

There was a day
I came to play
my mind was in a whirl

Then came the thoughts
of grander scale
and now my whole world rocks