Trying to Act Cool at Exploratorium After Dark

by Ann Bartkowski

We got memed.

Disagreeing About Color

by Ann Bartkowski

Over my spring break from school, I visited the explo and had the privilege of attending their morning Paul D. training. Training with Paul D. is something I have missed this year, as Thursday mornings with him always gave me an outlet for my curiosity, lots of entertainment, inspiration for experiments I wanted to try, opportunities for bizarre thought experiments, and new questions to think about all week long! That Thursday, we went to the exhibit Disagreeing About Color–an exhibit I feel like I have heard Paul D. explore lots of times, but I always come away with more.

I stumbled upon this article in BBC Future (which apparently I should just start reading regularly because it’s where I found the Space schematic below also) about different points of “hue”. It’s a pretty quick and fascinating read if you are interested in science, languages, and other cultures like I am. It reminds me of a conversation that arose at our Disagreeing About Color training– about how the colors you see at that exhibit are dependent both upon the biology of your eyes and also your cultural beliefs about color. For example, the article states that “Vietnamese and Korean people do not differentiate blue from green – leaves and sky are both coloured xanh in Vietnam.” Check the rest of the article out here!

Someone update me on the the monks who are visiting and their thoughts on Disagreeing About Color!

Size and Scale and…. S P A C E !

by Ann Bartkowski

As a former Explainer slash current first year science teacher, I have lots of awesome kids to share all of my love and inquiry for science with. I also have lots of science questions that I can no longer just ask Paul D when I see him, especially awesomely creative questions that kids come up with during class! So now I go to the internet.

The question, “How big is space?” randomly came up this week, and “really big” didn’t seem like a good enough answer. Luckily, my googling turned up THIS SITE. It reminds me a lot of this size and scale prezi-esque visualization that’s already in the depths of our blog. It even tells you how long you’ve been scrolling down through it to help you get a handle on spacetime! It has sooo much cool mind-blowing information that you probably should just stop reading this and start scrolling through it right now.

3rd Annual Bike to Work Breakfast!

by Ann Bartkowski

May 12, 2011 marked our 3rd annual celebration of Bike to Work Day with our delicious pancake-fueled ride! The SEATS and Stratocumulus Lenticularis Perlucidus Praecipitatio rose and shone bright and early at 7am at Annie’s house for a delicious carbo-loaded breakfast. (Much like our everyday routine!) Then it was off to the energizer station for more carbs and loads of schwag before heading to work right on time!

Above: Team Cloud (minus Annie) modeling their fancy patches!

Below: Team the SEATS (without Whit), showing off their custom tees!

Above: Explainers bike down Chestnut in a pack of glory.

Above Above: Hotcakes!

Who’s in the Egg?

by Ann Bartkowski

In preparation for the annual awards dinner, a giant space egg has descended upon the skylight of the museum. Where did it come from? Where is it going? And what new species will hatch from it?

Current Theories:

1) This egg represents the birth of science knowledge. Lady Gaga will emerge forth from it when we are least expecting it during dinner.

2) It is a giant bouncy ball which will be used as a method of facilitation our guests’ exodus at the end of the night–a la Indiana Jones and the boulder.

3) There is an enormous ping pong paddle under the rotunda and that the whole “awards dinner” is just a cover for the Guinness Book of World Records Largest Ping Pong Tournament ever played.

If none of these theories seem plausible, please feel free to submit your own.

Stop Motion Animation

by Ann Bartkowski

At work recently, Sebastian and Chad have been designing and perfecting a stop animation station, so visitors can easily create their own animations. Stop motion is a technique of film making in which someone takes a photograph, physically manipulates objects in the photo, and then repeats this process a million times before stringing all the frames together. You can check out some short films that visitors have made here on the Tinkering Studio Blog.

I am writing about stop motion because I made my own and am super excited to share it!!! I heard about a contest sponsored by Travelocity to win a volunteer trip to teach abroad. Since I #1) love traveling #2) love teaching #3)love volunteering, I decided I wanted to enter. I sought the advice of my talented and creative co-Explainers and they encouraged me to make a stop motion animation to help me stand out from the rest of the contestants. Because I didn’t have an amazing-Sebastian-and-Chad-built-station in my apartment, I built an animation station of my own using a digital camera, a cribbage board, some books, a TV stand I found on the street, and a ton of blue tape. Here’s a pic of the set up!

 

Explainer Fashion Week

by Ann Bartkowski

 

Ryan models the new spring outerwear collection designed by Sylvia.

 

Ryan brings his own sunshine on a rainy day in this one-of-a-kind piece. Attention to detail is most noteworthy here on the matching blue tape on the walkie talkie and the rainbow parasol. Ryan is a sight to behold in Explainer Orange.

Double Geyser Rainbow Across the Museum (Sky)

by Ann Bartkowski

Today at about 3:30pm, Lianna and I happened to be walking by The Geysers. The angle of the sun streaming through one of the skylight windows with a diffraction grating was just right so that it illuminated the geysers making them into pools of rainbow magic.

Here are some photos we took, in order of time.

 

It happened very quickly (we spin rather fast in space!) so the colored water was very ephemeral and evanescent and enthralling and enigmatic and many other adjectives that do or do not start with the letter e.

We’re curious if this happens at approximately 3:30 every day at this time of year? Let us know if you witness this beautiful display!

Strange Happenings

by Ann Bartkowski

With the arrival of December, many strange and mysterious beings have come to the museum. Here is one, that arrived on a large vehicle. No, we’re not talking about how strange Marcus is, we are talking about the juxtaposition of Marcus, a Candy Gingerbread House Box Thing, and a Truck.

 

This Pelican also showed up today in front of the museum. He was quite the fish out of water.

My new friend wanted to come in! But he smelled bad. He reminded us of this Roald Dahl book, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me! It is about a pelican who washes windows and catches a burglar.

Here is The Museum and the Pelly and Me!

 

What (or Who?) will show up here next?!?

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!