Maryland Science Center, Baltimore Part I

The Maryland Science Center is located on the south end of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The main audience is children but adult can enjoy (and learn from) the exhibits too. My son and I went for a camp-in, which let us enjoy the exhibits after hours. We had to share with a bunch of other scouts but hardly enough to make the place seem crowded.

Our first stop was Newton's Alley. The alley has lots of interactive exhibits based on classical mechanics.

Floating magnet trick

The displays had plenty of pulleys doing various jobs. One station had block and tackle arrangements to help visitors pull themselves up.

Raising himself to new heights

A tug-of-war display taught visitors the value of where to attach a rope to a weight. On one side, the rope is attached to the bottom of the tower, requiring a great deal of force to pull the tower down. The other side has the rope attached to the top, requiring much less force.

One-man tug-of-war

Another display has a ball suspended in mid-air by blowing air. The air circulates around the ball, stabilizing it and keeping it from falling down.

Floating ball trick

Another station had the boys sitting down to pump a ball up a shaft.

Not sure which principle this is demonstrating, should have read the sign!

Another display shows how you would weigh differently on different planets (which have different levels of gravitational pull on their surfaces). My son was dying to find out, so we dropped a coin to get the information.

Weight changes machine

One set of stats

Pluto is clearly not strong enough to compete with other "real" planets

My son's favorite device was the musical Rube Goldberg device. In it, marbles follow along tracks, occasionally striking different instruments inside of the machine. He came back to this several times.

A fun device for sure

Upstairs is an exhibit on the human body and how amazing it is. Luckily we went there while the museum was still open, so one of the staff was operating the bed of nails. Patrons are invited to lie down on a table with lots of little holes in it. Then the operator throws the switch and all the nails come up and raise the visitor off the table. We both tried it and it was quite amazing. Not the most comfortable bed ever, but not too bad either.

My son relaxes at the museum

Another exhibit purports to let visitors zoom into their bodies and see cells in action. The images were the same for him and me, so I suspect some chicanery going on behind the scenes.

A viewer that lets you "see" inside your body

Looking at heart cells

Brains were on display here, there, and everywhere. During the sleep-over, we slept by the big head with the skull cap removed.

Brain in an empty vat

Not the most comforting bedtime companion

That brain/bust wasn't nearly as creepy as the vegetable man down the hall. Maybe it's a woman?

Vegetable person

Piecing together a human skeleton (well, a replica of one) was another fun exhibit with some creep-factor.

Leg bone is connected to the knee bone, right?

More on the science center's exhibits in the next post!

The Big Snow, March 2017

In a last ditch effort to remind people he still exists, Old Man Winter sent a big snow storm our way (we live between Baltimore and DC on the 1-95 corridor) yesterday as I post. We didn't get the worst of the storm, but there was enough white stuff to shut down schools and offices. And our early spring.

Uh, whoops!

The snow was accompanied by ice and sleet, leaving some extra strong locks in our back yard.

Shed and house

Icicles that the kids used as darts

Frozen-shut key box

Frozen-shut hook and eye on the garden gate

The children were naturally unstoppable when it came to playing outside. My daughter started working on a snow fort but soon joined in snow ball fights and sledding.

Listening for where the action is

Close up

Shocked at the ice on the shed (definitely not eating snow)

(Okay, maybe)

Our yard has a small slope. Unfortunately the camera's battery died when I tried to make a video and I didn't bother going inside to recharge it. I'd rather play with the kids, of course. So all I have is one picture from all the fun.

One sledding picture

One confused bird wanted shelter in our garage. We don't have any food in there, so I don't know what he or she wanted other than a warmer and drier place to hang out.

"No people around, maybe I can sneak in?"

Almost scared away

Book Review: Fairy Tail Vol. 5 by Hiro Mashima

Fairy Tail Volume 5 by Hiro Mashima

The investigation into Galuna Island's problems heats up as the bad wizards attack the only village on the island. Fairy Tail wizards Gray and Lucy are there to save the townsfolk if not the town from an acid attack by the bad guys. Meanwhile, the other Fairy Tail wizards are investigating the weird rituals in an old temple on the island. The battles are fast and exciting, showing creativity and comedy in equal measure. To make things more complicated, Fairy Tail's Erza shows up to bring back the other wizards, since they are there under false pretenses--the job of saving the island is an S-class job and none of them are S-class yet. Since a mad wizard from Gray's past is trying to revive a horrible demon, that sure seems like a good reason to see the job through before returning to Fairy Tail for punishment. Can the uber-just Erza be persuaded?

The story moves along at a good clip and reveals more of Gray's background (who he was trained by and why he's always taking his clothes off). The story is still about identical to the TV show, though the females are a little chestier and less dressed than on television. It's not annoying enough to turn me off of reading but it is a little grating. The book does have some nice explanations of little cultural details at the end along with some fan art.

Maryland Science Center Cub Scout Camp-In

The Maryland Science Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor hosts camp-in events in the winter and spring, some especially focused on scouting. Our Cub Scout pack participated in a February camp-in. Mom drove us into the city and dropped us off around 5 o'clock. Normally the center is open till 6 p.m. on Saturdays but we were going to stay all night. We dropped our stuff in one room and did some exploring before the formal program started at 6:20.

The opening presentation was quick and informative. We'd be locked in all night and participate in three sessions on science, as well as view a planetarium presentation and watch an Imax movie in the morning. Also important to us was the snack at 9 p.m. and breakfast in the morning.

Review of rules and agenda

The planetarium presentation told us all about the February night sky and what we could expect to see if we ventured outside (which we couldn't just then since we were locked in). I also found out that they have Friday night stargazing from the roof of the building. We will attend in the future!

The first science session was about Life in the Dark, specifically creatures that live in caves. The presenter explained the three levels of a cave. The first level is the entrance which has plenty of sunlight, so plants grow there and animals visit from time to time but don't live there year round. They are known as Trogloxenes (though they don't just stay in the entrance).

Visitors but not residents?

The second level of a cave is the twilight zone, where daylight still is visible but is not direct. The more serious cave dwellers, Troglophiles, get this far but wouldn't do so well on the outside.

More committed to caves

The deepest part of the cave is the dark, where all the cool, sightless, and colorless critters live. The boys were very fascinated by these animals.

Spiders are often found in caves and they don't always use their eyes to detect their prey. Many spiders rely on vibrations in their webs to know that they've caught their next meal. The related activity was a bit tough for the boys. Using yarn in a loom as their web, they tried to feel when their partner would touch the web.

Learning about spiders

Explaining the activity

Probably could make this at home?

My son detects some movement

Next, the boys designed their own cave creatures. My son decided to make a mammal in the twilight zone, so he picked out pale, not white skin, and large eyes to help see in substandard light.

Skinning the beast

Finished product

The second science session was Mineral Mystery. The boys broke into groups and learned the difference between rocks and minerals. Minerals are more or less made of one element; rocks are made of many different minerals.

Picking between rocks and minerals

Next, they analyzed various samples to see what kind of minerals they were. They examined the rocks for color, luster, hardness (using their fingernails, a penny, and a steel nail to check), magnetism, and fluorescence. Radioactivity is another attribute but they were given no equipment to detect, since they were also given no radioactive samples. The boys took turns examining different rocks and recording their findings.

Mineral investigation kit

Is it fluorescent?

It is, as seen under the special flashlight

Mineral Id card

The final session was on archaeology. The first exercise had the boys go through a small trash can to discover what they could about who made the trash. Our group's trash had some toys and ear buds, so probably from a house with lots of kids.

An overview of the activities

Next, the boys tried out the law of Superposition, which is the common-sense fact that things that are buried deeper in the ground are older. They even made their own stratified test tubes.

That blue object at the bottom of the red layer is from long ago!

Another fun activity was uncovering various sections of a box to try and determine what was on the archaeological site. We eventually discovered a home with various ancient artifacts like a rotary phone!

Grid-style archaeology

The next morning, we watched Journey into Amazing Caves on the science center's Imax screen. The documentary was narrated by Liam Neeson. The movie follows several cave explorers as they delve into deep and dangerous caves, like ice caves in the Arctic and underwater caves in the Yucatan Peninsula. The movie is fascinating and breath-taking and convinced me I don't want to go 500 yards down into a crack in glacial ice!

After the movie, we headed outside the center and found mom waiting to take us home. We had a great time, if not a great night's sleep. The museum's floor wasn't the most comfortable surface I've ever slept on.

The morning view from where we slept

Nevertheless, we recommend the camp-in adventure at the Maryland Science Center!

More on the Science Center's exhibits later this week.

Movie Review: Paddington (2014)

Paddington (2014) co-written and directed by Paul King

A young Peruvian bear leaves South America in search of a home in London. His family had been discovered some forty years earlier by a Geography Guild member, who taught them English and love of orange marmalade. He promised the bears would always be welcome in London. The young bear travels as far as Paddington Station where is taken in by the Brown family, who name him after the station and promise to help him find a home. They have the usual fun and heart-warming antics while a nosy neighbor (Peter Capaldi) and an unscrupulous museum taxidermist (Nicole Kidman) conspire against the bear. The usual hijinks also ensue. The movie is based on the books by Michael Bond.

What sounds like a formulaic and saccharine-sweet children's movie turns out to be a fine work of entertainment for the whole family. The plot is rather predictable but the characters are so charming and so well-acted (or well-digitally-animated in the case of the bear) that viewers are swept up by the story. The comedy is witty in both senses--intelligent and funny--for adults and children. The movie was a great choice for our family movie night and will get more viewings in the future (as well as inspiring us to check out the books from the library).

Highly recommended.

Mary's Land Farm, Ellicott City, Maryland

When we visited, Mary's Land Farm might as well have been Mary's Lamb Farm because the young sheep were new and cute. The lambs were the main attraction that drew our visit. The kids had a fun time petting and seeing the baby sheep.

My daughter sees a lamb

The toddler cautiously goes for a touch

"He isn't going to bite me, is he?"

Very cute

Plenty of sheep live at the farm.

Sheep in the house

Is this a barn?

The farm also has cows and horses, so it is definitely a proper farm.

Hey, where are the cute calves?

Petting a horse

We did buy some duck eggs (not much flavorful difference from chicken eggs according to us) and a bit of beef. Both were yummy and consumed too quickly for photography. We may shop again at the farm!