Explorit Science Center

A couple of days ago we went to the Explorit Science Center in Davis. They had a new exhibit about communication, featuring Morse code, army flag and hand signals, different languages, and two cans with a string attached. There were also a couple of books for sign language, and a set of stamps for the different hand signals. On a piece of paper, I made a compass rose with a couple of the stamps. On the part with Morse code, there was a chart with all the letters and numbers, Morse telegraph keys, fiber optics, and a small light on either side of the station.

In the regular exhibit area, the downstairs room, there was a new metal sandbox that sloped down and had water running down from a shower head all the way to the bottom of the basin, where it was recycled through the pump back to the top. There were pipes of different sizes and small plastic trees for decoration. You could use the pipes to make tunnels through sand mounds. Joey and I took out all of the pipes and trees and made a meandering river. It wound almost all the way to the bottom, accelerating at the deeper and steeper parts of the river. As a result of changing the depth in one area and increasing height in the other area or decreasing depth caused a change in the velocity of the running water. Once it was done, we added trees to make it look more real.

Slingshots

Yesterday we made slingshots out of rubber bands, felt, and sticks that we found in our back yard. Our dad cut the sticks and then we put together the rubber bands and felt. Once they were done, we were able to shoot across the entire yard (that's about 25 ft.)! It didn't take very long to make them, only about 15-20 minutes.

Ceramics

For the past couple weeks we've been taking ceramics classes every Thursday. Joey and I are both taking the class. Here we are making pumpkin containers by hand out of clay.

We made birdhouses one week by actually putting slabs of clay together to form one. Then they were fired, painted, and then fired again.


We also got to use the potter's wheel. I made a bowl and two candle holders (see picture above), and Joey made a plate and a couple of bowls. Right now, everything we made on the wheel is being fired. Here is a picture of my cousin Sydney at the wheel. Our cousins Sydney and Emily are also in our ceramics class.

Candle Dipping

Yesterday we got to use the beeswax that Vicky, our landlord, gave us when we first moved in for candle dipping! We melted the beeswax and dipped our wicks in the beeswax one after another. Wilson started to make one, but decided that he didn't want to do it. We dipped the wicks in sets of two, by folding each piece in half. The end of my two candles broke off, so they are shorter than the rest.

Here are the pictures.



This is how they used to make candles in the early American colonies.

Entomology

Last Friday we went to an Entomology Museum in U.C. Davis. It was more of an actual lab instead of a museum, with actual students and professors working. They had some pinned bugs and live bugs on display, but most of the specimen were in storage in big cabinets in the middle of the room. They said that they have a collection of 17 million bugs, the second largest on the west coast.

The person who was helping us showed us some live bugs.

And over here my sister, Joey, was holding a leaf with a baby version of the bug in the picture above on it.