Field Trip – Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry

One of the highlights of 5th grade – the annual field trip to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. I first experienced this field trip three years ago, when Erica was in 5th grade, so I knew what to expect this year – an early morning departure, nice coach style busses for the kids and a fun time getting to know the other adults as the adults car pooled up to the Windy City. A select few parents (read – gluttons for loud noises and putting up with a large number of very excited pre-teens) ride the coach busses with the students and teachers, but a majority of us “chaperones” drove separately.

The museum’s group entrance is on the back side of the facility, and since we arrived by passenger vehicle, we parked in the main parking garage and walked outside around the museum grounds. Look what you miss if you simply park and enter the museum through the parking garage:


The outside reminds me of the buildings at MIT, namely the 77 Mass Ave entrance and Killian Court’s Great Dome. All buildings are designed in the Beaux Arts style.

Once inside, I was assigned my charges for the day – my own son and his good friend, Trey. They wanted to hang out with classmates Alec, Brady and Eric, who were the responsibility of my friend, Leslie - a win-win situation for everyone.

The boys goofed off a little bit before the museum officially opened:


We explored several exhibits, including this flight simulator, where Brian managed to crash every flight he was responsible for. I guess a career in flying might be out of the question.


We spent a substantial amount of time in the Science Storm exhibit and I don’t recall it being here three years ago. The huge exhibit explores the physics and chemistry behind the natural phenomenon of storms – from tornadoes to avalanches, tsunamis to lightning.

There’s a two story vortex:


And a series of prisms that separate the white light into individual components.

This exhibit also allowed us to adjust several solar panels to fuel small race cars around a track.

Even as an adult with a science background, I continue to be amazed by this museum – they continue to bring interesting, engaging features, all to promote science, industry (the original Coal Mine exhibit) and even a bit of history (the U505 Submarine). If you ever get the chance to visit Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry is a must-see for adults and children.

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More Rube Goldberg Machines and Details

Friday's Rube Goldberg competition included a High school division with many amazing machines.

The Disney Theme. Name all the Disney movies you can see - I see at least five just from this view.


The North Pole. One of the students on this team was dressed up as Cindy Loo-Who, complete with an up-do that would make those with beehives jealous.



Do you know the proper term for these?

They are called Newton Balls. My son had to explain it to me.

Lots of toys were used:


And in the end, IronMan saves the day!

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Rube Goldberg Regional Competition

Brian's class competed today at the Rube Goldberg Regional Competition. Two weeks ago, they took the top prize at the Local competition and today they competed against seven other 5th grade groups.

The event was held in conjunction with the U of I Engineering Open House and the High School Rube Goldberg Competition, so there were plenty of other Rube machines to view. The High School competition allows electricity, with a larger machine footprint (I'm guessing 6' x 6' x 6') and up to 100 steps. Many of the High School entries were very extensive - motorized cars, fans, ramps, elevators and rockets, just to name a few of the elements.

For example, this team's theme of the North Pole:


Arriving early enabled us to watch many of the HS teams assemble their machines - like the above North Pole Team:


And watch many of the teams' preliminary runs through these complex machines - like this Disney-themed machine which incorporated scenes from Peter Pan (Big Ben), Cinderella (the castle), Beauty and the Beast (the flower), The Lion King, just to name a few.



I can't imagine how many hours were spent designing and building these contraptions!

And here's another look at our 5th grade machine, a birds eye view -


While I wish our team won this Regional competition, sadly, we did not. The judges only award a first place, so the rest of the teams all "came in 2nd place". I do know that our kids presented their machine well and it worked during the judging process. The kids did their very best and we are so proud of them!

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Camera Phone Friday - Geek Speak

Today was the big day for my son's 5th grade class - the Regional Rube Goldberg competition, held in conjunction with the High School competition.

Many of those High School Rubes were impressive, using motors, lights, catapults, lifts, fans, and very large objects, all with the objective of watering a plant.

But today is Camera Phone Friday, and I have some engineering calculations to share:



Just a small assortment of equations on one of the HS Rube machines. Since I'm an engineer, I love geeky things.

And while my son's class performed wonderfully and their Rube Machine executed the task of turning the page without issue, they did not take first place in this round. It was still a wonderful learning experience for the whole class.

In case you are interested, one of the other parents took a video (with the video on his phone) of the kids' machine in action. It goes really fast, so don't blink!

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Rube Goldberg Competition

We spent all Saturday morning with Brian's 5th grade class at a Rube Goldberg competition. If you aren't familiar with the concept of a Rube Goldberg machine, it is a complex device with numerous steps which performs a simple task. If you played the Mousetrap board game, you've assembled a Rube Goldberg-type machine.

My son's class has been working on this machine for over a month and all the hard work of designing, testing, re-designing, re-testing, writing a technical report, designing brochures, T-shirts, and posters culminated in the local competition where they competed against 5 other machines.

The purpose - create a machine to open the cover and the first page of a book. The machine must also be designed around a theme, complete with a backstory.

Our class decided on a Medieval theme and built it as a large Castle, complete with moat, dragon, princess and brave prince. The machine itself used ramps, dominos, levers, a pendulum and a mouse trap to open the book and turn the page.







The competition included a Junk Wars theme:


And Alice in Wonderland:

The remaining competitors: the Illini team, The Beach Team and The Jungle Team.

Here the kids are setting up right before their performance and judging:


The coolest part of the project - everyone in the class participated in the presentation. That's 24 kids to manage and herd!

Here's a quick clip of the machine in action - it goes fast, so pay attention.


The best part? The machine worked during the competition and our team won first place! Now they advance to the Regional competition in two weeks.

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Favorite Equation

Yesterday, I posted some graphs and mathematical equations. I asked if my friends would guess what my favorite equation is.

First, the slope of a line can be determined by "Rise" over "Run" of the line on the graph.


For graph one, to get from the dot on the far right to the dot on the far left, you travel up (rise) on the graph 7 spaces, then travel left (run) 9 spaces. Since we are traveling to the left, that's considered moving in the negative direction. The Slope is Rise over Run, or 7/-9.
Mathematical equation for the line is y=mx+b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept (where the line passes the y axis). So the equation for the line is y=-7/9x.

As for my favorite equation. I should have mentioned that it is an equation I learned in Chemistry, not math. A couple of you guessed a^2 + b^2 = c^2, or Pythagoras's Theorem. A very good equation!

But the most useful (and hence favorite) equation for me is:

PV = nRT

Or the Ideal Gas Law.
P = Pressure
V = Volume
n = moles or molecules of gas
R = a constant
T = Temperature

SO useful where I work! Because if the temperature goes up in a container and you have the same amount of gas in that container, guess what - the Pressure of the container will increase. This law is practically demonstrated if you blow up a balloon and stick it in the freezer - when you take it out, you will see that the balloon has shrunk in size. The volume shrinks because the temperature went down. As the gas heats up, the balloon will expand again.

OK, enough of the geeky stuff tonight! Back to our regular programming!

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276/365 - Math Homework

Who doesn't remember how to determine the slope of a line?



Don't remember?

Hint - You have to Rise before you Run.

And one of my favorite equations is: y=mx+b *

I keep repeating that to Erica. At first she thought I was nuts, but now it's starting to sink in.

* I have another favorite equation - care to guess? I'll post my answer tomorrow.

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34/365 - Calculate the Seconds

in 1 hour
in 1 day
in 1 week
in 1 month
in 1 year
in 1 decade
in 1 century
in 1,000 years
in 10,000 years



That's what Brian decided to calculate this afternoon. He was digging the exponential notation the calculator was spitting out. A geek after my own heart.

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Seesh - Mole/Mol Day

My husband forwarded an email from another co-worker, stating that today is Mole/Mol day, with the following information from The National Mole Day Foundation

Celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., Mole Day commemorates Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 10^23), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry. Schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles.
For a given molecule, one mole is a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the atomic mass of the molecule. For example, the water molecule has an atomic mass of 18, therefore one mole of water weighs 18 grams. An atom of neon has an atomic mass of 20, therefore one mole of neon weighs 20 grams. In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro's Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. This relationship was first discovered by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1858) and he received credit for this after his death.

So, based on my geeky Chemistry background, I replied back to my dear hubby:

Mol day should really be held on June 2, and observed at 10:23 instead.

But I know that most schools are already out on June 2, so this is their way of making it relavent.
And in Europe, they probably think it should be held on the 6th of February.
And it should be Mol day, not Mole day. I think of the rodents when I see the word Mole.

I believe I have spent way too much time on this topic.....

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