B.O. Barnes Elementary

70 students from B.O. Barnes Elementary made their way to Imagination Station today. They were able to see our Deep Freeze program along with our guests from Barton College (see below). I was also able to get some of our snakes out for them to touch. Of course, as usual some of the students couldn't get enough and others could get far enough away.

Lizards, Snakes, and Chelonians

So, you may be asking, "What's a chelonian?" Chelonian is the reptile family of which turtles and tortoises are a part. A small group of 16 students were able to learn this and more as they came to Imagination Station for our Radical Reptiles program. Imagination Station is fortunate to have 4 of the 6 families of reptiles represented at the museum. The 6 families are Lizards, Snakes, Chelonians, Crocodilia, Tuatara, and Dinosaurs. We don't feel so bad, however, about the 2 families we don't have. Obviously, Dinosaurs are no longer around and the Tuatara family is rare and found only in New Zealand. But, we do have a Dwarf Cayman, so we even have the Crocodilia family covered.
For those of you who are not familiar with the museum, we allow students to have hands-on interaction with most of our reptiles. There is nothing like the look on the face of a student who is touching a 6 foot Boa for the first time!

This is Yoshi, our iguana.

Plenty of Polymers

This past Friday 40 fourth grade students came to the museum to learn about Polymers. Polymers are a fascinating part of our world. They have interesting and unique properties that have allowed many modern-day conveniences. For example, a pair of disposable diapers uses a super-absorbent polymer in the lining. One of the many activities the students got to experience was dissecting a diaper and collecting the small amount of powder found in them. Most of the time they are able to fill up a corner of a Zip-loc bag. They then slowly add water to the bag; and, amazingly that small corner of powder is able to absorb almost an entire beaker full of water.

The fact that polymers are able to expand is what allows this. The polymer in diapers is called sodium polyacrylate. This particular polymer forms in a ball and expands as the water molecules move into it. You can try this experiment yourself with nothing more than a pair of diapers, scissors, a sandwich bag, and some water.

This was just one of many hands-on activities the students were able to do in their polymer workshop. I'll be sure and include some of the others the next time a group comes through.

Rockets on the Road

Our Science on Wheels Educator, Michael Peckerar, is on the road today at Wakelon Elementary in Wake County. About 150 students will be learning the basics of Physics and Chemistry. They will get to see rockets take off and remote control flying discs as they learn about the laws of physics. Then they will get to see first hand how a solid and a liquid can be mixed to yield various gases as they experience Chemistry firsthand. I won't say more about what happens with the gases because that would ruin the surprise for everybody!