Friday, July 19, 2013
By:
Time is just flying by here in DC. Last weekend my friends flew up from Georgia and we went to a few museums on Saturday. We started off at the Holocaust museum, then journeyed to the Air and Space Museum, next walking to the National History Museum, and finally the American History Museum. We visited a few of the exhibits in the Air and Space and National History Museum that I didn’t see the last time. After all the walking around on Saturday I felt like I needed a day of rest on Sunday. I made a quick trip to a Redbox machine at Columbia Heights and discovered an interesting Museum that I had not heard of yet.
The Museum of Unnatural History is a small shop right across from the metro station. They carry items for sale including: Primordial Soup, Mega Sand (rocks in a jar), and a Bone Saw (butter knife).
Have you ever wondered if a tree fell in the forest and no one is around to hear it, will it make a sound?
Well the Museum of Unnatural History has the answer. Well… three answers really. Apparently It depends on the type of wood.
At work I began testing a couple new activities for Angular Momentum and Rotation. I’ve found several good demonstrations of the topic. Now its just getting them to work correctly. The write-ups for the teacher and student worksheets are going to be a little different for this topic. I am drawing up a few pictures to take to the art department here at APS to help me enter into my directions. It is a good thing they are not my drawings. The kids would be so confused.
Wednesday I went back to NIST for the teacher workshop to aid in circuit building for the theramin the teachers are building from the SOCK kit. The teachers who were selected for this workshop are getting a lot of neat things to take home and use in their classrooms. Nicole ordered the parts for the theramin and Kendra, Caleb, and I came in to help the teachers build their own to keep. I stayed for the rest of the day at NIST, where the teachers were shown a spectrometer demonstration with water balloons.
It was such a fun activity and very easy to follow for a middle school level. Friday is the end of the teacher workshop and also the tour of NIST for all the interns. I hope to stop in and say goodbye to the teachers before they depart. Having only spent two days with them I feel that I have learned a lot in my time there and I see their passion for teaching. I hope to be a teacher that is always willing to learn and develop techniques to keep my classroom interesting and informative.
In big news today, the Titun Arum is about to bloom at the United States Botanic Garden. This is a plant that blooms only ones every few years and could take as long as a decade to bloom. When it does bloom it releases a potent smell compared to that of rotting flesh. Because of this I think I will partake in the adventure and watch the live stream video online in my air-conditioned, fresh smelling dorm room. Live video stream is available at: http://www.usbg.gov/return-titan .
Jamie Garrett