Even with the recent rains, water conservation remains an important issue for all Austinites. How much water could you save if you cut your shower short a few minutes? Or ran a full dishwasher instead of washing dishes by hand? Find out with the City of Austin’s Water Use Calculator! Then make a pledge to cut your water use by 10% and help conserve water in our community.
ACM’s own Emily Weerts, has posted a tutorial on how to sew a circuit into wearable art on her wonderful blog, www.atxdiy.com. She recently showed our Girls Explore Science campers how to do this cool project. Girls Explore Science is happening again August 16-20. See our website for more details!
Independence day is just around the corner! We hope you enjoy this holiday and see some spectacular fireworks! The fourth of July in Austin is a very festive time in the city. There is always a major fireworks event downtown, which is open to the public. Additionally, there are always fireworks and events in the Lake Travis area.
The “official” and largest 4th of July event in Austin will be held at Auditorium Shores at The Long Center. More than 100,000 Austinites will gather to see the Austin Symphony perform patriotic music, including the 1812 Overture, with the shooting of cannons by the Texas National Guard Salute Battery. Fireworks will be shot over Lady Bird Lake from 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The orchestra will begin playing at 8:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Happy 4th of July!
ACM Dino-Mania campers are learning how to become true ‘paleontologists’ and ‘archeologists’ this week. As they are learning about various types of dinosaurs, they are learning how to recognize their footprints so they can be better fossil hunters.
Did you know Texas has a state stone that is actually a fossil? That’s right, and it is called petrified palm wood to be exact. Today our campers made their own mud fossil foot prints and used their dino-knowledge to create them! Here are some of our campers hard at work…
Ready to make a footprint in the clay...
Making a footprint...
Have you ever found a fossil? Of what?
ACM campers are cooking up a storm at Cooking with Math camp this week! They are measuring, mixing and baking two new recipes everyday, which means tasting them too… Yummy! So far they have made everything from pretzels to pudding, and today they ventured into the world of pies. Our campers made pizza pies and cherry pies- now those are some good eats…
Try our fun and easy pizza pie recipe at home if you are in the mood for some ‘Za”
Mini Pizzas (for a group of 5)
Ingredients:
small 6 inch square pieces of foil
5 cups of flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of oil
1 cup of water (use a teensy bit less than a cup and add more if you need to)
Extra flour for surfaces and hands
Any pizza toppings you like! (cheese, pepperoni, veggies)
tomato sauce
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Measure out all of the ingredients in separate containers or bowls to make the process quicker!
2. Sprinkle some flour on the table where you will be cooking
3. Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl
4. Mix and knead the dough with your hands until dough is soft and stretchy.
5. Divide dough into 5 pieces and roll into a ball and flatten into a disk.
6. Use small square pieces of foil to make into a mini pizza tin
7. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce on to the dough.
8. Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of cheese on to the sauce.
9. Layer any kind of topping on to the cheese.
10. Bake in an oven at 450 for 10 minutes. Watch pizzas closely and when cheese starts bubbling and crust is golden brown it is ready!
This week at our full day Incredible Creature Features camp we are exploring how different species survive in their environments and habitats. Campers are finding out why certain species thrive and others become extinct, as well as how they can help protect species in their own backyards! Today, these campers were true scientists, as they dissected owl pellets! Pellets are the undigested food parts from a bird that are regurgitated. By dissecting them we learn about what types of creatures or plant life a bird is consuming. A very important piece of information we need to make a food web. Food webs are an extremely helpful tool to help us understand animal eating habits and ecosystems. Check out this food web below. See if you can figure out what certain animals eat to survive…
Check out our campers doing some owl pellet dissection!
Dissecting might sound like a gross job, but many animal diseases and treatments are discovered because scientists investigate various parts of an animal. This is no experiment for kids at home, but with the correct equipment, sanitation and supervision much can be learned about specific species. Have you ever dissected anything in any of your science classes?
Creating Electricity Conductors
Creating Gear Shaped Cookies!
Connecting the Circuit Board
Make your own “Gear” shaped cookies at home:
Materials:
-Pre made sugar cookie dough
-Rolling Pin
-Flour to sprinkle on rolling pin
-”Gear” Shaped cookie cutters (Flower shaped will work too)
-Biscuit or Circular shaped cutter (to cut out the middle of the cookie)
Directions:
1. Sprinkle flour on flat surface and on rolling pin
2. Roll out the pre made sugar cookie dough on a flat surface (you may want to use wax paper) 1/4 inch thickness
3. Use “Gear” shaped cookie cutters to cut cookies out of the dough
4. Place cookies on a baking sheet and follow baking directions from pre made cookie package.
5. Use biscuit cutter to cut out the middle of each cookie and remove the dough. You can use the cut outs to make more cookies.
6. Make sure to let the cookies cool when they come out of the oven!
7. Think of creative ways to decorate your gears…you can use icing, sprinkles or any other eatable decoration to make the cookie look like a gear.
8. Enjoy!
This week, the Big Game is being installed so the Museum is offering 1/2 price admission for all!
Even though our Feature Gallery is closed for the Big Game installation, there is still a lot to enjoy at ACM. Come in and serve some international cuisine in Global Cities; learn to play Conjunto music with In My Family; put on your inventor caps in Tinkerer’s Workshop or just come in to enjoy one of our animated StoryTimes! Know someone under age 2? Don’t forget about our toddler exclusive Rising Star Ranch.
And while you are here, you can see the transformation from Air Fair to the Big Game. See you soon!
Global Cities Restaurant
Tinkerer’s Workshop
StoryTime
This week is the last week for our Air Fair exhibit. It will be leaving next week so we can install our next exhibit, the Big Game.
As a proper farewell, check out all of the fun things we did with air while Air Fair was here. And if you would rather check it out first hand, then stop by before Saturday, May 22nd to say your good-byes.
When Air Fair first arrived, we showed you the process behind building it.
We also learned about how wind is being used to make energy.
Then we had our junior intern Sidney show us different parts of Air Fair.
Goodbye Air Fair!
When it’s summer and it’s sunny outside, we usually have to wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from getting burned. Do you know how it works?
The ingredients in sunscreen scatter and absorb the ultraviolet light that comes from the sun, or UV light. The higher the SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, the more protection you have against the sun.
Watch this video from PBS to see a really cool experiment with sunscreen!
Did you know that making food can teach you a lot about math? Today we’re going to make a smoothie and find out how many combinations of fruit we can put in it.
Ingredients:
1-2 cups of 3 different kinds of fruit, frozen or fresh. I like bananas, blueberries and raspberries.
1/2-1 cup of fruit juice
1 cup of ice
1/2-1 cup of vanilla yogurt
1. Combine all ingredients in a blender. Add more juice to make the smoothie more drinkable, or more yogurt to make it thicker.
2. Enjoy your smoothie while learning about math.
Think about how there are many different combinations of smoothies you can make.
First, there are 6 fruits that taste great in smoothies:
Bananas, raspberries, mangoes, strawberries, blueberries and pineapple
Then there are 3 juices that help combine the fruit:
Then you add ice by itself:
Then there are 3 yogurts to choose from:
Vanilla, fruit flavored, or plain
To figure out how many combinations we have to make a smoothie we need to multiply all of our options.
6 fruits x 3 juices x 1 ice x 3 yogurts=54 combinations of smoothies! Wow!
For my second gift for Mother’s Day, I made my mom a recycled card with my flowers. Because I’m using recycled materials, I am helping the environment and saving money.
I used recycled wallpaper, wrapping paper and construction paper, glue, and scissors.
Because the wallpaper is thicker than construction paper, I used it as the structure of the card.
Then I took my recycled wrapping paper and glued it to the wallpaper card and cut around it.
Then I took the recycled construction paper and decorated the front. My recycled card is ready to be delivered with my colored flowers!
This weekend is Mother’s Day. For my mom, I’ve decided to make a couple of things I know she would like. Instead of buying these things, I’m actually going to make them.
Today I’ll show you how to make custom-dyed carnations. I thought it would be cool to give my mom something that shows a scientific process and that was pretty. Later this week I will show you the card I made.
Supplies:
12 carnations
3 vases
A bouquet of white carnations, ends cut off at an angle after purchasing
Food coloring
1. Divide your flowers up into thirds.
2. In each vase place a couple cups or so of water. Make each vase of water a different color with the food coloring. I’m making pink, purple, and red. Leave the flowers in the vases for about a day or until you like the colors.
The color moves to the petals as the flower drinks the water. When a flower is growing from the ground, its roots spread out to find the water. When they find the water, the flower can drink it and grow even more. When we bring flowers home from the store they no longer have roots. However, these flowers still need water, which is why we put them in a vase. If you watch your flowers throughout the day they are drinking the dyed water, you can observe how quickly or slowly they drink water.
3. Fix into a bouquet or put them all in a new vase with un-dyed water. Now they’re ready to be a gift.
Today we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that honors Mexican culture. Mexican culture includes music and dancing, so to be a part of the festivities, make these maracas!
Supplies:
2 Toilet paper tubes
2 sheets of any kind of paper that can bend easily
1/2 cup rice, beans, or rice cereal
Glue
Tape
Scissors
1. First we want to cover the bottom of each tube with paper so the rice inside won’t fall out. Cut out enough so the sides of the paper can be taped to the sides of the paper tubes.
I had to double up on my paper because it was tissue paper.
2. Attach a piece a paper with tape to one end of each tube. Then put half of the rice in one tube, and the other half in the other.
3. Cover the tops with the rest of the cut out paper. Then figure out how much paper you need to go around the tube and cut it out.
4. Put glue on the tube and attach the paper. You can cut off the extra, just make sure you don’t make a whole in the top or bottom paper pieces. Add more decoration if you’d like. Now your maracas are done and you can find your rhythm! Happy Cinco de Mayo.
All around Austin, communities have gardens where they can grow their own fruits and vegetables for their family and friends. Some community gardens have been around for a long time, while others are just starting.
These gardens were created to help Austin locals who don’t have a backyard to grow their own plants. They are also communities within themselves, allowing the members to help each other and give each other advice about gardening and growing plants.
One of the most developed gardens is the Deep Eddy Community Garden. The garden is over 25 years old and has over 30 plots. The plots range from growing herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit trees, or making a compost pit.
A compost pit is where you put waste from your house, like banana peels or cardboard, into a pit and nurture it so it can turn into soil. The soil made from this process usually helps plants grow better. Also, when you put your waste in compost pits you are reusing it instead of sending it to a giant landfill, which means you’re helping the Earth!
Click here to find out more information on community gardens around the country, and to search for local gardens that you can tour, volunteer at, or work on your own plot. Also, on May 1 you can tour the community gardens in town.
Recent Comments