With the welcome return of the Ready, Set, Roll exhibit, we thought that we should investigate how you could create your own working track from materials that can be found in your own home.

What you will need:

-Tubing for example: Toilet paper roll, wrapping paper tubes, insulation tubes

-A variety of balls (sizes and weights)

-Tape

Extras:

-Cups

-Books (used to raise height)

We had fun experimenting with different tubes to see how crazy our roller coaster could get! Check it out:

First we built a simple ramp (like a ski jump). The aim of this track is to allow the ball to pick up as much speed (acceleration) while it is traveling down the ramp and finally to land in one of the cups at the bottom.

From this we then tried the same ramp with different balls of different sizes and weights. Would the different sizes/ weights of the balls make a difference?

The image below shows a more advanced track, this time including a loop in the middle. In order to make it around the loop, your ball needs to gain enough velocity. What can you do to make sure your ball builds enough speed to conquer the Loop d’Loop?

To add an obstacle to your track, try adding a jump to see if your ball can make it across the gap.

For our jump, we used paper cups to hold up the track. Do you think you could make a wider gap for your roller coaster?

Finally, you can add a spiral cone to catch the ball in at the end of your track! It is very easy to make–Just draw a circle on a piece of paper, then either cut out a circle or have an adult do it for you. Next, you tape both of the sides together and add your finishing touch to the track!

You can make your roller coaster as long, loopy, or extreme as you want! See how adventurous you can get.

Once you’ve created your own coaster, you can try out ours at the Museum!

Since the dawn of civilization man has kept track of time by use of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Man noticed that time could be broken up into units of the day (the time taken for the earth to rotate once on its axis), the month (the time taken for the moon to orbit the earth) and the year (the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun).

Ancient civilizations, were able to create calendars by keeping track of the moon and the sun. The ancient Mayas invented a calendar of remarkable accuracy and complexity. At the right is the ancient Mayan Pyramid Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. The pyramid was used as a calendar! Four stairways, each with 91 steps and a platform at the top, making a total of 365, equivalent to the number of days in a calendar year!

At the end of the year, these ancient civilizations also celebrated the New Year, just like we do, with feasts, dancing and festivities. Today, most New Year festivities take place on December 31, but in other cultures they take place on different dates.

• The earliest known record of a New Year festival dates from 2000 BC in Mesopotamia. In Babylonia the New Year began with the new moon closest to the spring equinox, usually mid-March.
• In Assyria it was near the autumnal equinox in September.
• For the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians the day was celebrated on the autumnal equinox, which now falls on about September 23.
• For the Greeks it was the winter solstice, which now falls on about December 21 or 22.
• In early Rome, March 1 began a new year, but after 153 BC the date was January 1.
• The Jewish New Year, called Rosh Hashana, is sometimes called the “feast of the trumpets.” It starts on the first day of the month of Tishri, which may begin any time from September 6 to October 5. The celebration lasts for 48 hours but ushers in a ten-day period of penitence.
• In Japan the New Year festivities take place on January 1 to 3. The house entrance is hung with a rope made of rice straw to keep out evil spirits. Decorations of ferns, bitter orange, and lobster promise good fortune, prosperity, and long life.
• The Chinese New Year is celebrated for one whole month!. The official celebration begins in late January or early February. There are outdoor parades and fireworks to mark the occasion. Check out the cool dragon costume they dance with:

Finally, the American celebration of the New Year marks the end of the Christmas holiday period. Many people go to church on New Year’s Eve, and many attend parties. Now that you know the history of New Years, you can celebrate this holiday with the knowledge of the past.

You can have fun with a costume like the Chinese do, and download this neat New Year’s Mask, look through it so you can see what the coming year has ahead!

This neat activity, is half the mess of a real gingerbread house, and it’s free! You can practice all your candy decorating skills so that when you get that real cookie house, you’ll be a pro.

You can check out the Museum Dec 1st-23rd during Gingerbread House Workshops, where we’ll provide enough candy and gingerbread to make a mansion! Registration just opened,  so sign up all you gingerbread architects!

Download our at-home gingerbread activity here: Paper Gingerbread House and tell us how your gingerbread homes turn out!

At the first table, kids got to choose from pre-made stencils of stars, hearts, and houses (even a rocket ship!) for their design. Using markers, the “picture” was redrawn on the wood plaque, but only looked like random dots.

Parents and kids choosing a template and wood piece to start!

Those random dots came in handy while using the power drills at the next station. Hand drills and power drills (with adult supervision) were used to make holes through wood plaques. Proper safety was explained, such as using goggles and clamping the wood plaques to the table.

Gallery Manager, Matt Brown showing a woodcrafter how to clamp to the table.

Under the hands-on guidance of Gallery Educators, kids got to use power drills and learn how to correctly hold the drill and change the direction of the drill bit to make all the holes for the final step.

Matt Brown helping kids use the ‘big’ power drill.

Gallery Educator, Jennifer Himstedt, helping kids use the electric power drill.

At the last station, a little sanding was used to smooth out the wood plaque. The original pictures were redrawn with different colors of yarn sewn through the holes. Examples were used, but kids had amazing ideas to add colors and make each wood piece an original creation!

Kids sewing the final touches to their creations!

Woodcrafting 101 will be an ongoing program to give kids a hands-on experience working with wood tools and crafts. Gallery Manager and Woodcrafting 101 creator, Matt Brown has been setting up the program and has new ideas for ACM’s new program!  New ideas are in the works and all ages are invited to join with adult supervision! The next Woodcrafting 101 will be on December 3, 2011 at ACM.

If you have adult supervision, a power drill (or hand drill), needle and thread at home: continue reading this post for step-by-step instructions on how to make a wood plaque of your own.

Supplies:

• Wood piece/plaque (Woodcrafting 101 pieces ranged from 5×5 squares to slightly larger rectangles)
• Cardboard
• Hole puncher
• Marker
• Goggles
• Power drill or hand drill
• Clamp
• Table space (recommend a worktable)
• Scrap wood (slightly larger than wood piece being worked on)
• Sand paper
• Needle
• Yarn
• Tape (optional)

1- Make sure you have adult supervision.

2- Make the design you want on the cardboard.

3- Decide, mark, and punch out the holes as your template. Remember to have enough holes to keep the outline of your design, but not too many.

3- Put your cardboard template on your wood piece the way you would like your design to go. Mark with your marker each hole you decided on.

4- Clamp the scrap wood to the table, then clamp the wood piece to the scrap piece. This makes sure the bottom table is protected from being drilled into and holds the wood piece still.

6- Put on your goggles!

7- With adult supervision, hold the drill straight up and down with the drill bit on the hole. (Adults: make sure the directions are correct. Clockwise-drilling down into the wood piece. Counterclockwise-drilling ‘up’ or reverse Turn on the drill and put some pressure and drill through the wood piece to the other side. Repeat with each marked dot.

8- Sand the sides of the wood piece to get a smooth texture. This helps prevent any possible splinters!

9- Thread your needle. Knot or tape the thread on the backside of you design.

10- Continue to thread your design, changing colors as you want, bringing the thread to the backside and knot or tape the end again.

Place your sewn wood piece where you can show off your crafty creation!

Now that’s it’s getting colder, we can think of nothing finer than snuggling up with a blanket and reading our favorite books. And with that in mind…

The 2011 Texas Book Festival is here! Bringing authors and readers together for literacy, ideas, and imagination, this is a free public even that happens every year at the State Capitol here in Austin. This is the 15th annual Texas Book Festival and it will be taking place Saturday and Sunday, October 22-23.

To kick-off this exciting festival, here at ACM we’ll be hosting an event Friday October 21st from 3:30-5:30 where you can meet Doreen Cronin author of  M.O.M. and Eileen Christelow author of Five Little Monkeys Reading in Bed.

Happy reading!