ACM visits Architects of Air

17 01 2012

On Saturday, we took a field trip across Lady Bird Lake to visit the temporary art installation, Architects of Air. It was a unique and beautiful experience that we truly recommend. Architects of Air is made up of “luminaria” (but not those brown paper bags with a candle in them) – in this case, luminaria refers to giant inflatable sculptures that you can enter and explore. Inside the puffed up landscape, light and color bounce off the curved and domed walls.

Architects of Air from the outside.

The interactive sculpture has been to over 35 countries and 2 million visitors have passed through the colored walls. The space inside Architects of Air is inflated with surprisingly quite fans. The beautiful and immersive colors are created by sunlight passing through colored panes of plastic (much like the light passing through colored panes of stained glass in a cathedral).

Sunlight passes through the colored strips in the ceiling of Architects of Air, making the whole sculpture light up in many colors.

Architects of Air is set up in the field near the Long Center through January 20th. Admission costs $8, kids 2 and under are free. We recommend getting their early (they open at 10am daily) – and bringing something to entertain your group in line.

Visitors explore the passages and chambers inside Architects of Air.


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Look Up! Ring Around the Moon

12 01 2012

Have you been watching the moon recently? We’ve had a pretty great week of moon watching here in Austin. The moon was full on the 9th (to learn more about Moon Phases, check out this previous post that includes a printable moon phase game!). Last night, the moon appeared round, and red as we watched it from our driveway. This past weekend, we noticed that there was a ring around the moon – then today, we heard on the news that tonight’s weather conditions were good for another visible moon ring occurring.

You can think of the ring around the moon like the Moon’s version of a rainbow. Rainbows appear when rays of sunlight are bent by water droplets in the Earth’s lower atmosphere (that’s why we see rainbows when it’s bright and wet). Rings around the moon are caused by rays of moonlight passing through clouds and ice crystals high up in the Earth’s atmosphere. You can learn a little more about Moon Rings over at Universe Today.

Hopefully it won’t be too cloudy out tonight to see the moon! The moon is supposed to rise tonight at 9:36pm – make sure to bundle up, it’s going to be cold! Leave us a comment with any moon observations.

A particularly impressive Moon Ring.


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New Years Throughout History and Cultures

28 12 2011

The year is about to end, and New Year’s Eve celebrations for 2012 will take place across the country. How do you celebrate the start of the new year? Have you ever thought about how we know when the New Year actually is? This day is marked by our calendar, and that calendar was created by tracking the moon, sun, and earth!

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!


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The Happy Elephant

12 12 2011

Elephants are big happy mammals!

Elephants show joy all the time! When they are greeting of a friend or family member (even a human friend) that they haven’t seen in awhile, after the birth of a baby elephant or when they are playing games!

Typically this expression of joy takes place in the form of a greeting ceremony. When family members or friends meet, all the elephants gather around and celebrate. During this greeting the elephants involved will spin around, with their heads held high, and ears flapping they fill the air with a symphony of trumpets, rumbles, screams, and roars.

Also, elephants play games! They throw objects, twist, and interact with their elephant friends. Typically, elephants begin a playing session by trumpeting. Elephants can have fun playing with their friends or playing by themselves, they love to play either way!

Did you know:

  •     The elephant is the largest of all land mammals
  •     Life Span – elephants can live for up to 70 years!
  •     Elephants are able to swim for long distances
  •     Elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating!
  •     They consume as much as 495 pounds of food per day
  •     They live in tight social units
  •     Their tusks are of ivory and are actually enormously enlarged teeth
  •     The elephant’s eyes are small and its eyesight is poor
  •     They have the largest brains in the animal kingdom!

Here at ACM we think these happy mammals are enormous and jolly and so very neat!


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Parfait/Sinkie Day!

25 11 2011

November 25th is National Parfait Day!

Did you know that the word “parfait” means “perfect” in French? This certainly makes sense because parfaits are a perfect dessert, you can create the perfect combinations of flavors to excite your very own taste buds.

A parfait consists of  layers of ice cream, whipped cream, syrups, fruits, granola, nuts, the combinations are endless!.  I bet this is sounding familiar to you isn’t it? Well parfait is basically a fancy word for a sundae!

While chocolate is my favorite, use your imagination to create a wide range of single and mixed flavors. I bet you have some Thanksgiving leftovers, wouldn’t a Pumpkin Parfait be marvelous?

If the delightful combination of delicious flavors in a parfait is not enough for you, try eating it over a sink. That’s right your kitchen sink! Not only is November 25th National Parfait Day, it’s also Sinkie Day.

Christmas shopping and Thanksgiving leftovers provide the perfect reasons to enjoy a quick meal. It’s the day many people discover the benefits of becoming a SINKIE and go on to many years of dining over the sink.

Who wouldn’t want to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving by eating a parfait over the sink? Enjoy!


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Thankful Turklings!

21 11 2011

The turkey is an American celebrity. It is one of the most famous birds in North America. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey the national bird of the United States instead of the bald eagle!The wild turkey we usually see in pictures is not the same as the domestic turkey that we eat at Thanksgiving. Domestic or tame turkeys weigh twice what a wild turkey does and are raised on farms. Most domestic turkeys are so heavy they are unable to fly.

Wild turkeys on the other hand, can fly. They sleep in the low branches of trees at night, and how else would they get to their bed but by flying. They spend their days foraging for food like acorns, seeds, small insects and wild berries. Wild turkeys are covered with dark feathers that help them blend in with their woodland homes. The bare skin on the throat and head of a turkey can change color from flat gray to striking shades of red, white, and blue when the bird becomes distressed or excited.

Each spring male turkeys try to befriend as many females as possible. Male turkeys, also called “tom turkeys” or “gobblers” puff up their bodies and spread their tail feathers, like a peacock. They grunt, make a gobble-gobble sound and strut about shaking their feathers. This fancy turkey trot helps the male attract female “hens” for mating.

After the female turkey mates, she prepares a nest under a bush in the woods and lays her tan and speckled brown eggs. She incubates as many as 18 eggs at a time. It takes about a month for the chicks to hatch. When the babies, known as “poults” or “turklings” hatch, they flock with their mother all year.

If you want to get into the Thanksgiving spirit, you can celebrate the celebrity of the turkey with us and make your own little turkling!

Follow the link below for instructions!

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Brain Movies: Scanning the Visual Cortex

18 11 2011

Imagine if you could watch your dreams and the images inside your head like a movie… seems impossible right?

But recently, with a cutting-edge blend of brain imaging and computer simulation, scientists at the University of California-Berkeley, have gotten closer to this impossible idea.

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (brain scans) and a computer, UC Berkeley researchers reconstructed people’s visual experiences. Their computer program recreated an image from inside someone’s mind.

So far, the technology can only reconstruct movie clips people have already viewed. However, the breakthrough is the first step towards reproducing the movies inside our heads that no one else sees, such as dreams and memories. It’s like opening a window into the movies in our minds.

Eventually, the technology could help to understand what goes on inside the minds of people who cannot communicate verbally, such as stroke victims, coma patients or other people with neurodegenerative diseases (loss of brain functions).

In the experiment, they watched two separate sets of Hollywood movie trailers, while fMRI was used to measure blood flow through the visual cortex (the part of the brain that processes visual information). The brain activity was recorded by a computer program that learned to associate visual patterns in the movie with the corresponding brain activity. The computer program then produced a blurry reconstruction of what was seen inside the brain.

Check out the image that was seen (on the left) and the blurry reconstructed image from the computer program (on the right). It looks like a painting, pretty amazing right?

If you find the brain as fascinating as we do, then check out this website: The Secret Life of the Brain they show all the techniques used to look inside the brain, such as the fMRI we mentioned above.

What would your brain movies look like? Would your movie show an action sequence or a cartoon, or something never seen before? Tell us what your brain thinks.


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Historical Spotlight: Jeans!

8 11 2011

If you look in your closet, most of your pants are blue aren’t they? That’s because blue-jeans are the most popular type of pants. So do you know the history of these trendy trousers?

As American as we think jeans are, the history of blue jeans actually goes back to 16th Century Europe. The story goes that “jean” derives from the word Genoa. It refers to the material that sailors from Genoa used in their pants. On the other hand, the origin of the term “denim” can be traced to late 16th century France where a fabric known as “serge de Nimes” (Twill from Nimes) was very popular. Both fabrics grew in popularity, but denim was the stronger and more expensive of the two.

By the late 19th century, weavers in America were making fabric in the same fashion as the European denim, but using the locally produced cotton fibers. The material had a reputation for being very strong and not wearing out quickly, in spite of many washes. That’s why you can get away with wearing jeans for days on end!

The modern history of blue jeans starts with Levi Strauss. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? That’s because you can still buy Levi jeans today! Levi moved to California in 1853 during the Gold Rush. He followed his family business , and opened a dry goods store where he sold fabric. His denim fabric became very popular in the region, where prospectors needed strong material to last while gold mining all day.

A tailor named Jacob Davis bought Levi’s fabric and started making men’s work pants with metal points of strain for greater strength. Those rivets of metal along your jeans may seem small but they are what make them durable and strong. Without rivets, the pockets would rip. Levi and Jacob Davis went into business together and jeans have been unstoppable since.

We’ve gotten even more creative with manufacturing jeans now, some companies have even started making them out of recycled plastic bottles!

So jeans can be traced back to 16th century Frenchmen, Italian sailors, and Californian gold-rushers! Now you know that your baggy-jeans , hip-huggers, bell-bottoms, pre-washed, and distressed jeans, they’re all a part of history!


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Practice Pointillism

2 11 2011

So many dots!

Pointillism is a neat way of painting. The word itself: Point (dots) and ism (stlye) is exactly what it means, the style of dots. French artist George Seurat invented this time-consuming painting technique. Look at Seurat’s painting above from far away, it looks like a normal landscape painting doesn’t it? But once you get close to it you can see that the image is actually made out of lots and lots of tiny dots. Can you imagine how long that took?

When you view from a distance your eye blends the dots together, this is called optical blending. You can see this in Seurat’s painting The Eiffel Tower (pictured on the right). When you look at it, it looks orange, but really he only used tiny dots of red and yellow which your eyes blend to make the color orange. Instead of mixing the paint himself, he is making your eye do all the work!

This technique of optical blending, dividing the colors instead of blending them, was also called divisionism. Divisionism included pointillism, but an artist could create this optical illusion with more than the use of dots. For example, Vincent van Gogh used divisionism in his famous painting The Starry Night, instead of using dots he used lines. If you look closely you can see the lines from his brush everywhere, it makes it seem like the sky is moving.

If you want to practice pointillism and divisionism yourself, just print this coloring activity and use markers for the dots and lines: Artist Activity

Look how ours turned out:

Hang them up when you’re done and marvel at your masterpieces!


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Make Your Own Silent Film

31 10 2011

I bet you like to watch movies, right? But have you ever seen a silent film?

Before there were 3D and Imax movies there were silent movies. These started as short movies that only lasted 30 minutes and only cost 5 cents! The movies would have a piano to go along with the soundless images, and sometimes even a full orchestra. Movies didn’t have sound until around 1927 with the first film “The Jazz Singer” which was called a “talkie“.

Buster Keaton in "Sherlock, Jr." photo by John McNab on Flickr

Until that point, films were silent and had to tell a story without sound. The actors had to be over-dramatic (like when you play charades) in order to tell the story right, they sometimes used heavy makeup too. If something was thought too difficult for the audience to understand, they would use title cards. Title cards were shots of written words that would portray what the actor was saying, or tell of the place they were, or sometimes even tell part of the story.

One of my favorite silent film actors was Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton was a comedian who grew up acting in Vaudeville shows, which were similar to circus acts. His background Vaudeville acting came in handy with his silent film career as a comedian. Buster would perform daring and funny stunts all without the use of sound. He even directed his own silent films!

If you want to be like Buster Keaton and direct your own silent film, all you have to do is make a flipbook. A flipbook is a book which has pictures that vary from page to page, so that when you turn the pages fast it makes an animation.

This is similar to how a film reel works with movies, only they have lots more pictures which are called frames, and are much faster. An easy way to start is to use a writing pad that already has blank pages stacked together. You can start with a title like the silent movies do with their title cards. Then begin your story by drawing something like a stickman, go to the next page and redraw the stickman, but have some part of him be slightly moved, like his legs. Keep drawing, each page a little different and once you flip the pages it looks like he’s walking. Check out our flipbook below:

And tell us how your silent movies turn out!


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Odd October Observances

27 10 2011

October isn’t just for Halloween. There are all sorts of bizarre holidays you can celebrate before November gets here.  We all know Halloween is October 31st every year, but did you know there is also a Frankenstein Day?

This year Frankenstein Friday falls on the 28th. Celebrate by dressing up as a monster, or honor the writer and creator of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and write your own monster story. Can you describe a monster scarier than Frankenstein?

October 30th, isn’t just the day before Halloween, it’s also Candy Corn Day. Did you know that candy corn is actually made with corn? These yummy confections are made with a very precise method using a corn starch molding process.

Photo by ScrambledHenfruit.blogspot.com

And don’t just celebrate Halloween by dressing up. You can also commemorate this day with caramel apples! Caramel apple day falls on Halloween each year, and you can celebrate by making your own caramel apples. Or you can follow our recipe below to make caramel apple cookies!

Have fun with all of these wacky holidays by printing out this neat coloring activity (pictured above): October Holidays Coloring Sheet

Are you still October Obsessed? To get the most out of the end of October, you can also visit the Texas Memorial Museum Oct. 30th for their Fright at the Museum event. You can explore the mysterious side of Texas’ natural history. Feel frightful fish from the ocean depths, be rattled by slithery snakes of Central Texas. Feast your eyes on bizarre bugs while they serve up creepy, crawly critters for your culinary delight.

Have an odd October!

And follow the link below for instructions on how to make your own caramel apple cookies

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2011 Texas Book Festival

20 10 2011

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!


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Celebrate Chemistry Week with Lava…

6 10 2011

…in a cup! 

Did you know that volcanoes are just a bunch of lava?

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. Volcanoes form after the eruption of molten lava cools and leaves a raised platform, after repeated eruptions the volcano gets bigger and bigger. We find lava and volcanoes endlessly interesting here at ACM, we even have a featured volcano in our current exhibit Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice.

So what’s happening in this experiment? First of all, the oil floats on top of the water because it is lighter (less dense) than the water. Since the salt is heavier (or more dense) than oil, it sinks down into the water and takes some oil with it, but then the salt dissolves and the oil heads back to the top.

The lava in the cup is demonstrating something you might learn in chemistry class: density. Density refers to mass per unit volume of an object. Most objects have a fixed density, however temperature sometimes can affect this. For example, as lava cools it becomes harder and more dense, neat huh?

If you like this experiment, then you should check out the Museum on Sunday, October 9th, where you can get your hands on your own chemistry activities in honor of National Chemistry Week!


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What’s that rumbling in the distance?

3 10 2011

ROARRR!!

THE DINO’S ARE HERE!!!

These late-cretaceous creatures are roaming around ACM  in our exhibit, Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice. Can you handle the heat from the volcano? Will the ice freeze your toes? You’ll have to come see for yourself, and try not to go extinct!

Our staff had the wonderful opportunity to get a hands on learning experience about dinosaurs thanks to our friends at The Austin Nature and Science Center. They even have their very own Dino Pit!

If you dig dinosaurs as much as we do, then you should also stop by The Texas Memorial Museum for their Family Fossil Fun Day on Sunday October 9th. You’ll see Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis, an early ancestor to giant sauropod dinosaurs. Learn about the discovery of this claw-handed dinosaur!

Are you tired of all this dino-talk yet? Then come to ACM’s Dinosnore Sleepover October 14th-15th, meet a paleontologist, eat some prehistoric pizza and sleep like a stegosaurus!  You have until October 7th to sign up.

You should check out all these fun dino-deals, and tell us about it… don’t be a no-fun-a-saurus!


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Origami Origins Unfolded…

30 09 2011

Have you ever made a paper plane? Well I bet as you made it you didn’t know you were practicing origami, did you? Origami which means paper folding in Japanese, is just that: folding paper. But it is much more complex than your average folded sheet. The way in which you fold your paper can create many intricate designs. The traditions of paper folding are rooted in China and go as far back as 100 A.D. That’s 1,911 years ago!

One of the most common things to create in origami is a crane. The Japanese word for crane is Tsuru, and the bird is a symbol for happiness, good luck, and peace. For the Japanese, the crane also represents long-life, as it was believed in tales that a crane could live 1,000 years! That’s why the belief is that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes you will be granted a wish by the mystical bird.

Come check out our 1,000 paper cranes here at ACM. The paper cranes here were created by the Thousand Cranes of Peace project. Their project provides resources to families seeking peace from domestic violence.

If you’d like a wish to be granted, learn how to fold the famous crane here: Origami Peace Crane.

And if you would like a simpler origami project, follow the slideshow below to make your own origami house!

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Let us know how your origami projects turned out! And tell us about a wish you have worth 1,000 paper cranes.


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