#2 son has all the timing and sense of a rhinoceros. He has memorized half of the science books out there, but doesn't base his own inventions in reality, so started to rattle off some of his far out imaginary inventions at people. Had to remind him a few times to let the presenter say his or her piece.
He passed up Shakashiri in order to see all of the displays; went through them much more slowly than his sister. Not so interested in the biology except the bird beaks, which were more "mechanical"--a tool matched to a bird's beak showing how a bird gets its food. So the "kiwi" beak was chop sticks tied together, for picking gummi worms out of a pile of oreo crumbs, a pelican's beak was a strainer spoon for scooping miniature marshmallows out of a bowl of water, etc.
Spent the most time at the alternative energy display. Saw the solar cooker, made of a plywood box containing a smaller box of cardboard lined with foil, and old newspapers for insulation, with a glass top. Had heard of these, for use in third world countries to keep down overuse of timber resources. #2 son played with a lot of motors, loved his spectrum glasses and the display of spectrography, comparing the spectra of nitrogen, neon, and white light. He didn't like shaking up the vial of wheat germ +water+soap+alcohol for nearly 3 minutes, but did enjoy drawing a lot of DNA goop out of it.
Asked one presenter about his project, which involves controlling runoff at Aldo Leopold Nature Center, which is in our old neighborhood and is a favorite place. Cringed when I heard him talk about a rainstorm as a "rain event."
We brought home a bag of "loot", including his vial of DNA Goop from wheat germ, the prismatic glasses, lots of maps and worksheets. He gave his chocolate covered "Peep" (TM) to his sister.
A good messy time had by all. But my feet hurt.
mrs james
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