We Went That-A-Way

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! - Morean Arts Gallery and Hot Shop (& Dali Museum birthday too!) - 1/10/12

http://www.moreanartscenter.org/

http://www.thedali.org/

First a visit to the Morean Arts Center, showing "Cycled Up" an exhibit of art from various artists mad of recycled materials. Gave us lots of inspiration! They have wonderful educational activities & facilities as well. They always have an open, "hands on" area for kids. Today's table was "card making", AG and I tried our hand at it.

Attached to the Arts Center is the Hot Shop, for glass blowing demonstrations. You can actually have a private hands on lesson for $75. AG desperately wanted to spend her own money to do it, but you have to be at least 16. Jack was thrilled to see that a "Persian Flower" was created in the demonstration, it was amazing. The Chihuly Collection is part of the Morean, so it was great to see after our visit there.

The new Dali Museum turned one, so they had a birthday celebration that we then briefly joined at the end.

"Cycled Up" sculpture

By the Sea - An Aquarium Field Trip

Jack

We went on a field trip on January 26^th with the Florida Aquarium. We went with our friends Craig, Brian (or BK), AnneMarie and Mrs. Suzanne Kenny, their Mom. On the way there we saw a carcass on the side of the road, Craig and I first thought that it was an Alligator but it was actually a Deer. Looking at it was really weird because the stomach was lying in the grass and only one of its legs was still attached the rest was spread out in the grass. It was gross and cool all at the same time.

When we got there they gave us a lesson on how to use a seine net and some other tools and told us what we would generally be doing. We then broke into two groups, our group went for a nature walk in the mangroves. On the walk we learned about the different types of mangroves. There are three different types of mangroves Red, Black and White. Red is in the front and is the greatest protection from erosion because of its root structure that comes up out of the ground and forms a reinforcing “cage”. You can identify the red not only by the root structure but also by its pointy-tipped leaves (“red red, pointy head”). Black is then behind the red and can be identified by its roots that push up like pencils around the base of the plant (pneumatophores), you can also find salt crystals on the underside of its leaves. White is the last line of defense, growing on the highest and driest land of the tidal area, they are also known as Buttonwoods. The walk was really cool, I caught a type of crab called the fiddler crab by hand. After the nature walk, we built our own mangrove line of defense with materials we found on our walk, like twigs, oyster shells, mangrove seeds and a horseshoe crab molt. They took a cup of water and threw it at our defense to test how sturdy it was. Ours was really sturdy because it did not budge.

Then we went to the shoreline to use the seine net a boy, Brice, and I were the first ones up to use the net. On our first try we got flounder, crabs, snails and all different kinds of sea creatures. While we were in the water I spotted a manatee. After that Craig and I went behind the mangroves and found this section of water that we called the “sacred pool”. I caught some Ghost shrimp, fish and a discarded item that I called the “sacred device” that was actually a multitasking digital clock, calendar and thermostat, it was really cool. I had soooo much fun and I would love to do it again.

AnnaGrace

We went on a field trip to Picnic Island, it was really fun and I learned a lot. On our nature walk, I learned that there are three different types of mangroves, red, black and white. Red are closest to the water, black are in the middle and white are in the back. You can identify them in different ways. Red has a rhyme, “red, red, pointy head” because its leaves come to a point, it is also known for its roots that come out of the water like walking legs. Black is behind the red and can be identified by its root structures too, but they come up out of the water like fingers called, pneumatophores and sometimes you can find salt crystals under its leaves. The white is in the back and can be identified by little knobs, or “bolts”, at the base of its leaf. We ended the walk by stopping at the shoreline to catch plankton with bottles with really fine nets attached. We only got one plankton that we could see, it was see-through and looked like it had wavy wings.

After that we learned how to use a sifter a dipping net and a seine net. Anne Marie and l caught snails in the sifter, nothing in the dip net. a flounder, a gruinard and some ghost shrimp in the seine net. It was really fun, I look forward to going back.

Our completed "mangrove defense"

Building our "mangrove defense"

Testing our "mangrove defense"

Looking for plankton

Seine netting

Sifting for critters

The "sacred place"

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Chihuly Exhibit, St. Petersburg, FL (January 6, 2012)

A visit to the Chihuly Collection of the Morean Arts Center, downtown St. Petersburg, FL.

http://www.moreanartscenter.org/

Chihuly - Jack

I went to the Chihuly museum and it was AMAZING, I loved it. It is currently the only permanent collection in the world and was filed with a large selection of chuhuly’s glass art work. One of my favorites is a wooden boat on a black plexiglas surface, so it looked like it was in water, filed with floats (as Chihuly calls them) of balls of blown glass of all different sizes – some 85 pounds! Another piece that I loved is a ruby chandelier, it is not really ruby, it is many red glass “spears” hung together. The tip of each spear is clear glass pulled out past the end so it looks like it’s melting. My last but not least favorite, in fact it is my most favorite, is a blue chandelier that looks like a hundred swans’ necks. It is about 9 to 10 feet tall. Interestingly, Chihuly’s chandeliers are all lit from the outside so that the glass forms can throw different light and shadows. At the gift shop, you can buy actual Chihuly art pieces! They’re only about 18,000 to 30,000 dollars!

Chihuly Museum - AnnaGrace

The Chihuly museum was just so, oh my gosh, AMAZING. Dale Chihuly has SOOOOOO much talent he made the most beautiful chandelier that I have ever seen in my life! It was made of a bunch of glass forms that looked like cherry red icicles tha looked like they were slowly melting.Iit was just SOOOOOO pretty. I also loved a boat filled with glass balls that he called floats. He was inspired to make by the Japenese fishing nets that he found washed up on the beaches in Seattle, where he grew up, as a kid. The nets had glass balls attached at the edges to float them, but Chihuly made his “floats” as big as 85 pounds! He also made these really cool glass figures that he called Persian flowers, there was all of them in sunset colors. They flowed along the wall in orange, yellow and red, it was beautiful. I coldn’t believe that they were even selling his work in the gift shop! The cheapest one you can get is like 3,000 dollars! They are a lot of money but I think it would be worth it. Chihuly was great and I loved it SOOOOOO much..........IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Clean Chemistry! - Making Laundry Detergent (January 2012)

Home Made Laundry Detergent - Jack

As a chemistry experiment, we made laundry detergent. We did that by mixing the following ingredients while learning about their properties.

Ingredients:

Borax, 2 Cups

Washing Soda, 2 Cups

Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 Cup

Lava Soap, 1 Bar, Graded

Mix together and form into quarter-sized balls. Keep in a baggy and use one ball per wash, warm water works best.

The chemical properties combined of the ingredients makes an effective detergent and is much cheaper than store bought.

The chemical properties of the ingredients are

Borax: sodium borate (Na2B4o*10H2O) Discovered over 4,000 years ago usually found deep underground. It is not flammable or reactive. It cleans by converting (H2O) to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) which has non chlorine bleaching ability that won’t damage your clothes. Washing soda (Na2O3-10H2O) is a water softener that removes alcohol, grease and stubborn oil stains. Lava soap has pumice in it which is a volcanic rock that makes it a heavy duty cleanser/scourer.

It was really fun to do and if you are reading this how about you try it out.

Making Landry detergent - AnnaGrace

Ingredients, 2 cups of borax, 2 cups of washing soda, 1 grated bar of lava soap, 1cup of hydrogen peroxide.

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl then add hydrogen peroxide and mix. Make quarter-sized balls from the mixture and place in a baggy to store. Use one ball per load of laundry, its better in warm water.

We learned the properties of the ingredients to understand how they work and how to work with them safely. Borax, is sodium borate ( Na2B4O7 * 10 H2O) it was discovered 4,000 years ago deep in the ground. It is not flammable or reactive. It cleans by converting water molecules (H2O) in to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). It can be toxic if swallowed in larger amounts. Washing soda, is sodium carbonate (Na2 co3) it is a softener and removes grease and tuff oil stains and alcohol. Lava soap contains ground pumice (volcanic rock) making it a heavy duty cleaner and scourer.

It was actually pretty fun making laundry detergent and it is much cheaper than store bought. We also got to test some of the properties we learned about by taking a cupful of the dry ingredients outside to test their flammability. They were not flammable!!!!!!!

Preparing and mixing ingredients.

Forming into balls for individual use.

Finished product! Time to do the laundry!

We're Seeing Stars! - Sea Star dissection at the library (December 2011)

Sea star dissection - AnnaGrace

We went to a sea star dissection at the Florida Aquarium. We learned a lot about the sea star. For instance, it can grow back, or regenerate a lost arm. To eat, they have to basically barf up one of their stomachs (they have two!) and push it in to the shell of the animal they are trying to eat. Another fact before we move on to the juicy stuff is that they don't have blood. They have an orange dot on them called a sieve plate that they use to take in water to circulate throughout their body to function. When we actually cut into our sea star, along its arms, we saw gooey stuff that was its digestive system. Then we got to the good stuff in the middle, it was green, I know what you are thinking, no, it is NOT poop. Well, maybe it was poop, because we were looking at the stomachs and actually found a little shell. Our instructor said she had never seen a sea star with stuff still in its stomach. Because the shell was being digested, it was very delicate and broke very easily.

Sea Star Dissection - Jack

We went to the Florida Aquarium for a home schoolers’ class to dissect a sea star, it was so cool. We took one of my best friends Cullen. We had so much fun and learned many interesting facts about the sea star. For instance, they don't have blood, but they circulate water through their body to function. Also sea stars are not fish so they shouldn’t be called “star fish” but they do look like stars and live in the sea, so they are actually, officially called sea stars. Sea stars are in the same family as the sand dollar, sea biscuit, sea urchin, sea Lilly and sea cucumber, called Echinoderms. Sea stars also have two stomachs, a cardiac stomach and a pyloric stomach. The Cardiac stomach pumps water and nutrients through the body (like a heart – cardiac) the pyloric stomach digests its prey by coming out of its body to engulf its meal. Sea stars eat clams scallops crabs and other crustaceans and the living creatures in coral. This was a really cool experience, Cullen and I made a video that that we will try to post.