Exploration!

I'm going to keep this short, because I tried blogging from this computer yesterday and it refused to send my post. *sigh* I am having a fantastic time, with one notable exception: internet access. The laptop I brought with me is riddled with viruses and has been cured of all but the one that prevents me from connecting to the internet. And I am finding it really hard to blog from the computers here in the Exploratorium library, partly because it is such a public space, partly because I can't upload pictures, partly because the connection isn't fabulous for blogging, as I discovered yesterday.

Today I watched my very first episode of Iron Science Teacher - a show filmed live at the Exploratorium and webcast from their website. The instructors from the Teacher Institute competed to design brief science demonstrations involving a "secret ingredient" - carbohydrates, in this case. Steve set up a maze to see whether rats prefer carbs to protein, Don performed ballistics experiments using donut-holes, Kathy modeled the digestive system, Paul performed peep science, and Eric demonstrated what happens when you eat carbohydrates while parachuting through the atmosphere of Venus.

I have been very busy building stuff - a microbalance, an automaton, a model of a finger's bones and tendons, a cd air puck, a squeeze box, and more. I have pictures of many of these things and if I ever get more consistently on-line will post those plus links to plans for these items whenever possible.

More to come, hopefully!