Monday was another great homeschool day at the New York Hall of Science. We got there around 10:30am to catch a chemistry demonstration. We watched how liquid nitrogen can freeze water in 30 seconds and make a latex balloon shatter like glass. There were discussions about the properties of matter and we saw how boiling water in a soda can creates a vacuum when immersed in ice water. W's class was at 11am and this one was called "Journey Into Microspace". He learned all the main parts of the microscope (eye, nose, arm, stage, light, base) and checked out different micro-organisms (diletus, volvox, euplotes, paramecium, amoeba, blepharisma, etc). After his class, he got an awesome certificate and we stayed to explore the science center for another hour.
Tuesday was the first of a series of 10 Mad Science classes with the homeschool group. W loves the Mad Science workshops - he hasn't done one in a few years, but he remembers how fun they were. It's basically an hour-long science class "performed" by a comedian with a trunkload of props and lots of hands-on stuff for the kids to do. The price was right, a bunch of his friends signed up as well, and it's right in Queens - definitely a yes for us. This class was all about spies and gadgets. W was in a group of 5 other boys his age and they got to try out different gadgets. First was a metal detector. 
Small pieces of metal were hidden under a big layer of newspaper and each child had to find where they were. The next gadget was a pair of night-vision goggles. They used these to see a page of objects in the dark and see how many they remembered. Then they all got to try out walkie-talkies. They learned about channels and frequencies, too. W loved it and can't wait to go again next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment