Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, June 19, 2014; 5:00-10:30
pm
With 4 projects within a month, it seemed like I was a
permanent staff member over here.
Tonight was June’s episode of ‘After
Dark’ and the title for this month was “Planetary
Prom”. The idea was to have a prom
night inside the planetarium. Michael
sent over the list of experiments and the main theme was dry ice and the chief
experiment was titled “Mars Ice”,
well because it was set on Martian surface.
I arrived a little after 5 pm and joined the group for pizza in the
boardroom. We had a lot of people
present today, including a college professor who had invited his students to
attend the sessions that were on this evening, and then report back to him on
what they saw and had learnt. That is not
how I remember my homework from when I was in school!
At 6 pm Michael assembled all of the ‘Education Hosts’ and we left for a tour. Besides ‘Mars
Ice’, other activities were making ‘ExoPlanet
Scepters’, ‘Space Visualization Laboratory’, ‘Pocket Science’ and the ‘Historical Society’ had brought some
props with them for educating people, and required some volunteers to stay and
watch over them. While on the tour,
Michael said that I would be going over to help with registration and was
required there immediately. Before I
left I got the first pick at the remaining schedule and so selected ‘Kepler’s Scepters’, ‘Mars Ice’ and ‘Speaking Historically’.
I arrived at registration and saw that the people had already
lined up outside the doors. I could tell
that many had dressed up as if it was a prom.
In fact, Adler staff members were dressed up as well. The place had been decorated like a prom
dance, including projection of songs from ‘Grease’
and ‘80s’ music playing in the
background. My task was to direct people
to the open registration person who would check them in. There were 6 ladies in charge of putting on
wristbands and I joked with them saying that I would accept money for directing
- or not directing - people to them! The
gates opened at 6:30 and there was a mad rush of visitors coming in. I was directing them based on which
registration lane was open or whoever had their hand up. If no one was free, I would ask the visitors
to wait and engage them in conversation, asking if this was their first time
visiting, were they excited etc. Two
ladies, who were staff members, came over to praise me for my efficiency and
asked if I had done this before. I said
no, I was just observing and reacting.
Its really not rocket science.
 |
| Exoplanets |
At 7:10 pm my relief had not arrived and I was supposed to
be at my next stop. Natalie said that
she would take over and so I headed to the classroom which had the ‘Kepler’s Scepters’ station. The idea was to get people to design ‘Exoplanets’ on a Styrofoam ball. There were several of those lying around as
well as sticks to mount them on. Along
with that there was paint and brushes and other decoration items like ribbons
etc. On the wall were mounted pictures
and information on some of the actual ‘Exoplanets’
and people could decorate based on them or design their own. They could leave their designs to dry and
collect at the end of the evening. People
were walking in the classroom with their drinks in hand and when they heard
what we were doing over here, were excited to participate. I asked them what ‘Exoplanets’ meant and many said it was planets outside the
galaxy. I would correct them and say
that it only meant planets outside our solar system. I would then ask which their favorite was from
the pictures that were up there and people would usually pick the one with
brightest colors. One of the planets had
a ring and if someone picked that, I would encourage them to make that ring
around their planet. Many actually did a
great job using a cup or a plate. It was
amazing to see peoples enthusiasm and many were leaving their scepters for
drying on a cart before proceeding for the rest of their evenings
activities.
My relief came over at 8 pm and I moved to my next task,
which was ‘Mars Ice’. I was paired with the veteran volunteer Bob,
who had come for my wireless demonstration at last weeks ‘Member’s Night’ event. There
were several demonstrations set up with dry ice, though the main one was to
solve the mystery of the canals on Mars.
Bob was great at leading the visitors towards that experiment and I
spent most of my initial time observing him.
First, he would start by asking people what dry ice was and many knew
that it was nothing but solid carbon dioxide.
Next, he would talk about the process of ‘sublimation” and we would demonstrate that by adding water to dry
ice and creating smoke. Then we would
form a soap film on top of the bowl, which would expand into a bubble due to
the trapped smoke. We were encouraging
the visitors to create the film and many were failing and the bubble kept
collapsing. One girl got it though and
it looked spectacular, like a crystal ball.
Next, we would put a piece of dry ice in a film canister and seal
it. We would ask people what would
happen next and the answer was obvious.
The sublimation would build up pressure and blow the lid off. As I did this experiment, I would usually ask
people to step back a bit since it went off with a pop.
Finally, all of this knowledge would be put together to
explain the mystery of canals on Mars.
There was an inclination with sand on it to simulate surface on
Mars. When you put a wooden block on
top, it would not slide due to the friction.
However, dry ice owing to sublimation creates a thin film of gas between
it and the surface and thus comes sliding down, while creating tracks. This was the reason for the canals, not water
as had been thought before, since that would lead to a delta. Plus, when the temperature crossed above negative 109 degrees, the block would sublimate leaving no evidence. Bob would conclude
by saying there were no “Martians”
making canals, irrespective of what “War
Of The Worlds” said. People loved
this experiment and many stopped by, asking a lot of questions in the
process. It was a fun way to solve a 150
year old mystery.
At 9 pm I went over to ‘Historically
Speaking’ and there were 3 items on display. Two were the earliest animation machines where
motion could be simulated using mirrors and pictures. The 3rd object was a monkey who
was placed in front of “Maxwell’s Triangle”. There were 3 openings and you could do
multiplication with the numbers in two holes and the product in the 3rd. It seemed like there was some confusion in scheduling
and I was in fact supposed to at ‘Kepler’s
Scepters’ again. I was happy to do
so and arrived at the classroom to see several orbs that were drying on the
rack. Everyone was having fun with
designs and there were some creative ones there. Two girls came it and called me “teacher: I used that phrase to have fun with them and
one of them was even dressed like “Cinderella”
– without the glass slippers though. One
girl had made a scepter with 3 zones, one she called a zone for skiing and
vacation, 2nd at the poles for partying and the 3rd was a
heart shaped one where she said people could go for honeymoon. Her boyfriend was making one with lot of
colors and he called it a “Hangover
planet”. I said they should connect
the planets with a stick, so as to have a direct line from her party zone to
his planet!
There was a group from ‘Field
Museum’ and I said that they should have an after dark program called “Shots with Sue”. They enjoyed that a lot. Another couple joined several orbs together
and called it “Constellation Virgo”,
though it looked like a chemical molecule to me. One girl had tied her orb with ribbons and
said that hers existed in another universe.
I said that laws of physics may be different in that universe and so
there was no reason why a planet could not exist with ribbons. I said that with trillions of planets,
everyone’s design may exist somewhere.
Time was running out though and people were coming in. They were pleading to make spheres,
saying they would be fast. By far this
has been one of the most popular programs that I have attended here.
We closed at 10 pm and had to turn away a few disappointed
people. Then we mounted all of the scepters
on trolleys and moved them to the hallway. After that Michael, I and couple of other volunteers cleaned up the room to
the best of our ability. We threw away
plates with paint and other garbage and put all of the supplies on
trolleys. Also, we put the chairs on the
tables, so that the cleaners could mop the floor which had some paint stains. I left in the rain and waited for the bus with
some of the visitors. It had been a long
and exhausting night, but one of the best ‘Adler
After Dark’ events for me.
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