Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2015; 5:30-10:00
pm
I arrived at Adler and was signing in when Michael asked if
I wanted “Smelly Space”. “Absolutely
yes”, I said. I went up to the
classroom for pizza and sat with some of the other “Education” volunteers. They
were discussing some comet viewing from the previous night and since I had
flown into Chicago, I was disappointed that I had not gotten a glimpse from the
plane…as if I spent any time looking out of plane windows when travelling. Usually I'm writing one of these articles. Michael got everyone together and gave us our schedules for
the evening. The theme was “The End” and ‘REI’ had set up 3 stations for survival skills. Michael then took us on a tour to see all 3
which were, “Water Purification”, “Starting A Fire” and “10 Things You Need To Survive”. I wasn’t scheduled for any of these stations,
though I would be doing “Duct Tape”,
where we were encouraging visitors to come up with their “craziest” interpretations using duct tape. Michael said that there would be a prize for
one of us; whomever convinced the visitors to make something out of the ordinary.
My first task was “Smelly
Space”, where I had 3 squeeze bottles labeled ‘Moon’, ‘Titan’ and ‘Sagittarius’. I mingled with the guests and started asking
people to participate by smelling each bottle and guessing the fragrance. Many could smell the “gasoline” in Titan and the fruity smell of Sagittarius or even the
“dusty” smell of the Moon. I would then ask my usual questions on how we
knew and how we got those in the bottles.
It is always interesting to hear the responses such as “We have been there” and “We have sent probes”. I then explain the principle behind this,
including the concept of Spectroscopy using the tube with the grating and the
light bulbs in the ceiling. People love
this activity and so do I. One girl said
that it was her birthday and so took a picture smelling one of the bottles…though
I do not remember which one. I was grabbing
folks wherever possible, ranging from the food court to the drink line, and to
their credit, everyone participated with enthusiasm. I saw one guy standing next to the meteorite
and did the routine with him. At the end
of my demonstration I would encourage the guests to go to the Spectroscopy
experiment downstairs, where people would guess the “mystery gas” in the tube by comparing their spectra with
reference.
My next shift was in the ‘SVL’
and I positioned myself at the ‘Nuiverse’
table. It was slow over there as
everyone who came in, went to listen to the Astronomer talk about ‘Black Holes’. While I waited for someone to show up,
Cynthia – who runs this lab – showed me how to use the “Virtual Reality Goggles”.
These are pretty cool and allow the user to look all around you,
including behind, and explore places like Mars, Mercury etc. Cynthia said that this was an expensive tool
and that I should be careful. A couple
came and started playing on the ‘Nuiverse’
table. I asked if there was any
particular planet that they wanted to visit and as is common, the response from
the guy was “Uranus”. I brought it up on the display and asked them
if they could discern anything from the moons.
The woman actually knew that it was female characters from Shakespeare and
I gave her kudos for that. Someone came
in and wanted to see Europa, asking if there was life over there because of the
water. I said that we do not know,
though I recommended that they get some Wine and Chinese takeout tomorrow and watch the
movie ‘Europa Report’! I had a few other visitors, including someone
who wanted to try the goggles. It was
time for my next shift and I left after asking Cynthia to keep an eye on them.
I arrived at the "Duct Tape" table and saw a big crowd making
lot of interesting things using duct tape, cardboard and colored tape. Many things were already on display including
slippers, a shopping bag and a device which I was told was “something for women to use so as to go to the bathroom”! Yeah, that’s exactly how it was phrased by
the lady who had made it. By far that
was the leader in the clubhouse as far as Michael’s competition was concerned,
for which woman wouldn’t want that when the apocalypse arrives! I jumped in and started challenging people to
make something unique. One couple came
and I said that they each should do different things. The girl was totally focused while the guy
quickly made a watch. I said that it
would be right twice a day! Then I asked
him to put a wedge on top so as to make a sundial. His girlfriend was still making her thing so
I asked him to make another watch for her, which he did. She was making something like a box with handle,
but I told her to just call it “Thor’s
Hammer”, which she agreed with. She
left it for me to display on our makeshift cabinet.
 |
| Evelyn |
A group of 5 girls came over to check what was happening and
I asked them to give it a go. One of
them was wearing a hat and I said that they could make a strap for her hat,
like the days of “Wild West”. One girl took charge and said to others to
make her a “fanny pack”. While they worked I said that it was smart of
her to make them do everything. As the product
developed, I said that it could be a carrier for drinks throughout the rest of
the evening, and I asked them to put 2 empty duct tape rolls inside as holders. I said that the joke will then be on the girl
in charge, since she would be carrying their drinks! After it was done they took pictures and it
looked really great. Michael even said
that it was now the leader, meaning I was in line for the prize. Some of the other things people made were
glasses, a champagne flute and well, a thong…which would probably be a
companion piece to the “bathroom device”. One trio came over and the girl used colored
duct tape to make a small Duck. It looked
fantastic and I said that we should name it.
The girl deferred to me and I called her “Evelyn” and said that there could be series of events featuring
this ducky, like “Evelyn in space”
etc. By now, the girl who had made
this liked the concept and took pictures with the duck. She was going to throw it away, but I said I
would love to keep Evelyn as a souvenir.
My shift at this station was up and before leaving, I told the volunteer
replacing me to save Evelyn no matter what, and she promised to do so.
For the final hour I was once again doing “Smelly Space” and walking about
engaging people. Then I ran into these 2
women and for next 20 minutes they kept asking me a lot of questions. One of them was actually a Sagittarius and
since the smell from that bottle was of Rum & Raspberries, she loved it. They wanted to know about ‘Dark Matter’ etc. and took them
downstairs to show the exhibit. They
were really excited to be here and thanked me for spending time with them and
even took pictures with me. There were a
few others before it was time to wrap up and before heading downstairs, I went
to pick up Evelyn…but she was gone. They
had cleaned up everything and thrown away whatever had not been picked up. I was disappointed but as I went to the
volunteer office, I saw that Evelyn had been saved. My colleague had been true to her word. I never saw the prize Michael had promised us, but I had something to remember this evening. I took the bus and sat next to the
guy who was near the meteorite when I did my demonstration. I learned he was in town from Houston for a
training seminar and was going back to school after military service. I immediately liked him and I helped him get
on the right train as he took it back to his hotel near O’Hare. It was his one free night and he had chosen
to come spend it with us. People like
him are reason enough for us to bring our “A-Game”
every session.
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