Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2015; 5:00-10:00
pm
 |
| Yes, there was one of these as well |
Tonight’s theme was called “Back 2 The Future”, as a tribute to the year shown in the 2nd
film - 2015, with its flying cars. Well,
I’m still waiting for that. I arrived
and while checking in, met Kat our new Volunteer Coordinator who has replaced
Natalie. I joined my colleagues for our
staff meeting and saw that all of tonight’s activities were aligned with the
movie. They had even managed to secure a
‘DeLorean’ that was parked outside for
photo ops. Not sure if it was powered by
a “Gigawatt Flux Capacitor” though!
We went on a tour and saw the ‘Rube Goldberg Machine’ activity where visitors were asked to
design a contraption that would “feed the
dog”, by dropping a jar of “dog food”
balls, into a dog food bowl on the floor – similar to the opening scene of the
first movie. Next, we went across to the
“Curiosity Classroom” to see the “3-D printers” in action. I saw one printer making a toy ‘DeLorean’ and also a complex 3-D vase
which would take all of 3 hours to make.
I asked what material was being used and the gentleman said “ABS”.
Aah, I remember a paper I had to write on it back in the day. I asked the cost of operation and apparently
it’s not much, just a few dollars.
‘Argonne Lab’ was doing some sort of an “acoustic demo” where small objects
could be suspended in air using sound waves.
The only problem was that you could hear that frequency and it wouldn’t
be pleasant after a longer exposure. I
asked what the practical application was and one guy said “Applied Science”. This wasn’t
revealing and so I followed up with, “How
do you make money”, and the other person responded that Pharmaceutical
companies had shown interest for some of their drug studies. We went upstairs to see the “Photobooth” which had props from the
movie like the futuristic jacket, wigs, glasses and of course, the “Hoverboard”! Our final stop was at the beer station and in
the spirit of the movie; a brewery had developed special brews just for this
evening. Every guest was to have 3
tickets each for samples and they needed volunteers to help collect these
tickets. Yay for science!
It was just after 6 pm and I went over for my first
assignment, which was at ‘Rube Goldberg Machine’. There was no one over in the classroom except
a staff member Adrianna. For the next
several minutes we had a good discussion around the ‘Milky Way’ and center of galaxy, but still no one was coming. We also realized that the tiny balls were
bouncing off the dog bowl as they fell from the table, adding to the complexity
of the design. There were several things
that people could use in their construction, including pipes and cardboard
pieces as well as other paraphernalia. A
couple came in and we explained the task, at which they got very excited. Others started coming in and soon the room
got full.
The people were really committed to the task and we had
several ideas in progress simultaneously.
People were ingenious and some had put a box around the dog food bowl to
prevent the balls from escaping. I was
walking about giving advice and challenged one team to trigger the fall without
touching, mentioning that they could use the vibrate function on their phone by
calling it, thus setting it in motion. A
group of 4 girls came in and they were carrying a cake box. They said that it was their friend’s birthday
and she wasn’t here yet. At this I said
that I would eat the cake if she didn’t show up soon! The room was busy and many were waiting to do
their own thing, but my time was up and I reluctantly left
I was on “Pocket
Science” for my next shift and I went downstairs to get my favorite, “Smelly Space”. Some of the bottles were losing their fragrance
and I had to find the ones which still had some smell. I picked “Jupiter
– inner and outer”, “Moon” and “Venus”.
I came upstairs and saw that the party was on in the “Solar System Gallery”. I walked about in the “Mission Moon” section and saw a couple who looked lost. I gave them some guidance and then asked if
they wanted to do an activity with me.
When they said yes, I took them through my routine. I went outside and was approached by two
girls and a guy, who asked me what they should do. I said that they could do something with me and
so took them through the activity as well.
They were very attentive and one of the girls was making a limerick with
the planets - though I stopped her before she could do Uranus!
It was 8 pm and I was at the “Beer Ticket Line” next, collecting tickets and putting them in a
box. Yeah, very scientific indeed. There was a long line and I was taking
tickets non-stop and telling the beer pourers which sample the guests wanted. Fortunately for me, soon only one type was
still remaining and so all I had to do was tell them how many samples and
collect that many tickets. With 3
tickets each the guests were consuming a lot of beer. So much so that we were soon out of beer at
this station. There was another station
and so I went there and relieved Bob.
Over here they still had 2 types and so I was back to asking guests
their choice I was also picking up the
samples and handing them to people meaning I was really busy…very very busy. For the next 30-40 minutes all I did was take
orders and hand people the beer of their choice - till we ran out of both
beers. While doing this, I met my
friends to whom I had given my tickets for this evening, and they vouched for
the validity of the beer.
My last duty was at the “Photobooth”,
where I was to take peoples pictures using their phones. People would come, dress up in props and then
pose for me. Many were wearing the “Doc Brown wig”, white coat and glasses
while others were doing the “Marty McFly Jacket”.
But no matter what, everyone used the “Hoverboard”. One lady was not getting in the photo with
her friends and I urged her to do so, which she finally did. When she came back for more with other
people, I joked that she was now hooked and wanted a portfolio done. I took hundreds of pictures and around 9:50 pm
Michael came and asked me to wrap up. Downstairs in “Johnson Theater”,
a trivia game was in progress. Although I would have loved to have stayed, I
collected my things and left after a fun evening…and the theme was my favorite
movie too.
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