Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2016; 5:45-10:30
pm
I was volunteering after missing a few sessions and was
running late. I joined my colleagues in
the staff area and heard Bob mention how this had been a good “star-gazing” week. Tonight theme was called “Jumping Jupiter” and all the programs had been designed around
well, Jupiter. Michael was on vacation
and so Adriana was going to be our coordinator for the evening. She was extremely enthusiastic and showed us
a “Planet Pin” that she had made and
something that we would all have an opportunity to do. I saw my schedule and I was supposed to attend
a lecture during my 3rd shift, from 8:30-9:30 pm, which would be a
nice break.
We left for a tour and our first stop was in in the “PXP Classroom” or as it would be called
this evening - “The Storm Lab”; and
it was looking more organized and cleaner than ever before. There were 4 different set-ups there,
including one where the guests would pour milk in some plastic cups, add a few
drops of food coloring to it, and then dip a “q-tip” into a soap solution and gently touch the colored spot. The
colors appear to rush away from each other and that is due to the phenomenon of
“surface tension” and the difference
in the polarities of soap and milk.
Another exhibit was a bowl of water on a “LED” lit stand and mounted on a turntable. The turntable would…turn and as you added
some food coloring, you could see the vortices form as swirling bands – like on
Jupiter. The 3rd demo was a “Styrofoam” model of Jupiter cut in
half, with 2 possible theories regarding the “Giant Red Spot” or “GRS” –
whether it’s just on the surface, or if it was going deep all the way to the
core. The final display was 2 rollers
connected by “runner bands” and a
couple of people holding each end. A red
ball would be placed between the rubber bands and the guests would move their
rollers to rotate the ball while leaving it in the same position – like the
swirling bands around “GRS” which
rotates, but stays in the same location.
 |
| My "Planet Pin" |
We then went to the “Scavenger
Hunt” table, where this time it was a Bingo board of Jupiter related
artifacts or some of the other stuff going on this evening. The visitors would have to either take a
picture with it or get stamped. Next
stop was in the “Community Classroom”,
where the guests would make “gliders”
from paper, straws, and other paraphernalia and idea was to keep them afloat
past two fans that were simulating storms on Jupiter. It was your basic "paper airplane" experiment. Final stop was at a station
called “Planet Pins” and here there
were loads of slides in binders, most of them Jupiter related, but some others
as well. There were different colored “LEDs” and one had to tape those to a
battery cell and then place against the slide to make it shine. This was then inserted into a wax paper to
diffuse the light, and finally a backing was attached to the slide using binder
clips, which would also hold on to your shirt.
It was a fun activity and all of us made pins for ourselves. I had a
Jupiter slide with white light and mine ended up perfectly aligned with the “GRS”.
My first shift was at the “Planet Pins” station and so I stayed back with another volunteer
while my other colleagues went for their tasks. It was slow initially, as it usually is at the
beginning of the evening. But soon people came in droves and all of them were
exited to make the pins. Many took time
selecting their slides, being very particular with those, as well as with the
color of the “LED” that they wanted
to use. I was challenging people to use
the Red light and match it with the “GRS”,
and when one guy actually tried it, his pin appeared very menacing. I had to guide many folks step-by-step,
including asking them to switch the polarity of the battery when the light did
not work. Everyone was asking me where
the slides were from and I had no idea.
I was telling some of the younger visitors that this was “Instagram of the 70s” and many of the
older folks were agreeing. Yep, my usual comedy routine!
At 7:30 pm I moved for my shift at the “Storm Lab”. There wasn’t
anyone else there to help, when we had been told that there would be a
facilitator present for the 3 activities other than milk-color-soap solution. This would be tricky to pull off should more
people show up, which is precisely what happened at the beginning. People came in and I was rushing to get them
set-up for the milk experiment and then doing the demo of the other ones. I would get couples to do the Rollers and
Rubber band trick, telling them that it was all about coordination and that
they needed to make sure that they were in sync. It took people some time to get used to it
and once they were, it wasn’t that exciting, because that was it. I also gave a demo on the “GRS” depth vs surface and finally the one with the Turntable.
Finally a facilitator arrived to do these things, meaning I
could focus on the milk demonstration.
People would come and I would instruct them on what to do and they were
fascinated to see the outcome, where the drop of coloring would disperse like a
ripple. The one thing which I had to
tell them to do was either dip the “q-tip”
back into the soap solution or to use a new one, else it did not work after the
first attempt. We were using “Whole Milk” and people were commenting
on that. I would say that we needed all
the calories for this and tonight wasn’t about dieting. We actually needed the higher content of the
dispersed fat, though my explanation would get a laugh out of them. Two High School Physics teachers came in and I
had a good banter going on with them.
One of them said that her main focus was to “impress me” and I said that I was looking forward to that! We talked about the science and I enjoyed the
quick witted responses that were flowing on both sides. There were instructions on the table as
regards this activity and people were following them more or less. But not everyone was dumping the milk in the
sink after their turn and I had to do it quite often. A group of 5 came and one of the guys was so
belligerent, that his friend came in later an apologized for him. But it was all fun.
I had a break during my next shift to be able to attend a
lecture in “Johnson Theater” on “Searching for life on Jupiter’s Moons”. As I came inside the theater, it was already
quite full. I spotted the 2 physics
teachers and told them that I expected them to explain the lecture to me
afterwards. A professor from Atlanta was
giving the talk and after a few technical difficulties, we were underway. The lecture was very good, as she covered the
4 main “Galilean Moons” of Jupiter,
focusing primarily on ‘Europa’ and
the plans for it. It was getting
interesting, though I left before the Q&A, to go for my last shift.
I was headed to the “Community
Classroom” for the “Glider Challenge”. As I came in, as expected, everything was
chaos – not so much in terms of people, but the materials were spread all
over the room. There were pre-made
templates available to the guests, but they were now buried under a ton of
other stuff and people were pretty much using their own designs. The previous volunteer showed me some of the
more “successful” designs, which
included everything from “paper planes”
one makes in school, to “flying saucers”,
to something like a “Klingon Bird of
Prey”. As people came in, I told them
about the task. By this time people had
an opportunity to have a few drinks and so were very enthusiastic in doing
this. One guy and a woman refused to
give up till they got it right and were trying up to the closing time. One gentleman was being obnoxious by rolling
a paper ball and trying to throw in into the square where the glider had to
land. There wasn’t much gliding and told
him that. He said we had not made the
rules clear and I said that if it would help him sleep better at night, then he
had totally succeeded. I wasn’t going to
argue. We called it quits at 10 pm and
then it was a lot of cleaning – a lot since there was paper everywhere and some other things. I left at 10:30 pm, as it was raining outside, but I had fun this evening.
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