Happy Birthday David Bowie

David Bowie Birthday Remembrance Murals

Ground control to Major Tom...  Who can read that sentence and not hear the music play in their head? Whether you are a product of the 60/70/80/90's or a teen discovering the magic and brilliance and magic of yesteryear, going down to Phoenix is worth the drive for these murals created by local artists celebrating the various Bowie album covers.

Located in Phoenix on a wall on 7th Street just 2 blocks North of McDowell Rd on the East-side of the street.

The Planetary Society

The Planetary Society

http://planetary.org

This past weekend the family and I happened upon the headquarters for the The Planetary Society - an organization founded by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman in 1980 to advocate the exploration of Space. Today, Bill Nye,  Dr Jim Bell, and so many others are carrying on where Carl Sagan left off to educate and advocate for missions to explore the Solar system and beyond. The staff seemed amused by our geeky excitement and gave my daughter the best GS patch ever and were very gracious with their time and answered our questions and showed off some of the fascinating exhibits and projects they are working on including the LightSail and Exoplanet search. This is an organization that all science-minded people should join and help support. 

Explore JPL NASA Open House

Explore JPL (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

This past weekend my family and I once again traveled to Pasadena, CA for the JPL NASA "Explore" weekend (their annual public Open House event).  This year JPL used a free ticket system to better plan and control the number of attendees entering the JPL campus for the event and what an improvement from last year. Many people online were quite upset at this change and were unable to acquire tickets before the event "sold out" on the website, but I am here to say it was wonderful! The lines were shorter and you could attend more of the various activities and tours across the JPL campus. Overall this year was calmer and so much easier to see everything in greater detail. 

We were in the first group (8:30 AM) to enter the JPL campus and immediately made our way over to the Spaceflight Operations Facility for the tour of the Mission Control area (where you get to see the celebrations of a successful mission against the large US flag and sea of computer consoles and exuberant mission specialists) and see where they manage all of the currently active missions (e.g. Voyager I & II, Cassini, Mars Opportunity & Spirit rovers, Mars Curiosity rover, Dawn, New Horizons, Juno ... and many more). Next we head over to the Spacecraft Assembly Building (the "clean room") that is used to assemble, test, and prepare the various spacecraft and rovers before they are sent off on a rocket to start their journey of exploration.  

  

"Explore JPL" (a.k.a. the JPL Open House) is a once a year event held over a weekend in the late Spring where the public is invited to "see what they pay for" (e.i. what your taxes fund) and get to meet and talk with the various staff at JPL, see the "twins" of the Mars rovers (they always build 2 - one to send to Mars and another to use for testing here on Earth), and learn about how they build these incredible spacecraft. As it was last year, the best part of the tour is being able to talk to the JPL staff - each with a unique story to tell and important roll to play in the success of these amazing missions. You will meet young women and men who control multi-million dollar spacecraft on a daily basis, engineers who design and build spacecraft, machinists who create unique parts used in the spacecraft, project managers and accountants and educators who strive behind the scenes to provide critical support to the programs. While the rovers receive the brunt of the lime light, without the tireless efforts of all of the people at JPL the missions would not succeed.

If you want to attend next year, keep an eye on the JPL website and sign up ASAP once they announce the date be sure to get up early on the date of the registration and keep refreshing the browser until you get your tickets. JPL is close to downtown Pasadena, CA where there are lots of neat museums and shops to check out before and after the Explore event. JPL is also an hour away (with good traffic) from the California Science Center where you can see the Space Shuttle Endeavour and many other excellent exhibits.  The Explore JPL is something that anyone with an interest in space exploration should try to visit once.

Enjoy!

Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College

Exotic Animal Training & Management program (EATM) @ America's Teaching Zoo / Moorpark College

In March we drove to Moorpark, CA to visit the America's Teaching Zoo and tour the Exotic Animal Training & Management (EATM) program to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the grounds and talk to some of the current students in the college program. While the acronym "EAT'M" may be a subtle threat to any animal who acts up, the student caretakers had everything and every animal well under control during the tour. They are a premier school for anyone wanting a career in zoo management or exotic animal care and training. 

The Zoo was hosting an open house event with lots of different activities and a special "Exotic Animal Olympics" sketch by the soon-to-be-graduating class. The skits included various animals they have been training during their program performing feats of 'animalness' on the stage. During the program the students learn about zoo management, animal care and dietary needs, animal behavior and training, and animal enclosure design and development. The two EATM guides were gracious with their time to answer questions we all had. By the end of the tour our daughter declared this was where she wants to go after high school. 

The students spend mornings working with the animals - prepping their food, administering medicines, conducting behavioral training and enrichment activities, and cleaning habitats. During the rest of the day they are attending classes or engaged in other learning activities. Once they complete the program they are highly sought after for placement in zoos, animal preserves, and conservation programs.

We were able to watch the Exotic Animal Olympics and enjoy the "ZSPN Anchors" colorful commentary.

The school is part of a 2-year college program with a lot of "hands on" experience. During our visit one student was sitting outside a Hyena cage and reaching through the bars to continuously rub the sleeping Hyena's tummy and you could hear it loudly making the Hyena-equivalent of purring. The student said this was one of the best parts of the program - getting daily contact with the animals and developing a close bond with one over their program.


For more information - http://www.moorparkcollege.edu/current-students/teaching-zoo

Make Your Own Adventure T-Shirts -- Learning to screen print youradventures

Make Your Own Adventure T-Shirts

My daughter and I recently turned our spare bedroom into one big room of crafting. Sewing. painting weaving etc... So it seemed only natural that one day my husband would surprise us with a deluxe screen printing kit. Yes, it would be very easy to design and create a logo and upload it to site and have it professionally done. But where is the adventure in that? Where is the learning and exploring? 

The process is not that difficult and we have highlighted some of the tasks below.  The key for most of the process is working in a light-sensitive environment (which meant working late at night with a special light while prepping the screens and then exposing them with the designs. Our daughter free-hand drew the design for the shirts using a black permanent marker on the translucent film provided in the kit OR you can print a design from a computer using an ink jet printer -- lots of options. 

Once you expose the design on the screen and let it cure using another special light (included in the kit) you use a garden hose to wash out the areas of the screen that were not exposed and cured (which lets the ink get onto your t-shirt). Once the screen is prepped and cured it can last as long as you want it to so you can make more shirts as you need them.

Setting up the shirt and screen for printing is easy with the kit and you can see the results from our very first print below.

There are many kits out there. We used the deluxe kit from http://diyprintshop.com which included everything you need to get started.   We set up in the kitchen late at night and have created two screens so far. The most important lesson I learned was to  SPELL CHECK your logo! But that's ok, perfection is boring.

Its good to get messy and try new things. Who knows, before you know it there my be AZ Field Trip Mom t-shirts for sale soon! 

TEDx Chandler Library - Four L's: Language, Learning, Literature and Linguistics

TEDx - Chandler Library

The Chandler Public Library hosted its first TEDx event. The "TEDx" events are "independent" TED events that are hosted across the globe that are then shard with the rest of the TED community. The "Four L's: Language, Literature, Linguistics and Learning" was the topic and it was wonderful. This was our first time attending such an event and we were excited to go and it didn't disappoint. The TEDx consisted of six in-person speakers and three video presentations, each about 15 minutes in length presented their topics. The overlapping presentations looked at how language choices can be reflective of personal biases or used to judge others as well as how they relate to learning. The presenters were from academia, literature, a "hipster historian," and education. One of the takeaways was about the evolution of the Hashtag from it's Chinese roots where the symbology is related to the concept of "community" where how a society should be laid out in a grid where the center is where the community well should be located and the surrounding grid is where the towns people should build their houses. There are currently 3 more TEDx events in February at the Chandler Downtown Library. These are free events but do require registration. 

For more information about TED and TEDx check out https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program

Its my Two Year AZFTM Blog Celebration!

Arizona Field Trip Mom Blog 2-Year Anniversary

We have had so much fun traveling and exploring. I look forward to another year of adventures and earned Girl Scout patches ... blogging all the way! Can't wait for the next year of adventures!

#itsanotheradventureday