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

test

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14650969/?claim=zxk5v27ysbg">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

National Radio Astronomy Observatory - The Very Large Array

National Radio Astronomy Observatory - Very Large Array

The last stop on our 2015 holiday excursion was to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory - also known as the Very Large Array (VLA). It is an amazing site that covers a large area in Southwestern New Mexico. While there I was fortunate enough to take a video of the dishes changing tracking alignments as they went about their constant research. If you have seen the original TV series "Cosmos," the movie "Contact," or many other shows or movies you will have seen the iconic radio telescope dishes spread across the New Mexico desert patiently canvasing the skies for astronomical secrets. The VLA consists of 28 identical radio telescope antenna dishes - each one about 82 feet in diameter - on movable bases that are carried along special "Y"-shaped series of railroad tracks expanding 23 miles in each direction. The dishes are moved into a series of four different configurations depending on the objects being studied. Radio telescopes can conduct their research rain or shine, day or night.  

In the late 1920s, Bell Laboratories began planning a system of transatlantic wireless communications. They needed to know about sources of radio waves that might interfere with their plans, and put a young physicist, Karl Guthe Jansky, on to the task. In 1930, Jansky built his now famous “merry-go-round,” a bridge-like structure that held antenna wires set on a spinning base. A motor turned his merry-go-round throughout the day and night to listen for radio static interference, and indeed, he found plenty coming from distant thunderstorms …and the center of our Galaxy.

A radio antenna had shockingly discovered radio waves coming from space, turning it into a radio wave detecting telescope. And that’s how we came to call our field of science radio astronomy!

The VLA site and Visitor Center are open daily from 8:30am until sunset. The only exceptions may be the weather.  The Very Large Array Radio Telescope facility is a two hour drive from Albuquerque, 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. The Visitor Center features an award-winning film narrated by Jodie Foster, plus exhibits describing radio astronomy and the VLA telescope. A self-guided walking tour path features large, informative signs and takes you to the base of one of the giant dish antennas where you can appreciate the true size of the antenna dishes and watch it slowly track across the sky.

Admission is $6.00 for adults, $5.00 for Seniors (65+), ages 17 and under are free. Socorro & Catron County Resident Adult bringing out-of-town paying guest is free. On the first Saturday of each month, enjoy "First Saturday Guided Tours" at 11:00, 1:00, and 3:00. No reservations are required, simply show up at the VLA Visitor Center 15 minutes before the desired tour time. 


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC52QLi8x_eFMA2NUB9sTfLA
http://www.vla.nrao.edu

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

While on our New Mexico holiday adventure our next stop was the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Industry in Albuquerque.  The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History is a  resource for the history and science of the military and civilian nuclear program in the United States. The museum includes a variety of scale models of nuclear weapons, exhibits from the Manhattan Program (including a scale model of "the gadget" detonated at the Trinity test on July 16th 1945 at Trinity Site in New Mexico ushering in the Atomic Age), and exhibits of civilian and medicinal uses of the Atom. The exterior yard includes military aircraft (e.g. B-52, B-47, B-29, F-16), missiles (e.g. MX, Peacekeeper, Titan II, Minuteman, Thor, Polaris, cruise missiles), as well as a 280mm Atomic Cannon (fascinating in itself).  The Museum was chartered by Congress in 1991 as the official Atomic Museum of the United States and includes many educational exhibits on nuclear energy as well as the legion of scientists who worked to understand and unleash the power of the Atom. And ... as always ... exciting through the gift shop is a welcome treat for geeks!

http://www.nuclearmuseum.org

Los Alamos, New Mexico - The Manhattan Project National Historic Park

Los Alamos National Labs

This holiday season my family traveled to Los Alamos, New Mexico to explore the birthplace of "Trinity" (the first atomic weapon) as a supplement to watching the outstanding WGN America TV series "Manhattan" which just concluded it's second season. Los Alamos is located in Northwestern New Mexico and the journey from Albuquerque through Santa Fe and then up to the labs in the mountains can be beautiful itself. The "downtown" historical district is just a few square blocks but contains a lot of important history to view.

Our first site to see was the Bradbury Science Museum, named for one of the head scientists - Noris Bradbury - who helped guide Los Alamos after the end of WWII. After entering into WW2 (and fearing Germany was already working on an atomic weapon) the US began a secret project, code named the Manhattan Project, to build an atomic weapon. The "Manhattan" (@manhattanWGN, #ManhattanWGA) TV series does a great job chronicling the development of the atomic bomb from the perspective of the scientists and their families who moved out to the "middle of nowhere" - only known as Post Office Box 1663, Santa Fe - and were not able to know what their spouses / parents were working on day and night. Robert Oppenheimer is known as the "father of the atomic bomb" and you can see his house and many artifacts of his work at Los Alamos during this fascinating era. Once he came to understand the full implications of what he had helped create, however, he spent the rest of his life trying to stop any use of the weapon (which itself is a fascinating story). The museum contains many fascinating exhibits about Los Alamos (before and after it became a research lab), the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, and some of the research they conduct for both military and civilian projects today. 

In Los Alamos you can see the current Los Alamos National Lab (you can see the gate, but cannot get onto the lab grounds). The Fuller Lodge which began as a boys school eventually would become housing for members of the Manhattan Project including visiting scientists - many Nobel Prize laureates - and General Leslie Groves (the top military leader of the Manhattan Project -- a project so secret that even Harry Truman, Vice President of the US, did not know about it until FDR died suddenly mere months before the initial test of the bomb). The tour and museum presents a balanced view of the history of the development of the atomic bomb and the civilian uses of atomic energy and worth a visit and discussion on the drive home. If you enjoy hiking there are many excellent locations including the Bandelier National Monument nearby.

http://www.lanl.gov

http://www.lanl.gov/museum/visit/about-museum.php

http://www.visitlosalamos.org/the-manhattan-project-national-historical-park/

Kartchner Caverns

Kartchner Caverns

A few months ago my family and I went to tour the Kartchner Caverns, South of Tucson, AZ. We had a wonderful day trip and explored Tombstone on an extended loop back home. There are several points of interest there... but that's another blog.

Kartchner Cavern is a living cave, meaning it is still an ecologically and geologically active cave environment. The cave has an average temperature of 72° Fahrenheit (22° Celsius) and 99% humidity year-round. There are a series of doors used to control access and keep the cave environment stable. Most areas are dimly lit and some passages may pass through narrow or enclosed areas. The cave has been carefully developed to provide a stunning tour highlighting the various geologic formations within the cave system and yet preserve the fragile cave environment. Our tour included the Throne Room which included a dramatic light show highlighting the various features of the cave throughout. 

There are several options for tours. The tour we chose has been open since 1999 and is half of a mile in length and takes approximately an hour and a half to complete, 50 minutes of which is underground. The park guide was very knowledgeable as to the history of the cave from current state, to its discovery in the 1970s, and its geologic history.  Be sure to check your Arizona forecast though - the day we went we were unprepared for snow and while it may be warm in the cave the outside park was quite chilly. 

Sadly pictures are not allowed inside cavern except for special photography tours. The visitor center includes a lot of exhibits to make up for the lack of pictures in the cave. 

Enjoy the adventure!

http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/tour_info.html