Friday, December 11, 2009

Holo Holo in Phoenix

Last week, mama abandoned daddy, Owen, and me to go to Phoenix for a science teacher conference. I didn't get to see her for a whole 4 days!

Mama told us all about her trip when she got back. I guess Phoenix must have been really far since she left on Wed morning even before Owen and I woke up and she didn't get to Phoenix until we had dinner that night. Mama spent all day on Thursday going to all kinds of classes and workshops. She learned how to teach stoichiometry and how to make a cloud chamber to see alpha and beta particles. I'm not sure what all that means, but she showed us a cool video of polymer chemistry.

Heating HDPE with paint stripper and making a bubble. Mama said she's going to do this demo for her Chemistry students. She's going to have to test it out for Owen and me first. Maybe she'll show me how I can make a bubble like that.

On Friday, Mama went to Biosphere 2 on a big bus with lots of people.

Biosphere 2
Doesn't it look like a pyramid? Turns out that was intentional. The scientists at the Biosphere recreated different biomes at a smaller scale.

View of the ocean from the savannah
The savannah with view of the ocean.

The desert
The fog desert (modeled after the one in Baja).

The rainforest
The rainforest (modeled after the Amazon rainforest) - it looks just like Manoa to me!

Another view of the ocean
Another view of the ocean (definitely not the ocean in our backyard). Apparently they are experiencing an overpopulation of algae and trying to see if increasing the oxygen level will help control it.

Later that night, after workshops for the day was over, mama when to Cheuvront for dinner (poached pear salad as appetizer and duck as main course) followed by a stroll through the Phoenix Art Museum.

Anish Kapoor at Phoenix Art Museum
This looks familiar!

On Saturday, the conference hosted a special event called "Science Matter" to stimulate interest in science for elementary school kids. Here is some of what mama saw.

Bill Nye the Science Guy
Bill Nye the Science Guy

Sid the Science Kid
Sid the Science Kid

Albino Pygmy Hedgehog
And an albino pygmy hedgehog. It's so cute! But mama said it's really pokey too.

Sunrise in Phoenix
Beautiful sunrise from mama's hotel room at the Wyndham.

It looks like mama had a lot of fun in Phoenix. Next time, I hope she takes us with her.

3 comments:

OakMonster said...

Somehow blowing bubble out of melting plastic bottle doesn't sound healthy to me... ?

Beautiful pics!

thida said...

what a cute hedgehog!! I wonder if it would get along with the albino alligator at the CA Academy of Sciences...

Phoebe said...

Blowing bubble out of the melting plastic bottle is NOT healthy. I'm sure it releases some carcinogen. But hey, I'll do it to stimulate excitement in science :-)

Nan