Time to start catching up.
On Friday, April 23, we began what I like to call Field Trip Palooza. I say this because the kids all had at least one field trip from this time through the end of May. I did not accompany them for all of them, but I did actually attend quite a few this time, and it was crazy!
On Friday, April 23rd, Sammy's preschool class along with the 3 year old class that her preschool teacher has on Tuesdays and Thursdays went to the NASA Goddard space station. Miss Debbie tried scheduling this back in March, so it was exciting when the kids were finally able to go. It turned out to be a really fun time too. They started out with a movie, which I thought was going to be awful because it would be over their heads and leave them restless and roaming. I was very wrong. It was funny and basic about astronauts and living in space. It contained lots of zero gravity somersaults and eating globs of food and doing tricks with orange juice. The kids loved it.
Afterward, all the kids who wanted to got to try on the top portion of a space suit the astronauts use when they are outside the shuttle and in space. The suit was huge on these little kids. Sammy was, of course, first up, because she is always eager (sometimes too eager quite frankly) to volunteer and have a turn.
Afterward, the kids got to go into another small theater like room. There was a white globe suspended from wires in that room. The NASA scientist helping us with our tour explained what it was. For me, this was the coolest part of the tour. There are digital projectors in four corners around the globe. They use those projectors to project our planet or any other onto the globe. They can look at it real time with weather patterns or many other views from space. They included night shots. The person running the computer projections used a wii remote and could rotate the globe and show the kids the poles and different continents. I wanted a turn to play with that thing. It was awesome. I took lots of pictures. Unfortunately, I could not get the combination of flash etc. down, and the pictures don't do it much justice.
Earth
Satellite view of the weather radar over South America
As Mars
As Jupiter
As the sun
Next came some free discovery time in an area they have for kids. Sammy went straight for the helmets and into the shuttle cockpit.
Finally, before turning us loose outside and to the gift shop if desired, they did a demonstration for the kids with pop rockets. They are decorated film canisters launched with the power of water and alkaseltzer tablets. The kids had a great time with it and with predicting whether the larger or smaller pop rocket would shoot higher. This was a really fun field trip and would be worth taking all the kids out to for a morning this summer.
It was extra fun for Sammy later as we have a friend down the street who works out at NASA Goddard. She filled him in on all the things she learned about space at the space center, and he was so impressed, he brought her home some extra stickers. Currently, Sammy thinks being an astronaut is the way to go. Trent loves that idea.
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