POLAR SCIENCE

Friday was a spectacular day! I took nineteen 8th grade students (and three chaperones) to Seattle's Pacific Science Center to experience "Polar Science Weekend 2oo7." It was so cool!

Me and my posse!

I had never been to the P.S.C. but had been wanting to go for so long. It was worth the wait.
The students received "passports" for the Polar Exhibit and of course I required that they get the passports stamped at each station. There were many researchers in attendance so I encouraged students to ask questions. (I gave extra credit points if students asked questions and got autographs from the researchers.) I got only 3 out of 10 stamps on my passport as I stopped at one station and chatted at length with a researcher who places moorings in the Arctic Ocean. Many of her instruments were similar to instruments I have seen used at hydrothermal vent sites. It was fun discussing research at some of the world's coldest and hottest spots. Makes me want to run out and find a teacher program that will send me to an arctic region for a little while!

One of the big exhibits at P.S.C. is Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body. Although it was not on our agenda, there is no way on earth you can keep a group of junior high school boys from diving into this one. I had to pull them out of a huge nostril (the little buggers) to get them over to the Polar Exhibit! To the boys' pleasure, this exhibit continued into the restrooms:

The day was a great success...the kids got into the science and I think they learned a lot and laughed a lot. The ride home took 3 hours and the kids chatted and played cards and seemed to enjoy just being together.

Aw, the pleasures of teaching!