Explora Explorations

On Monday, we took Jeremiah to his Post-op surgery appt. And then we headed over to Explora for Jackson & Jeremiah's Homeschool Science Club.

Last week, John took the boys because I was suffering from a back/neck injury, so this was my first time back to Explora for the Science classes.

For the record, last week's class was called:
Crazy Light (Grades 4–5):Why do we see ourselves in mirrors? How are shadows made? Students explore the basic properties of light, including reflection and refraction, and investigate the properties of lenses.

This week's class was called:
Chemical Changes, II: What’s the difference between a physical change and a chemical change? How do simple mixtures differ from chemical changes? Students explore these differences and investigate several fascinating chemical changes.

While Jackson & Jeremiah enjoyed their Science class, Jenna I played in Explora doing her favorite activities. It was nice hanging out with Jenna, just the two of us.




Right after the boys' class, they signed up for the Lego Mindstorm's RoboLab. One of their favorite activities in Explora. The new layout is called Robo Sports.

Jenna got into the action building snowmen with the sport's balls. Guess we've had too much snow around here. Snow is on the brain! heheh


The newest exhibit in Explora is one devoted to music, vibrations and sound waves. It is way cool! We spent over an hour just playing and experimenting.

Jackson & Jeremiah had a blast creating sounds, music and voices, recording them and then playing their creations back. Some of their sound mixes cracked me up! One rendition they created, sounded just like the background noise heard in their Star Wars PS2 game, with all the cool sound effects, too!
Jax observing how different levels of sound vibrations causes the salt to bounce.
Jeremiah trying out various programmed plastic discs, similar to vinyl records, and listening to the unique sounds each made.
This display was unique and fun! Basically a 'bellows' device that blows air into numerous different musical instruments, pipes, harmonica, horns, etc. by pressing on the bellows. And with two air openings, Jeremiah and I experimented with mixing two instruments in tandem, too.
We really were impressed with this display, too. By rubbing the strings, fast or slow, on the violin (making music), and turning on the spinning 'light meter', we could see the actual vibration shadows of the violin, reflected through the magnifying glass onto the sheet of paper in the background.

This display was like those old-time Peg pianos and music boxes. By positioning the pegs in various holes on the wheel, we could produce different musical tunes.
This was like a massage! When playing the piano, the vibrations of the individual notes were sent to the back of the chair. Aaahhhh!
(And, yes that's my favorite scarf. I wear it everywhere! It was the first scarf I ever knitted. I've knitted more than I can count now. I call this scarf "The Turquoise Zebra")
Explora has an extra-large elevator, that houses a sofa and chairs, and feels more like a living room, than and elevator. Jen and Jax relaxing....going down!
Jem kicking back. We didn't push the down button for a while, just so we could relax inside the elevator together a little longer.