The Life of a Penguin 3D

                                                                             Nan

Today 14^th August has been a day I always remember.    I was invited by my grandchildren, The Blogging Brothers, to join them at the Science Museum for a surprise.   Although I have been to the Natural History Museum many times I had never been to the Science Museum so this was indeed a treat in store for me. 

For me, the Space section was the best.   What tremendous advances have been made since Apollo 10 orbited the earth practising for a landing on the moon which was to take place two years later.   This was a really important exercise before the real thing.   In May 1969 I can remember Apollo 10 orbiting the moon and then  waiting for the capsule to land back on earth after  going through everything that would be required if a landing on the moon was to be successful .   What excitement there was in the household, everybody waiting around with baited breath, anxious  to hear or see on television that the astronauts  had landed safely back home.  Those few minutes of silence before they entered  the earth’s atmosphere seemed to be hours.   Would the astronauts  be safe after their long silence coming back to earth? Of course they were and  cheers of joy and relief  were heard all round the world this would indeed be a tremendous breakthrough for  space  exploration. This mission was a dress rehearsal for Apollo 11 which would actually land on the moon two years later.   To see the capsule used for this expedition was truly amazing.

However, the best was still to come.   Unbeknown to me we had been invited to see a special showing of David Attenborough’s ‘The Life of a Penguin‘ in 3D.   We had seats very near to the front and lo and behold who should appear but Sir David Attenborough himself, how lucky was I.    What an amazing and fortunate man, a man who was all too ready to point out that most of the hard and dangerous work for any of his documentaries was done by the film crew.  This film was made in South Georgia where extreme weather conditions are experienced and where the temperature can change rapidly in minutes to many degrees below zero, not a place to be camping out during filming!

What an amazing day and thank you Oscar and Lex for allowing me to share with you this wonderful experience.

Lex

Thank you Nan for that great guest post,we would like you to do more posts in the future. I would just like to add that my favorite parts were the ball machine in Launchpad and seeing Sir David Attenborough.

Stomp!

Hi everyone, it's Oscar again! On Saturday we went to London. We went by train.

First of all we went to The British Museum. My favourite exhibit was the gun tree from Africa. All the villagers gave up their guns in exchange for a tractor. The artists then used the guns to make a tree. There were also gun creatures and a gun chair.I also liked the different weaving styles. I tried to weave a house for Flipper out of palm leaves and at the moment I am making a wool table runner on a weaving loom.
We also had a treasure hunt to find the crystal skull. We heard about the skull at Altun Ha in Belize and we were fascinated by the story. Unfortunately scientists have proven that it is a fake. I was a bit annoyed. It did look really cool though.

Then we went to Wagamamas for lunch. I love this Japanese inspired restaurant although the last time we went there I was sick on the bench! I had chicken and noodles. They were delicious but the noodles were a bit stuck together. We had to eat with chopsticks. I also had apple juice. I was a bit nervous when it arrived as it was green and very frothy. It was very refreshing though.

After lunch we headed to The Ambassadors Theatre we were going to watch Stomp. It was a really small theatre and no one was in front of me. Perfect! We had chocolate ice-creams at the start as we found out there was no interval. The show was fantastic. There were 8 people on the stage. I was surprised at the start when a man was on the stage sweeping with a broom. I thought he was a cleaner. Then lots more people with brooms came on and I realised that was actually the start of the show! The musicians created rhythms using weird objects such as matchboxes, pipes, dustbins and newspaper. Some bits were really funny such as the bit where the man made a skirt out of newspaper and he also stuck his tongue out of a hole in the newspaper in the right place in a picture of a lady.

Follow link to official video gallery. 
 http://www.stomplondon.com/gallery/video-gallery/#yt-z_KkC3bNAbM

The music made me feel happy and I wanted to dance. It was really noisy and crazy. We got to join a bit when the man asked us to clap in rhythm. I gave them a standing ovation.
After the show we went to the stage door and actually met the musicians. We told them we loved it and they gave us a thumbs up!

I give this 10/10 and would recommend it.

We had another great day. I don't really want to go back to school!

The Energy Show at The Science Museum London

As we took our seats for The Energy Show we were a bit nervous as we saw strings of CAUTION tape directly in front of us. The set looked like a old broom cupboard sort of science lab. Lots of sheets were draped over things to give it an eerie effect in the dark. Suddenly a crazy looking person appeared out of breath at the top of the stairs. Meet Phil. Phil is a student , a bit of a pyromaniac, rather crazy and a big fan of Star Wars. She is joined by Annabella. Annabella loves lists, she 's boring and rather bossy. The two have to complete a presentation about the different types of energy to pass their exam.

Their presentation was chaotic and heaps of laughs. With the help of Bernard a mute lab assistant and I-nstein an animated character they blow up methane bubbles , turn flowers brittle with liquid nitrogen and perform Van Der Graf experiments. 

My favourite experiment ( Oscar) was blowing up balloons. I loved the noise it was really exciting.it really hurt my mum's ears though.

My favourite experiment (Lex) was the exploding liquid nitrogen. The explosion was so big they had to hold it down with a tarp. I'd like to see it in the open without a cover. I also liked the references to Star Wars. Phil touched a old fluorescent light tube to a plasma ball to create a light sabre.

The finale was blasting hydrogen filled rockets into the audience. This was a fantastic show for kids. The science was a bit hard for 7 year olds but a good introduction to energy.

After the show we raced to make 3D glasses. We used blue and red acetate to make the lenses and then the 3D pictures came to life. 

Next we visited our favourite science museum exhibit - the ball machine. We like turning the wheels and using the pulleys. However it needs a bit of maintenance because the spiral seems to have worn away and the balls are escaping.

In the same gallery we enjoyed making electrical circuits, silhouettes and playing on the spinning machine until we were dizzy. 

We just had time to gorge on luxurious icecreams before heading to the 'atmosphere'gallery. We loved playing all the computer games. They were educational but fun as well. We learned about greenhouse gases and how to protect the environment. 

We had a great day and as we were heading out we heard the sound of a tuba. We looked closer and a man with a flaming tuba was playing along to a radio. It was crazy. 

We were a bit tired when we got home. 

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/