Hey Whyvillians!! This is puma27 and diva4, writing about the Sally Ride festival at Caltech in California. If y'all don't know who Sally Ride is, she was the first female astronaut in Space. Well, anyway, we went to Caltech this morning, Saturday, March 23rd. We first went into the Beckman Auditorium and listened to Sally Ride speak about her "adventurous adventure" (puma27 wanted to say that) in space.
Here's a little interview:
People in Auditorium: Was it fun floating in the air?
Sally: It was really fun because you are weightless and can do somersaults in the air. A little trick that all astronauts do is let go of a pen when they are first in Space and watch it float around.
PA: What are some things that you could do in Space but not down on Earth??
Sally: Well, we can take a bag of Orange Juice and dump it out into the air and it turns into a big ball of OJ
and you can pass it around the room then you can take a straw and slurp it out!
PA: Is it really true that the only man-made thing that you can see from space is the Great Wall of China?
Sally: Yes, you can see the Great Wall of China, as well as many other man-made things such as certain airforce bases, bridges, big malls, and roads.
PA: What food did you eat in space? Was it disgusting tasting?
Sally: It was mostly food that you take on camping trips that you have to add water 2. Since this was only about a week long trip we were able to take things such as apples, bread, and peanut butter. Space food wasn't that gross.
PA: Did you feel weird as soon as the spaceship lifted off?
Sally: Well, I felt weird because I knew that at that moment there was nothing I could do to prevent what was going to happen next.
PA: Thanx Sally! Bye!
Next, we left the auditorium together and went to our separate workshops. Puma27 went to workshop #10, MathMagic, with presenter Rich Zucker. Tell the people of Whyville about it, Puma!
I did magic tricks that the teacher taught us, but the weird thing was about it is that he was teaching math in disguise. It was really awesome. One magic trick was he could make 3 different size ropes the same length. Now I'm handing it over to Diva4.
I went to #3, Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Earthquakes. My presenter was Lucy Jones. Lucy explained to us all about earthquakes, such as P and S waves. It was really cool and I saw many slides explaining what Lucy taught us and pictures of the destruction of earthquakes. For example: There was this one slide where there was an old barn. Horses had lived in the barn, and of course, that makes muck. There was a person called a muckhand who would shovel the horse muck out of a window in the barn. The muck would be sitting in that certain spot out the window for a long time. Now here's the catch: when the earthquake happened it moved the muck pile 16 feet and the barn was not damaged at all!!! Lucy told us about a man who was in bed during an earthquake and thought that a burglar was there. He picked up a gun and accidentally shot his foot! Ow!! Now, over to Puma27 again:
My next workshop was #17 with the presenter Joann Stock. We learned about underwater volcanoes in Antarctica. It was really cool learning about the adventures she had on the boat she took to Antarctica. Here's a cool fact: if you fell into the water in Antarctica (even if you had all your ski clothes on) you would freeze in 4 minutes!!! I had so much fun at that workshop. Okay, back to diva4 againnn....
Okay! This is the last workshop: I went to workshop #9 -- Energy conservation: WATT Conserves, with presenter Devana Cohen. This was super! I learned all about how to conserve energy, learn about energy, and awesome stuff like that. I even got to play "Energy Conservation Jeopardy"!!! It was really fun, even though I only got $900 (fake money, of course!). I won a cool sparkly blue milky pen!
You should sign up for science festivals like this at Caltech if you are ever in the area. Thanx, Sally, Lucy, Rich, Devana, and Joann for letting us learn about all of this!
Well, this is puma27 and diva4 signing off! Bye! *CLICK*
