For next month’s Toy Building Workshop at the Spark!Lab, Steve and I had a long discussion about the kinds of toys we use to play with when we were kids. But aside from the regular off the shelf toys like Barbie dolls, robots, GI Joes, trucks, cooking se, legos and etc., I recall that I also had some toys that we just made from found objects. This had me thinking that back then kids had to be more creative and imaginative when they were playing. A chair is no longer just a piece of furniture you sit on but it can also be a race car, a bus, a sari-sari store or even a control chamber of a gigantic robot!
I remember that my brother and I used to lay our dining chairs side by side on the floor and pretend that it’s an autobot that transforms into a cool Transformer robot. We both loved watching Transformers- now this is way before Shia Lebouf became a star, even before he was born! On other days, the chairs will be individual robots that combine into Voltron!
Then during Christmas time, we would flatten bottle caps and string them up to make something like a tambourine for Christmas caroling around the block. I also remember some friends who made their own go carts out of scrap wood and wheels.
I browsed online to see what other home-made toys are out there. I even found a couple that not only are hand-made but also explain some science concepts. I tried to make some of them at the Spark!Lab to see how easy or difficult they might be for kids to make.
Balloon-powered car
a wind-up toy car from CDs, rubberband and a pencil
The Cartesian Diver
I remember that our Physics teacher in high school, Mr. Pascual, showed this one to us. But he used beakers, flasks and test tubes to make it so it looked really complicated and cool. He, or another classmate, would ask a volunteer student questions and if the student is telling the truth then the test tube will sink to the bottom. If it stays up, then the student is lying. There sure were a lot of embarrassed classmates then!
I showed the Cartesian Diver as part of the “Everyday Science” program at the Robinson’s Children’s Library a couple of years back. But this time I used simple materials: a two-liter soda bottle and a ball pen cap or eye dropper weighed down with a pinch of clay.
A bird in a cage thaumatrope
A climbing monkey- which would later become the climbing Sparky!
Steve asked me if I wanted to do the Carbon Dioxide experiment and I excitedly said YES! After three days of reading the manuals, observing the experiments and shadowing the facilitators, I finally felt I was ready to lead one of the experiments on my own.
"Playing" with the kids before the experiment
We conduct experiments at the Spark!Lab every hour on the hour from 11am to 3pm. I was going to do the first experiment of the day. Since it was still early into the day, there were not too many kids around, which was good because a smaller group is easier to manage. I announced that we will be conducting an experiment in five minutes and kids who want to participate should grab a seat on the lab’s bench.
I handed each kid a pair of safety glasses while explaining the importance of listening and paying attention during the experiment. Although we do not use any hazardous chemical, the safety goggles add a touch of seriousness and excitement to the experiment. I asked if anyone knows what carbon dioxide (CO2) is and some of the kids volunteered information such as it’s what we breathe out. I gave them additional background information about CO2, including the fact that it’s odorless and colorless. I asked them to inhale deeply then exhale and explained that, as one of the kids pointed out, we breathe out CO2. Then I asked: what living organism uses CO2 to make their food? Some kids replied plants and trees. So I told them the importance of trees and the relationship between humans and plants: we breathe out CO2, the plants use CO2 in photosynthesis and as a by-product release oxygen, which we need.
Their faces lit up as soon as I took out I took out a chest filled with frozen CO2 (dry ice).
Dry ice is extremely cold, with temperatures below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and as such should not be touched by our bare hands as it could cause cold burns. I asked the kids what would happen if I left the dry ice on the table and left to eat my lunch? Some of them said that it would melt and leave a puddle of water. So I explained the difference between regular ice and dry ice: ice melts then evaporates while dry ice sublimates- it turns directly into gas from solid.
They all exclaimed “wow” when I added the dry ice into a water-filled flask and it started bubbling.
I then lit a candle then asked what would happen if I put a beaker over it. We all watched the fire die as soon as the oxygen inside the beaker was consumed and converted to CO2. I took this opportunity to tell them about how one guy thought of using CO2 to put out fire thereby inventing a CO2 fire extinguisher. To prove that CO2 truly puts out fire, I asked them to each draw a cupful of vapor from the chest. They got all excited as the fire from each of their candles was put out when they poured CO2 onto it!
On to more cool stuff: Is CO2 an acid or a base?
I asked for a show of hands to find out how many think that it is, how many think that it’s not and how many just want to find out. We gave each child an Erlenmeyer flask and told them to pour 50 ml of Bromothymol Blue (BTB) into it. BTB is used as chemical indicator for weak acids and bases. It changes color when acid is added into it. Then we gave each of them drinking straws to blow bubbles into the BTB. You can just imagine how they reacted when the solution turned yellow!
Then I asked them to pour lime water into their flask and there were more excitement when it turned back to blue! One kid asked: “can we turn this back to yellow again?” Instead of telling them the answer, I asked them to blow bubbles into the solution again. And yes, there were more “whoas” when it turned yellow again.
I ended by reminding them that we should wash our hands after doing an experiment. I added liquid soap into a flask of water then dropped a few dry ice pellets into it. Kids became extremely animated when they saw what happened next! Suddenly, there were over thirty hands reaching out to touch the soap foam!
I participated in the carbon dioxide experiment during my first visit to the National Museum of American History (while I was on an Asian Cultural Council fellowship to observe education programs of museums in the US). That experience became one of the biggest factors that affected my decision to apply for an internship at the NMAH. Who knew that eight years later I will be on the other side of the bench conducting the experiment myself!
Today I learned my height in nanomillimeters: 1,540,000,000. Wow, that's a lot of zeroes, I feel taller! I should remember this and start writing it down when forms asks for my height :)
***
I started my day by getting settled in my new work space. Since I will spend a lot of time at the Spark!Lab and Invention at Play, I was stationed at one of the Lemelson's offices at the1st floor, where those two exciting places are located. I am sharing an office space with Steve Madewell, Interpretive Exhibits Coordinator and resident mad scientist/eccentric/jack of all trades of the Lemelson Center- I heard a rumor that he can even create a time machine! I should add that our office also doubles as a workshop for Steve's masterpieces. I remember that about a decade ago, I wanted to buy power tools so I can make my own furniture - so I was quite excited to see all the power tools, nuts and bolts, and unbelievable science knick knacks we are allowed to tinker with!
Tricia was nice enough to invite me to sit through their regular staff meeting. After more introductions, the meeting went under way and I learned what projects the staff recently wrapped, are currently working on and what else are coming down the pipe.
In the afternoon, I joined a Teacher's Workshop on inventiveness that Tricia facilitated for a couple of teachers from Virginia. After a brief lecture on the history, mission-vision and activities of the Lemelson Center, Tricia divided the teachers into three groups. She handed each group an envelope containing invention patent documents and a couple of images. The group was tasked to determine what the invention is, how and what it is used for and try to piece together the story of how it was invented. I think that this is a very good activity to help the participants grasp the concept of inventiveness/creativity as illustrated by the featured inventor and his/her invention. It also challenges our common notion that inventors are old men with white hair, a beard and round-rimmed glasses. The main message of the activity is that we all can be inventors!
Then the teachers were led downstairs and allowed to explore on their own the Invention at Play exhibit. We all met up at the Spark!Lab after about half an hour, and the teachers continued to explore the space.
Some of the teachers exploring the "What now activity"
When Spark!Lab closed to public at 4pm, Tricia commenced the last activity that demonstrated the invention process: Think it! Explore it! Sketch it! Create it! Try It! Tweak it! Sell it! The teachers were asked to form three new groups. This time, Tricia handed each group a bag containing an assortment of materials. But each group's set of materials are different from the others'. The task is for each group to think of a challenge that their materials could solve and then create that solution - all in under 15 minutes and with only the materials they have!
The teachers brainstorming for ideas
An eco-friendly water filter device for camp sites
A floating shower and toilet for boats
A a garbage/recycling bin that can be attached to students' desks
After the workshop, I sat down with Steve to brainstorm about what activity I could come up with for the Lemelson. I have previously told him about designing and making roller-coasters in my last class this summer (read about that by clicking here), he felt that that could be an idea we could pursue. Wow, my summer course on Science Instruction for Informal Setting is truly coming in handy! I am extremely excited about making a prototype of the rollercoaster activity!
We were asked to show up at the employee entrance of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) at 10 am today. Although I live about four miles and 3 Metro stops from the NMAH, I decided to leave the apartment at 9am. Thanks to the Metro, it only takes about 30 minutes for me to travel from door to door, oh how I've missed living in the big city!
I met with four other interns at the waiting area and at 10 am, we were met by two other interns who are assigned at the NMAH Internship office. They gave us a brief overview what's expected from us as interns, the usual stuff: dress code, behaviour, rules, safety and security reminders etc.
We also found out from them that as interns, we have a number of fabulous benefits such as:
free one admission per week to IMAX movies at any Smithsonian. Everything but Night at the Museum - awww! They do have a number of other interesting films to watch, so I know where I'm spending my weekends at!
free one simulation ride per week. Since I'm paranoid to enjoy real thrill rides, these are perfect for me.
20% discount on any Smithsonian cafeterias and museum stores
Occasional reduced or free admission to other non-Smithsonian museums
The Internship office also organizes enrichment trips, programs and dialogues with leading individuals from NMAH. With hundreds of summer interns at the Smithsonian, there are a number of Smithsonian-wide programs that allow opportunities for us to learn about the institution, Washington, DC and meet other interns.
After the brief orientation, we were sent off to get our official badges. Took about an hour of waiting before my turn to have my picture taken came. This was posted near the camera: "This is an ID photo, not a glamour shot!" Five minutes later, my badge was handed to me.
Afterwards, we were individually introduced to our supervisors. I finally met Tricia Edwards, the Education Specialist of the Lemelson Center, who I have been corresponding with since early this year. She introduced me to most of the Lemelson Staff then brought me down to the Spark!Lab for more introductions and for a brief tour of both the Spark!Lab and the Invention at Play exhibit.
She handed me a packet of materials about the Lemelson Center, a list of the staff (which would definitely come in handy considering how awful my memory for names and faces are!), and two research/evaluations: one about the Hands On Science Center (what Spark!Lab used to be) and the other about NMAH. Both documents were very helpful in providing me with a broader understanding of who their visitors are and what they want and need from the museum.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see that , Matt White (former Director of the Hands On Science Center), initiated one of the studies. Matt is a PhD. candidate in History of Science but became a classmate when he took the Introduction to Museology class offered by our program.
He gave me a valuable tip for applying at the Smithsonian, which I believe applies to whatever museum/institution you apply for. He told me that it would benefit me to:
1) identify which section of the museum I really want to be part of based on my interest
2) communicate with someone from that department to let them know of your interest in applying for an internship in their department.
You see, NMAH has a centralized intern application system, but due to the enormous number of applicants they get every summer, sometimes your application and skills do not get noticed. Thus when you have already made the personal connection with the department, assuming they want to accept you of course, they can watch out for your papers when it goes through the system. I am therefore very grateful to Matt for his wise counsel!
I really think I made a good choice in deciding to apply to the Lemelson Center. I have no doubts that this will be an excellent and fun learning experience!
I arrived in Washington, DC on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 17. Since my internship does not start until June 22 and I have some time on my hands, I decided to re-visit the National Mall the following day. It has been almost seven years since my last visit and I have forgotten how many people come to see its museums! If only visiting museums could be as popular in the Philippines...
Enid A. HauptMoongate Garden
Pharaoh Kahmunrah's pile of pilfered artifacts from the movie "Night at the Museum: battle of the Smithsonian" currently on display at the Smithsonian Castle
From the castle, I made my way to the National Museum of American History (NMAH). They recently re-opened after a two-year renovation. Among the changes are the redesigned museum's lobby and a new environmentally-controlled exhibition space for the Star Spangled Banner (the same flag that inspired their national anthem).
The Greensboro Lunch Counter
On my way to the Lemelson Center, I saw the Greensboro lunch counter and it reminded me of our course on museum exhibitions last Spring where one of my groupmates, Jenn, focused her virtual exhibition on the Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine. The counter was one of the objects we "borrowed" for the exhibit.
I finally got to the Spark!Lab, one of the two spaces run by The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the NMAH. As expected the Spark!Lab was filled with kids (and adults too!) eagerly waiting to participate in the experiments that are conducted every hour. It was 230 in the afternoon so I thought I'd visit the Invention at Play first then come back before 3pm to watch the experiment.
I came back later to watch the CO2 experiment. What is interesting about the Spark!Lab is that kids do not only watch the experiments but they are allowed to actively participate in them- hands-on learning at its finest! They are given protective goggles, beakers, flasks and other laboratory apparatuses to be used for the experiment.
This is an interesting video of Steve Madewell introducing the Spark!Lab. I will be working with him during my internship!
I was among the 21 AAM members who were fortunate enough to be able to attend this year’s conference through the Diversity Fellowship program. As a student, and an international one from a third world country at that, it is almost impossible for me to attend a national conference of this magnitude because it is just beyond my financial capacity. This is why I am tremendously grateful for the fellowship.
After the conference, I took home new knowledge, validated learning, connections and inspirations that will continue to be valuable throughout the rest of my career as a museum professional.
When I signed up for the conference, I was prepared to learn. But I was not prepared to learn so much in just a few days! As a museum educator, I gravitate towards sessions that focus on education/interpretation. However, there are other topics I was also interested in learning more about: diversity, technology, audience development and leadership. It was very rare that I will only find one session I was interested in that was not scheduled at the same time as two other sessions I also wanted to attend! As such, the handout printing kiosks made available to participants during the conference were exceptionally helpful because it allowed me to learn from the other sessions I couldn’t attend by reading the speakers’ slides.
Since it would be impossible to list down all that I have learned from the conference, I decided to list down just three here:
1) Our visitors want to communicate with us. They will tell us what they love or hate about our museum, what they learned from their visit, how they can contribute to our exhibit, or even how to do our jobs better so they will keep coming back. Therefore, museums should make sure that we provide them a way to accomplish that, whether it’s face to face encounters, through comment kiosks (written, drawn or videos) at the exhibit, or online. It’s the sense of somehow being part of the exhibit that makes them feel more valued and their experience more memorable.
Two examples that were shared during the conference were the Brooklyn Museum, which has a video kiosk at their lobby that allows visitors to leave their comments and the Art Gallery of Ontario, which provides activity tables where visitors can write, even draw their comments.
2) Museums can use online social networking tools to their advantage, not only to promote their museums but to educate their audiences as well.
I learned that a number of museums actually have youtube channels! The Brooklyn museum has a youtube channel that is viewed by thousands of people! One of their more popular video “The art thief” has already been viewed over 32,000 times! If even 10% of those numbers translate to actual visits, then wouldn’t that be great? They also encourage visitors to create videos about the museum then they broadcast it through their website.
Another museum that uses this tool is the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. They upload videos to keep their audiences informed and interested. One of their videos showed how Burke archaeologists moved a 2,000 year old mummy and a 3,000 year old coffin from their storage to the museum’s gallery for temporary public display. There was also another one where they showed how they installed a 125 million year old "fish lizard" fossil in their gallery. These might be ordinary events for us in the museums, but for our visitors it’s exciting because it provides them a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes!
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses twitter to share breaking astronomical news. They created a twitter account for their Mars Phoenix Lander mission to deliver news of the mission but eventually it became a way for them to interact with the public and respond to their questions about space exploration. At the end of the 152 day mission, they had over 41,000 followers!
Museums and libraries around the world have been using Flikr to upload images of their collections and make it available for the public to see, leave comments and even contribute information. The Commons on Flikr invites viewers to help enrich the collection of photographs by describing them through the addition of tags or comments. Some of the images from the Library of Congress’ photo stream have been viewed over 20,000 times and left with hundreds of comments.
3) Diversity is not just a noun, it is a goal that museums should aspire for. In order for museums to welcome and encourage diversity in their audiences, they too need to embrace diversity in their organizational staff. These people can be the museum’s ambassadors to their individual communities and help museums connect to a broader and more inclusive sector of society.
Being surrounded by over a thousand people who share my passion for museums is quite overwhelming. I had the opportunity to meet people who have shaped how I think as a museum educator. One such person was Lynn Dierking, who is one of the two major proponents of free-choice learning in museums. Call me geek but after reading a number of her books, researches and published articles, I was just terribly excited to finally get to talk to her in person to tell her that like her, I’m also from the University of Florida and that I find her researches absolutely interesting and useful.
The sessions and evening events also provided opportunities to make connections, share stories, challenges, frustrations and even aspirations. It is comforting to know that we don’t need to solve everything alone. Isn’t it great that somewhere out there is someone who has already experienced the current challenges your museum is facing and that they are willing to share how they have successfully overcome it?
When I go back home to my country, the Philippines, after finishing my Masters Degree in Museum Studies, I will bring with me all that I have gained from the conference: the knowledge, connections, validations and passion. These will serve as inspirations as we continue our struggle to convince schools, parents, government and the general public of the value of museums. The video, Spark, shown during the general assembly was a very powerful reminder about why I chose a career in museums- yes, MUSEUMS DO MATTER!
Excerpt from the e-mail I received this afternoon... ******************************* Dear Ethel, We would be delighted for you to join us this summer as an intern! After talking with you and reviewing your resume, **** and I both feel that your breadth of experience in developing programs and activities both for in-museum and online audiences will be of great value to us as we continue to improve and refine Spark!Lab. In turn, I think it will provide you with good experience in working with a large volume of visitors from very diverse backgrounds. ********************* I still cannot believe it... two months at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC!!! I am sooooo excited!!! Talk about a dream come true!
It might be time to update this picture taken over 7 years ago :)
I invite you to share my experience as an Intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Staring June 2009, this blog will chronicle my experience exploring Washington DC and as an Intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. I will also continue adding museum-related posts on this site.
Although I will retain my previous entries in the archives, if you'd like to read future personal blogs and view photo albums, please visit my multiply account.
About Me
Ethel Villafranca
I am a student pursuing my graduate degree in Museum Studies, on a Fulbright Fellowship, at the University of Florida. Although I am a museum educator by heart, I am also interested in technology, diversity and audience development.
When I am done with my degree, I will return to my home country, the Philippines, to share what I have learned and embark on projects that will help convince my fellow Filipinos of the value of museums.
