Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
TAKE an activity to the "don't you dare try this at home" level and it becomes "X-treme." That's the concept behind the title of Bishop Museum's fascinating multimedia " X-treme Science" exhibit on contemporary scientific research in outer space and in the most extreme environments on earth: volcanos, the polar ice caps, the floor of the ocean. There is a tremendous amount of information presented through graphic displays, models, numerous video clips and free-standing kiosks that house video profiles of the scientists whose work is the basis of the exhibit. Test your hotel-building
skills as science
goes X-tremeBy John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin
"X-treme Science" also includes a demonstration of how gyroscopes work, a live-narration show on the new international space station (see: www.bishopmuseum. org), and a space-themed playroom to park kids 8 and under (you supervise your kids). There are also some great interactive exhibits that are guaranteed fun for inquiring minds of all ages.
What: "X-treme Science! Exploring Oceans, Volcanoes & Outer Space"
Turn left inside Castle Hall and the tsunami display has a wave-simulator trough that shows what can happen when the miniature tsunami you create surges into a bay and through an oceanfront community of little green houses and big red hotels.
What makes this part of the exhibit so much fun is that you get to play developer. Want to see if a house on that promontory with the great view of the bay would be tsunami proof? Reach into the exhibit, fish one of the little green houses out of the "ocean," put it where you want it, then create another tsunami! How high in the mountains should the red hotels be positioned to avoid a tsunami? Reach in and move it! Build your multihotel resort development on the beach and see what happens!
The Pisces V exhibit is much more difficult. Ever try to snag a prize in one of those remote control grab-it games? That's the challenge as you look through the porthole of the deep-diving research submarine, take control of one of the sub's robotic arms and try to pick up a rock. And try again and again until the person behind you insists that it's his turn!
Other exhibits offer less complicated educational entertainment.
Some of the exhibits recycle standard ideas but are still entertaining. A pair of 3-D glasses provides a you-are-there view of the surface of Mars. Stepping on bathroom scales that have been set to reflect Martian gravity and see how much lighter things there. (Anyone shy about revealing their weight can get the same result by lifting a sealed container and then lifting a second container that shows how much the first one would weigh on Mars.)
An exhibit on charting the polar ocean floor is simple enough for young kids to enjoy but hands-on fun for all ages. You move the styrofoam blocks that represent the ocean bottom, reset the controls, and then turn a wheel that moves a small submarine through the ocean. A laser in the sub reads the contours and a screen on the side of the exhibit displays the "newly charted" area. There are likely to be long lines for Pisces V on weekends but this submarine's mission can be successfully completed in 2 minutes or less.
X-treme research is evidently as rugged and demanding as any other extreme activity and several exhibits, including the volcano display, weren't working on Tuesday. Commanding a robot planetary rover as it explores the surface of Mars for water, minerals, or signs of life, looks like one of the raddest things in the whole exhibit. Unfortunately for this scientist the rover was dead on the Martian surface -- apparently after discovering subterranean water -- and did not respond to commands.
Click for online
calendars and events.
