Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we went to Sandia National Labs to support their science magic show. This event, now in its fourth year, is designed to give kids (mostly fourth graders) a hands-on day with science experiments in the guise of finding a kidnapped dog. Schools from all over New Mexico participate, about 170 kids in total over the week.
(note: many thanks to the engineers in charge and the teachers for allowing me to take photos today.)
This takes place at the Advanced Materials Lab facility, and they are pretty serious about safety:
The kids think they are coming in for a magic show involving a dog that does tricks, but quickly discover that
They visit the crime scene:
Much discussion ensues, listing out all the clues: purple water, green slime, odd bits of paper, toys, leash, etc.
After doing fingerprints and voice print analysis, the class discusses the suspects (one of whom is their own principal):
One of the suspects is seen walking around with a box of dog biscuits - and he leaps to the head of the list. (This whole time Py was actually napping in my car in the parking lot.) The kids are persuaded to use science, not assumptions, to solve the crime.
Five stations are set up with hands-on experiments, the kids cycle through each station, getting to play with some very cool stuff and determining what the evidence means before drawing conclusions.
Each area is staffed by volunteers from the Lab to support the kids through their discoveries.
You can see they all wear safety goggles - the kids take those home, along with their ID badges, evidence logs, finger print sheets, etc.
The Lab uses REAL gold to make nano-gold, which is boring in the picture but involved a cool color-change and experiment with magnets.
I said, hands on!
This particular facility makes nanos that are specifically designed for certain functions, such as detecting a single type of cancer and attaching to those cancer cells. Posters like this one were everywhere... fascinating!
Once the kids have successfully solved the crime, the guilty party confesses and then brings in the dog, safe and sound. The kids then adjourn to the lobby for lunch and discuss careers in science, followed by "science cream" - ice cream made with liquid nitrogen! Py LOVES his ice cream and waits patiently for his small serving:
During the hour or so that the kids eat, Mr. Py wanders around and visits. Oftentimes there would be a half-dozen kids petting or hugging him at the same time; it takes a very special dog to enjoy this, day after day.
After finishing the science cream, there's a group-shot for the schools to remember the day and record the event for the Lab.
They've already made me promise to bring Py back next year, saying he was the best they've ever had.------------------------------------------------------------------------
As if that weren't enough excitement for one week, on Thursday we did our usual visit with the youngsters at the treatment center. Photos are not allowed there, and it was considerably more low-key than our Lab visits. The kids made Py peanut-butter-and-crackers, which he enjoyed tremendously. They sang Happy Birthday To You to him, and one of the teachers had taken all the cards from the kids and made a big keepsake book for him to bring home:
"Happy Birthday to one very sweet, patient, loving, gentle spirit - Mr. Pye"I was profoundly moved by what each child had created; these two are typical:
(You can click on an image to enlarge.)
Happy birthday to our local rock-star, with love. Here's to many more!
