An afternoon at Science World

We showed up for one of the Home Learner sessions put on by Science World. It was something about plants but the kids didn't get much out of it other than to build some paper air planes (which was *not* what the organizers were asking them to do). That's not quite true. Austin does like to grow plants so he was happy to come home with his packet of dirt and seeds. They are now "planted" in a couple of our nice tall drinking glasses ... I think that we need to find a better home for them.

While there we stopped to watch one of the science demonstrations. Austin was impressed by the exploding balloon of Hydrogen. I think he said something like, "Cool! The air actually burned!" He then got a chance to go on stage and add the oxygen to the fire that was cooking in some kind of pot (the presenter wasn't really clear what she was burning but it was a good demonstration of the need for the 3 ingredients of fire; fuel, heat and oxygen). The final demonstration was "shooting air" using air guns which were finally filled with smoke from a smoke machine. Austin really liked the slow motion rings that were shot over the crowd.

We hadn't eaten much lunch due to our hectic schedule so we caved in and ate at the White Spot (yuck). Austin had some interesting observations and questions. First he was frustrated with their fixed menu (you can't order it if it's not in their computer). Then he had some very out of the box ideas about how he'd run a restaurant if given the chance (something about letting anyone who knows how to cook to choose how they want their food which then led to a discussion about a reality TV show idea that would be called, "so you think you can cook"). He also didn't like the service and wanted to know if the owners of businesses always made more money than their employees. Then he observed that the purpose of businesses was to sell things to people at a price that is higher than what they paid for it (or paid for the parts & work to build something). He then asked how insurance companies made money (they don't resell anything and they don't build anything). Business was certainly the theme of those conversations.