Friday, February 19, 2010

Field trip: Titanic artifact exhiibt & Louisville Science Center

That is all I can show you from today's field trip to see "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit" at Louisville Science Center. I would've bought the souvenir book but after I'd plunked down $46 for the exhibit that took all of about 20 minutes, I wasn't about to fork over another $20. Cheapskate, I know.

Each of us were given boarding passes of passengers who actually were on Titanic and we were all women - Mrs. Jacques Futrelle of Massachusetts returning from a trip with her husband who had signed book contracts for his "Thinking Machine" novels, Mrs. Boulton Earnshaw of Philadelphia returning from a European vacation to take her mind off her impending divorce (scandalous in 1912!), and Mrs. Henry William Frauenthal of New York going home after her wedding in England.
Most of the artifacts were from the kitchen or the engine room. There were examples of 1st and 3rd class china, a bit of jewelry, a pair of shoes and, surprisingly, paper money.

In order to explore and recover objects from Titanic, it requires a 2 1/2 hour dive down and another 2 1/2 back up. Figures at the exhibit showed just a few more than 700 survived the sinking while 1,500 others died, mostly of hypothermia.
What was downright amazing was a portion of the exhibit in which we could put our hands in finger holds and handprints on a simulated iceberg that the sign said was warmer than the water had been when people went into the sea during the sinking.

Once we were through the exhibit, we explored the Louisville Science Center and it kept the kids engaged for a couple of hours. Water was a big factor and The Daisy put together this water cycle puzzle.
Meanwhile, The Boo made bubbles and looked at them through this telescope.
I took this picture because I can tell you first hand from living in the woods in middle Tennessee for a year how important water is when you have to haul it in weekly. That's a story for another time for those of you who don't know. The standing in a bubble activity probably consumed the most of our time. Go figure.

Pop!
The Daisy is such a ham.
Wonder where she gets it?
We moved on to the plastics portion of science and where I was completely useless when the kids asked me to help them construct something. I'm the liberal arts person in the family. Want me to write about what you built? I'm your girl. Helping build it? Nope.
This was a mission to Mars:
On the way home, The Boo - age 3, mind you - said out of the blue,"Thank you for taking us to the place."

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