We arrived right at the 10:30 kick-off time, and went into a large outdoor tent that had been set up for the speeches. We joined a group of about 70 schoolkids from Cappy Smart school. Cappy Smart served as Calgary’s Fire Chief from 1898-1933 (Calgary was founded only in 1885), and was quite a colourful character. You can read more about him here. I have to say whoever organized things did very well, providing kids with crayons and paper-covered tables to draw on while waiting and during the speeches:

There were some displays set up at “stations” for the school kids, to learn about fire safety:

Various dignitaries gave brief speeches, and then we were treated to the leader of the Cappy Smart band playing his flugelhorn:

We then headed over into the museum itself. There was a display just inside the door that took us a minute to figure out how to work:

The display showed three triangles around the outside, ‘fuel’ (with pictures of wood, gasoline, etc.), ‘heat’ (candle, matches) and oxygen (‘wind’). When you cozied them up against the ‘Fire’ triangle in the middle, it lit up—you’ve got fire!

The main attraction of the museum is a fully restored old-time aerial firetruck,  nicknamed “Maggie”. We spent quite a bit of time considering how Maggie different from today’s fire trucks, such as having a wooden extension ladder:

We also noticed how different the wheels were, with see-thru spokes and thinner rubber tire. At this point an oldtimer overheard us talking and told us that the tires were solid rubber, and the springs / suspension tight too. As he put it, “The only padding you had was on your seat, and you felt EVERY rock en route to the fire.” Gareth asked him a few more questions about the truck and firefighting; it added a wonderful bit of colour to our visit.

The other truck inside the museum is an old Ronald Steamer, a horse-drawn wagon with a big cauldron of water that, using steam, was able to apply 120 pounds per square inch of pressure, quite a reasonable amount for the era. The museum is taking donations, and proceeds from the gift shop will go towards the estimated $180,000 it will cost to have the Steamer fully restored.

There were lots of artefacts to look at, many of which gave a good sense of the era. I was surprised by how engaging the boys found this part of the museum, which was not hands-on, and more adult-oriented (lots of writing).

A leather bucket used in a ‘bucket brigade’, an electric lantern (flashlight / torch), and a public fire alarm, like the ones you see in buildings today. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that the 911 system was in place, and before then, there were public pull-in-case-of-fire alarms around the city. Who knew?

One of the boys favourite parts was at the end, where they got to put out a virtual fire. Daegan first had to learn how to use the fire extinguisher:

And then aimed it (it shone a green light at the screen) to put out the fire. It was very hard to get the fire under control before your fire extinguisher ran out of ‘juice’, just like real life!

There was a cameraman there from Shaw TV (our local Cable TV / Community TV), who asked if Daegan could do it again so he could get shots—that is, if it was ok to put Daegs on TV. Daegan was happy to oblige:

And Gareth, the social charmer, got a turn too. They have fire hats and kid-sized fire suits for the kids to put on first for this activity, but given the 70 school kids and 8 suits, they didn’t put them out today. Good decision, even if Gareth was disappointed.

Unfortunately with the pouring rain we didn’t get to check out the half-dozen or so other trucks outside. But we’ll go back again sometime. The museum is still quite small and young—compare Winnipeg’s Fire Fighter Museum—but we had a great time, and enjoyed getting to talk with folks one-on-one. Gareth’s favourite part was putting out the fire, but Daegan quite surprised me by saying his favourite part was seeing the old trucks and old objects and seeing how things were different a long time ago. Many thanks to Tracy, a local HS Mom, for telling us about this grand re-opening.

The play Flushed! is about water and how it is cleaned in our sewer system, and the ‘scoop on poop’. I was not aware of all the details as to how the cleaned waste products are used as the basis of fertilizer and hence are as much “the beginning of the food chain” as the end. In Flushed!, Lolli the bored goldfish is accidentally flushed down the toilet by her owner, and she meets various characters during each stage of the water treatment plant en route to the river, learning as she travels. Here’s the set, before the play began. Note the kids on the right-hand side in brown T-shirts, being prepped to be part of the play.

Lolli, the bored goldfish, swimming aimlessly round and round and round her aquarium:

Jake, Lolli’s owner, dumping poison and other chemicals down the toilet rather than cleaning up properly.

The actor who played Jake played many other roles in the play, including Tilapia the tilapia fish (“I had practical parents”) that Lolli meets in the first stage of the water treatment plant, and “Peter Poo”, here. Yes, we watched a poo sing and dance with sludge (the boys) and scum (the girls). The actor did different accents for each character, and was very funny and enthusiastic. Peter Poo had a “proper British accent” for extra juxtapositional humour.

Bacteria and Lolli in a slow-motion fight, as Lolli tried to save the remains of her friend Peter that the bacteria is eating to decompose it to be used in fertilizer:

More singing and dancing, with some bacteria kids blowing bubbles for effect:

Everyone waving arms and singing along to the water song at the end. It was well received with giggles and applause throughout—and the kids (and adults!) learning something too.

For those of you reading in Calgary, Evergreen Theatre does programs and performances for homeschoolers as well as conventional schools. Just email them (contact info on their website) for details.

The boys leaving the parking lot. Daegan on his scooter, Gareth on his tricycle, and their friend rode his bike:

We saw a deer grazing on the hillside:

We soon came to a paved pathway that led us across Fish Creek. The scenery was simply gorgeous, and several birds were heard twittering among the trees:

I was fortunate enough to spot some savannah sparrows among the grass and bushes. Note the yellow “eyebrow”, pinkish feet and bill, and deeply notched tail:

The boys abandoned their ‘vehicles’ at times to explore nature close up. Here they are tromping through the grass:

Daegan stopped often to look for bugs:

And they found a great log to climb on:

While Gareth and his friend played with the springy branches still attached to the fallen tree, Daegan again looked for bugs. At one point he picked up a fairly large black spider. (Shudder). Better him than me!

And off we headed, back to the parking lot. It’s days like this that I am so grateful for the flexibility of our homeschooling lifestyle. We’ll get to more seatwork next time it rains…or snows!

Daegan spent a lot of time playing games with other kids on the playground, and climbing UP the slide:

The boys also played an elaborate dinosaur predator/prey chase game with other some other kids, kicked around the soccer ball we brought, dug in the dirt, and generally amused themselves while I chatted with the other Moms. It was good for all of us.

Right before we left, as I helped Gareth practice riding a bike sans training wheels, I saw this critter crawling along. (See what you get in pesticide-free parks!) I called Daegan, our resident entomologist, over, and he took one look and said, “Neat! A purple-rimmed carabus! They’re only found in the major cities in Alberta, and originally came from Europe. And they’re great for your garden, because they eat slugs and other garden pests…”

Both boys took a turn holding it. Note the “hands of an entomologist” (i.e. dirty!) on Daegan:

Our excitement and me taking photos soon drew the attention of some other kids, and they played “pass the beetle”. Daegan also found one other interesting bug, the “polkadot ladybug (pink form)”, aka Calvia Quatuordecimguttata. (Daegan ID-ed it correctly; I just double-checked in our copy of Ladybugs of Alberta (Canada) (US) by John Acorn):

Here’s Gareth investigating the apple slice left in regular table salt. It was still somewhat flexible and spongy—not fully dried out—and there was very little browning.

I am glad I had Daegan dump the container with the baking soda apple, as Gareth is allergic to mould. I snapped a very quick pic and got it out of the house asap:

We then examined the apple slice left in Epsom salt, and found it similar to the one left in regular table salt: still somewhat flexible, with little browning. It seemed slightly more dried out than the table salt apple:

Finally, we checked our control apple that was simply exposed to the air. It was BY FAR the most dried out of the apple slices, leading the boys to conclude that to mummify things here, you need only expose them to the dry Calgary air!

While I agreed with their conclusion if the only goal of mummification is to dry something out, I pointed out that there was another difference between the control apple and the ones left in salts: the control was much more browned (hence decayed) than the ones left in salts. So if the goal of mummification was to preserve without decay, perhaps a longer time in a salt mix would be best. Still, I did find it pretty funny that our air is more drying than salt!

Here’s what the boys did on April 8th (hover your mouse over the pics for details):

Here’s what the boys did today, same corner of the backyard, April 21—just shy of two weeks later than the above snow pics:

And you thought where you lived had changeable weather! And no, you don’t have to be crazy to live in Calgary…but it sometimes helps.

The whole family headed to the Science Centre this afternoon, the final day before it closes and is dismantled to prepare for the BodyWorlds exhibit. Today was also our last day of “spring break”; we’ll be back into our homeschool routines, with new spring classes starting next week. Here’s a ton of pics from our visit—so many memories, as we’ve brought the boys here countless times over the past 5+ years. Next week I’ll get back to blogging about fun math and science experiments and books; today I just want to dwell on some words of Dr. Seuss:

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

I hope these pictures make you smile too. It should be obvious how much we’ll miss this facility over the next couple years. (Hover your mouse over pics for details):

Making what the kids called a “potato chip” penny. This was part of the “Mr. Roger’s How Things are Made” travelling exhibit:

At this point Daegan and I headed off to watch the Dinosaurs Alive movie in the Discovery Dome, and Gareth and Jim continued exploring.

The Calgary Science Centre, as many of you know, will be relocating to a new site, across from the zoo, with a tentative re-opening date of Fall, 2011. The current location, while still open, has been negatively impacted by the LRT extension / construction. So the decision has been made, effective this Monday, April 12th, to close the current Centre for two weeks to prepare for a new Body World Exhibit. So far, not so bad, right?

The thing is, ALL of the rest of the science centre is being dismantled and shipped elsewhere (mainly other science centres and museums in North America), and the ONLY thing that will be at the current location from now til Fall 2011 (when the new Centre supposedly will open) will be the Bodyworlds exhibit. (The Creative Kids Museum apparently is also staying open.)  And the only movies / Discovery Dome shows to be played over the next almost 2 years will be ones about the body. Bye-bye Wow Town, the awesome hands-on science playground for kids 7 and under. If your child’s science interests are in physics, or entomology, or astronomy, or pretty much anything but the wafer-thin part of science focused on the human body, well…sorry, you’re out of luck!

As I said, I cannot completely verify this information as yet. A visit to the science centre website will tell you that it will be closed for just over 2 weeks starting Monday, and if you go to the Discovery Dome show schedule you’ll find there are none listed past this weekend, and nothing but “The Human Body” in every time slot after this location re-opens at the end of the month. And I know from inquiring previously that there are no summer camps of any kind being offered at the Science Centre this summer (and if this news is true, I’d expect none the summer after as well).

I have two very disappointed science-crazy boys, and they have similarly frustrated and disappointed parents—all the more so as we just renewed our family membership there in January under the expectation that there would be Wow Town and the usual exhibits, as well as a revolving series of new  movies and exhibits coming through every few months. If it weren’t for the reciprocal relationship between Calgary’s Centre and the one in Edmonton—which our passes also get us into—I’d be asking for my money back, on a pro-rated basis.

Anyways, that’s the news folks. If you have further information, please leave me a comment. Thanks! 

Daegan found a patch of ice that reminded him of a map of Europe (France and Spain, UK up above across the ‘channel’):

He learned a bit of local history of the park (Edworthy park):

And we saw and heard an unusual woodpecker. We’re still not sure what it is, after consulting all our field guides. My best guess is either a black-backed or three-toed woodpecker. Any birders out there that can enlighten us?:

It was a nice way to start the day, and I believe it helped Daegan focus in his drama class. The teacher said he had an excellent class, and was helping other kids with the story of Alice in Wonderland, the bit of play they will be performing. Daegan is very excited about playing the Caterpillar!

After a few more minutes, we headed off on a nature walk. Various folks on the Alberta-Birds email list I am on have reported seeing a small flock of pine grosbeaks hanging around a particular area of the park. Unfortunately we didn’t see any grosbeaks (sigh), but we did see the first robin of the year! Woot! Spring is coming!:

Here’s the rest of the walk. Hover your mouse over the pics for details:

We’ve got to enjoy these days while we can in Alberta; the forecast is for more snow next week.