The Word is Out about McWane Science Center, Part I

By Dana Crisson, Educator

Good news: the McWane Science Center continues to pop up in internet articles and blogs written by visitors as close to home as Southside and as far away as London, England.
Gocitykids.parentsconnect.com, Nickelodeon’s city guide for parents, gave McWane Science Center their highest rating of five out of five stars. Their comments included: "Itty Bitty Mini Golf, in the mini-sized Magic City, helps children learn their ABCs and 123s while practicing the science of their swing. And birthday parties are a hassle-free experience – the museum staff handles all the details."

A writer from hiddenvacations.com posted: "McWane Science Center is Alabama’s premier science center, aquarium and IMAX Dome Theater. It features four floors of exciting interactive science exhibits and displays: visitors can make their own animated movie, build a roller coaster or ride a bicycle along a wire 30 feet above the ground. One of the Center’s main attractions is World of Water exhibit, where visitors can make waves on an eroding shoreline, investigate salt marsh creatures, and explore the awesome story of water and its importance to life on our planet. In addition to permanent exhibits, McWane Science Center constantly features traveling exhibits from other famous museums around the world."

Three satisfied travelers recently wrote the following posts on the travel site tripadvisor.com. First, a Washington D.C. traveler wrote: "McWane is really a fun place! It has a wide range of things to do. Very interactive. Designed for a range of ages: lots for toddlers, lots that appeal to the kindergarten set and quite a bit for older kids as well as adults. Our daughter (4-1/2) had a terrific time and was talking about it the rest of the day. I wasn't sure she'd be entertained long before getting there, but she could have spent an entire day there (we might not have been able to keep up that long though). We'll definitely be back. I'm surprised (and disappointed) we don't have something like this in DC."

According to a visitor from Toronto, ON: "This place is absolutely awesome! We had the best time here. There was a lady on the staff named Betty who was the sweetest lady and made a big fuss over us after she found out we had come to see McWane all the way from Toronto, ON, Canada. The exhibits were amazing, and the new shark and manta/sting ray tank was something else!! My 10 year old had a blast at this place and so did we!!! And for the price, you can't go wrong!"

Then, a visitor from London, England wrote: “We brought our 4 year old & 6 year old daughters here. They had a fantastic time. There were so many fun things for them to see and do that we were not able to get to all of them. Our girls were fascinated by the many interactive exhibits that the museum had to offer. If we lived nearby, we would join the McWane Science Center so we could visit often. Our visit was one of the highlights of our trip to Alabama. We'd highly recommend it!!”

A writer named Krista Tannahill wrote the following on helium.com, a website billed as a knowledge co-operative: “With over fifteen interactive scientific exhibits and an IMAX Dome Theater, the McWane Science Center children are encouraged to become engaged in various thought provoking and imaginative scientific activities and experiments. The center has four featured floors each with a variety of unique and interesting scientific exhibits. From an impressive and in-depth dinosaur collection to various detailed environmental showcases, the science center provides numerous daily activities, demonstrations and learning opportunities throughout the day."

Tannahill takes special note of the Alabama Dinosaurs Exhibit and the Shark & Ray Touch Tank. "Alabama Dinosaurs Exhibit is an in-depth visual and tactile exhibit showcasing various dinosaurs species found in and around the state of Alabama. The newest exhibition at the McWane Science Center, the Touch Tank, allows visitors to view and touch a variety of species of sharks and rays. Visitors are educated and guided by trained staff who will teach you about various underwater creatures and their unique habitats."

The secret is out: Come to the McWane Science Center for undisputed hands-on fun and learning. But then, you knew it all along!

Next week in Part II—Mommy blogs spread the news about the McWane Science Center

Contributor Profile:
Dana Crisson is a Recruitment Specialist in the Education Department at McWane. She brought her two daughters to visit the science center regularly, and although her oldest child is in college and the youngest is preparing to go away to college next fall, they continue to visit as often as possible.

McWane brings science to Children's Hospital!

By Kathy Fournier, Director of Science Education

Outreach is a very important part of the Education Department here at McWane. With our Outreach program, we take our science programming on the road, visiting schools, churches and other facilities throughout the area. One of the regularly scheduled stops for our Outreach program is Children’s Hospital.

In the fall of 2007, our Vice President of Education, Jan Mattingly talked with staff at Children’s Hospital and developed a structure for a partnership between our two organizations. Since then we have been going to Children’s Hospital each month. This opportunity has been amazing. First, we visit the Dialysis Clinic. These children are there at least 3 times a week for 4 hours to receive their treatment, so we come in and provide some fun and educational distractions for them during their treatment. I certainly feel that the kids enjoy our visits, but what I did not expect was how it would affect me, other educators and docents who assist with these outreaches. In the Dialysis Clinic we often see the same children month after month, and as the months go by, we have been able to form relationships with these kids. I look forward to seeing them at each visit to see how they are doing.

At one of our monthly visits one of the regular patients was not there; it turned out he had received his kidney transplant and no longer needed dialysis treatment. What bittersweet news! Obviously I was thrilled that he was now healthy and no longer needed these long and uncomfortable treatments, but sad that I would no longer be able to talk with him at each visit. This particular young man had also come to McWane Science Center on a field trip from the hospital recently and was thrilled to have the opportunity to see our exhibits and educational programs. As I was as leaving Children’s Hospital that morning, I happened to see him in the lobby of the hospital--he was there for a check-up after his transplant and was happy that he had gotten a great report. I got to meet his mother, and as we talked about our visits, she told me that he now wanted to have his birthday at McWane. She said, “He can’t stop talking about McWane Science Center, about how much fun he had on his field trip there and how much he enjoyed doing the activities you brought with you when you came to visit him in the hospital.” We gave each other big hugs, and I told him to be sure to find me when he came for his birthday.

The second part of our outreach at Children’s Hospital is to provide the same programming in a room where patients and their parents can come and have a break from the hospital routine and have some educational fun. Here we do not often see the same patients each visit, but we know that the kids enjoy having an entertaining and educational activity to break up their day. Go Green, Weather Watchers and Sticky Icky Science are just a few of the programs we have been able to present to these children. I think the parents enjoy it as much as the kids! I know from experience that the days spent in the hospital with a sick child can be long, tedious and stressful. I am honored to be able to provide an opportunity for these families to give them some relief from their situation and that is both enjoyable and educational.

Children’s Hospital does a great job offering a variety of opportunities for their patients. I appreciate the fact that they value an educational experience in addition to the movie nights and the other fun activities on their schedule. This hospital outreach has been such a rewarding experience that I plan on participating in as many as possible. I value the relationships that we are building with these families, and I look forward to seeing them here at McWane Science Center when they are able to come and visit us.

From Parking Deck to Adventure Halls – the Grand Lobby Experience

By: Ruth Terry, Manager of Ticketing

It is very difficult to convince a three year old that there are more fun things to see and do after being introduced to the flying, chiming, zooming, and leaping balls of Vulcan’s Dream Machine. The art piece is the first sight you see when you step from the elevators from the parking deck into the Grand Lobby. It is sometimes difficult to convince older children (and even adults) that more levels of exciting activities wait around the curve of the spacious lobby.

Once you are able to pull away from “The Ball Machine,” other distractions pull you farther into the center. High screens of constantly changing information about what the McWane Science Center offers may catch your eye with a robot talking about having a birthday party at the McWane Science Center. Or you might see information about the latest exhibit or an upcoming exhibit.

A few steps on are three larger screens, displaying a variety of information. You might see lightning streaking across a stage while an unseen audience screams with delight; or a balloon exploding in light, the audience gasping with excitement. “Where and when can I see THAT?” you want to know. The center board has a map of Level One and the times of the day’s programs listed. On the final screen are the IMAX® films with their current show times. If you miss the IMAX times on the information screens, they are posted behind the ticketing counter.
The screens at ticketing keep up the flow of information and excitement. The prices are listed and the robot is there too, piquing your children’s interest while you receive all the vital information about your visit from the ticketing representative. On one screen, the robot will let you know about birthday parties and membership at the McWane Science Center. On the other, your child will be watching for him to pop up, sneaking peeks over and around the prices. The robot, by the way, is MAC, McWane Science Center’s robot who will occasionally roll around Level One, greeting visitors and talking about what is happening at the McWane Science Center that day.

Past the ticketing counter are more interesting distractions before you step into the Adventure Halls. First there is the IMAX® Concession Stand, where the smell of fresh popcorn wafts, tempting you to grab a bag (please remember though, there is no food or drink allowed in the Adventure Halls.) Then there is the MAXFLIGHT 2000, where you are turned topsy-turvy in a simulated roller coaster ride, if you are at least 48 inches tall. Above MAXFLIGHT 2000 is a net. Why is there a net above our lobby? It’s under the High Cycle to catch falling objects, not falling people (no matter what a ten year old might tell his little sister.) And there is the vortex, the amazing gravity powered coin spin which is not only fun to do, but helps fund the fun!

If you can resist the pull of Really Cool Stuff, our gift store, you are finally in the Adventure Halls. Four levels of fun and educational exhibits. The long journey from Parking Deck to Adventure Halls is complete. Now you only have to decide what to do first!

Science Fiction to Science Reality

By: Ben Moon, Director of Space and Technology
Technology is like the brother of magic. At least it seems that way. Everyday humans are making scientific leaps and bounds, turning science fiction into science reality. It’s really quite fun to follow the progress. Let’s talk about some recent advancements shall we?

We can turn oily algae into fuel. We can grow plastics from plants. We can slow down a beam of light and stop it in its tracks. We can grow diamonds in a lab in just a few days. We can video chat with people on the other side of the world, for free.

While it’s interesting to talk about this stuff, it’s more fun to see it in action. So I will present to you some new technologies with video and pictures to showcase them.

First up: Touchable Holography. This technology utilizes a concave mirror to create holographic images, Wiimotes to track the user, and and “Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display” that allows you to actually feel the holographic images. Crazy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw

Eyeborg. Rob Spence, a one-eyed Canadian filmmaker and Kosta Grammatis, his engineer friend have created an eyeball camera that fits into Spence’s empty eye socket. They’re making a movie from that perspective. Weird. http://eyeborgproject.com/home.php

Super computing (for real). Graphene is an extremely strong experimental material with extremely high conductivity. It's essentially a one-atom-thick honeycomb fabric of carbon. It’s better than silicone for computer chips and MIT researchers claim that it may be able to boost the clock speed of computer chips into the 500-GHz to 1,000-GHz range. You’re overclocked 8-GHz silicon chip in liquid nitrogen just shed a tear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbS-YyvCl4&feature=related

Electromagnetic Railgun. Current naval ship guns generate about 9 megajoules of muzzle energy. The electromagnetic railgun developed at Naval Surface Warfare Division in Dahlgren, Virginia is an 8-megajoule prototype, but the one to be used on Navy ships will generate a massive 64 megajoules. The top-secret gun the Navy used to destroy Devastator in Transfomers: Revenge of the Fallen was not science fiction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54aLcC3G74 and http://www.nswc.navy.mil/ET/railgun/

DARPA is developing something their calling “Silent Talk” for soldiers. Using an EEG to read brain waves, they’re attempting to analyze "pre-speech" thoughts , map people's EEG patterns to his / her individual words, then see if those patterns are common to all people. If they are, then the team will move on to developing a way to transmitting those patterns to another person. It’s basically telepathy! http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/pentagon-preps-soldier-telepathy-push/#comments

The Sun…On Earth! There is a laser housed at the National Ignition Facility (or NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, that is the size of three football fields. It will aim to create a "star" on earth by focusing 192 beams at a pea-sized target, generating temperatures over 100 million degrees and pressure over 100 billion times the earth's atmosphere. The process will create nuclear fusion -- the reaction that powers the sun and the stars. Hot! http://www.physorg.com/news162827599.html and https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/nif/about.php

Allow these things to mystify you until mid November when the Large Hadron Collider creates a mini-black hole that will swallow the Earth. Cheers!

Contributor Profile:
Ben Moon is the Manager of Space and Technology at McWane. He is a total geek and loves space, shiny things, technology, gadgets, video games, sci-fi and zombies. He is married and just had his first child! His favorite movie is The Rocketeer. He wishes he had telekinesis.

Birds of a Feather - Part 3

We have now arrived at a very interesting point where the discoveries of the past two decades have illustrated how difficult it is to define exactly where feathered theropod dinosaurs leave off and birds begin. Many of the features once thought to be unique to birds, like a wishbone, for example, have been identified in a variety of dinosaurs. Even teeth are still found in many otherwise normal-looking Late Cretaceous birds such as Ichthyornis from the chalk deposits of Alabama. At the moment, the acquisition of fully powered flight appears to be the dividing line between theropods and birds, although even that is tentative. At least one lineage of theropod dinosaurs, the alvarezsaurids, that includes the bizarre Mononychus and Shuvuuia, each sporting a single finger on each tiny but powerfully built arm, have the appearance of “vestigial” wings that belonged to a once flighted bird that has re-adapted the wing into a warped sort of arm. This implies that flight may have evolved more than once within the theropods because the alvarezsaurids are not closely related to the lineage of theropods that share the most features with birds. Essentially, you should think of birds as flighted theropods that survived the extinction event 65 million years ago (the K/T boundary extinctions). After the K/T boundary extinctions, birds had finally evolved to the point that they had a more bird-like appearance, having lost teeth, the long tail, and the hind foot sickle-claw.

But birds didn’t quit being scary with the disappearance of the rest of the dinosaurs. At least two groups of birds became top predators after the K/T extinctions in the absence of any competing large mammal carnivores. Diatryma (Gastornis) was a large, seven-foot-plus tall flightless bird that dominated North America and Europe for several million years after the K/T, eating the ancestors of horses and whatever other mammals they could catch. Later, the flightless phorusrhacids, otherwise known as the Terror Birds, ran the plains of South America between about 62 and 2 million years ago, eating llamas and pretty much whatever else they wanted. One phorusrhacid, the nine-foot-tall Titanis walleri, made it across Central America and its fossils have been found in Florida. As a personal note, this is one of my “paleo daydreams”. You can’t get from Central America to Florida without crossing through southern Alabama. Every time it rains, I get this mental image of a Titanis skeleton eroding out of the bank of some stream in south Alabama,…

We call the Cenozoic, the time period dating from the end of the dinosaur era 65 million years ago to the present, the “age of mammals”. And it’s true that the top predators in the terrestrial realm today are mostly mammals. But there are 10,000 species of living birds, and only 4600 species of mammals, so dinosaurs are still doing quite well (although a recently released report suggests that human activities may be accomplishing what the dinosaur-killing asteroid collision could not – namely driving many species to extinction). There’s even the chance that traditional-looking dinosaurs could make a comeback. Several times over the past 20 or 30 years various research groups have shown that some of the primitive characteristics of birds ancestors are still locked away in a birds DNA. Now there are people trying to use our increasing knowledge of genetics to “reverse engineer” a dinosaur, or at least a bird with some very dinosaur-like characteristics, from a bird. I’m going to refer to such a creature as a “dino-bird” in the following paragraphs.

For example, there is a mutation in chickens known as talpid, which has teeth and jaws, not a beak. There is also a stage in embryonic chicken development with a long tail containing 16 vertebrae, very dinosaur-like, very un-chicken-like. The genes that control these mutations can be identified and theoretically, if they can be “turned on” during the development of the embryo in such a manner that they do not kill the chick embryo by interfering with later developmental stages, one could get a chicken with teeth and a long tail. Then there’s the Hoatzin, an odd-looking relative of the cuckoos that nests in the seasonally flooded forests of the Amazon. Hoatzin chicks are born with 3 claws on their hands that project off the front edge of the wing that they use to climb up small trees to escape snakes. They later lose the claws, but obviously the genes for hand claws in birds are still locked away in their genetic code, it’s just that those genes have been repressed. Of course whether or not bioengineering such an animal is ethical is another story, but my prediction is that someone somewhere is going to do it. And this raises all sorts of questions of a profound nature that scientists and perhaps society at large should begin to ponder, and here I offer but a few:

What exactly will a dino-bird look like, will we call embryonic dino-birds “chicks” (somehow when I think of the fuzzy little yellow duck chick I got one Easter when I was about 5 years old, I can’t quite reconcile the two images), will we have to redo the old expression about something being “rare as hen’s teeth”, will they get along well with house cats (my prediction is no), could they be house-trained, and what would that be like (ever smelled a chicken house?), how much will the vet charge to “declaw” your dino-bird?

Finally, a couple of closing thoughts; the next time you look at that bird on your feeder that you’ve let run out of food, or cast a disparaging glance at that scruffy-looking pigeon on the sidewalk, just remember – there’s a little of T. rex in them. Show some respect. And if we ever do invent a time machine and travel back to the age of dinosaurs I have one last prediction – dinosaurs will taste like chicken.

Contributor Profile:
James Lamb is a native Birminghamster with a nearly life-long interest in fossils. He collected his first fossil when he was 5 years old. Friends and family members assure him he has not matured much since then. James is curator of paleontology at McWane Science Center, and would like to one day see the absolute treasure trove of Alabama's fossil heritage revealed to the public. When not at work he wishes he were in the field digging up fossils. At home he enjoys reading, jogging, woodworking, and carving. He has been informed that he is in the habit of telling atrocious puns, but this comes as a surprise to him. James describes himself as a "science nerd".

True Joy Means Making a Difference

Joy.

The world needs more of it. You can provide it.

When I first got into fundraising, I thought it would be great helping people live better lives. The best part of my job, however, is witnessing the joy donors and volunteers experience when they shared their resources to help others.

I hear the sounds of joy every day at McWane Science Center. Sounds we wouldn’t hear if it weren’t for generous donors who provide exciting, fun, educational exhibits and programs.

If you have been a part of providing this joy for the 11 years that McWane has existed, thank you. We have depended on corporations, foundations, government entities and some individuals who have made major gifts. But Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.

McWane is a thriving organization in terms of the experience, attendance and memberships. April and June of this year saw record attendance. Memberships are growing, yet there’s room to grow. Might I unabashedly say it’s a great deal if you come just twice a year?

Lots of folks don’t realize that McWane Science Center is a nonprofit. It costs us about twice as much to serve visitors as we charge. We want to remain affordable for everyone to enjoy the benefits of hands-on science education.

Science literacy is important. Our kids must grow up knowing how to solve problems with the environment, energy, technology, etc., McWane supports families and teachers in our mission “to change lives through science and wonder.”

True joy is watching another delight in something. Knowing a person is learning skills and that we are igniting a lifelong love of learning is icing on the cake. By donating to McWane Science Center, you can experience the joy of being a part of something really big - you can provide joy for thousands of kids.

From outside my office, I can hear hundreds of kids excited as they get off of school buses. In the lobby, I hear kids crying that they don’t want to leave. It’s in those moments that I know what we are doing is working. Kids love experiential learning. AND THEY NEED IT if there’s to be hope for our future.

We need your financial support more than ever. If you don’t have a membership, buy one. Tell others what a great value memberships to McWane are - give them as gifts. A donation of any size - $25 to thousands of dollars - will help our community. You can provide hope for the future. And when you do that, you can experience great joy.

l’ll step off of my soap box now.

Contributor Profile:
Linda H. Baker is the vice president of development and marketing for McWane Science Center and mother of three boys. After a tour in corporate communications and print media, she found her purpose for existing: to help people find true joy.

Birds of a Feather - Part 2

by James Lamb, Paleontologist
















There are to date at least 21 different types of dinosaurs that are known to have had feathers. Even Velociraptor, a well-established dinosaur, appears to have had a feather coating, as a recently discovered specimen shows that it had the bumps on one of its forearm bones called “quill nodes” that indicate where feathers attach in modern birds. In fact, it appears very likely that all carnivorous dinosaurs (the group called theropod dinosaurs) had feathers, at least as juveniles. It also seems that the dromaeosaurs, the specific group of theropods that Deinonychus belongs to, are the closest relatives to birds. Many of the feathered dinosaur skeletons have the switchblade claw on their hind feet. Recently, there have been discoveries such as the “bristles” on the back on the small Triceratops relative Psittacosaurus, and just two months ago of what appear to be feathers on the heterodontosaurid dinosaur Tianyulong, that indicate that perhaps all dinosaurs had feathers, at least originally (although they may have been lost later by such groups as the hadrosaurs (duck-bills) which we know from skin impressions did not have feathers). This is because Psittacosaurus and Tianyulong are plant-eating dinosaurs that are not close relatives to theropods, and in particular heterodontosaurids are near the base of the dinosaur family tree.

So what did a dinosaur need with feathers?

The key question about the origins of flight in birds if dinosaurs are indeed their ancestors, is how did ground-dwelling animals become flying animals? Looking at the range of feather types in modern birds, Dr. Alan Brush has worked out the probable sequence of the evolution of feathers from a reptilian type scale. The problem is that the intermediate stages in feather evolution, say, halfway between a scale and a feather, are not capable of sustaining flight. That means that feathers were originally evolved for a purpose other than flight, a purpose for which intermediate grade feathers provided some useful function. It appears that the answer to this riddle is that feathers originally were for insulation. We now know from a variety of evidence that dinosaurs almost certainly had some form of warm-blooded metabolism, and the earliest dinosaurs were all small animals. Small warm-blooded animals lose body heat more rapidly than a large animal with the same metabolism. To prevent the loss of body heat, small warm-blooded animals need insulation. Dinosaurs had feathers for the same reason that mammals have hair – to stay warm. Indeed, birds and mammals are the only warm-blooded animals. Mammals inherited fur from their ancestors, birds inherited feathers from their ancestors. The intermediate stage of a feather may not work for flight, but it does work as insulation, at least better than a scale. Only later were they co-opted for use in flight. For many years though there hasn’t been a satisfying explanation for how theropod dinosaurs made the transition into the air. The final piece came a few years ago with the work of Dr. Ken Dial, and is known as WAIR, or wing-assisted-incline-running. I’ll give an example from personal experience how this works.

Some years back, while searching for dinosaurs, umm, fossil ones, in central Alabama, I was walking through a stretch of woods to get to a site, when I scared up a wild turkey in the underbrush. I’m not sure which of us was more surprised; turkeys generally rely on camouflage, and will hide quietly in a bush and let you walk right past them. Evidently, this one decided at the last instant the camouflage wasn’t working because the turkey exploded out of a bush within arms reach in a cloud of leaves and feathers and with a noise equivalent to what I thought of at the time as a charging rhino crashing through the underbrush. The turkey sprinted across the clearing, heading towards a large cedar tree. And then it did the oddest thing – it waited until it was right at the tree and then flew vertically up it, it’s chest just inches away from the trunk. Heart pounding, still checking to see if my pants were still dry recovering from the initial surprise, the whole thing having taken less than 2 seconds, I began to wonder why it had waited until the last instant to fly up the tree instead of taking off and flying in a shallower trajectory into the tree. What WAIR proves is that in fact the turkey did not fly into the tree at all, it RAN into the tree – vertically up the trunk.

Dial has spent many hours filming birds running up the trunks of trees. He has shown that a bird can run up a tree quicker from a short distance than it can fly into the tree. In fact, this happens so quickly that it can only be seen in high-speed video footage, which is why the turkey appeared to me to have flown up the tree. Further, birds only a day or two old exhibit this behavior, and also sometimes run up inclined surfaces and use it as a launching point to glide away from danger long before their wings are developed enough for flight. He has documented that birds can run up completely vertical surfaces in this manner, flapping the wings both as a propulsive assist and to help keep the feet pressed against the tree. It also turns out that they move their arms/wings in exactly the same manner that they do during active flight. This is almost certainly the origin of flight in dinosaurs – small dinosaurs with feathers evolved for insulation modifying a predator-escape behavior for a new purpose.

Next week: Birds of a Feather Part 3

Contributor Profile:
James Lamb is a native Birminghamster with a nearly life-long interest in fossils. He collected his first fossil when he was 5 years old. Friends and family members assure him he has not matured much since then. James is curator of paleontology at McWane Science Center, and would like to one day see the absolute treasure trove of Alabama's fossil heritage revealed to the public. When not at work he wishes he were in the field digging up fossils. At home he enjoys reading, jogging, woodworking, and carving. He has been informed that he is in the habit of telling atrocious puns, but this comes as a surprise to him. James describes himself as a "science nerd".