Sunday, April 20, 2008

Kitteh puddle...

A good old-fashioned calico kitteh puddle. Awwwww. I might be a doggy girl, but, I mean, really. Really.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Cagematch/Carrizo Plain

Another one of the cool things about the Carrizo Plain is that you can see the San Andreas Fault there. Visible! Where two continental plates collide and fight it out!



If I understood this picture right, the San Andreas Fault runs vertically down the middle. The plate on the right is moving downward; the plate on the left is moving up.



This is Wallace Creek, and they say that bend isn't a meander. It is a thirty foot displacement in what used to be a straight creekbed. Top of the creek moving away, bottom of the creek moving toward us. Cool.

Friday, April 11, 2008

They shook the town...then painted it red.

My students created seismographs this week. The objective was that they had to use items they found around the house to create a machine that would record seismic motion (or just motion in general, given that we don't always have seismic motion we feel).

**This one measured motion in a little different way. The marbles on the top would fall into the water when seismic activity occurred.
**This one was made from wood, and had a pendulum that swung due to seismic activity, recording on the paper below.
**This one was made from a cereal box and yogurt cup. It was "painted chrome" as described by the inventor. Paper moved through the slot at the bottom, recording motion from the swinging pendulum.
**This one was built at a slant, and held marbles inside. When seismic activity occurred, the marbles would fall out. In the event of a minor earthquake, only one or two would come out. A larger earthquake would cause more marbles to fall out.

**This one was built from wood scraps and hardware from the garage. It held a drum of paper on a roller, which moved and recorded seismic activity.
And this one....this is unbelievable!! This kid went all out. It was totally functional! Not to mention sooooo cool. As you can see, when he turned the paper roll, the machine moved and recorded all motion on the paper.


I was proud of these little bits today. They rocked!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Slightly delayed, but essentially on track...


This morning while driving to work, I was dismayed, but not surprised, to learn that three lanes of the 118 West were closed due to an earlier accident. (Do I drive a car this cool? No. But it would be funny if I did.) Luckily I leave my house excessively early, so I just sat back and listened to my NPR while sipping coffee. Slightly delayed, according to my monitor, but essentially on track. Ahem.

It was during this drive that I thought more about my recent internal conflict. I also reminded myself of my favorite Ziggy comic, because sometimes I need to slow down and not worry so much about tomorrow, or next week, or next month, rather, just enjoy today. Hope you're enjoying yours.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

During which she saw the cupcake for exactly what it was: a mere sabotage to the brand new booty plan...

It hasn't been the best couple of weeks. Taxes, amongst other things, have me feeling a bit blue. Wish I had one of these:
Alas, the only thing I can come up with is that there is a silver lining in everything, even if I can't yet see what that is. And this cupcake? Probably not gonna help.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Drop Zone Challenge

Today in my science enrichment class I gave my students some tape, saran wrap, string, and a paper clip, and told them they had 30 min to make a parachute. Everyone was successful, and we even had one with a hangtime of 9 seconds. Pretty good considering what they were workin' with. Nice job guys!!!