Benjamin Franklin Museum Field Trip

This morning we took a trip down to the Benjamin Franklin Museum in Philadelphia.  

Today, Saturday, and Sunday it is a celebration of Ben Franklin's birthday so the museum admission was free.

This was well worth the trip.  

It is not a big museum, but it has many interactive centers.  Very hands on for the kids. 

 We were there for about 2 hours.   

The kids enjoyed making their own music with the computerized armonica.  It is in the picture with all the bright colors.  The kids would touch each color and it would play a musical note. 

Benjamin Franklin created the glass armonica that was colorized.  This way, anyone could play it.  

There were screens that had short animations with the "voice of Benjamin Franklin."   This kept Ana's attention.  

Even Ed enjoyed playing an interactive game of putting the 'Join or Die' flag together.  

I did not know that during the time of the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin was ill so prisoners would carry him to the hall in a sedan chair.  

The more you read or hear about him, the more you realize how incredibly smart, likable, and inquisitive he was.

To get a better view, click each picture.

Last Bubble Post (experiment this morning)

This morning we let one bubble sit outside in the cold.  It lasted 45 minutes.  The temperature was 12 degrees and then 14 degrees.  The pictures are out of order. 

 Lastly, it disappeared like cotton candy

 The bubble looked like cellophane paper or plastic

Creating Bouncy Balls

The girls got Bouncy Ball kits for Christmas. The balls bounce until they dry completely and then they are "almost" like a rock.   The kits came from 'Five Below'.  They were enjoyable.  One of the molds was broken but we just used a rubber band and/or duct tape to hold it together. 

Tom created a mold out of duct tape and cardboard.  It came out a weird rectangular shape but still bounced.

Check out the 2 posts below:  BUBBLES ( IN THE COLD)

BUBBLES UPDATE JANUARY 7, 2014 (evening)

This time I found a site from 2010 that stated to heat the bubble solution. It worked.

BUBBLES

Today we saw a facebook post about a woman who froze bubbles.  We tried it today and it worked; a little with homemade bubbles.  It did not work with store bought bubbles. We ended up putting a plastic bag in a shelf (that was on the porch) and turned it away from the wind.  We are going to try again tonight when it is not so windy.