Science Expo

We decided to go to a free science expo in downtown Silver Spring. I had mentioned a county fair, but luckily, the boys forgot about that one (It costed money!), and we were off with little fanfare. We stopped, of course, for sustenance.

Maceo was stunned when Cassius ordered the same donut as he did.

From there, we drove on to downtown. There was a lot to do. At first, both boys were reticent to take part in anything and preferred to hide behind my skirt, as it were. We finally sat down and had a talk about it, as I was frustrated. From there, they were more involved. It helped that the next thing we went to was a fun making activity.

Building with Smart Blocks

We met some impressive Middle Schoolers who made their own robots for competitions.

And inside, we learned about a Japanese train that runs on supercooled magnets so it levitates 4 inches above the ground. That might have been the boys' favorite demonstration. It involved liquid nitrogen and actual levitating magnets! And a toy train to push around.

They also got a chance to make their own cars and run them down race tracks, marking mistakes and redesigning to try to complete the run.

Designing the cars. Eventually, they both had multiple successful runs.

There were other hands-on exhibits, too. Cassius made a pinwheel (though it blew out the window on North Capitol Street on the way home, sniff), and they also got to try to Virtual Reality headsets to explore under the sea.

Cassius makes photosensitive wheels spin with just a flashlight!

And then, surprisingly, another favorite was the hall of rainbows which was just multi-colored strips of plastic hanging down in a 10 foot by 10 foot shed. Maceo made a video of going through it.

Once we got home, we did a lot of football in the field across the street from our house, came in for dinner, and bathed and got ready for bed. As I came into the bathroom to brush Cassius's hair, he told me seriously, "Don't touch the hair!"

Ahh, my little fashion-conscious monster!