Well, on a recent Cub Scout expedition that we enjoyed, some local frogs put on a spell-binding performance as well. Have a listen. These are not the spring-peepers that you have heard before. They are a very unique sort of frog...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r82kuTT3JU
'The Electric, All Frog Band', my name for them, not theirs, entertained us during our night under the lights at MOTAT, Auckland's Museum of Transportation and Technology. Amiri's Cub Scout Troop met last night outside the entrance to the museum and we all got in at a reduced rate. Unfortunately, Jeanne is home tonight with a cold/flu.
Here we are outside the MOTAT. The special show is called, Night Lights.
Obviously, with a name like MOTAT, there will be plenty of this sort of thing. Steam powered machinery of many types.
And what museum of transportation would not be complete without a live blacksmith working at making horseshoes and wagon wheels?
I don't know what this game was...the lights would change and the kids had to react to them it seemed. The kids knew all about it though.
Here comes an electric tram to give us a ride. It was last used on the streets of Auckland in 1954.
This tram doesn't have anything in the way of shocks, it's a relatively rough ride for the slow pace it maintains.
As you can see, the place was packed.
Amiri really got in to the fun of it.
Both boys took turns at disrupting the pattern projected on this screen.
It's something like a laser pin-ball game. By moving the mirrors, Amiri changes the path of the beam through the game.
After taking a quick look at this sort of display, we headed out into the night for some excitement under the lights...
But, it's fun. We pass lots of coloured light outside and traffic whizzes by on one side for part of the ride.
This passageway of lights leads to a building full of interactive games based on light; photons, lasers, shadows, diffraction patterns, diffusion, and lots more. Take a look at the next series of pictures.
In this game, Arram has challenged light to a race. The board tells him that a beam of light would take 1.28 seconds to travel from the earth to the moon.
Arram then ran his fastest between two automatic timers and learned that he was moving at 3.06 meters per second, and at that rate, it would take him 7,190 days to catch up to that speedy beam of light waiting for him on the moon.
From here, we moved again and found ourselves inside another building where some very fast movers were dancing...
They had a large audience...
By this time, we were starting to feel the effects of walking and exploring, and learning. Another sort of input was needed.
Allie bought the boys some chicken tenders with dipping sauce and a pavlova with cream and salted caramel topping.
We started to make our way back to the entrance to this night time combination of wonderland and fun house. We passed our musical frog friends still giving it their all....
The boys had to stop one last time at the item that intrigued them the most and they ended their evening as they had started it. At the Whisper Dishes...
A whisper dish is actually a parabolic acoustic mirror that focuses sound. Two of these dishes were set up about 40 feet apart, just inside the entrance to MOTAT and the boys loved whispering back and forth across that distance, even when other people were in between them.
What a great job these Scout leaders do, and the community does in supporting activities by the scouts, and their families. -djf
What an AWESOME Scouting Outing! I loved every minute of it and the Electric All Frog Band was certainly unique and fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved the Whisper Dish as well and all the other interactive games. O what fun you all had! As always, thanks for sharing!
I will certainly keep sharing. I enjoy it.
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