Science Saturday

Today was a day dedicated to science
we're a very scientific family :-)


First thing in the morning we went to pick up Syd and Kirrah at Kirrah's house (they had a sleepover and from what we hear they stayed up until 2:30 AM!). From there we went to the Kinoole Farmer's Market to buy the Tilapia for Syd's Science Fair Project. Here is Syd with the tilapia man....
And here are the tilapia we bought (about 20), we even got two catfish for free! From the Market, Charlotte took Syd and Kirrah to their girl scout robotics meeting. Charlotte's girl scout troop put together a robotics team that will be competing in a couple of weeks in a LEGO Robotics competition. Today was their rehearsal day when they practice their robotics tasks and practiced giving their presentation. Besides building and programming a little robot to do some tasks, they had to do a research project and they have to present it. The projects had to do with how global warming affects the place you live in. So they made it on the effects that flooding has on the waterways and the bay.


Here is Sydney putting the finishing touches on their robot.

And here they are launching them on the task/obstacle course to do their tasks (I don't know much about this, so my apologies for the unscientific nature of my explanations).And after they were done we picked Syd and Charlotte up and went to IMILOA to see the ROBOTICS BIG LEAGUERS!!! Our friends from PISCES (Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems) and people from NASA where demonstrating some prototype lunar rover robots...HOW COOL IS THAT!?

This is the SCARAB made by Carnegie Melon University. Is that the coolest looking rover or what!?

It is designed so that it wheels can lift or lower independently to adjust for the terrain. In what looks like where the seat would be, a special drilling tool goes in that can take lunar soil samples and analyze them. No, it doesn't come with cup-holders....

And if that wasn't cool enough, they let the kids drive the thing around!!!

Look Ma! I can drive this thing with my eyes closed!!

Here is our friend Bob Fox from PISCES explaining me some of the features of the SCARABAnd here he is showing us the design of the actual wheels/tires that will be used on the SCARAB, they were designed especially for this project by Michelin.Here we are with Hana's friend (Devon) in front of another soil digging rover.

In the afternoon we planted lettuce, green onions, cress, and basil in the aquaponics trays, and fired it up for the first time.

Here is the full thing up and running. Tilapia live in the bottom tank, a pump pumps the water from the tank to that 5 gal bucket on the top which acts as a biofilter converting the ammonia from the fish waste into nitrates that the plants, which are in those white trays, can use as nutrients, then the water cascades back to the tank aerating it at the same time!

And in about six months and $6,534.75 dollars later we will have a big grilled tilapia and lettuce salad feast (assuming the plants and fish don't die)...