Guest Blogger

By Becky Wolfe, Science Programmer

Bright yellow and purple flowers. Lush green vegetation. Sounds like you are on the roof!  Wait. The roof? At The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, we have the Schaefer Rooftop garden, visible from the Sunburst Window. This beautiful garden is one of the ways the museum is trying to be greener and more sustainable. By adding this garden, we are helping with water conservation efforts.

When water falls on this garden or enters the garden from gutters on the roof, it is absorbed by the soil, which is a mixture of clay and plant food. We have to use a special mixture so the garden doesn’t become too heavy for the roof. Plants in the garden use the water and will even release this back into air.  Water that is not used by the plants, particularly if we have a huge rainstorm is filtered by the plants and soil.

So why would the museum want to capture this water? Why don’t we just it run into the sewers? In Indianapolis, all of the rain water that enters our sewer system is sent to the treatment plant. When we have a lot of rain, this puts a lot of stress and strain on the treatment facilities. By sending some of the rain water to our garden, we are helping to filter water and also lowering the burden on our treatment facilities.  We also provide a beautiful garden for visitors to enjoy!

In front of the Welcome Center, the museum has also installed a rain garden. The rain garden provides the same benefit to our environment.  While rooftop gardens can be difficult to install at home, a rain garden can be planted in your yard. Look for areas where water naturally collects in your yard or choose a place near your downspouts for your garden.  Send the water from your gutters into your garden to filter and conserve water. Native plants work well in rain gardens and there are many local resources to help install rain gardens. A quick internet search will connect you with experts!

Next time you are at the museum, stop by the Sunburst window, located on Level 2 to see the museum’s beautiful rooftop garden!
 

By John McCollum, Biotechnology Learning Center Supervisor

This is a great at-home science activity for your kids! Seeds often use the genetic material from two parent plants to grow into a plant with a new mix of traits different from the parent plants. Since farmers want their crops to consistently have the same types of traits (such as large size, good taste, fast growth, etc.) they try to grow certain crops like potatoes without using seeds. Instead, plants like potatoes are reproduced using a process called cloning.

When planting potatoes, you will cut a fully grown potato into pieces and use those little pieces to start your new plants. In cloning, there is only one parent plant and the genetic material stays the same, so the offspring produce the same traits as the parent. 

Be sure to prepare your potatoes the day before you want to plant them, as you need to have the seedlings dry overnight. Any potatoes could be used, but special “seed potatoes” are preferable to grocery store-bought eating potatoes if you actually want to grow plants for food. Store-bought potatoes will be more likely to have problems with disease.

Materials:

Potato
Paring knife
Mulch and/or potting soil

Procedure:

• Take a potato and locate the "eyes." Use the knife to cut the potato into 1-inch cubes, each cube having one eye.
• Let the potato cubes dry overnight.
• Put the cubes on top of well-drained soil, 16 to 24 inches apart, in a sunny location.
• Cover the cubes with 6 inches of mulch, and water them until the mulch is wet.

If you would rather start your clones indoors, it is acceptable to plant each potato cube into its own pot with potting soil. Once you see a sprout in your pot, you’ll want to transfer it to a garden area outdoors as soon as weather permits. A typical growing season starts in the early spring with some people choosing to plant as late as mid-June.

You can do even more programs like this in the Biotechnology Learning Center at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis!

Note: Adapted from content by Andrea Helaine
Read more: How to Clone Potatoes | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7786227_clone-potatoes.html#ixzz1kalVdnQ3

 

As part of Literacy Month, we asked Children's Museum of Indianapolis staff to share their favorite or most influential book from childhood. Today, we talked to John McCollum, Biotechnology Learning Center Supervisor.

Don't forget to keep shopping at the online Scholastic Book Fair throughout March. Each book purchased earns us points that will go toward buying new books for the kid's in our community. Last year we were able to provide more than 300 new books!

By John McCollum, Biotechnology Learning Center Supervisor

I was an avid reader as a child. My love of science was sparked by  the book The Mad Scientists’ Club  written by Bertrand R. Brinley. My father passed his own childhood copy on to me when I was in middle school, and it quickly became one of my most cherished books. The Mad Scientists’ Club strengthened my desire to study science almost more than any other fiction book I read as a child, and the wacky science adventure tales it contains still inspire me to share my excitement about science with others today. Check out The Mad Scientists’ Club website at http://www.madscientistsclub.com/books.html.

What passions are being inspired by your reading collection?

As part of Literacy Month, we asked Children's Museum of Indianapolis staff to share their favorite or most influential book from childhood. Today, we talked to Joan Emmert, manager of InfoZone Brand Library here at the museum.

Don't forget to keep shopping at the online Scholastic Book Fair throughout March. Each book purchased earns us points that will go toward buying new books for the kid's in our community. Last year we were able to provide more than 300 new books!

By Joan Emmert, Manager of Info Zone Branch Library

As a young child I could always be found in the mystery section of our local library.  I would check out stacks of Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children series.  I loved being outdoors and my books would go with me so that I could read and then act out all the scenes from the books.  Part of being outside meant that I spent time with animals, spiders, and worms!  When I was given a copy of Charlotte’s Web it immediately became my all-time favorite book.  Although I’ve added several more favorites to my collection of books, I still like to recommend Charlotte’s Web to young readers.
 

By Ashley Zrosec, Family Programs Teacher

It’s National "March into Literacy" month!  At The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, we're celebrating with a series of activities and events to get YOU excited about reading!

We're kicking it all off at our Scholastic Book Fair opening today! We have books for the whole family.  The best part? Your purchase will earn points that allow us to purchase books for kids in our community. Last year we were able to provide more than 300 brand new books for kids to keep! This year, even your online purchases in the month of March will earn points, too!

In celebration of Literacy Month we've been compiling a list of our favorite books from when we were kids. Check out some of our favorite authors, titles, and book series:

Top 5 Authors

• Dr. Seuss
• Robert McCloskey
• Shel Silverstein
• Eric Carle
• David A. Carter

Top Book Series

• The Mad Scientists’ Club
• Harry Potter
• Nancy Drew
• Hardy Boys
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
• Little House
• Pinkerton

Top 10 Favorite Books

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
• Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper

Stay tuned, all month we'll be posting blogs about books that were influential in the lives of staff members here at the museum.

We’ll see you at the book fair where you can purchase new favorites of your own! And don’t forget...

"The more you read, the more you know, the more successful, you will grow!" - Dr. Seuss.

On February 25, the museum is launching (pun intended) a new experience called Curious Scientific Investigators: Flight Adventures. It’s not an exhibit, but more a series of experiences, programs, and a new multimedia show that teach children and families about flight. We’ve been thrilled to work with some great partners on this project including The Academy of Model Aeronautics that, believe or not, lives right down the road in Muncie, IN. When it comes to model aircraft, these are your guys and gals! This week’s guest blogger is Bill Pritchett from the AMA to tell you more about their organization and how they’re helping with this project.

By Bill Pritchett, Director of Education at the Academy of Model Aeronautics

Before planes and space shuttles, there was aeromodeling, or the making of model aircrafts to test ideas and principles of flight. All the way back in the 1800s the father of the Wright brothers gave them a rubber-powered model aircraft, and less than 100 years later man walked on the moon! Aeromodeling is a truly significant component of actual flight. Plus, it provides learning, excitement and, most importantly, fun for its many followers.

We’re not just talking about paper airplanes here! Aeromodeling includes everything from Free Flight (FF) models, such as Hand Launched Gliders or Catapult Launched Gliders (now that sounds cool!), and also includes any powered aircraft (rubber band, electric, or gas) and radio-controlled flight, and the AMA has activities for all of these! (Check out this video to see a professional remote control pilot and AMA member flying his plane at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis!)

AMA has been a proud participant in a significant NASA grant with The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.  CSI: Flight Adventures  has developed some amazing opportunities for kids to be introduced to aeromodeling, the educational aspects of model aviation, and having fun while they learn.  

This program promotes and supports aviation as an educational tool to educators and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) qualities of flight. Flight Adventures is just the beginning. The partnership between the museum, NASA and AMA also begins a collective journey to a more comprehensive understanding of building and flying all types of model aircraft for America’s youth.

If your kids are interested in getting started with the AMA, visit our website!

Matt Anderson, Children's Museum of Indianapolis actor, gives you a first hand account of how our extraordinary actors bring the museum experience to life for you and your family. This is the first in a series of posts from Matt. You might remember Matt from his exceptional Jelly Belly Art blog post last year!


In my bright blue outfit and neon green cape, guests instantly recognize me as a superhero.Of course, because Captain Extraordinary is unique to our museum, they don’t necessarily know which superhero I am. I often get: “Green Lantern!” or “Superman!” (or one time, inexplicably: “Wonder Woman!”). Either way, the kids are excited. We talk about dinosaurs and Transformers and how people can use porcupine quills to make art… but now it’s 10:30 am, and I must bid my friends farewell. I head to the dressing room and replace the outfit with an understated gray suit, a vest, and a tie. I whiten my temples and paint spirit gum on my lip to affix a mustache. Finally, I make my way to The Power of Children exhibition where, as Anne Frank’s father, I give a performance about the holocaust.

This is just my average day as an actor at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

For me, the fact that this is just an “average day” is precisely why I love the job so much. It’s a ridiculous understatement, but performing as Captain Extraordinary is rather different from performing as Otto Frank. And performing as Otto Frank is rather different from – well, whatever I’ll be performing next. Yet that’s exactly what makes the job so great: the incredible and almost staggering variety of programs we do here.

As much as I do love it, I had no idea growing up that this is what I’d be doing for a living. While I’d been interested in acting for much of my life—from making videos with friends in middle school to obtaining a theatre major in college—I never thought I’d be able to do anything with it for a career. Following graduation, I found work at the fantastical City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri and later at the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’ve always enjoyed working with children and families so these jobs, though not traditionally in the theatre, felt well suited to me. It wasn’t until moving to Indianapolis in 2008 and seeing a listing for ACTOR on their children’s museum’s website that I realized that what I’d assumed were two entirely separate career tracks could actually merge.

My case is not an isolated one. There are nine full-time actors here at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and most have similar stories — a theatrical interest nurtured in high school, pursued into undergraduate studies, but with post-graduate jobs suddenly veering far from that path: brokerage assistant, coffee-shop barista, ballroom dance choreographer. Why weren’t we all actively pursuing careers in theatre, when it was clearly something we all loved?

Unfortunately, work in that discipline can have something of a stigma around it—being an actor means being either absurdly rich or famous in Hollywood, or a starving artist on the streets. It’s easy to see those extremes and not realize that there is a theatrical middle ground, such as in museums, especially if that type of specialized field is not yet in the public consciousness. Perhaps in the years to come, museum theatre will become a more mainstream profession. As it stands, my coming across this job may very well have been a fluke… and as such, I feel extremely lucky to have found it, and extremely lucky to once again be doing what I love.

To be continued...

Today's guest blogger is Daniel Incandela. Daniel lives a few blocks from the The Children’s Museum. He has no frogs, but does blog from time to time on his own site: http://danielincandela.com/blog/

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As a young boy I moved a lot. I experienced urban environments and the countryside. I loved both, but only one of those settings had frogs. As a 9 year old riding around on a bike, running through fields and jumping over creeks – there was nothing better than catching a frog.

One time I caught one and brought it home with me. I built a dwelling for it in my back garden – using rocks as walls, I included a tiny little pond, manicured lawn, amphibian treats and other creature comforts (I don’t quite remember it all). I checked him into his compound and he seemed quite happy with the new digs. I wished him pleasant dreams and went in for the night.

The next day I awoke with excitement and rushed out to check on him. That untrustworthy, ungrateful, yet adorable frog had jumped over the rocks and high tailed it out of there. My dreams were crushed.

Fast forward 30 years and I found myself at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis this past weekend with my family. The memories from yesteryear crept in. Why did that frog leave me? What did I do wrong? Was the mini pond too small? The betrayal. What could have been! And other related sane thoughts for a middle aged man.

I decided to use this visit to Frogs: A Chorus of Colors as my opportunity to get past this emotional issue of mine.

I never follow paths, instructions or people in exhibitions. So I set off, leaving my family in the dust. I immediately encountered a display case about blow darts. Not what I expected, but as someone that holds a degree in Anthropology – cool. Hunters in Ecuador use poison tipped darts (from a frog) to capture prey. What kid or middle-aged man doesn’t think that’s cool? A bonus for point for frogs for offering poison, hanging out with the Ashuara Jivaro culture and hopping it old school in Ecuador.

Then I wandered looking for my favorite frog. That was easy. I picked one that didn’t move (abandonment issues). Despite its name - Chinese Gliding Frog, this gorgeous jade-like frog seemed content to let me observe and take a photo. Maybe I should have grown up in Asia instead? Another point for frogs all over the world. And for this green little monster for being so patient and still with me.

AND THEN I ENCOUNTERED THIS: 
 

Frogger. A game I played as a kid (in fact video games practically raised me). It brought back so many wonderful memories of being young and playing video games. 
 
Later in life, I watched with my jaw agape as Seinfeld’s George Costanza tried to navigate his Frogger Arcade machine across a busy street to preserve his high score.  As George said:  “Kramer, listen to me. I'm never gonna have a child. If I lose this Frogger high score, that's it for me.” That’s all I needed to hear. Now the coolness of Frogs began to sink in.
I can only assume that my vanishing frog was ultimately found by a video game designer at Konami. I mean, that’s has to be what happened. My frog was the inspiration for Frogger. Talk about a great dinner party story.

That’s all I needed. Closure.

Since my visit to the museum, I’ve thought about Frogs in a brand new light.

They’re everywhere! Frogs falling from the sky, Warts, Frog Legs, Egyptian Mythology, Kermit, Chocolate one’s in Harry Potter, Science Class, and I’m sure we’ve all read the Ancient Greek comedy The Frogs by Aristophanes (just nod).

Embrace the frog. Find your favorite at The Children’s Museum. Look for frogs in popular culture. And if you happen to catch one, don’t be surprised if it leaves for bigger and better things. After all, it is a frog – they’re ambitious little hip hoppers.

(If you are thinking about owning a pet frog, be sure to read Cathy Hamaker's post, "So you think you want a pet frog?" first!)

Today's guest blog is by Jaclyn Falkenstein, the Public Relations Coordinator for The Children’s Museum. In her other job, she is Mommy to two girls, ages 18 months and three years.

As I was reading the copy for one of our upcoming museum programs the other day (Barbie^TM The Fairy Fashion Experience) it reminded me of one on my family’s favorite stories about my oldest daughter. As a typical three-year-old, one of my daughter’s very favorite activities is playing dress-up. We constantly find ourselves living with a pretend princess, mermaid or fairy. This love of dress up was discovered by my aunt just before the holidays. Naturally, she knew the perfect gift to give my daughter – a frilly green tutu and purple iridescent fairy wings. My daughter opened this gift with delight and immediately requested to put on both items. She wore her fairy outfit with pride for the rest of that day and as often as we would allow it in the days following.

One evening, as my daughter was clad in her usual outfit of green tutu and fairy wings, I asked her to go put on her pajamas so we could brush her teeth for bed. A short while later she emerged from her bedroom dressed in her favorite pajamas – zip up, one piece, footy jammies. She had even managed to zip them up herself, but with a peculiar bump around the middle. It took me a moment to realize that she had never taken off the green tutu and had managed to jam the entire thing inside the pajamas so she could actually wear it to bed!

My little fairy is one funny girl and even now, months later, she still loves wearing her green tutu and fairy wings. If we would only let her wear them everywhere she goes she would – even to the museum!

Don't miss the final Barbie® Late Night! Registration closes at noon on July 29th.  Join us for an evening of fashion fun. Work with a real Mattel designer and local designers to create fairy wings and see a big-screen viewing of the latest Barbie® movie, Barbie™: A Fairy Secret. Register now!

Today's guest blogger is Cassandra Kroskrity, Mattel's Director of 3-D design, who will be our guest of honor at our final Barbie late-night event on July 29. Cassandra, an Indiana native now rooted in California, has the career most children dream about. She brings Barbie® and other famous Mattel toys to life everyday in her role at Mattel, Inc. Kroskrity leads the teams responsible for Sculpting, Face Design, Hair Design, Fashion Development, and Prototype Model Making.  In short:  She builds toys!  During her time at Mattel, Kroskrity has worked on many of the company’s famous brands including Barbie®, Hot Wheels®, Monster High™ and Polly Pocket™. 


I could not be more honored to write this today. As I sit here, I have an overwhelming sense of appreciation for the moment. I have a dream job making some of the world’s most famous toys for children all over the world, but thanks to my favorite celebrity client, Barbie, and the wonderful people I have met because of her, I’ve been asked to contribute in a small way to The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

Growing up in southern Indiana, this museum has touched my life in many ways.  My mother grew up just around the corner and visited regularly after school in the 1950s.  As a result of her love for the museum, special occasions in our lives often meant a stimulating visit for me and my younger brother. I have amazingly vivid memories of the vintage doll and toy displays, the Ruben Wells steam locomotive (hearing the whistle on a recent visit took me back to being eight years old again!) and running up the ramps, begging Mom to hurry so we could get to the next exciting display. Now, a mother of two very inquisitive young boys, I take such pleasure in sharing the many treasures of today’s museum with them. 

While the Barbie: The Fashion Experience exhibit was in the planning stages in 2009, I had the great fortune to meet our museum partners during a tour of the Mattel Design Center in El Segundo, CA. After sharing my personal connection to the museum, I then happily assisted in the collection and creation of several items that are now on display in the exhibit. Completely thrilled to now have this professional connection, I had no idea I would once again be invited to support our relationship with this amazing institution. 

Fast forward to today and I am incredibly excited to be a part of the Barbie Family Night festivities on Friday, July 29 and the Barbie Design-a-Doll Workshops on Saturday, July 30.  Since I have the honor to oversee several of the teams that it takes to build a physical toy, I have worked with the Barbie Design team and The Children’s Museum staff to create a program of sharing and hands-on experiences to bring Mattel’s everyday efforts to guests of the Museum where you can expect to learn some of our secrets on how Barbie comes to life through the design process.  Whether you or little ones in your life are fans, I do hope you’ll join me for a peek into Barbie’s world!

(Register for Barbie: The Final Fashion Experience here.)