Locked Out of My Own Blog

Parental controls at work again. Now it won't even let me access my own blog! Luckily, I signed up for ScribeFire, while allows you to blog without going to the website. This is annoying. The parental controls for Vista are just messed up!!! URG. )=

*screemz*

Argonne Laboratories Field Trip

Today the class went on a field trip to Argonne laboratories. Here's how it went:

1. Got to school. Forgot to pack a lunch for the field trip.
2. English: my incomplete persuasive paper was peer edited.
3. Went onto the school-bus; we drove for an hour to get to Argonne Laboratories.
4. Went to the Welcome Center there; looked at the "artifacts", finger turned shiny and metallic by rubbing it on a graphite rock they had there.
5. Back onto the bus, drove through the entrance place.
6. Entered the actual laboratories, went downstairs, like some basement.
7. Visited the first place on our "tour"! This was pretty interesting. We got to play with dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide). We all sat down, picking up goggles on our way in, which I hate because the top of my nose is very sensitive and it goggles or anything else on the top of my nose makes me really annoyed and stuff. Anyway: We all sat down on stools, in front of tables like one would see in a science lab. The scientist guy at the front demonstrated some fun with dry ice; he asked us questions and one particularly bright 8th grader answered them all. The scientist a hunk of dry ice into a container of water, and we all watched as it fizzed and steamed. Now he came around to each table with an ice box full of dry ice, using scissors to crack the ice and dump some onto each of our tables. We filled plastic tubes full of dry ice peices, held the end closed and waited until the pressure from the dry ice turning into a gas cause the tube to EXPLODE! I myself never managed to get it to work, although some 6th grader sitting across from me did, right in everyones faces, while she was talking to a friend. Lucky we had goggles. Someone else managed to get their dry ice to turn into a liquid (due to the intense pressure). Then we all had to leave.
8. Next, we went to a room with a bunch of "spectrophotonic", or something like that, machines. This was pretty boring: the scientist in this room (a retired biology teacher) talked really slow. The machine produced light which you could adjust by increasing or decreasing the wavelengths using a knob. Makes me think - if I adjusted it really high, would I be able to create x-rays? or gamma rays! *twist twi-* ZAP! She talked a bunch, and then we all left. (yawn)
   
9. Now we all went to a even better room, (put on goggles) and the scientist guy there (no meanness intended) made me think of the older version of a stereotypical nerd. But that was mean )= so i won't say that anymore. Anyhow, here we learned about LIQUID NITROGEN! Whoohoo! It was cool - literally. Here's what happened: The group went into the room and took our seats in a messed up bunch mini-swivel chairs. We all waited, and the scientist talked to us about Absolute Zero, what nitrogen is, atoms, air molecules, etc. so that we would understand how his next few experiments worked. Then he put a glass beaker in the middle of the floor/room, and he wheeled over a giant "pot" of liquid nitrogen, and poured it into the glass beaker. It sloshed into the beaker and all over the floor. Very exciting, because the liquid nitrogen slimed across the floor like it was weightless, like some kind of incredible gravity defying slime, or something! Then he explained some more, and he poured the liquid nitrogen into a larger insulated container. He then blew a balloon up, and we all discussed why the balloon inflates and why you can't flatten it. This is because it obviously has air in it, and the air was moving very quickly and pushing against the sides of the balloon. If the air were to be standing still though, then it would only be the size of a peanut. He then stuffed the balloon into the insulated canister of liquid nitrogen, and it came out flatter than a pancake. Afterwards, he put it on the floor and we all watched the balloon make popping and crackling noises as the air inside was restored to room temperature. He repeated the experiment with a bouncy ball, except that when he dropped it after it had been in the nitrogen, the rubber bouncy ball shattered on the floor like glass (making a noise that made a bunch of people jump out of the seats). Then he poured some liquid nitrogen on a square of some rock, and put a magnet on it. The magnet hovered in midair. The material had somehow developed magnetic properties by being freezed. He said that he himself could not explain it, and if anyone ever did, they'd probably receive a Nobel prize. We then left, thinking about the hovering magnet.
10. Went to a room, looked under microscopes and pretended we were forensic scientists, trying to solve a murder. Boring topic, but the scientist was funny.
11. Got on the bus.
12. Drove to the Argonne Laboratories cafateria. I didn't bring my lunch, and I wasn't hungry anyway.
13. Left, went onto the bus and drove back to school
14. Hung out for 20 minutes.
15. Went to the last class of the day, physical education, where we played badminton.
16. Packed up, went home.
17. Playing Brawl on the Wii for a time, unlocked 2 characters.
18. Started typing up stuff into this blog.
19. Finished typing up this post.