For the rest of May and well into June, I’ll be reporting on a recent time-travel journey. In real time, the trip took just over 300 hours. We began with a quick jump of about 1 million years, but worked our way all the way back to the Pre-Cambrian, over 600 million years ago. There were were twenty-one in our party at the outset, twenty when I left to return to the chaos of the latest millenium. And seven went on to explore further, and I’ll always wonder what I missed. For now, that need will have to be satisfied by sharing the discoveries of that two-week expedition.
I may have to make some side trips into the future, as I’ve committed to attend BayCon 2013 (aka Triskaedekaphobicon). Trading trilobite searches for autograph hunts.
As hinted in the previous post, for our universe-building project we’re doing two construction activities related to elementary particles. So, we’ll have two “Lists of Requirements” this time around. The model atoms use marshmallows, miniature candy chips, and gelatin mix. You’ll need just one packet of mixed-flavor candies for even a fairly large group–in advance, you can separate out flavors into the amounts needed. For sub-atomic particles, we’ll use multi-flavor candies, such as “Life-Savers”…we need six flavors, so you get to buy both peppermint and five-flavor mixtures. Depending on your workspace, you may choose to have participants work in table groups of of 3-4 people or to set up supplies assembly-line style in a relatively mess-friendly zone. The assembly-line method reduces the need for extra supplies, though these are quite inexpensive materials. For pre-preparation, it helps to count out supplies for each participant–small paper cups are ideal and stack neatly once your supplies are set up. Another helpful side item is a roll of waxed paper or a stack of paper plates for setting out the end-products while they dry or for taking them home.
One extra item, for your wrap-up, is highly recommended if your budget permits: pick up one humongous balloon–the 36-inch diameter size, in any color or design that delights you.
The recommended quantities are generous, to allow for after-project treats. Ice-cream sundaes, anyone?
The Atomic Marshmallow Project
Per person
For a group of 10
For a group of 30
Standard size (not miniature) marshmallows
1
10
30
Miniature candies, dark color*: try candy “decors” or extra-tiny chocolate chip ice-cream topping mixture
2
1 package of mixed candies: count out at least 20 dark-colored pieces
1 package of mixed candies: count out at least 20 dark-colored pieces
Miniature candies: light color*: try candy “decors” or extra-tiny white candy chip ice-cream topping mixture
2
From the same packet of mixed-flavor candies: count out at least 20 light-colored pieces
From the same packet of mixed-flavor candies: count out at least 60 light-colored pieces.
Gelatin mix
(choose a variety of fun, colorful flavors)
1 packet
(3-ounce size)
3 packets
(one per group of 3-4 people)
For groups:
8 packets
For an assembly line:
3 packets
Water
1 cup
3 cups
(one per group of 3-4 people)
For groups:
8 cups
For each assembly line:
1 cup
Wooden skewers (alternative: toothpicks)
1
10
30
10-16 ounce containers
(mugs, plastic cups, reused food containers)
2
6
For groups: 16
For each assembly line: 2
Small cups for sorting supplies
2
20
60
* IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re tempted to use peanut-flavor candies, remember to be SURE to check in advance that none of the participants suffers from peanut allergy. In its worst form, this allergy can trigger anaphylaxis merely through physical contact with peanut oils or proteins, but at the very least, peanut-sensitive people should not eat anything tagged “packed in same location as peanut-handling equipment” or “may contain nuts”. There are lots of different candy chips to choose from; just be sure you end up with two different colors of “chips” for the protons and neutrons.
Sufficient Supplies For Construction of Approximately 40 Model Atoms
The second project’s list is even easier, and doesn’t require a “mess zone”:
One Side Makes You Smaller
or
A Top-Down Search for the Strange Charm of Putting Up With Those Quarks at Bottom of the Universe
The counts of candies in a mixed bag of five-flavor candies is a bit random, so if buying for a group you may need to grab an extra bag, just in case you need it. The package of sorting cups you purchased for the Atomic Marshmallow Project will have enough for you to sort supplies for this project as well.
Per person
Per 10 people
For 30-person group
Five-flavor Life-Savers candies
1 of each color,
a total of 5
50:
each gets 5 total, 1 of each color
(2 bags of individually-wrapped Life-Savers)
150:
each gets 5 total, 1 of each color
(6 bags of individually-wrapped Life-Savers)
1 extra piece of one of the five flavors
1
10
(There should be enough left over from the 2 bags you’ve purchased.)
30
(There should enough left over from the 6 bags you’ve purchased.)
Peppermint Life-Savers
2
20: each gets 2
(1 bag of individually-wrapped peppermints
60: each gets 2
(2 bags of individually-wrapped peppermints)
A Pile of Quarks, Ready for Construction of a Small Universe
The Pixel Gravity crew are interested in astronomical phenomena outside the computer as well as creating simulations to run. Check out some of our videos on YouTube:
I spent my elementary-school years soaking up the very best in English literature.
For a preteen horse-mad bookworm that meant: Enid Blyton, Hilda Boden, Josephine Pullein-Thompson, her sister Christine Pullein-Thompson, and Many More. I didn’t notice at the time, but now it’s obvious: all my early writing models were women. My very first book purchase was a pony book by Hilda Boden, who took up writing stories to help support her family. I kept that book–Joanna’s Special Pony–for years, and reread it many times, imagining the windswept Scottish coast populated with wild (but tameable) ponies and admiring the resourceful, determined heroine of the tale.
I’d nearly forgotten Lilian Buchanan’s illustrations–until I saw them again, and recognized them.
From that day onward, every smidge of my allowance (well, sparing a few pennies for sweets) went for the next installment of the Famous Five or Malory Towers or any number of pony books.
All of those books stayed behind in Yorkshire when my mother had to pack us all up for the move to the States. My British childhood was over, and military moving allowances are based on weight, so . . . my pony books, boarding-school novels, and mysteries went to the thrift store for some other child to collect.
“I thought you were done with baby dolls, you still have the Barbies,” my mother argued.
“Not all of them,” I countered. “I promised that one, the littlest one, that I wouldn’t ever ever give her away.”
But it was too late.
I think maybe I broke my mom’s heart a little bit. Well, a little bit more. Motherhood involves a lot of heartache. Well, Baby Doll may have been lost to me forever, but I’m sure she had at least one more little girl make her similar promises.
The only good thing about the move was that all my friends had to study up for the Eleven-Plus, which would determine whether they’d go to a nice boarding/academic secondary school (like Malory Towers), get stuck in a dead-end “modern school” with no college track, or take up a trade and actually be able to earn a living. Me, I got to spend a couple of weeks coasting through the end of what Americans called “fifth grade” sitting in a classroom with children who–it seemed to me–hardly read at all, before being unleashed to a long, long American summer vacation. Luckily, my grandparents’ house was packed with books–mostly Reader’s Digest collections, but also a classic edition of One Thousand and One Nights and my dad’s stash of science fiction magazines.
Over the years, those old-style children’s books have been supplanted in the market by more literary-style books for children, others with science-fiction or fantasy roots, and thankfully many with more diverse casts of characters. A few have received a dusting-off over the years . . . there’s even a 2020 BBC-TV adaptation of Malory Towersthat puts the storyline in a historical-fiction context while also envisioning a more diverse enrollment and faculty at the school.
Now, it’s my turn to have a house packed with books, and it’s an eclectic collection–not even taking into account all the books that aren’t technically mine, but my husband’s. No matter–I put them on the shelf and dust them (occasionally), so they’re mine in that sense. I’ve launched a little Instagram project to share a few of those books, on a regular basis–mostly the out-of-print ones, the ones I inherited from my Dad (a fellow SF fan), and ones that may be old but that still speak to current issues. The hard part is figuring out how to photograph them–top bookish instagrammers have such lovely still-life setups for their book posts. I’ll do my best to at least not to give people eyestrain.
None of that means I’ve stopped gathering-in books. Just in time for my birthday, my very first Quarantine Birthday, I retrieved a book long-lost in the move from England, my first book purchase, my favorite book from that day until the day it vanished to the thrift store with my dolls.
The dolls are gone, my mother long forgiven, but the books never have left my mind. Just this month, I made a birthday present for myself of a copy of Joanna’s Special Pony, dusted off from some other collector’s shelf–one in better condition than the one I left behind, PLUS a copy of the sequel. That was a book I never got my hands on, because it was only in hardcover and my allowance was two shillings sixpence, exactly the price of a paperback (my, what a coincidence–almost as if my parents wanted me to buy books).
If you like Instagram, the series is here. I’ll try to remember to link to those postings from the Facebook page as well.
