Field trip to Space (and Science Center)

Last Friday we went to SPACE!  :)  Actually it is called the Telus World Of Science center in
Edmonton.  We learned all kinds of cools stuff about Science and Space.




Here is some fun stuff we learned:



1) Did you know that even though the scientists have already discovered 1.2 Million species of animals, they still have about 7.5 Million species yet to discover.  That means that about 85% of the species have not been discovered yet.  WOW!

 

2) Have you heard of the planet called Uranus.  It has a funny name, but it is the 7th planet from the sun and we learned some cool stuff about it.

- Uranus is named after a Greek god of the heavens who was the father of Cronus (Saturn)

- The temperature of Uranus is-210 degrees C

- The planet is covered with a haze of methane gas that absorbs red light and reflects blue light.  That makes the Uranus look blue.

- The moons around Uranus are named after Shakespeare's plays

- A spacecraft called Voyager 2 was launched from Earth and it flew past Uranus in January 1986.

3) Scientist discovered we were part of a solar system in the 16th century.  A Polish astronomer named Copernicus was the first to discover it.

4) The last trip to the Moon:
The last time scientist sent a spacecraft to the moon was as satellite called Clementine.  It was in 1994.  It had sensors that mapped the surface of the moon.







5) We learned that the Earth is like a Lava Lamp!

In my Lava Lamp, the blobs get hot at the bottom and then go up.  Then they cool down at the top and sink down again. 
The Earth does the same thing with rock deep under ground.  The Earths core is very hot.  The heat makes hot rock rise.  And the the cooling rock slowly sinks.

6) How do you go to the toilet in space?  You have to use a special toilet like this one that kind of sucks it out of you. ;)

We finished our trip to space by walking on the moon.  Here is a picture of my friend and I sharing a spacesuit.

Alberta Legislature Building

We took a tour of the Legislature building in Edmonton on May 15

Alberta became a province on September 9, 1905.  The legislature building was built between 1907 and 1913.  On the tour of the legislature building we learned that the province of Alberta is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.

 

We learnt on the tour that Canada made Treaties with the natives so that we could live on their land.  Alberta is part of Treaty 7 territory.  

This is a picture of E.C. Manning.  He was Premier of Alberta for 25 years.  That is the longest any time any Premier has ever served.  When E.C. Manning was Premier he started the "Rat Patrol" in Alberta.  He saw how rats were destroying farmers crops and other things.  So he made a law that no rats are allowed in Alberta.  |He had the "Rat Patrol" get rid of any rats that were found.  Alberta is the only place on the earth where there are no rats.  The movie "Ratatouille"  even mentions that rats aren't allowed in Alberta.  

These are portraits of all of Alberta's premiers.

These are portraits of Alberta's lieutenant Governors.  The Lieutenant Governor is the Queen representative.
The lieutenant Governor gives the Royal assent when a new law is passed in government.

The Lieutenant Governor's offices

These next pictures are my favorite part of the tour.  We learned about Alberta's first Mace.  It was made by Rufus E. Butterworth.  He only had two weeks to make the mace, so he made it with things he found around his house.  He used plumbing pipe, a pin cushion, a shaving mug, tea cup handles and bed knobs.  I think he did a good job with what he had.  That mace was used for  fifty years.

This is the area that the MLA's sit and talk about the laws they want to pass in Alberta.  The governing party sits on the side that has the portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
There are 87 members of legislator.  That means that every member of the legislator represents about 40,000 people.
  

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At this table the law clerks sit and they check law books to see if there are any other laws that might conflict with new laws that the government wants to pass.

This is where the speaker of the house sits.

It was very interesting visiting the Alberta Legislator building.  I learned a lot about Alberta's past and how the Alberta government works.

This is a model of the Alberta legislator building, it is made out of  A LOT of legos.

This is a model of the Alberta legislator building, it is made out of  A LOT of legos.