Fairy Tales Thrive in the Telling

Ask a dozen academics why fairy tales have such staying power and resonance and you’re sure to get a dozen different answers. Folk tales go back centuries, and the details shift and change in the telling. As books became available, and later, films were made to adapt the stories, they took on new details, additional characters, and often songs to pad out the running time. But even before the possibilities of print or animation, the tales that we know and love from our childhood had evolved and changed as the stories moved around different cultural groups.

We’re thinking about legends and folk tales a lot this week because we’re so happy to be welcoming back a really popular exhibit, last seen on the Museum floor in 2011, Once Upon a Time…Exploring the World of Fairy Tales. If you missed it the last time around, you’re in for a treat. From an African jungle to a giant’s castle, this unique and educational exhibit focuses on the power and significance of fairy tales throughout history and from around the world. Children will enter an enchanted storybook kingdom where they’ll learn the meaning and history of tales they’ve known all their lives, and others that may be new to them.

The featured tales are “Anansi and the Talking Melon,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Lon Po Po,” “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” and “Thumbelina.” Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the origins of all of these fairy tales, starting with “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

“Jack and the Beanstalk” is correctly called an English folk tale, dating to the early 1800s, but the metaphorical “beans” came from all over Europe before the version of the tale that you might find most familiar took “root.” The concept of climbing some kind of plant life to reach an otherwise impossible-to-access realm in the sky is centuries old. Norse mythology considered a gigantic tree called Yggdrasil whose branches were in heaven, as does Buddhist tradition, where it is described as a Bodhi tree. The Book of Genesis offered the tale of Jacob’s Ladder, which also reached heaven. The “Jack and the Beanstalk” section of the exhibit features a small “beanstalk” for children to climb, which is really quite fun. Don’t worry, parents, the beanstalk doesn’t stretch quite so high that your children will vanish into the clouds!

Germanic folklore is positively packed with giants and ogres, most of whom selfishly guard treasure and need to be outwitted or defeated. That makes them the perfect antagonist for a traditional, clever, and sharp-thinking hero. England in the 15th and 16th Century brought us just such a hero in a bright young commoner, typically called Jack, who appeared in dozens of folk tales. (There’s a “house that Jack built,” for example.) Mix in a little Shakespeare – the giant’s traditional warning cry of “Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman” comes almost directly from King Lear – and the basic form of the story is pretty typical of 18th Century folklore from the British Isles.

One of the great things about fairy tales is that despite the usual conclusions like “The end” or “And they all lived happily ever after,” they’re still evolving and adapting, with no end in sight. Jack himself has been replaced in dozens and dozens of adaptations over the last seventy years by everybody from Mickey Mouse to Ernie to Nintendo’s Mario to the casts of The Goodies and The Magic School Bus, and they all bring their own spins to the story, making anybody who remembers the version that they heard or saw then retell it differently to their own children. How many trips did Jack make up to the giant’s castle, anyway? Was it just the one, or did he pilfer all the giant’s treasure over the course of a week? Was the giant a lone miser, or did he have a wife who helped Jack bedevil her cruel husband?

And is it really fair to root for Jack, stealing the giant’s gold and ensuring his grisly end? Some adaptations, including a 1952 Abbott & Costello comedy, include some rather important details about Jack and his community’s poverty, blaming the giant for stealing all the area’s gold. On the other end of the spectrum, a 2001 TV miniseries directed by Brian Henson, shown in America on CBS, painted Jack as the villain of the piece, and sent his descendant back to the kingdom of the giants to return the stolen property and atone for the crime.

How will your child interpret the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk”? How will you retell it to him or her at bedtime? We’re sure you will add a detail or two, and your child will tell a slightly different version to his or her own kids down the line as the stories continue to evolve with each new generation.

Once Upon a Time… Exploring the World of Fairy Tales opens this Saturday, May 16, and runs through July 26. We hope that you’ll come and play with us!

For more information about Jack and the Beanstalk and its cultural origins, see:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/jackbeanstalk/history.html
https://suite.io/john-k-davis/1wj72tj
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk

Gearing Up for Changes

Last week, we announced that The Children’s Museum of Atlanta will temporarily close our doors on August 1 in order to begin an extensive and transformative renovation project (check out the story in the AJC).

I sat down with Karen Kelly, Director of Exhibits and Education, and Rachel Towns, Manager of Exhibits, to get a little more information about what Atlanta will be able to expect when the Museum reopens in late 2015.

How do you start a project like this, and turn it from a daydream into something concrete? What is the procedure like?

Karen Kelly: What you really do is, you look back and you think about what’s working and what’s not working, and what works for people and what doesn’t work for people, because it isn’t really about what our wishlist is, it’s about what the guests and their kids, the families and teachers would like to see. We started out by researching and watching people on the Museum floor, and having teachers and educators come in and do evaluations. We did surveys of over 3,000 people. And then we took all that data, and added our wishlist in, which included “Can we reach a broader age range than we do now?” because we’re really supposed to go to age eight, but our floor doesn’t.

So help me understand the timeline. When did this procedure really start?

KK: We started in 2007. We were having conversations and the Museum had been open for about four years, and we were thinking that it was time for the next step.  So we took all of that and then we also visited other children’s museums, to find out what was working for them, what they had done right, what they had done wrong. Sometimes it’s more about what they did wrong, and what didn’t work. We wanted to know what worked for them, and their communities. We went to the Minnesota Children’s Museum, we went to Indianapolis, EdVenture in Columbia, and Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga… we went to a lot of different places. We pulled all that in to see what worked, looking at the immersive environments. Then we looked at how other folks had done their campaigns and changed their museums over, and again people were very generous, and gave us their secret, behind-the-scenes ideas on how they put together their grand exhibit master plans. Actually, using a lot of those templates, that’s how I created an exhibit master plan based on all the information we had collected.

Rachel, what were some of the children’s museums that you enjoyed looking at?

Rachel Towns: Oh, I really enjoyed the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. I think that especially they have the whole “0-99” age range down, they have something for everyone and I feel like we took a lot from that. I also enjoyed EdVenture in South Carolina, those are two of the main ones!

As we shifted from looking at what our needs were into a funding situation. did it later come down to what we could afford and what we can envision…

KK: Actually, we kind of did it the other way around. The first step came to take all those ideas and put them into an exhibit master plan, and at that point, we invited different exhibit design firms to bid on helping us make this a reality. We went through what I called “Speed Dating,” so we saw seven exhibit firms in two days. This was with senior staff and our advisory committees. They pitched ideas to us based on what we had sent them.

So I know that one of things we’re going to have is a climbing structure. When you put the call out to the design companies, do you say something like “Bring us your ideas for a climbing structure?”

KK: No, we said we wanted an exhibit that made people stop and say “Wow!,” in the center of the Museum, and it should reflect Atlanta and its position as a gateway to the region and the world.  We said it would be nice to have a climbing structure, but we didn’t limit them, and one of the firms did not come up with a climbing structure. This one we’re using – Jack Rouse and Associates – did, but they each came back with different ideas and it was very fun to see. But Jack Rouse got the job, and Rachel can guess why…

Why’d they get it?

RT: They are awesome! They’re very inventive, and they listened to our ideas, and somehow they bring it all to life. They’re taking our concepts and making it all real, in the best way possible. They’re not leaving anything out.

KK: They’re really not, and the thing that I liked about them is first off was their enthusiasm for the job, but also the fact that although they’re a huge, huge company, they work with very small museums, with budgets much less than ours, all the way up to very large ones, enormous ones, so they have a wide range of experience. You can take some of the cool things you can do for lots of money for somebody else, and adapt them for much less money for smaller museum.

With that in mind, one of the things that I’ve heard about is that one of the new continent tables is going to have shifting topography…

RT: Yes, we’ll have a shake table on South America to demonstrate earthquakes!

So when you want a shake table to show earthquakes, does a firm like Rouse say “We know exactly how to do that,” or do they go figure it out…

RT: They came up with it.

KK: It’s a mix, and if they know what to do, they’ll tell you, and if not, they’ll come up with a concept like with the glacier interactive on the Europe table, where they’re going to try and drag stuff through ball bearings or other materials to see what happens to the land when a glacier pushes through, then they ask the fabricator as a partner to see if they can figure out how to make it work.

I’m excited about the rockets. Tell me about those!

RT: Well, on the back side of the climber, there are going to be two rocket stations where children can use an air compression pump to power a rocket up and hit different planets. These will be stretch fabric over a frame, so it will make a tight little drum sound when the rockets hit the planet. They can learn all about trajectory and angles and thrust. We’re hoping to make them out of a Nerf-like material.

Rather than an actual exhibit that you’re looking forward to, is there something about the process that’s coming up, the construction, that excites you?

RT: Absolutely. Having an architectural background, I’m really eager to see the general contractors come in and demolish everything and then build everything, from the mezzanine, and then the exhibits coming in, and seeing everything erected is just a dream to me, just seeing the whole process come to life. It’s something I really look forward to, and even then after that, further in the future, seeing the kids come in and get that “Wow,” it just makes me glow. I want to see the diner, and it’s all so exciting.

KK: Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing stuff that we’ve been talking about since 2007, 2008, and finally having it out there. One of my favorite moments has been last week when we were on the phone to the fabricators and they were describing the continent tables and we were all like, “This is so cool! We’re really going to have this!” And THEY were so excited! We’ve got these great fabricators, Heartland, out in Omaha, Nebraska, and they have done work for other children’s museums. They’re great  folks and very calm, but our fabricator was so excited talking about the continent tables, and how they’re going to put the layers together, and make the rivers look like they’re flowing, and it was just real after all the years of planning. And if he’s that excited, just think of how a kid is going to feel, when he pushed the button and the Nile lights up, following the path down to the Mediterranean. It’s going to be so amazing!

Want to keep up with our progress? Visit our website or follow us on social media for up-to-date information and more renderings.

 

Farmers Markets Around Atlanta

Have we had enough of these April showers yet? If you can see the billboards through all the rain, you may have noticed that some of the region’s large farms have begun strawberry picking. Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge and Washington Farms near Watkinsville are getting their crops ready, which is a good sign that the various farmers markets around Atlanta are up and running, with fresh fruits and vegetables, salsas, juices, meats, honey, and all sorts of other local vendors selling directly to customers.

My family loves shopping at the Marietta Square Farmers Market. It is open Saturday and Sunday mornings and brings out vendors selling the most wonderful milk, cheeses, jams, and veggies along with the omnipresent King of Pops cart and a local girl who pays for her horse’s boarding fees by selling the best limeade you’ve ever had. Marietta Square Farmer’s Market is a favorite with my family, but there are several other established farmers markets in the city. I asked some of our Children’s Museum of Atlanta staff which ones they like to visit.

The venerable Your Dekalb Farmers Market was many people’s favorite. Hajar Lateef, from our Visitor’s Service staff, told me that she loves going to get all the vegetables and fruits from different parts of the country, and that the selection is unbeatable. “It’s like a candy store!” she exclaimed. Development assistant Alicia Robertson is also a big fan, and particularly enjoys visiting one particular vendor among the ones who sell prepared foods at the market. She loves buying fried garlic plantains from one of the sellers.

Toy Expert Lucreacia Henderson only just started going to Your Dekalb Farmers Market at the beginning of the year. She says “It’s the one place I can find all the natural and organic stuff that I’m looking for in one place,” singling out a particular coconut oil as a favorite. But it’s not all herbs and oils for her, because one vendor makes a particularly amazing peanut butter cookie. “You can see the peanuts in it! I’ve brought home his whole stock!”

While Your Dekalb Farmers Market is the largest in the city many  of our employees visit the smaller ones in their own neighborhoods. Courtney Strickland, also from our Visitor’s Service team, enjoys the “quaint” Sandy Springs Farmer’s Market along with what appears to be all of her neighbors. “If you’re in Sandy Springs, you go,” she told me. Apart from the vegetable sellers, she’s particularly fond of buying fresh, homemade bread and honey.

On the east side of town, Michelle Cherubim enjoys the Stone Mountain Farmer’s Market, and is glad that she lives nearby, because she believes that it has the most variety of any in the city, with foods from many different countries. Daniel Lomax, our newest Imaginator, is particularly fond of the venerable Sweet Auburn Curb Market, which first opened almost a hundred years ago. As writer Christiane Lauterbach explained in a story for Atlanta Magazine last year, manager Pam Joiner reinvigorated Sweet Auburn in 2005 by bringing in small and eclectic restaurants to draw crowds to the produce and the meats. Daniel tells me that he can’t find fresher fish in Atlanta than what’s available at Sweet Auburn.

One thing’s definitely certain: farmer’s markets are hugely popular. So, make sure you get to your local market early enough to beat the crowds and grab some great deals!

More information about Atlanta-area farmer’s markets: AJC

Staff Pick: Earth Day Toys

Earth Day is right around the corner and here at the Museum we love to encourage healthy planet habits that take care of Earth! We will be celebrating Earth Day this weekend with Novelis on Saturday and Sunday. This will be the 45th anniversary of the Earth Day movement, meaning 45 years of “broadening the base of support for environmental programs, rekindling public commitment and building community activism around the world through a broad range of events and activities”. All the environmental activities and lessons are very important to pass down to our children.

We currently have some awesome items in our Museum Store that are definitely Earth Day appropriate. Our staff picked out their 3 favorite Earth Day items from the store and shared a little bit about why they liked the particular items.

Kareen Dames, manager of museum sales, recommends:

The Busy Bug Gardens is my favorite thing in the Museum Store because I love butterflies! This awesome little kit allows children to learn about gardening and enjoying the site of Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds, both of which are attracted to the Purple Coneflower that will sprout from the seeds in the kit. I also like that this is an activity that can be done inside or outside.

Debbie Palay. director of development, recommends:

I would recommend spending time with the Solar Print Kit. These kits are an excellent way to teach kids about the power of the sun and the chemical process behind the imaging that takes place on the special paper. This is an activity that is suitable and appealing to both boys and girls and can be a fun way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Cayce Dunn, digital marketing manager, recommends:

I love the Recycled Paper Beads kit! I love doing crafts and the fact that this craft also recycles was definitely a two-for-one plus! Making paper beads always seemed tedious and a little tiring by hand, but this gadget that fits perfectly on a recycled water bottle looks like a super simple and efficient way to make beads. Not to mention, the added bonus of the recycled water bottle being used as a container for the finished beads. I love the idea of showing children how old magazine pages can be used to create fun jewelry and awesome one-of-a-kind handmade gifts. Recycling is definitely a planet-friendly way of using your imagination to figure out how to use the most out of the stuff you have!

If you plan on visiting us to celebrate Earth Day, drop by the Museum store to check out these items. They would make awesome gifts or just a fun activity to take a part of the Museum and the message home with you. Earth Day celebrations at the Museum begin Saturday, April 18th at 12 PM. The fun will continue Sunday, April 19th at 3:00 PM. Check our Programming Schedule for more info of the days happenings!

Source: EarthDay.org

 

Science Around Atlanta: Physics & Roller Coasters

Hello girls and boys! Professor Labcoat here!

In my last blog post, I said, “No matter what you’re interested in or what question you have, there’s probably a scientist somewhere trying to figure it out.” That’s very true, because science is a way to learn about the world around us and everything that’s in it. There are all different kinds of scientists who are interested in all different kinds of things! You can learn more about almost anything that you’re interested in by using science.

The other day, my friend Cayce got to go to Six Flags Over Georgia to try out their Batman: The Ride roller coaster…backwards! She had a lot of fun, and even got a video of her on the ride! I decided that it’d be fun to use her video to talk about the science we can learn from roller coasters.

When I was a kid, I wasn’t a big fan of roller coasters, but I like them more and more these days. Roller coasters do some pretty cool things. They can go very fast, turn upside down, and make you dizzy very quickly. It seems pretty complicated at first, but science can help us to understand complicated things!

To figure out roller coasters, we need to think about things called “forces”. A force is a push or pull on something, and this can happen in a lot of different ways. When something pushes or pulls on something else, we say it’s “applying a force”. For example, if you push someone on a swing, you are applying a pushing force to them. If the wind blows your hair around, that’s a force the wind is applying to your hair. And you’re stuck to the ground because the earth’s gravity is applying a force pulling you downward!

Some kind of force is needed to make something start to move, slow down, or change direction. We might not always realize this is what’s going on, however, because forces can show up in places that we don’t always expect.

For example, if you throw a beanbag, you push on it with your hand to apply the force to get it to start moving. Once the beanbag leaves your hand, it’s not getting any more force from you. There are still forces on the beanbag, though, and these forces work against the force of your throw! One force is a push back from the air the beanbag is moving through. This slows the beanbag down a little bit. Another force is the force of gravity. This pulls the beanbag towards the ground. Finally, when the beanbag hits the ground, the ground applies a force that stops it from moving!

This all seems very normal to us because we deal with these kinds of forces in our everyday lives. It took scientists a long time to figure out all of these forces are happening, because everybody was so used to them! But, if you were an astronaut in space far away from the earth with no air around you, no ground under you, and no gravity to speak of, and you threw a beanbag, it would keep going in a straight line for thousands of years! It wouldn’t have any other forces around to change how it moved.

So, what does this have to do with roller coasters?

A person riding a roller coaster, such as my friend Cayce, moves in a lot of different directions at different speeds. All these changes in speed and direction mean that there are a lot of forces changing the way the person is moving. When we ride a roller coaster, we feel these forces as pushes and pulls from the straps on our seats.

One of the most important forces for roller coasters to work the way they do is the force of gravity. Just like our beanbag example, where the force from your hand gives the beanbag the push to get it started, gravity provides the force that moves you around on a roller coaster. You see, there are no motors or engines on roller coaster cars. What happens at the start of almost every roller coaster is the ride pulls you up a tall hill, and then pushes you off the edge. You can see this in Cayce’s video: at the beginning, she and her sister slowly move up a hill. The moment they start moving after that, the only force that’s making them move faster is the force of gravity pulling them down!

The first hill of a roller coaster is always the tallest part of a roller coaster, because after gravity starts to pull you around, it won’t be able to make you move to a taller place than where you started. In much the same way, if you drop a bouncy ball (without throwing it at the ground!), it will never bounce higher than where you dropped it.

Roller coasters are designed to make sure that the forces they apply to the riders aren’t enough to hurt them; this is a big part of the reason why you have to be a certain height to ride roller coasters! The seats are designed to make sure that they push and pull on the right parts of people. When roller coasters go upside down, the forces applied to the riders make sure that gravity can’t pull them out of their seats. And, sometimes on roller coasters, as the forces are changing around, you don’t feel any forces at all! This is called feeling “zero-g”. The “g” stands for “gravity”, and this means that you feel weightless. A feeling of weightlessness is what astronauts in the International Space Station experience! It’s only during special occasions that we get to have that sensation on the earth, which is one of the reasons roller coasters and other fun amusement park rides are so exciting!

I hope you enjoyed learning about roller coasters with me, and I look forward to talking about all sorts of other things with you in this space. Take care!

Gardening With Kids

Gardening with children is a very important, and fun, activity to experience with your kids! Exposing children to where their food comes from or how flowers and plants grow allows them to understand and experience a natural process that can help them learn patience, problem-solving, science and an overall appreciation of nature’s way. Gardening can give kids a sense of responsibility, empowerment and accomplishment.

Pike Nurseries is a great place to go locally to get all the supplies you need to begin gardening with children. There are so many ways to begin the process. If the weather isn’t cooperating, plant a garden indoors. Pike Nurseries has a free class on container gardening this weekend! It can be as simple as an taking an egg carton, filling each section with dirt and planting little seeds in each so you can watch the little sprouts come up. Once you decide between planting flowers or food, you need to make sure to have the right soil and space available. And don’t forget about garden protection! Birds love to feast on your hard work, so some kind of cover can be necessary for fruits and veggies.

When you begin to till the soil, explain why it’s good to rough up the soil and how the seeds will need water and good soil to grow healthy roots! Tilling can be an easy activity for a toddler as young as 4. Once you plant the seeds, make sure to keep note of what seeds are planted where. Making little identifiers can be a fun craft project. Or draw the garden in a notebook and keep track with fun illustrations. You can explain along the way about how important it is to plan ahead with watering the garden and keeping any weeds out. This will help with teaching children about responsibility.

A garden will definitely keep kids guessing and wondering as the sprout turns into a little plant and the little plant turns into a flower or fruit/veggie. The important thing is to always remember that the time spent teaching children about the colors, shapes, sizes, soils, tools and tips of gardening is definitely a time to cherish and one that will surely impact their lives in a positive way.

Sources: Mom.me – Tips for Toddlers | Mom.me – 10 Reasons to Garden with Kids | Pike Nurseries – Free Classes
Photo Credit: Pike Nurseries

Professor Labcoat & Superhero Scientists!

Hello girls and boys, parents and friends! Professor Labcoat here!

I work at The Children’s Museum of Atlanta as the Science Educator. This means that I get to do all kinds of activities here at the museum as well as in classrooms all across Atlanta and the surrounding area! Whether I’m mixing up a chemical reaction to make foamy bubbles, making my hair stand on end with static electricity, or using invisible ink to show how germs move around, I’m always having fun!

Science is all about trying to figure out how stuff works, from the tiniest pieces of the tiniest speck to the biggest things we can see out in space – as well as everything in-between, including you and me. No matter what you’re interested in or what question you have, there’s probably a scientist somewhere trying to figure it out. And the best part is that, one day, that scientist could be you!

You see, all scientists get their start the same way everyone gets their start: as a kid. I, Professor Labcoat, am no exception. I was a kid who wanted to be all sorts of things when I was growing up. At different times I wanted to be a garbage man, a puppeteer, a veterinarian, an actor, a doctor, a teacher, a scientist, and an architect. It was tricky to choose, but after I finished high school, I decided to go to college at Georgia Tech and study something called Materials Science and Engineering, or MSE for short. People who study MSE learn all about different kinds of metals and plastics and other stuff that things like cars, spaceships, sandwich bags, and comfy chairs are made of. They learn how to make things, measure things, and sometimes even how to break things! I enjoyed figuring things out and working in a laboratory, but as it turns out, my favorite thing to do is to share what I’ve learned with other people and show everyone around me what a cool world we live in.

One of the coolest things about the world is the fact that I know a lot of wonderful people who are working to make the world a better place. These are my Superhero Scientist friends, and I’d like to eventually introduce you to all of them! For this special first blog post of mine, however, I’m going to start with my friend Kathy Silver.

When I was in college learning how to be a scientist, Kathy was in some of my classes with me. She’d started working in the laboratory before I did, and when I came along, she helped to teach me how the different tools and machines worked. Even grownups don’t know everything, and we all have to help each other figure stuff out sometimes. Nowadays, Kathy works at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, or GTRI for short. There, she works with other scientists to try and solve all kinds of problems, and figure all kinds of things out. I decided to pay my friend a visit, so I went down the street to Georgia Tech to visit Kathy and see the buildings where she works. I decided to ask her some questions so that you could learn about her and her job. Girls and boys, allow me to introduce: My friend Kathy Silver, a Superhero Scientist!

Prof. Labcoat: How old were you when you decided you wanted to be a scientist?

Kathy Silver: Probably about 10 or 11.

PL: Was there anything else you wanted to be growing up?

KS: A medical doctor.

PL: I thought about doing that too! What is your favorite thing about your job now?

KS: Learning about new things happening on our campus that help others.  For example, some researchers are looking at less painful methods to deliver vaccines/medicines traditionally delivered via shots.  No more painful shots at the doctor’s office!

PL: I’m sure a lot of my friends would like that! But sometimes things that are no fun are necessary. What is the hardest part of your job?

KS: Deciding when an experiment is not working as expected and knowing when it’s time to move on to another approach

PL: That can certainly be tricky. I once spent six months trying to make one measurement, and after all of that time it didn’t work and I had to start all over! I eventually figured it out, though. What are you working on right now?

KS: Some of the work we are doing in our lab includes materials analysis (determining how and why something broke, for example), lithography (a method of printing) on very small objects (called micro-lithography) and viewing objects at the atomic level with special microscopes.

PL: That sounds cool! What kinds of special tools do you use?

KS: Liquid nitrogen (temperature of about -320 F, more than twice the coldest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica) , optical and atomic microscopes, and lasers.

PL: Wow. That all sounds really interesting! Is there anything you’d like to tell my friends who might want to have a job like yours?

KS: Do well in school, do math and science homework (don’t get discouraged when it seems too difficult – seek out help from your teacher), read for fun and most importantly, be curious.  Curiosity is not only the first step in the scientific process, it is also a scientist’s best trick for keeping their work fun and rewarding!

PL: That’s some great advice! Thank you so much, Kathy!

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I’m so happy that I got to introduce you to my very first Superhero Scientist friend. Keep checking the blog to hear more from me and I promise to show you some cool stuff, answer your questions, and introduce you to even more Superhero Scientists!

Thanks for reading!

-Professor Labcoat

Q & A with Chef Tanisha!

Cooking With Colors has been one of our most popular programs over the last couple of years. Each “season” of ten weeks sees our favorite local chef, Tanisha Mott, explore healthy eating and nutritious ideas for families. Her sessions are hands-on, with lots of fruits and vegetables for her young helpers to chop and cut. With recipes, tips and suggestions for household kitchens, it’s impossible to finish a class without some new-found enthusiasm for enjoying healthy food. We caught up with Chef Tanisha after her class this week, where everybody enjoyed an avocado dip with endives, along with some samples of jicama for the families to taste.

Chef Tanisha, you’re originally from Jamaica, is that right?

It is. I was born and raised in Kingston, in Norman Gardens.

What were some of your favorite meals growing up?

I loved stewed peas, made with oxtail, stewed beef, and three different kinds of peas, and little dumplings that are called “spinners” in Jamaica. They’re called that because you roll them between your hands in a spinning motion! I also loved callaloo, which is almost a cross between spinach and collards. Once the leaf is all cleaned, you steam it like you would spinach. I love that!

What were some of the first dishes that you remember preparing yourself?

I remember making a mango stewed chicken. I worked for a fashion company, and the CEO offered to pay me if I cooked for one of his events. I was actually eating a mango when he asked me! I loved food and I loved fashion, so my career today is one of my two dream jobs!

What inspired you to become a chef?

My grandmother was always cooking, and she made everybody so happy. I wanted to do that as well, make people happy. I design plates just like I might have designed fashions! My grandmother would work at a counter and I would sit in a little cubbyhole and just watch her as she told me what she was doing. No measurements! She would say, in her Jamaican voice, “’bout so,” or “about so much.” She would always make banana fritters, and they were so ripe! She’d add a little brown sugar, vanilla, and flour.

Of all the classes that you’ve taught with families, what have been some of the kids’ favorites to make and eat?

Believe it or not, the rutabaga stew was the most popular with Cooking With Colors!

(the interviewer raises a skeptical eyebrow)

It’s true! They loved rutabagas! One student actually licked the bowl! Guacamole is always a favorite whenever I have a class, because it’s green and slimy and kids always want to play with it. Number three is my lemongrass steak. You take any kind of beef, and make a marinade with scallions, onion, ginger, olive oil, salt and pepper. Sear it or grill it; I like to grill it. Those are the top three.

If you could change any one thing about our country’s food culture, what would it be?

The way foods are being processed. There’s such a huge variety of food available, but the companies are taking all the good out to make it last longer with preservatives. If only we could go back to eating more natural!

Finally, what suggestions do you have for parents who want to teach their kids about nutrition and cooking?

Definitely have the kids be part of the process! It’s so fun for them, and it’s also easier to get them to eat things when they feel that they’ve contributed!

Thanks so much, Chef Tanisha! There are three more classes in this season of Cooking With Colors, and reservations are required. We recommend calling no later than 72 hours before the class date and time to purchase tickets. You can call our Reservations line at 404-527-3693.

Meet the Holidays: Purim

One of our favorite Museum programs is “Meet the Holidays,” in which we learn about and celebrate the traditions of cultures all around the world. “We live in a global community and Atlanta is an extremely multi-cultural city,” explains Pam Duncan, manager of public programming. “Meet the Holidays allows our youngest visitors to learn about cultures different than their own as well as re-affirm those cultures for folks who celebrate them. In the end they find out that their cultures have much more in common than they thought.” We really love the experience of people having a great time and also learning about the special days on their neighbors’ calendars!

This Sunday, we’re having some special events to commemorate Purim. This is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire, from a plot to annihilate them all in a single day. According to the Book of Esther, Haman, the royal vizier to King Ahasuerus, planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by the prophet Mordecai, and his cousin and adopted daughter Esther. Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar, which is the day following the victory of the Jews over their enemies.

It sounds like the setup for a pretty sober and serious commemoration, but based on the text of Esther 9:22, Purim is celebrated with joy and good spirits. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, all of the observances are important, but they are equally “serious and silly.” The Book, or scroll, of Esther, is usually read aloud twice during the celebrations. The recitation is called the Megillah, and it comes with a raucous audience participation component, as the audience is armed with graggers, special noisemakers that you shake or whirl to drown out the evildoer’s name:

“It is crucial to hear every single word of the Megillah! At certain points in the reading where Haman’s name is mentioned, it is customary to twirl graggers and stamp one’s feet to “drown out” his evil name. Tell the children Purim is the only time when it’s a mitzvah to make noise!” The USCJ goes on to say that when Haman’s wife, Zeresh, gets mentioned in the Megillah, the crowd is to hiss at the sound of her name!

For our Meet the Holidays celebration on Sunday March 9th, you’ll be able to make your own gragger before listening to the Imaginators’ retelling of the Meglliah story. Every time Haman’s name is mentioned, shake your gragger and boo! Afterward, enjoy traditional hamantaschen cookies. Hamantaschen is a Yiddish word meaning “Haman’s pockets.” Jews eat hamantaschen on Purim as part of the celebration of the holiday. One explanation for the triangular shape of these pastries is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat. Another explanation is that the three corners represent Queen Esther’s strength and the founders of Judaism: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We kick off the fun at three on Sunday, and look forward to seeing you there!

Read Across America

One of my favorite Museum memories came five years ago, when Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed, came to participate in our Read Across America programming and share a book with some children. History has forgotten which book was handed to the mayor to read, but he looked at it with a raised eyebrow and said “I sure do like Curious George. Do you have any Curious George books?” Well, by chance, we did. A very popular traveling exhibit, Curious George: Let’s Get Curious! had left our Morph Gallery just a few weeks previously, and we still had one copy of a very nice hardcover gift book, which reprinted all of the original stories by Margret and Hans Rey in a single volume, in the Museum Store. I raced from the floor to the shop and back in record time with the last Curious George book in the Museum, and the large group of children really enjoyed Mayor Reed sharing the story with them.

Read Across America is a project of the National Education Association, and it’s typically associated not with Curious George, but with The Cat in the Hat. That’s because the event is held around the birthday of the Cat’s creator, Dr. Seuss, and usually features volunteers and fans wearing the signature red-and-white striped hat, and often appearances by the Cat and a couple of his sidekicks Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The initiative began in 1997, and, according to the NEA, “this year-round program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources.” Hundreds of schools nationwide participate in the largest celebration of reading in the country.  It’s a pep rally for reading, if you will. Getting children excited about reading is a hugely important part of student achievement and also in creating lifelong readers. Children who are motivated and spend more time reading do better in school.

It’s a lot more than just getting your children ready for school and more academic success, though. The blog Early Moments offers several reasons why reading with your children is important. Here’s our favorite: 

“As your child grows older, he’ll be on the move—playing, running, and constantly exploring his environment. Snuggling up with a book lets the two of you slow down and recaptures that sweet, cuddly time you enjoyed when he was a baby. Instead of being seen as a chore or a task, reading will become a nurturing activity that will bring the two of you closer together.”

Learning to read can sometimes be a little tough for children! Sometimes, they could use a reminder that reading isn’t a chore at all, it’s completely wonderful and exciting. We love the pep rally feel of the day, and we’ve seen hundreds of kids leave our events inspired and enthusiastic about books. We’ll be celebrating with events on the morning of Tuesday, March 3rd and hope that you will bring your young readers to join us!