Mr. O! A Video Blog from the Children's Museum of Houston

Young Inventors’ Showcase 2013

Mr.O — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:16:41 +0000

It’s one of my favorite events at the Children’s Museum of Houston – YOUNG INVENTORS’ SHOWCASE! It’s happening tomorrow (May 18th, 2013) at the Museum. This is an annual event that started back in September where kids are encouraged to develop their own inventions to solve a problem in their lives. We’ve have several thousand compete in school competitions and we’re down to a little over 100 of the top inventions!

So, be sure to come out tomorrow between 10am and 3pm to see these phenomenal ideas at the 25th Annual Young Inventors’ Showcase. Above is a little sample of some of our inventors and their inventions on Great Day Houston – enjoy!

And, put a tickler into your calendar for next September to check our website for information about the 26th Annual Young Inventors Showcase

Many thanks to our friends at Shell and Wong Cabello for sponsoring this event.

Go Fly A Kite

Mr.O — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:12:06 +0000

With Winter FINALLY (hopefully) over, it’s time to get outside and enjoy the weather! And what better way than to go fly a kite! My assistants and I went out the Children’s Museum of Houston’s EcoStation to give it a go (but we discovered more wind along the side of the Museum).

Rather than spending our hard-earned money on a plastic kite, we chose to make our own! Of course there are all sorts of designs, but they all fly using the same basic rules as a plane. Check out our video above to learn more.

Now, the kite I show off in the video is a very simple kite that works well outdoors. However, unlike other kite designs that may work better outdoors, you can also try flying this one indoors when the weather gets nasty either by walking around or even a fan blowing on it. To get more detailed instructions on how to build it, go to this link on Instructables!

Of course, always keep safety in mind and keep your kites away from power lines! And, if you’re like Charlie Brown or me, stay away from the trees as well…

Have fun!

Liquid Armor

Mr.O — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:55:29 +0000

Ever heard of d3o? It is a liquid armor (yes, I said LIQUID armor) that is being adapted for all sorts of uses (look what I found with a simple Google search here). But how does a liquid armor protect you? Simple – when it acts like a solid.

How can a liquid act like a solid – when it is a non-Newtonian fluid. When struck, it doesn’t act like a liquid is typically described, but rather its viscosity changes. We’ve discussed these before in O Wow Moments like A Slime By Any Other Name and It’s Alive! with one of my favorite non-Newtonian fluids – Oobleck!

Watch this video where we put d3o to the test! It is nanotechnology in action! To learn more about nanotechnology, nanoscale science, and all things nano, check out whatisnano.org.

New Component in Invention Convention

Mr.O — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:51:33 +0000

We have a new component at the Children’s Museum of Houston down in Invention Convention – the Animation Station! Created by Digital Dream Labs in Pittsburgh, this component helps teach kids to think like computer programmers.

The component uses puzzle-like pieces that fit together to create the “program.” It is all based on a visual ID systems that recognizes certain icons printed onto plastic pieces and associates them with different animations/behaviors. Some of the things you can do:

Set the background – there is a large cube for this with different scenes on different sides. Hint – there are “hidden” animations in each background that you can activate by putting characters in different areas.
Set the characters – there are six different characters. Hint – you can change the position of the character by moving them around the table surface. You can also turn the character by turning the puzzle piece
Modify the characters – you can change the color, size, and the action that characters take. You can even have characters share the same behavior puzzle piece.

Check out the video above, then come on out and check it all out in person!

Mathemagical Card Trick

Mr.O — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:42:36 +0000

In this week’s O Wow Moment from the Children’s Museum of Houston, I show my assistants a fun card trick. When pressed for how it works, I eventually relent to their logic (that I don’t really “do magic” but rather science, or math in this case) and demonstrate the trick again, seeing if they can figure out how it works mathematically.

But I’m not going to tell you how it works here! Watch the video and see if you can figure it out before you see the end of the video.

If you can count (and are a little sneaky), you can do the trick, too. I impressed my colleagues and my assistants, especially once I revealed the math behind it… Have fun!

Special thanks to our friends at Region’s Bank for making our O Wow Moments possible!

That’s Probable

Mr.O — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:26:50 +0000

One of the greatest mathematical topics that many people misunderstand is probability. Take my two assistants for example – they get into quite a row at the Children’s Museum of Houston over coin flips. So, we take a few moments in this video to discuss some very basic probability and apply it to coin flips, dice rolling, and spinners.

Of course, never content with just an explanation, in this video I have instructions for how to play a fun game – Pass or Roll – at home using stuff you likely have already around the house (dice and some sort of counters). And, of course, Pass or Roll is all about probability!

Special thanks to our friends at ExxonMobil for making this O Wow Moment possible!

New Exhibit!

Mr.O — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:57:50 +0000

We have a new exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Houston: Newton Know-How. In Newton Know-How, we encourage everyone to become physicists and explore the laws that govern all of our motion. For those who need a little refresher:

Newton’s First Law of Motion: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force.
Newton’s Second Law of Motion: F=ma (force equals mass times acceleration) or, the more force you apply to an object, the greater the acceleration, but the more mass it has, the more it resists acceleration.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion: When one object applies a force to a second object, the second object applies and equal but opposite force to the first. This is also known as “for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction” which, unfortunately, does not give you permission to shove your younger sibling (I know this from experience).

So make sure to come on out and explore a little motion, force, speed, velocity, acceleration, momentum, inertia, angular momentum, projectile motion, centripetal force,potential energy, friction, kinetic energy, and gravity!

And, for fun, I’ve stuck on a favorite O Wow Moment episode that relates to Newton… Enjoy that AND the photos of the exhibit below…

Light It Up

Mr.O — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:25:28 +0000

So, this week we’re continuing our exploration into microwaves by…well, exploring microwaves. Microwave ovens produce microwaves, but what are microwaves?

Microwaves are a type of electromagnetic waves. There are actually several different types including not only the ones in your oven, but also cell phone towers. There is an antenna inside every cell phone (okay, some are on the outside) that can convert the electromagnetic waves into text messages, website, FB posts and…oh, yeah…phone calls!

Check out our experiment with electromagnetic waves by lighting up a light bulb! BTW – this is something I do NOT recommend you do at home, mostly due to the chance you could damage your microwave.

Soap Soufflé

Mr.O — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:55:16 +0000

Normally, when I post an O Wow Moments video to the blog, I encourage you to try the activity at home. Not this time. It is a very interesting experiment and a great exploration into Charles’ Law (namely that gasses expand as they get warmer) and foams (when a gas is incorporated into a liquid or a solid), but it isn’t really something good to do at home. We use a microwave oven (not a the cheapest of scientific tools) and microwave a bar of Ivory Soap (yes, it has to be Ivory – watch the video to find out why) for 2 minutes. Seems simple and looks cool. But, the computer lacks SMELL-O-VISION. Imagine your entire kitchen being filled with the smell of Ivory soap, but amp the intensity to about 100 times what you would get in a shower or bath. In other words, even lovely soapy smells are AWFUL when they get this pungent.

So, please do watch and enjoy the video, learn a little science, but leave this microwave experiment to us.

Emitting Light

Mr.O — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:40:22 +0000

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) surround us and are embedded everywhere, from new light bulbs, flashes on cameras, power lights, and even remote controls all use LEDs. But what are LEDs and what can you make with them? Check out our video to learn more about LEDs and check out our LED Pocket Flashlight Instructable for more details on how to make your own!