(Rain Date May 21)

One of the essential tasks in preparing a new performing arts center is an acoustical “tuning.”  This is the time for the sound engineers to make sure that the hall sounds the way it should for all types of performances, especially non-amplified music, and for the engineers to make any adjustments. This necessary tuning is accomplished utilizing live music on stage and an audience in the seats.  This tuning process will be described at BRIMS in an informal talk by SKyPAC Education and Outreach Director Andee Rudloff.

With almost 20 years of professional art organization experience, Andee most recently was at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, TN, serving as curator, educator and community relations manager. Additionally in Nashville, Andee was the curator of the Nashville International Airport during the recent renovation as well as curator of Curb Records’ Johnny Cash Collection.  Throughout the past 20 years, she has continued her career as a professional visual artist specializing in murals and painting.  In 2011, Andee was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear to serve on the board of directors for the Kentucky Arts Council.

Join us to learn about flower anatomy and pollination, enjoy the beautiful work of our co-curators, craft your own flower to keep or give, and experience some hands-on science!

For more information about flowers, visit these links:

Flowers in Art: ChooseArt.net

Meaning of Flowers: FlowerMeaning.org

Online interactives:

• The Life Cycle of Plants
• BBC ScienceClips

More reading and resources for teachers, parents, and kids:

• Smithsonian Partners in Pollination
• Pollinator Live
• Pollinator.org

Weather (Photo credit: Jen SFO-BCN)

developed by the Kentucky Climate Center at Western Kentucky University.  Mesonet staff will be at BRIMS with a large scale model of one of these monitoring stations to answer questions about weather, the tools and goals for gathering weather data, and the Mesonet project.

Come ask questions about the weather while playing with all the great exhibits at the museum!

Our birthday party on Saturday was amazing!  It was wonderful to stop for a moment and take stock of how far we have come and enjoy some science with all of the visitors who joined us.

The shape of a sound wave determines the volume and pitch of the sound.  Taller sound waves are louder and shorter sound waves are quieter (amplitude).  A sound wave that has peaks and troughs close to each other has a higher pitch and a sound wave that has peaks and troughs farther apart have a lower pitch (wavelength).  Visit this site for a kid-friendly explanation with diagrams.  Visit this site for a more complex explanation.  You can also use your favorite search engine to find a lot more information.

Image from:      http://method-behind-the-music.com/mechanics/physics

You can use a regular balloon to explore more.  Jason Lindsey explains how to start, here.  Put a hex nut in a balloon, blow it up and tie it off.  Hold the balloon with your hand over the knot and move it in a circular motion.  The motion of the nut inside the balloon will make a distinctive sound.  This is sometimes referred to as the “Screaming Balloon” experiment.  As each of the six “corners” of the nut tap the inside of the balloon, they create a vibration, which the balloon transfers to the air in the form of a sound wave.  Try the same procedure with a wing nut. The parts of the wing nut tap the inside of the balloon at a slower rate than the hex nut.  The wing nut sound wave has a lower frequency than the hex nut sound wave because the balloon is tapped fewer times per second.  The lower frequency (longer wavelength) creates a sound with a lower pitch.

On the other hand, the volume (loudness) of the hex nut and the wing nut are about the same and so the height of their sound waves (amplitude) is also similar.  If you POP the balloon, you create a sound wave with only one wavelength that is much TALLER and LOUDER than the more gentle hex nut and wing nut vibrations!

You can try many more objects inside your balloon. Try to imagine the shape of the sound wave for each item.

For some really interesting balloon experiments, visit this Science Hobbyist site.  If there is one you really like, let us know in the comments and we’ll see about adding it to the event schedule!

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It is rainy and cooler outside. The perfect day to visit BRIMS (Actually every day is the perfect day to visit BRIMS) The doors open at 10:00 am and remain open until 6:00 pm. The Super Famous Doug Jenkins Wave Show is at 2:00 pm with cake and refreshments. So you can have your cake and eat it too! While playing in a GREAT Museum! Cake was donated by Riley’s (thank you!) and Finger foods are being donated by Anna’s Restaurant (Thank you Anna’s Too!)

In addition to it being a good day for families to be inside, the admission is FREE! (Donations are very welcome) Please come join us and help celebrate!

Thanks to Greenwood Mall, our new location has drastically increased visitation over last year. In February and March 2012 we hosted over 500 visitors, that is almost double the number from February and March 2011 which was 274! That is excellent performance for an organization that was slated to close. As we continue to rebuild and promote BRIMS, these encouraging numbers indicate that our reach should continue to grow.

Click here for the full issue ==> April 2012 Newsletter

Come buy some great science books, enjoy a hands-on activity, and help support BRIMS!  A portion of the proceeds will be donated to BRIMS in the form of books for our reference library.  We would love to have these great science books from our wish list, or you can visit the list to see a sample of what will be available at the book fair.