Frist, Zoo and Science Center

Friday, February 20: Frist/ Z00
We went to the Frist for the Medieval art exhibit from the Cleveland Museum of Art. It had Celtic clasps made out of gold and rubies. We also saw an arm made of gold that supposedly held a saint’s arm bone. There was a statue of a saint taking thorn out of a lion’s foot. There was a sculpture of Daniel interior’s den that had been the top of a church’s column. There was a reliquary with a very elaborate front and a saint’s bones inside. Another reliquary had a crystallized part of the cross. On the back it had holy objects wrapped in cloth. The exhibit was so great and so neat because they were able to save so much history.A side exhibit which didn’t link to the other at all had short films pieced together from early and newer films. One was about a boy who lived in his family’s car.

Relic hunter.

When we left the Frist we went to the Nashville Zoo. Right when we got there the homeschool day began. I got to pet a tarantula and a centipede that was about afoot long. I also got to pet an albino hedgehog. The hedgehog was neat : it was the first albino hedgehog that I’ve seen. The theme was rainforests and the animals that lived in them. I never thought that a hedgehog would be in a rainforest. After the session we went to the jungle gym until they came through the park on golf carts to kick the visitors out.
Since we’re combining these, last Wednesday ( February 25 ) we went to the Nashville Science Center. It was very fun. We got to play a little then we went to their new planetarium to see something called Ice Worlds. It had different planets that had ice on them like Earth, Mars, and some moons of Saturn. Did you know that the rings of Saturn are made of ice? The next session, called “Strange Matter,” had different tables that had things to do like figuring out why some gel looked like it disappeared when you put it in water and some crystals that looked like sea salt turned rubbery. There was some sand that floated when lightly shaken on the water, but if you poured it through a funnel, it fell to the bottom in long tubes. The next session was “What’s the Matter?” and it talked about how matter could change states like water to ice or water vapor. Then they had some water vapor in long tubes and they ran electricity through it and it lit up. Light shone from it in a purplish color. Then they poured liquid nitrogen on a flower and after a few minutes, they dropped it on the table and it shattered like glass. They put rubber bands in liquid nitrogen and it broke when someone pulled on it. Ping pong balls dipped in liquid nitrogen started spinning like crazy when put on a plate because the air inside that was cold heated up and forced the air out of a hole. When they poured liquid nitrogen in an empty tea kettle, it whistled.

Dudeboy petting an albino hedgehog.