Visiting the Franklin Institute

While we were in Philadelphia, we went to the Franklin Institute. It is a huge science museum with all sorts of amazing things.

While we were there, we saw a show about liquid nitrogen. In the show, the scientist took a bowl and put a helium balloon in it and poured liquid nitrogen over it. It shrank and shrank as it got cold, but when he let it go, it floated up and started expanding as it got warmer. When he put a balloon filled with carbon dioxide in the liquid nitrogen and then took it out of the bowl, he dropped it and it shattered! The scientist also had a little steam engine into which he poured some of the liquid nitrogen. The engine started running but it stopped fairly quickly.

We also saw the train factory room. It has a huge train that you can get in and move a little way very slowly. The line for it was very long and I decided not to go. Also in the train room there was a little model of a track with a little bar and a lot of different wheels. You put the wheels on the bar and see which type of wheel works best to roll down the track.

Here I am climbing through a clogged artery:


The heart bar and the brain bar:


Dissecting a sheep's heart:


We went to the children's room about the elements: fire, water, earth, and air. I especially liked exploring the water section and making fountains.

At the end of our day at the museum, we went to the planetarium show. It was not my favorite show because it was more like a movie on the ceiling than a real planetarium show with a projector. It was about the search for life in space. There were a lot of people talking in the room. One of the camp teachers shouted at them. All the counselors kept yelling "Sh!" and "Quiet!" I am glad I homeschool!

This picture is sort of like an early planetarium used by Ben Franklin.