Happy Easter!

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I got a new computer recently. It's all mechanical. This is what the web browser looks like.

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Science Olympiad competitions are coming up - the elementary school competition is April 20, and the middle school state competition is on April 27. Those are going to be two long days, but they'll be fun and rewarding for students and parents. I just wish the state competition was at UM instead of MSU so we wouldn't have to worry about the weather and getting up before sunrise to get there on time.

Meanwhile, M continues to play volleyball with the 7th- and 8th-grade team. They're pretty good, and fun to watch. He has a few more flag football games coming up, and is getting better at the sax every day.

Now that indoor soccer is over, K is about ready to wrap up Science Olympiad season and continues with Math Olympiad. He's decided not to participate in any activities that don't have the word "Olympiad" in the name. He's also sawing out tunes on the violin for 5th-grade strings.

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J and K are using some of their time off work and school to catch up on the TV show "Downton Abbey" about an insanely rich family who live in a "house" the size of a city block. They have a gaggle of servants and, between the upstairs and the downstairs, provide enough drama for a lengthy television series.

We're starting to talk like them now. When I gave K his hot chocolate this morning, I said "Here you are, m'Lord" in the deep voice of Carson, the family's butler. That might backfire if he expects me to talk to him like that from now on. Which he probably does.

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Links
Motorcyle made out of Guinness beer cans.

How to build your everything really fast.

Ships in bottles - interview with the maker.

March Update: Science Olympiad, Soccer, Flag Football, Snow, Rain, Links, You Name It

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Science Olympiad News

In recent news (this afternoon), M's very own Slauson Middle School took first place overall at the Science Olympiad regional competition at Hillsdale College. There were six other schools competing.

The results for events in which M competed include sixth place in Mission Possible (a Rube Goldberg machine-building event), fifth place in Boomilever (in which a wooden structure is built that can support the most weight without breaking), and 1st place in Metric Mastery (a math-heavy event in which students measure objects and estimate numbers). It was a huge day for M and his teammates, and is the culmination of many weeks of practicing (and a last-minute frenzy build on the Mission Possible machine Friday evening).


M with his awards - one of the medals around his neck is the school's overall blue medal.


M's boomilever, post-competition. The vertical part of the boomilever, shown at the left of the picture, is fastened to to bolt protruding from a fixed vertical jig. Then, a hook is attached to the far end of the structure (the right side of the picture), and a bucket is hung from the hook. A device pours sand into the bucket until the boomilever breaks. The weight of the sand/bucket/hook divided by the weight of the boomilever itself is the score the students receive. The trick is to build something really light that holds a good load, because the equation that produces the score favors a small denominator more than a high numerator. Finding the balance is difficult.

Slauson will be going to the State competition in April at Michigan State University.

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K is playing indoor soccer this year - they play with a small ball, about 1/2 the size of a normal soccer ball, and they use middle-school gyms instead of outdoor soccer fields. It's very fast-paced, and tends to be high-scoring. Today's game ended in a 7-7 tie, for example.

K continues to go to Math Olympiad on Saturday mornings and is doing well on his assignments and tests. He's enjoying it, and I'm learning a lot from attending the practices. Sometimes, I'm put to work grading homework when I go to the practices, as all parents are asked to chip in and volunteer in one way or another.

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M has started playing volleyball for the 7th- and 8th-grade team. His practices have overlapped a little with Science Olympiad practices, and we're working on balancing those. He's also playing Flag Football, his favorite winter activity. This may be his last year, as he's getting too old to play in the league that's available.

Links

Table with a farm-machinery theme.

Tiny houses with clever designs.

Scale gasoline engines - these aren't models, they really work.

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