We've just finished participating in Earth Hour 2012, where people are encouraged to turn off all unnecessary electricity for an hour at 8:30 PM (local time) on the last Saturday of March. This year we did even better, because we turned off all the lights and information technology (computers, etc.--but we didn't unplug things like our internet router or our refridgerator) and spent the hour reading by oil lamps.
So we got to experience the past (in a minor way). We discovered it was dim, smokey, and sooty.
So after the hour was up, we turned on one lamp to continue reading (and I'm posting using my computer's battery), but left all our other electricity off. We like doing this, both as a symbol of willingness to contribute to our planet's energy and environmental problems, and as an experience of our past (and hopefully, not our future....)
We found out about Earth Hour a few years ago from an educator from the NC Zoo, Miss Melinda. Earth Hour began in Australia, and she was Australian, although I don't know that is why she knew about and/or publicized it. Anyway, she sent out the information to our Zoo Club, and we've been observing it ever since. Unfortunately for us, Miss Melinda has gone back to Australia, but we will never forget all the lessons she taught us---including the importance of participating in Earth Hour.
Showing posts with label zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zoo. Show all posts
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Winter Solstice 2011 at the Zoo
Happy Solstice! It seems appropriate that we celebrated the shortest day in the year by going to an exhibition of lights (articifical) at the National Zoo, an annual holiday event called ZooLights.
You enter under an arch of lights....
and follow the pathways, which are decorated on both sides with lights strung all over the trees:
Sometimes there are lit patterns along the path itself:
Since it is the zoo, there are also many light exhibits featuring animals, some of which are animated:
My son likes the marine animals display:
especially the cephalopods:
A number of the enclosed display areas--the reptile house, the small mammals house, the great apes, etc.--are also open, so you can see some actual animals as well as the ones in lights.
There are even a few places where the lights on the tree change in time with the lively holiday music that is playing:
It was a beautiful mild night, and a great place to be to celebrate the Solstice in the nation's capitol.
Wishing you the best on this special evening as well.
 |
| Sign on Connecticut Avenue Inviting Visitors |
You enter under an arch of lights....
and follow the pathways, which are decorated on both sides with lights strung all over the trees:
Sometimes there are lit patterns along the path itself:
Since it is the zoo, there are also many light exhibits featuring animals, some of which are animated:
My son likes the marine animals display:
especially the cephalopods:
A number of the enclosed display areas--the reptile house, the small mammals house, the great apes, etc.--are also open, so you can see some actual animals as well as the ones in lights.
There are even a few places where the lights on the tree change in time with the lively holiday music that is playing:
It was a beautiful mild night, and a great place to be to celebrate the Solstice in the nation's capitol.
Wishing you the best on this special evening as well.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Thar Be Pirates About!
This weekend we went to such a fabulous concert! It was part of the North Carolina Symphony Summerfest Concert series, which I have blogged about previously. The title of Saturday night's show was Pirates, and it comprised all sorts of nautical-related music.
At first, I was concerned it might be a bit too commercially-oriented, but that turned out not to be the case at all. Yes, it did have music from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies--which, I have to admit, I was so wrong about and love although I ridiculed it prior to actually seeing the movies (that is generally true about the movies as well as the music in them). So, yes, they are ridiculously popular and money-making movies, but that doesn't mean that Hans Zimmer's music wasn't great, because I think that it was.
But the show contained so much more than that. It did have its show element, with songs from the movie Hook, the musical Peter Pan, and even the classic Captain Blood. It had light operetta (The Pirates of Penzance) and Wagner's opera, The Flying Dutchman, along with some traditional sea chanties and nautical songs. The NC Symphony did a wonderful job with all these works.
However, my son and I were particularly enthusiastic about two sets of modern compositions. I was really struck by some songs done by a composer from Greensboro, NC, who had written a musical about North Carolina's most notorious pirate, Blackbeard. Laurelyn Dossett got to sing two of her songs from that show, entitled Bloody Blackbeard, accompanied by the state's symphony, which I imagine is pretty much a life's ambition for a local composer. They were great songs, and I hope they become more well known.
My son's favorite was a piece called The Last Voyage of the Currituck: A Symphonic Odyssey, which was by Terry Mizesko, who is a member of the NC Symphony. This six-part piece ran from the hussle-bussle of taking off, to the enthusiastic beginnings, later longing for those at home, and eventual bad end in the Bermuda Triangle, with dramatically different emotions conveyed by the talented musicians. It was also a well-written work that I hope will gain wider renown.
But I give the NC Symphony a lot of credit for a really well-developed evening of music around this theme. As I've stated before, I come from Washington DC, so I'm used to a high level of cultural arts in my arts, museums, theater, and musical performances. And I don't really expect the North Carolina institutions to compete with what it is possible for, say, the Smithsonian Institution or the Kennedy Center for the Arts to do. But I think North Carolina has been really smart about targeting the resources that it has. So, for example, the NC Zoo has an African section and a North American section; it has restricted its scope, and does those two areas really well, rather than having a mediocre mish-mash of animals from all over the world. Similarly, both the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the North Carolina Aquariums (all three of them) design their major exhibits around North Carolina environments (terrestrial or aquatic); again, this gives a logical focus to their museums, and they cover that narrower focus really well.
And so for the theme of Pirates, the Symphony found a way to focus the show on North Carolina talents and assets, including the always intriguing legends of Blackbeard. The concert tied into the recent exhibit in the North Carolina Maritime Museum on Treasures from the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's flagship vessel that has recently been been recovered from the seabed along the North Carolina coast.
Plus, it was a lovely night, we were seeing the show with good friends, we had plenty to eat and drink, they had all kinds of pirate exhibits and activities to entertain the children, PLUS they had fireworks afterwards. So what's not to love?
PS--Here is my son's blog post inspired by the concert.
At first, I was concerned it might be a bit too commercially-oriented, but that turned out not to be the case at all. Yes, it did have music from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies--which, I have to admit, I was so wrong about and love although I ridiculed it prior to actually seeing the movies (that is generally true about the movies as well as the music in them). So, yes, they are ridiculously popular and money-making movies, but that doesn't mean that Hans Zimmer's music wasn't great, because I think that it was.
But the show contained so much more than that. It did have its show element, with songs from the movie Hook, the musical Peter Pan, and even the classic Captain Blood. It had light operetta (The Pirates of Penzance) and Wagner's opera, The Flying Dutchman, along with some traditional sea chanties and nautical songs. The NC Symphony did a wonderful job with all these works.
However, my son and I were particularly enthusiastic about two sets of modern compositions. I was really struck by some songs done by a composer from Greensboro, NC, who had written a musical about North Carolina's most notorious pirate, Blackbeard. Laurelyn Dossett got to sing two of her songs from that show, entitled Bloody Blackbeard, accompanied by the state's symphony, which I imagine is pretty much a life's ambition for a local composer. They were great songs, and I hope they become more well known.
My son's favorite was a piece called The Last Voyage of the Currituck: A Symphonic Odyssey, which was by Terry Mizesko, who is a member of the NC Symphony. This six-part piece ran from the hussle-bussle of taking off, to the enthusiastic beginnings, later longing for those at home, and eventual bad end in the Bermuda Triangle, with dramatically different emotions conveyed by the talented musicians. It was also a well-written work that I hope will gain wider renown.
But I give the NC Symphony a lot of credit for a really well-developed evening of music around this theme. As I've stated before, I come from Washington DC, so I'm used to a high level of cultural arts in my arts, museums, theater, and musical performances. And I don't really expect the North Carolina institutions to compete with what it is possible for, say, the Smithsonian Institution or the Kennedy Center for the Arts to do. But I think North Carolina has been really smart about targeting the resources that it has. So, for example, the NC Zoo has an African section and a North American section; it has restricted its scope, and does those two areas really well, rather than having a mediocre mish-mash of animals from all over the world. Similarly, both the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the North Carolina Aquariums (all three of them) design their major exhibits around North Carolina environments (terrestrial or aquatic); again, this gives a logical focus to their museums, and they cover that narrower focus really well.
And so for the theme of Pirates, the Symphony found a way to focus the show on North Carolina talents and assets, including the always intriguing legends of Blackbeard. The concert tied into the recent exhibit in the North Carolina Maritime Museum on Treasures from the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's flagship vessel that has recently been been recovered from the seabed along the North Carolina coast.
Plus, it was a lovely night, we were seeing the show with good friends, we had plenty to eat and drink, they had all kinds of pirate exhibits and activities to entertain the children, PLUS they had fireworks afterwards. So what's not to love?
PS--Here is my son's blog post inspired by the concert.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Zoo Club "Fun in the Not-TOO-Much Sun" Day
Today was the final event of our year-long Zoo Club, an educational program for homeschoolers offered by the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, NC. Because the Zoo has a strong mission of educating the school children of North Carolina, and they want to give homeschoolers equal opportunities to the schools, the Zoo Club offers homeschool groups a package of four classes--two at the Zoo, and two in the local community--along with an "end of the year" Fun Day at the Zoo. At Fun Day, the Zoo has some games and activities distributed throughout the Zoo, and all the Zoo Club participants from all the Zoo Clubs in North Carolina are invited and come play, learn, and even win some prizes.
This activity is always, as advertised, FUN, as well as educational, but we were having kind of a hard time selling it this year. The Zoo is about an hour and a half drive from the Cary area, so that is a consideration, although it is a beautiful and easy drive, and we always encourage carpooling (which makes it more fun as well). It was scheduled a little later this year, so it ended up being just a couple of days before our Student Showcase, when many of our families are trying to tie up the loose ends of their homeschool year.
But mostly, I think, people were discouraged by the fact that it has been in the upper 90's all this week. Several people told me they didn't want to drive all that way and then sweat all day. The North Carolina Zoo is one of those with animals in natural habitats, and it is big! There are 500 acres in the park, which means that you do a lot of walking. It is usually pretty tiring after a day at such a large zoo, so people weren't too excited with the extra heat on top of the usual exhaustion (remembering that, as moms do, we were not only bringing our children, but 10-20 pounds of snacks, water, sun screen, allergy medicine, bug spray, yada yada yada...)
So we ended up with seven of our local homeschool families going. But those who came were really glad they did. As always with the Zoo's educational staff, they put together a high quality program. The focus of the initial games were prey and predators and the food web, which is always an important concept. Plus, because it is the week before the end of traditional public schools, there were very few school groups there. And it was during the day, so not a lot of regular folks were visiting. It really felt almost like we had the park to ourselves, even though there were probably hundreds of people there (a large, spread-out zoo like that can feel that way under the right conditions). Finally, even though the thermometer on our car said it was 96 degrees, it really didn't feel that bad. The entire park was built out of a forest in the foothills of the Uwharrie Mountains, and they left most of the trees in between all the different exhibits. So there was tons of shade everywhere we went. There are also mist sprayers around, and air-conditioned buildings to stop in here and there. It was hot, but we were never miserable. And given the lack of other people, and thus the ability to walk peacefully and see all the animals without any crowds or lines or anything, it was really one of the most pleasant trips I've ever had to the zoo.
They did announce that the Zoo will be offering Zoo Club again next year, and have hired a permanent staff person to run the program. If you are a homeschooler in North Carolina, I really recommend you take advantage of this excellent educational opportunity when enrollment rolls around again next fall.
This activity is always, as advertised, FUN, as well as educational, but we were having kind of a hard time selling it this year. The Zoo is about an hour and a half drive from the Cary area, so that is a consideration, although it is a beautiful and easy drive, and we always encourage carpooling (which makes it more fun as well). It was scheduled a little later this year, so it ended up being just a couple of days before our Student Showcase, when many of our families are trying to tie up the loose ends of their homeschool year.
But mostly, I think, people were discouraged by the fact that it has been in the upper 90's all this week. Several people told me they didn't want to drive all that way and then sweat all day. The North Carolina Zoo is one of those with animals in natural habitats, and it is big! There are 500 acres in the park, which means that you do a lot of walking. It is usually pretty tiring after a day at such a large zoo, so people weren't too excited with the extra heat on top of the usual exhaustion (remembering that, as moms do, we were not only bringing our children, but 10-20 pounds of snacks, water, sun screen, allergy medicine, bug spray, yada yada yada...)
So we ended up with seven of our local homeschool families going. But those who came were really glad they did. As always with the Zoo's educational staff, they put together a high quality program. The focus of the initial games were prey and predators and the food web, which is always an important concept. Plus, because it is the week before the end of traditional public schools, there were very few school groups there. And it was during the day, so not a lot of regular folks were visiting. It really felt almost like we had the park to ourselves, even though there were probably hundreds of people there (a large, spread-out zoo like that can feel that way under the right conditions). Finally, even though the thermometer on our car said it was 96 degrees, it really didn't feel that bad. The entire park was built out of a forest in the foothills of the Uwharrie Mountains, and they left most of the trees in between all the different exhibits. So there was tons of shade everywhere we went. There are also mist sprayers around, and air-conditioned buildings to stop in here and there. It was hot, but we were never miserable. And given the lack of other people, and thus the ability to walk peacefully and see all the animals without any crowds or lines or anything, it was really one of the most pleasant trips I've ever had to the zoo.
They did announce that the Zoo will be offering Zoo Club again next year, and have hired a permanent staff person to run the program. If you are a homeschooler in North Carolina, I really recommend you take advantage of this excellent educational opportunity when enrollment rolls around again next fall.
Monday, September 20, 2010
College Tuition Costs: An International Comparison
Today was a mixed day for us. The good news was that today was the first class of our Zoo Club, a program run for homeschooling groups by the NC Zoo where they come and give two classes in our community, then we go to the Zoo for two more classes. They have a variety of topics, but this year we chose to do all four programs on the theme "Biodiversity" in honor of 2010 being pronounced the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. We have three different classes broken down by age (the students range from 5 years old to 17) with almost 50 students total. The Zoo educators are great, and the classes are always fun and packed with good information.
The bad news was that this is the last class that will be taught by our treasured Miss Melinda, who has been teaching our children Zoo classes for five years now. Miss Melinda is from Australia, and now that her son has graduated from high school, they felt they had to return to Australia in order for him to be able to afford to go to college.
One issue is that since he is not an American citizen, so he is not eligible for most scholarships and student loans--which I can understand. What I can't understand is the differential in the costs of universities in Australia and here. Melinda's son was accepted into a highly-competitive computer science program at a university outside of Sydney--the only CS program in Australia with a concentration in game development. And Melinda was thrilled to find out (besides the fact that he was accepted into the major he wanted) that the tuition for his degree program would cost the equivalent of $7,000 US. That's NOT per year--that's for ALL FOUR YEARS of the program.
In contrast, a year's undergraduate tuition for in-state students at nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill costs nearly $7,000--$6,665 to be precise. Of course, without the state subsidies, an out-of-state student pays $25,280 a year...just for tuition. But, then, everything is relative; even that looks like a bargain compared to also-nearby Duke University, whose annual tuition is $39, 080 (what, they couldn't make it a nice round $39,000?).
There are definitely differences between American universities and those from other nations, but still... should it really cost four times as much to go to a competitive state school as a competitive Australian one? Our family actually has personal experience with this. Just last week, my brother flew over and installed my niece at St. Andrews University in Scotland, where the year's tuition, as an international student, will cost $19,584 (but UK students pay only $2,929 to attend one of Scotland's premier universities). Compared to her other top college choice, the University of Chicago, whose annual tuition for undergraduates is $40,188, my brother thinks he's gotten a real bargain, even figuring in the costs of international travel and communications.
Oh well. Maybe this will give our children more incentive to study foreign languages....
The bad news was that this is the last class that will be taught by our treasured Miss Melinda, who has been teaching our children Zoo classes for five years now. Miss Melinda is from Australia, and now that her son has graduated from high school, they felt they had to return to Australia in order for him to be able to afford to go to college.
One issue is that since he is not an American citizen, so he is not eligible for most scholarships and student loans--which I can understand. What I can't understand is the differential in the costs of universities in Australia and here. Melinda's son was accepted into a highly-competitive computer science program at a university outside of Sydney--the only CS program in Australia with a concentration in game development. And Melinda was thrilled to find out (besides the fact that he was accepted into the major he wanted) that the tuition for his degree program would cost the equivalent of $7,000 US. That's NOT per year--that's for ALL FOUR YEARS of the program.
In contrast, a year's undergraduate tuition for in-state students at nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill costs nearly $7,000--$6,665 to be precise. Of course, without the state subsidies, an out-of-state student pays $25,280 a year...just for tuition. But, then, everything is relative; even that looks like a bargain compared to also-nearby Duke University, whose annual tuition is $39, 080 (what, they couldn't make it a nice round $39,000?).
There are definitely differences between American universities and those from other nations, but still... should it really cost four times as much to go to a competitive state school as a competitive Australian one? Our family actually has personal experience with this. Just last week, my brother flew over and installed my niece at St. Andrews University in Scotland, where the year's tuition, as an international student, will cost $19,584 (but UK students pay only $2,929 to attend one of Scotland's premier universities). Compared to her other top college choice, the University of Chicago, whose annual tuition for undergraduates is $40,188, my brother thinks he's gotten a real bargain, even figuring in the costs of international travel and communications.
Oh well. Maybe this will give our children more incentive to study foreign languages....
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