MathAlive at the Ripley Center and The Last Reef in IMAX 3D

Hi fellow museum enthusiasts. Sorry for the delay. This post is a pretty short catch-up post from last week. First things first: MathAlive!

Not very many people know about the Ripley Center because from the outside it looks like a glorified hut. However, inside it is HUGE and FANCY because everything is underground.




And while it’s not a museum itself, it holds many offices, lecture halls, classrooms, a theater, and the International Gallery, which holds traveling exhibits. I was lucky enough to have had volunteered on the opening day of the International Gallery’s new exhibit MathAlive!

 


Basically it’s a fun zone for kids to learn about how math is relevant in the real world. They had different stations with activities based on how math is used in engineering, gaming, sports, graphics, music, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting. If you want to learn more about it you can click HERE to visit their web page or watch this trailer for the exhibit below.




I’m not going to lie, I totally geeked out in there and can’t wait to go back. I don’t really care that it’s catered toward middle schoolers, I WILL play all the games before the exhibit closes on June 3rd. ~determined face~ Last week I already played the Mars Landrover game, the 360-degree picture activity, and the Rescue the Cat game (I’m so bad at it though. I kept falling into a pit of red spikes. SAD). However I have yet to do the biking game or the snowboarding game. There were just too many kids around those waiting to play it and I didn't have time to wait out the crowd. And I would have felt bad pushing them off with their parents there watching… Also I wasn’t wearing the appropriate shoes for the mini rock-climbing wall. It’s only 7 feet high but it looked fun anyway. Luckily for me, my desk at African Art is just upstairs so I can visit easily anytime before or after my volunteering shift. YAY!

____________________

Now on Thursday evening I got the opportunity to use my museum perk for the first time. YAY! There was a free showing of The Last Reef in 3D IMAX at the National Museum of Natural History for all volunteers and employees. And despite the name of the film, it was actually very uplifting at the end (STILL TRY TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON EMISSIONS THOUGH!!!!! O.O!!!).


If you want to know more about the film "The Last Reef" click HERE.

Unfortunately NOBODY came to see it with me even though, since this was a special one time only screening for the Environmental Film Festival, my friends and guests could be free too. I guess everybody was busy or just didn’t want to see it. (LAME!!!) But hey, at least I offered and I kind of expected it because documentaries are a hard sell (even if they’re free, I will never understand people’s lack of enthusiasm for free fun stuff shrug).

So I basically went to the museum after work and used my employee badge to bypass security and then I used it again to get a discount on beer at the concessions stand. It's nice that they sell alcohol but it was kind of awkward because I was drinking beer alone out of a bottle in front of tons of kids and their parents… OH WELL.

The movie itself was very good and really fun because it was in 3D so all the fishies swam out at you. And yes, I totally fan girl squealed when the jellyfish appeared. They were so cute!!!! And doing that thing where they blip up and down floating and stuff. CUTE! Also, I had never realized until now how hilarious sea slugs looked. I kept laughing when they appeared. HAHA I’m laughing just thinking about them. LOLZ.



So despite the fact I had to go alone, I’m glad I went. It was fun and a good way to de-stress after work. I hope there will be more opportunities like this in the future. I mean I get a free IMAX movie every week regardless, but it’s nice that sometimes they’ll let friends and guests be free too :D Until next time…


1 comments:

Jahanzaib Khan said... [Reply to comment]
This comment has been removed by the author.

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home
Powered by Blogger.

Followers

Recent News

2/23/12 Officially learned that I'll be starting my volunteer post at the National Museum of African Art on March 10th. 1/18/12 NEW BLOG DESIGN AND LAYOUT!!!

About Me

My photo
Elizabeth is a recent graduate from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, receiving a B.A. in Mathematics. Soon after wards, she moved from a smaller county in S.W. VA to a busy city in the NOVA metro area for her job. Through her love of learning and tourist attractions, she has decided to start volunteering with the Smithsonian museums. This blog will record her experiences volunteering as well as her thoughts on various museums or exhibits (or anything touristy really). "Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I hope it makes you want to visit D.C. sometime. If not, maybe it can inspire you to become a fake tourist in your own town (or a museum volunteer)."