Re: CMSI Summer Science Workshops -- Share your memories of the California Museum of Science & Industry

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Date Posted: 08:54:49 05/28/04 Fri
Author: A.R.
Subject: Re: CMSI Summer Science Workshops
In reply to: R.M. 's message, "CMSI Summer Science Workshops" on 22:47:30 04/26/03 Sat

I also took part in the summer science programs. They were a part of 4 or 5 of my summers during the late 60s and early 70s. I recall classes in animal biology in which we were "hands on" with a variey of animals, microbiology where we explored the world with microscopes, photography, rocketry and many others. After classes I would often have a few hours to explore the museum, the hall of health, and the aerospace museum. It's wonderful to see the pictures of the old exhibits, one exhibit I recall that I don't see mentioned had a model of the California coast line and L.A. harbor area that lit up as you might see it at night. My thanks to those who started this site, it's nice to know that others have fond memories of this time and place.

>One thing you didn't say much about on the site was
>the old CMSI's
>amazingly advanced, informative Summer Science
>Workshops for children.
>They were two-week summer classes, with classroom
>and/or laboratory
>components. I doubt the current Science Center has
>anything resembling
>those Workshops, these days. In the late Eighties I
>checked, and found
>that even then, they'd all shrunk to one week in
>length, and the contents
>had got mighty thin. Shorter attention spans, I
>guess. By now, what with
>handhelds and instant messaging, the attention spans
>have probably shrunk
>to the vanishing point.
>
>In the summer of 1966 (between 4th and 5th grades), my
>parents enrolled me
>in a summer course in astronomy, which was highly
>non-flashy and
>informative -- for example, it taught the difference
>between apparent and
>absolute magnitudes, and the formula (including a
>logarithm) for converting
>between them. In 1967-1969 I took four more courses,
>including computers.
>(As part of the course, I made a set of Napier's Bones
>for hand
>computation. There was discussion of slide rules,
>electromechanical
>relays, and logic diagrams, and I prepared punch cards
>by hand for an
>emulator called a Cybernac. Heady stuff for a 10-year
>old in 1968!)
>I also took a course in aerodynamics, where we got to
>construct model
>airplanes that incorporated aerodynamic enhancements
>the kit manufacturers
>had never dreamed of. We got to fly them inside the
>Coliseum.
>
>The Workshops met in the north half of the old Armory
>Building, the south
>half being occupied by the great Aerospace Hall. Some
>of the classrooms
>were on the ground floor, and some were in the
>building's huge basement.
>Only a small part of the basement was in use, and the
>rest was disused and
>(partly) blocked off. During the time I was there, it
>was easy for us kids
>to get into and explore the disused section. A
>remarkably spooky place,
>with many side corridors and rooms! Not all the light
>switches worked. We
>located a spiral staircase leading up to a corridor
>opening on the
>Aerospace Hall, so we were able to move around that
>building rather
>effectively, while staying behind the scenes. No
>guards never bothered us.
>Come to think of it, I had almost as much fun
>exploring that building,
>somewhat illicitly, as I did taking the classes.

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