University of Texas' Open House

This event, though wonderful for families who are interested in attending UT or visiting college campuses, was not just for teens! There were even activities for the young ones, like Christian. This was basically a big 'show and tell' and 'science fair' all in one. UT students from each dept.

or professors had set up demonstrations, experiments, and activities. We visited many different types of labs, We made slime, got to see a solar powered car (I asked many questions about the car and the solar panels), saw a wind tunnel, saw a trebuchet, saw water flowing uphill and what happens to objects as they move along that flow, watched the vortexes created in flowing water when the water has debris or an obstruction in its path, felt an earthquake thanks to T-Rex, built structures out of gumdrops and toothpicks and then tested the strength of the creations with weights, looked in a few microscopes.. So much to see and do!!!

The next UT Open House is on March 3, 2007. So let's go! The drive was easy and the day was so much fun and it was FREE.

My favorite part of the day was when our children, inspired by all the experiments they had seen, decided to try to break the world's record for the longest string attached to a set of balloons. They collected string from other balloons, took donations even, and tied the strings together until the balloons soared above a nine story building. It didn't take them long to encounter problems and make some very scientific observations about their endeavor. Eventually the string broke and this huge group of balloons floated off dragging behind it well over 100 feet of colorful string! It was quite a spectacle and some of the UT students were taking pictures of our kids as they did this.

We want to recreate this again when the wind is not as strong - maybe at the beach.

Rebecca