A brand new sign is being installed at Petco Park, stadium home of Major League Baseball’s awesome San Diego Padres!
Just a quick couple pics. During my walk this morning, I happened to notice a big new Petco Park sign is being installed on the San Diego Padres’ downtown stadium. The new sign is a bright, cheerful red, and I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the lettering closely resembles the Petco logo. Workers are installing it from a crane just in time for Opening Day, which is a home game–April 4th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Of course, the new sign will also be seen by millions of television viewers during the upcoming MLB All-Star game this summer. Go Pads!
Bicyclist heads down Park Boulevard past a new sight in East Village: a redesigned red sign for Petco Park, just in time for Opening Day and the upcoming 2016 MLB All-Star Game.
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A mad scientist at the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering shows a kid how to have some fun with magnets!
Here are 14 different simple science and engineering projects that kids are sure to love! I’ve included lots of instructions and photographs–courtesy of many exhibitors at this year’s San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering Expo, held yesterday at Petco Park. I also blogged about the event last year.
Check out this fun stuff! Feel free to share! First up . . . how to make slime!
HOW TO MAKE SLIME
Who doesn’t love slime? Slime is fun! And making it is easy! These instructions are courtesy of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, who had a fascinating exhibit at the big STEM education event held at Petco Park.
Just click the image with easy directions to enlarge it! You can enlarge the other images on my blog in the same way, if you want a closer look. Feel free to share these useful how-to photos on Pinterest or with your friends, if you’d like!
How to make slime. You need borax powder, water, white glue and food coloring. Click each image to enlarge instructions.
HOW TO MAKE A FUN PAPER ROCKET
Follow the diagram to cut and fold a simple paper rocket with paper clip! These instructions are courtesy of the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. Kids love the world-class museum. It’s one of the coolest places in San Diego!
How to make a cool paper rocket, using a rectangular piece of paper, scissors and a paper clip.
HOW TO FOLD AN ORIGAMI BOAT
Look at these instructions on how to fold your very own origami boat! My friends at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park provided this information! I even once made one! (And if I can succeed, believe me–anyone can do it!)
How to fold an easy origami boat that really floats!
HOW TO MAKE MATCHBOX ROCKETS THAT REALLY WORK!
Here’s how you can make a tiny rocket that actually works in much the same way as a real solid-fuel rocket. Wrap a single matchstick in a small strip of tin foil, then crimp one end. Look at my photos to get an idea of what to do. Be careful! You know what they say about playing with matches! Have an adult help out!
Oh, I forgot to mention. This cool experiment is courtesy of the Magnolia Science Academy!
How to make matchbox rockets and why they work. This is for older, supervised kids. Fire can be dangerous.Wrap a match in a small strip of aluminum foil.Crimp the match head end of the tube (the rocket’s nose) so exhaust pressure doesn’t escape in that direction.Prepare for lift-off from a clever, fireproof launching platform! Safely apply flame and let fly!
HOW TO MAKE AN “AIRZOOKA” THAT SHOOTS CO2 RINGS!
Here’s another cool project I discovered at the Magnolia Science Academy booth. A student had created a simple “Airzooka” that shoots perfect white cloudy rings of carbon dioxide!
The trashcan with a hole part looks easy. To create the membrane that launches the CO2 rings, you’ll need to use a somewhat flexible material, like a plastic sheet. Once the can is filled with gas, just slap it with your hand and out comes a “smoke ring”!
How to make an “airzooka” using a plastic trashcan with a hole at one end and a pliable membrane on the other. Fill with carbon dioxide gas and shoot white rings by hitting the membrane!The “airzooka” is loaded with carbon dioxide gas, using either dry ice (be extremely careful) or a fog machine.
HOW TO CRAFT A FUN PAPER BAG HAT
What can you do with a paper grocery bag? Crumple it up a bit and form a Mad Hatter hat! Use your imagination and maybe a bit of glue!
This crafty idea is provided by the San Diego County Fair. This summer’s fair will have an Alice in Wonderland theme! I can’t wait!
How to make a Mad Hatter hat with crumpled paper bags and lots of fun stuff tied and glued on!You can apply ribbons, glitter, feathers, playing cards, whatever you like to fashion your crazy Mad Hatter hat! Okay, I don’t suppose this really is science, but who cares!
HOW TO MAKE A TINY PARACHUTE
I remember creating one of these when I was a kid. I made my parachute for a toy action figure! Just look at the picture and go to work! Pretty simple!
This parachute was put together by to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. The Fleet, located in Balboa Park, is a super cool place with loads and loads of fun hands-on science exhibits for kids, plus an awesome IMAX theater and planetarium!
How to make a simple small parachute with a Dixie cup or object providing weight, string (or similar material) and coffee filter.
HOW TO MAKE A SUPER COOL STAR WARS COSTUME!
Okay. No instructions here. Just imagination. That cool costume is actually made of all sorts of Star Wars toys! Incredible. I’m guessing that wicked-looking dude is on the Dark Side.
I believe this guy was part of the STAR WARS Steampunk Recycled Fashion and Engineering Challenge.
Yeah, making a cool costume out of Star Wars toys might take a bit of glue. But all you really need is determination and imagination! (And maybe a credit card.)
HOW TO USE YOUR IMAGINATION TO BUILD ANYTHING!
What are we building here? Absolutely anything! It just takes some imagination!
Just look at some of the common household items one can use to invent cool things. I’ll bet you have some of this stuff in your own home.
I took this pic at a fun table display in the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab tent.
What can a person make with this stuff? Anything!Objects you can use creatively include popsicle sticks, plastic spoons, straws, tubes, tape and buttons.
HOW TO MIX UP SOME SNAIL GOOP
Slime…snail goop…boogers…it’s all the same good stuff. At least it’s the same mixture of borax powder, water and white glue. A truly yucky and wonderful substance. Science rocks!
Thanks (maybe) to the Steam Maker Workshop for this gloppy sight.
Okay, snail goop is pretty much the same stuff as slime. But I like the name!If a snail made that much goop, it would be a monster. Fortunately, that monstrous snail would be slow.Kids and curious adults were learning all sorts of cool concepts at the 2016 San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering at Petco Park.
HOW TO CREATE A 3-D OPTICAL ILLUSION WITH STRING
Here’s a cool experiment that demonstrates concepts in math and spatial geometry. Perhaps imagine that the string is a ray of light. From the “tower”, stretch the string so that it touches each of the four top corners of your cube, and plot where the string finally reaches your piece of paper. Connect those points with lines the way my photographs show, then look at the image from the end of the string! It looks like some sort of weird optical illusion, but you’ll see the result actually makes sense!
This exhibit was provided by San Diego State University’s InforMath Collaborative.
By using a string attached to this tower, you can plot the projected corners of a cube or other three dimensional object onto a flat two dimensional surface.After drawing the cube’s base and drawing lines to connect the square with the projected corners, I ended up with this cool figure.When I peered at the image through a hole near the end of the string, I saw a perfect cube! Cool!
HOW TO ASSEMBLE A COOL TENSEGRITY CONSTRUCT
Oh, man! I think you could construct most of this cool stuff with Tinkertoys. Look at the diagrams and go wild! You’ll need lots of rubber bands!
Tensegrity is another science concept that was being demonstrated at the STEM education event. A friendly gentleman explained that the sticks are like bones and the rubber bands are like muscles. So human beings and other critters are examples of tensegrity!
Oops. I apologize for not knowing who put on this exhibit.
What the heck is tensegrity? A funny word created by Buckminster Fuller. You can use rubber bands to add tension to popsicle sticks and create cool stuff.Check it out! Tensegrity is also sometimes called tensional integrity or floating compression.These guys formed a huge tensegrity thingamajig using pipes and big rubber bands. I suppose one could use bungee cords, too.Look at all the tensegrity objects you can make!
HOW TO MAKE A VORTEX CANNON
Here’s a pic that has exact instructions on how to build a vortex air cannon. Looks really easy! (As usual, click the image to enlarge it.)
Uh, oh. I don’t know who created this exhibit, either. I forgot to take a picture with their name. My research got a bit sloppy. Sorry about that. Whoever had this table–very cool!
The vortex cannon shoots air in–you guessed it–a vortex.To make a vortex cannon, insert a cut narrow water bottle into a larger plastic Solo cup, just like the photo.Then cut off the nozzle of a balloon, and stretch the balloon over the open end of the cup.
HOW TO STIR UP LAVA IN A CUP
Finally, I’ve heard of java in a cup. But lava in a cup? Why not?
Adding salt to the floating oil makes the blob sink. It has become more dense than water. When the salt dissolves, the oil rises again!
Those instructions look super simple!
To make “lava in a cup”, use food coloring, vegetable oil and salt! It’s easy!You can then use that colorful lava in the cup to make some colorful art! Awesome!
That’s it! You now have a whole bunch of cool and creative science projects to try out! Have a blast!
Hey! Are you a kid? (Or even a boring old adult?) Try starting a blog like Cool San Diego Sights! You can blog about anything in the whole wide world. It’s lots of fun! And it’s pretty easy, too!
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Sign at downtown’s Omni Hotel, across Tony Gwynn Drive from Petco Park, proclaims San Diego is America’s All-Star City.
Winter is a week away. Time to start dreaming of next summer!
To help you dream, here are some photos I snapped in the past few months. During my walks around Petco Park, I’ve noticed a variety of signs which anticipate the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. It will be held right here in San Diego!
Digital display on Western Metal Supply Co. building at Petco Park, the downtown stadium of the San Diego Padres, counts down the days and hours until the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.One cool “window” of the Omni Hotel seems to offer a view into the future, as the 2016 All-Star Game is being played in San Diego.Baseball’s All-Star Game is coming next summer! A few signs have popped up around Petco Park many months in advance. It’s going to be fun!
UPDATE!
Look what I saw in mid-December 2015…
Just before Christmas, All-Star Santa has been painted on the window of the San Diego Padres Store in the Western Metal Supply Co. Building!
Distinctive San Diego Comic-Con International logo is hung on convention center for the 2015 pop culture mega-event.
Wow! This morning I saw that preparation for Comic-Con has pushed into high gear! 2015 San Diego Comic-Con comes very shortly after the Fourth of July, so as soon as the fireworks ended, workers have come out in droves to erect outdoor venues and complete a large number of impressive building wraps. There still isn’t much to see in the Gaslamp, where restaurants, bars and shops have been concentrating on drawing Independence Day crowds. I guess in the next day or two that will rapidly change!
Everywhere around the San Diego Convention Center there’s activity. Tents are being set up to shelter Comic-Con attendees who will wait in long lines.Party rental workers hustle to get everything ready for 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, shortly after the Fourth of July.The Last Ship building wrap on the Marriott hotel is finally finished several days before Comic-Con opens.Ubisoft is returning this year with the popular Assassin’s Creed obstacle course. It’s under construction at the same spot as last year.Conan O’Brien building wrap is visible beyond crane erecting framework of Assassin’s Creed obstacle course.According to what I read, Gaslamp Square in front of the Tin Fish restaurant will be the scene of NBC’s Heroes Reborn, where visitors will discover their own pyro-kinetic ability!Guys build steel structure near entrance to the Gaslamp Quarter, the hub of Comic-Con activity.NBC’s Heroes Reborn elaborate venue for Comic-Con fans is under construction on July 5.The huge The Strain building wrap on the Hilton Bayfront is making great progress since I posted a photo two days ago.FX Fearless Arena is being built in the Hilton Bayfront Park. Attractions will include The Strain, American Horror Story: Hotel, The Simpsons, Fargo, and The Bastard Executioner.There’s going to be more cool stuff than ever at 2015 San Diego Comic-Con!Another section of the FX Fearless Arena under construction, with a big Minority Report banner in the background.Close up photo of Minority Report image on the Hilton parking garage.Once Upon a Time returns this year. A huge wrap is being applied on a high section of Petco Park even now as I type!It appears Petco Park will be the site of Galactic Army Boot Camp!Who will be in booth 437? Answer that, and we’ll know what this wrap is advertising on the west wall of Petco Park, beside Tony Gwynn Drive.And, finally, I love this huge wrap on Petco Park, facing the convention center. It’s The Muppets! Yeah!
Padres fans walk down 11th Avenue toward Petco Park on a game day. They pass a mural featuring photos of baseball in San Diego many years ago.
On 11th Avenue, a few blocks north of Petco Park, anyone walking down the sidewalk can pause for a moment to enjoy a cool photo mural. Three large panels feature nostalgic old black-and-white photographs of baseball many years ago in downtown San Diego.
This public art project was created in 2004, with the help of the San Diego Padres, the Centre City Development Corporation and the San Diego Historical Society.
First panel of mural shows baseball teams from San Diego and Coronado in 1874. Ball field is on the block bounded by Sixth, C Street, Seventh and Broadway.Close look at a cool old photograph of baseball players in San Diego nearly 150 years ago.Second panel of photo mural shows kids in the Rose Park Playground at Eleventh and Island in 1915.As they do today, many San Diegans loved the enduring sport of baseball a hundred years ago.Third panel of mural shows a portion of San Diego’s Embarcadero in 1936. Lane Field, at Broadway and Pacific Highway, is under construction.
Lane Field, which was located at the west end of Broadway right next to the bay, was the home of the San Diego Padres from 1936 to 1957. That’s back when the Pads belonged to the Pacific Coast League. A young Ted Williams played there. It’s said the longest home run ever hit in baseball history was at Lane Field. A ball flying out of the park landed in a train’s boxcar near the Santa Fe Depot, and turned up later in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the identity of the player who hit an astonishing 120 mile home run remains unknown!
These photographs in San Diego’s East Village preserve history and reflect memories of a time long ago.
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Rolling Stones Zip Code tour banners hang outside the Hard Rock Hotel, a couple blocks from Petco Park.
The Rolling Stones are ready to begin their highly-anticipated new Zip Code tour. And it kicks off this weekend right here in San Diego!
Walking about downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter this morning, I saw that Rolling Stones banners have been hung on many street lamps. Very cool! The classic rock band’s new tour will take them to a handful of select cities in North America, and possibly South America.
The last huge concert to fill Petco Park was Sir Paul McCartney on tour last September.
Rolling Stones graphic includes a baseball-like tongue! Also visible in this photo is San Diego’s landmark Gaslamp Quarter sign.
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Several faces line the bottom of a downtown window.
Yesterday morning I walked south on Seventh Avenue through a thin slice of downtown San Diego. I began at the tippy top of Cortez Hill and ended near Petco Park. Looking about for random cool sights, just swinging my camera right or left, I took a few pics…
Classic figures in a frieze on a building at the corner of Seventh and C Street. The cool Computer Museum of America used to be here.View of the iconic America’s Finest City mural from a spot on Seventh Avenue.Happy reveler painted at the corner of Seventh and E Street.More cool street art on some boxes at Seventh and F Street.Fun utility box street art photographed during a morning walk through downtown San Diego.The images might be weathered, but the playful spirit remains strong.Gigantic eye stares out of one window at me as I continue to walk south down Seventh Avenue.The Clermont/Coast Hotel, built in 1887, is a Black Historic Site. During the days of racial segregation, is was one of the largest “colored” hotels in downtown San Diego.Seventh Avenue has turned into Tony Gwynn Drive. With the new Padres baseball season, brand new graphics have appeared on the sign behind Petco Park’s big videoboard.Poster inside Omni Hotel window looks forward to San Diego’s 2016 All-Star Game.Sweeping the front of Lucky’s Lunch Counter early one weekday morning.
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A new baseball season is about to begin! There’s fresh hope this year in San Diego, because the Padres have loaded up with outstanding talent. The promise of a greatly improved offense and solid pitching are grounds for great optimism.
This morning I walked through East Village past Petco Park and took photos of cool banners hanging from street lamps near the stadium. The banner graphics include many high profile Padres players. I was in a hurry to catch the trolley, so I probably missed a few…
38 Tyson Ross SP4 Wil Myers CF3 Derek Norris C33 James Shields SP9 Jedd Gyorko 2B53 Joaquin Benoit RP10 Justin Upton LF34 Andrew Cashner SP
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Kids learn about electronics by combining fun pieces from a kit, creating circuits.
Today I checked out a truly amazing event! Expo Day capped off the week-long San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering (formerly known as the San Diego Science Festival), and brought out thousands of families and kids, eager to learn about science. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education, was Expo Day’s principal focus. The seventh annual event nearly burst the seams of downtown’s big Petco Park stadium. There were so many cool exhibits, so much stuff to see, I only managed to experience about half of it! My poor old brain nearly exploded!
Here is a bit of what I saw!
Exhibitor map for the huge Expo Day, concluding event of the San Diego Festival for Science and Engineering.Lots of folks inside Petco Park (baseball stadium of the San Diego Padres) learn about science.This kid is way more interested in a map to cool science stuff than boring bags of cotton candy!A robot was moving mysteriously about, amusing people who were just walking along the concourse.Group demonstrates the structure of some common molecules.The STEM event focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education.Investigating organisms one might find in a mud flat.This balloon soon rose on a column of air and floated out of the tube!Young inventors assemble unique creations using all sorts of ordinary materials.Understanding genetic attributes using Boolean logic. Sounds complicated!Youth would attempt to break a Guinness World Record at Second Hour of Code mass coding event led by a Microsoft professional.I’ve never seen so many hands on experiments in one place!Don’t mess with this guy. He’s a super cool scientist dude!Kids test out non-Newtonian fluids which seem to harden like rubber when struck.Young scientific explorers are shown how to build their own spectroscope! And to think I was confounded by my Etch A Sketch!Test your own mental cognition and speak these colors really fast for yourself!Oh, man! Check this weird elephant out! I love optical illusions!This fancy lab aquarium acts as a flume, used to test the motion of fish and their muscular development.Pointing out a butterfly in a carefully classified collection.Wow! These youngsters are building DNA models! That’s way beyond me!Learning how smoking exposes people to all sorts of toxic chemicals.Girl learns about gyroscopes and angular momentum with a spinning bicycle tire.Some students built cool models of futuristic cities.Awesome robots were all over the place!People were jumping about as this robot dashed about scooping stuff up.This robot participates in the Lego League, trying to score points on an unusual course.This is a mechanical, computerized Rubik’s Cube solver that detects color.Looking down into Petco Park’s Power Alley, where more STEM exhibits were located.Lots of animal life on display included this beautiful long-nosed snake.Lady demonstrates how bio fuels are refined using filtration.Christmas lights helped to teach about energy conservation.Tens of thousands turned out for the big San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering Expo Day.Many businesses were showing their products, discoveries and technological advances.AirZooka vortex generator shoots circular pulse of air at the shimmer wall!This automated machine helps prepare lab samples in medical facilities.Kids left notes on a wall with their bright ideas.Planting some tomato seeds, to watch them sprout and grow at home!More kids making complex molecules with colored marshmallows! I guess they’ll be future scientists!Some art was being created to accompany all the science and technology stuff.This guy uses electromagnetism to launch cans skyward and splatter cucumbers!Petco’s sunny Park at the Park was jammed with families enthused by education.Demonstrating maglev (magnetic levitation) using eddy currents.Young people write down what they like about science!Young astronomers duplicate the colors of an enhanced surface image of asteroid Vesta.This NASA inflatable is the actual size of the Curiosity rover now on Mars.Everyone is fascinated by a cool NASA photograph of the surface of Mars.A member of the next generation lays his hands on our planet.
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San Diego Padres baseball mascot Swinging Friar near a big truck about to leave for Spring Training in Peoria.
Early this morning the Padres began their move to Peoria, Arizona for 2015 Spring Training. An absolutely huge amount of baseball equipment was loaded onto several trucks, and fans, the Pad Squad and television reporters gathered to witness the send-off.
Petco Park, where the Padres play and are headquartered, is not far from where I live, so I walked by to take some photos before catching the trolley to work! Glad I did!
The Padres have loaded up on talent this year, and the coming season looks extremely promising!
Television news people, the Pad Squad and some very devoted fans watch the Padres begin their move to Spring Training.Hungry fans enjoy morning donuts and other goodies courtesy of the Padres.The final crates full of baseball equipment are loaded into one of the big trucks.The truck pulls away from Petco Park, heading for the Peoria, Arizona Sports Complex.Guy in cab waves for cameras and the first stage of a promising season begins!
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