Week 8: Meteor Gallery & Magnets

On Tuesday, we visited the meteorite gallery and planetarium in South Campus!  At the meteorite gallery, I was really amazed and captivated by all of the material of the meteorites. Their color, shapes, and textures were all things I noted as I viewed the diverse range of space rocks. Some of the larger meteorites had magnets in them which allowed the viewer to interact with the material of the meteorites and learn about the metals that are inside of the meteorites.

On Thursday, we were given magnets to collect dust to check if they were space dust and what not. I was in a group with Valentin, Collette, and Rachel. We first went to the area where we planted the corn seeds and unfortunately, nothing was there. We did not really see any growth and just saw the bushes that were originally there. 

Later, we walked around the film school to try to find dust fillings, however we were unable to get anything that was attracted to the magnet! Everything was fine until we reached the Richard Serra sculpture in front of Broad and BAMMMM!!!! The magnet that I was holding suddenly attached to the sculpture itself. As I took a hold of the magnet, I felt the attraction of the magnet to the sculpture and I knew it was going to be really difficult or impossible to take off. Rachel and I were able to budge the magnet a couple of inches closer to the side of the sculpture. We learned to put most of our weight on the bottom based on the magnet and push the bottom of it, rather than trying to pull it from the top of the handle. Rachel and I’s attempt to remove the magnet was very unsuccessful and our group had our walk of shame back to our classroom. 

    We reconvened as a class with everyone being able to find some dust or rocks with their magnets. We viewed the particles under a microscope and it was really fascinating looking at the different textures and images of the materials that my classmates collected.

    As I was exiting Broad, I saw Matthew looking at the magnet and seeing how it was still stuck to the sculpture. We told him how we were able to move the magnet a bit and we were shocked that we were able to since we were not able to budge it. We told him the method that we were able to move it and Matthew was able to slide the magnet off of the sculpture! We were delighted that the magnet was finally off and we did not vandalize school property!

    This whole experience showed me the strength of magnetic forces, which tied back to Professor Gekelman’s lecture on magnetic fields and magnets in general!

Additionally, this weekend Rachel and I hosted our HOX Zodiac Dinner. We spent hours prepping for the food, but it was fun. I personally enjoyed cooking because I am domestic like that. 

I was in charge of the table design for this project and I am really happy with the results of it. We already have a large wooden rectangular table and I placed moss on top of it and then put an oval glass table top on that. I wanted to reflect the Dragon’s element and color of Earth and Brown by utilizing the wooden table and the moss. Additionally, I added red carnations to the table to reflect the Snake’s color. On the table, I added candles to represent the Snake’s fire element and on each side I added orchids and hyacinths which were the flowers of the snake and dragon. 

The dishes were arranged in a way where the dishes closer to the orchids are more reflective of the Korean and Snake influences whereas dishes that were closer to the hyacinths were more Dragon and Vietnamese/Chinese. Towards the middle of the table, there were more fusion dishes that had flavor profiles from both animals and cultures. I made a total of 5 dishes, which was a lot but I am really happy with the dishes I made. My Southeast-inspired sauce is something that I am like “Wow, this sauce should be sold in a jar or something because it is that good!”.