Yesterday’s science class was for real.
The children from the Princess’s home learning program, along with hundreds of children from other parts of the Lower Mainland, were invited to spend the day at Playland — B.C.’s version of Manitoba’s Red River Ex and Ontario’s CNE. Same candy floss, carnival music, screaming SCREAMING ridership.
(One needs to be a special kind of person to work in a place like this and much praise and gratitude must go to the constantly smiling young staff who loaded all the thrill-seekers in to the rides before the SCREAMING began.)
Groups of students carried worksheets to focus them on the physics of the ride and to hear them chattering about the questions would have made any elementary science teacher proud.
“That’s called an example of centi- centri- cen- cen- centrifugal force, right?”
“Whoa! That was 4 Gs for sure!”
“Why did I scream? I couldn’t stop screaming. Now I’m shaking. Why am I crying? I’m not even sad!” (That would be my child, BTW.)
The artwork on the upper layer of this ride is astonishing. On the outiside, in a detailed hand-lettered script, were the name of the ride and the man who designed it in Germany.
After looking at the basic forces and simple machines in some of the gentler rides, the children were allowed to take on some of the ah, more challenging rides where they also experienced the physiological effects of an adrenalin rush.
The Princess was pretty quiet on the way home.
Queasy would be one way to describe it. As for me, well, my inner ear ain’t what it used to be and just watching the screamers tackle an event called ‘The Corkscrew’ left me looking for the horizon.
All kudos to the folks at Playland. A really great opportunity to show future physicists and engineers what they can create with their science degrees!
The Country Mice 