Inside the main yard, is the original museum that was built in 1889. Here it is:
Me in front of the original Bishop Museum
They didn't have any woodworkers went this was built, only stone workers. So, they had to send the wood to Michigan for all the cabinets and trimming to be built. The inside woodwork is really pretty.
When you look up in the main room, you can see a model of a blue whale and a shark. They are made of paper mache. The blue whale is only 1/2 paper mache and the other half (the other side) is a skeleton that the museum bought for $2,000 over 50 years ago.
The whale skeleton weighs almost 3,000 lbs adn the skull alone weighs 2,300 lbs.
There were 5 King Kamehamehas. The first one was the first king to rule all of the Hawaiian Islands.
The Kahili are feathered sceptors that show royalty. Only royalty used them and it was to show that they were present. You can see one on each side of King Kamehameha I's photograph:
King Kamehameha I
King Kamehameha II
King Kamehameha III
King Kamehameha IV
The last King Kamehameha
Here is a photo of a traditional Hawaiian House, built on stone and constructed of mostly parts of a coconut tree.
Each section at the museum had these videos and you could touch the screen to learn about different things. It was really itneresting and better than reading everything on the walls.
Here I am learning a sitting hula dance. Originally, the men did the dancing and it was teh Christian missionaries who changed it to the women.
Here I am using 2 different kinds of pestles to grind things.
I'm trying out different fishing tools. Here I am learning a stick, rhythm song.
Here is a helmet and cloak for the king. It's made out of natural bird feathers put together really tightly.
I am doing my research on a subject of my choice. I picked the ancient Hawaiian Gods. I'm filling out a 4-Square graphic organizer with my topic ideas, supporting ideas, conclusion and transition words. This next week, I have to write teh rough and final draft. Then I'll publish it here in the blog. I also drew a picture of one of the Gods. I'll take a picture of it and put it in here too.
THE HANDS-ON SCIENCE MUSEUM
Next we went to the science museum which focused mostly on volcanoes. It was interesting although most of the information I already knew. Here is a picture of the main volcano inside the museum.
Inside the volcano you can see the chamber and the magma going up the vent to the surface. There was a lot of information about ah ah and pahoe hoe lava and the different kinds of sands on the beaches.
Downstairs beneath the volcano they put on a show which was pretty interesting.
During teh show, they explained how the islands were formed. Then she went behind a screen and made homemade lava for us to see. Whe had a fire-proof suit on. the chamber of the heating pot was 2,000 degrees hot. She said the usual temperature to make magma/lava is about 2,300 degrees.
You can see where the lava just ran out... it's still sort of orange but already turning black. I am holding a chunk of it in my hand here.
On the way out of the base of the volcano, I had to walk through a lava tube with some really awesome special effects. There were black lights on lava, Pele ( the goddess who spews lava) and art that local kids put up.
This was a really cool tunnel!
Outside the volcano, there was a table that had all of the Hawaiian Islands on it. I could pull a section over each island and on the screen would pop up a bunch of information... like the names of the volcanoes, when the islands were made and how old they are.
DINOSAURS:
Our last stop was the dinosaur museum. We didn't get too much time there because it was close to closing time, but we did get to go through the museum, see some dinos and I got to learn some new things.
I learned that scientists now think that dinos like the T-Rex walked with its body parallel to the ground and used its tale for balancing. Before they thought that he drug his tail and stood more upright.
I also learned that they think that baby dinosaurs had a covering of fur and feathers when they were young to help keep them warm. They think that the fur and feathers fell off as the dino matured and needed to cool down more quickly.
The last thing I learned but I kind of already knew... that dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than reptiles... so most of them were not cold blooded like we thought before. I had heard before that the closest living relative to a T-Rex is a chicken - that's how I kind of knew about this.
Here we are, waiting for the bus! Thanks for reading. Marcus
