Day 2 - Wednesday March 20, 2013 - Magic Kingdom/Hollywood Studios

Day 2 – Wednesday March 20, 2013 – Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios Time to get up already? That was not enough sleep but it’s time to get ready for another fun and exciting day. Despite the short night everyone made it down to breakfast on time, with all their gear, ready to go to Magic Kingdom. Upon arrival at transportation central, we were met by our Disney Imaginers – Kirstyn, Frank and Jackie. Our three groups of “scientists” did a quick review of Newton’s laws of motion and The Scientific Method before boarding the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Once in the park – which was completely empty with the exception of the cast members (SOOO COOL) - we headed straight for Space Mountain to learn about kinetic and potential energy. Everyone had the opportunity to first ride the roller coaster with the lights on and then we rode it with the lights off. WOW what a difference that made. It felt faster, steeper and much more exciting with the lights off. While we were inside Space Mountain it had began to rain. A little rain was not going to stop us from experimenting with the roller coaster models. Next on the agenda was the Buzz Lightyear ride where we observed the wonderful world of Disney audio animatronics. All of the Disney rides are full of examples of both hydraulic (smooth and many directions) and pneumonic (one direction and a little rougher) movement. The learning about the Properties of Motion concluded with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This ride gave us a great chance to experience G-force, centripetal force and airtime. What a fun way to learn! With some extra time to spare before lunch, we gave everyone a choice to ride either Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. Lunch cards were handed out before students left in groups of 3 or more to explore the rest of the park during their 4-hours of free time. More rides were enjoyed, souvenir shopping was done, magical memories were made and at 2:30pm when we met up to head over to Hollywood Studios there were MANY smiling faces. A looming threat of more rain kept “hanging” over us and fortunately we were able to enjoy the Tower of Terror, Rocking Roller Coaster, The Great Movie Ride and Star Tours. Some of us even caught some shows like Indiana Jones and the Lights Camera Action Stunt Show. The plan had been to stay for the Fantasmic Light Show BUT with the rain beginning and a very, very, very tired but happy group there were no objections when we decided to head back to the hotel. During the short 15-minute ride to the hotel, we had a chance to regroup and get ready for some reflection and journal time. Everyone had a chance to go to there rooms before we sat down to work on our reflections for Day 1 and 2 and to do a few pages in our Science in Motion Journals. Happy and willingly everyone headed back to their rooms to pack (day packs and suit cases), get ready for bed and for lights our by 10 pm. Tomorrow the dreaded wakeup call will happen at 4:30am. Interesting Fact of the day: The first roller coaster ever was actually a mining train and it did not have any restraints!