ROB NYE THE SCIENCE GUY

ROB NYE THE SCIENCE GUY

We here at One Magic Classroom Inc. (that's right, Corporation of Awesomeness) really love engineers who also know how to fix bicycles and teach us about angular momentum.  We also love engineers who run community projects like the Dubuque Bike Coop.  That's why we have decided to change Rob Williams' name to Rob Nye the Science Guy (sorry, we voted while you were gone), a more fitting term for people named Rob who make the world a better place, one bicycle at a time.

I like when we can teach kids the practical side of science.  We all hopefully know how to ride a bike, but if you're like most nine-year-olds (which I'm not), you may not yet know how to fill your tire with air.  So thanks Rob for your practical hands-on approach to learning science.  Kids love any excuse to get up out of their seat, and I don't blame them.

Angular Momentum....what you say???

That's right, you heard that correctly; we're learning terminology that makes us sound really smart and important at the dinner table thanks to Rob Nye the Science Guy.  Simply put, momentum will tell you how strong a moving thing is, and the faster you move something (a.k.a. Mr. Bicycle Wheel), the more momentum the object has, and therefore the harder it will be to move Mr. Bicycle Wheel in a different direction (hence the term angular or "rotating body" in this case).    

Art Gumbo comes full circle

Art Gumbo really did come full circle (hence the bicycle wheel) in more than one way.  Rob and Sami Sue (Rogue Collections) also came home winners with a tie for second place that magical night.  As wonderful community events such as Art Gumbo would have it, it not only brought out people of the community in support of the arts, but more importantly, it brought another magical person into our classroom.  We can't say this would have happened any other way.  It seems once you are on the right path doing the right things, the right people come along your way.  Well Rob, you were one of those "right" people that came around to our classroom in a very magical way. 

"As a kid I had a dream - I wanted to own my own bicycle.  When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world.  I lived for that bike.  Most kids left their bike in the backyard at night.  Not me.  I insisted on taking mine indoors and the first night I even kept it in my bed."

- John Lennon

Bicycles make me nostalgic.  In writing this post, I couldn't help but think about riding on the backseat of Rachel Johnson's red banana seat bicycle when I was in third grade.  I would hitch a ride behind her on the elongated banana seat on our weekly trips to get ice cream, all the while dripping our favorite Blue Moon ice cream along the path on our way back home.