PAI Commerce: April 2012

Friday, April 20, 2012

Commerce East – Minnesota History Center

Our recent visit to the Minnesota History Center was quite educational. Opening in October 1992, the history center is home to the Minnesota Historical Society. The building housed a museum (3^rd floor), library (second floor), classrooms (1^st floor), conference center, a 314 seat auditoriums, two museum stores and a café (1^st floor). We were not able to visit the library due to time constraints and the classrooms were full with elementary students on the day of our visit. About three different schools visited on Friday, April 13. We had lunch in the café and walked by the museum stores. There were no shows in the auditorium at the time of our visit.

We were dropped off on the second floor and had to take the elevator to the 1^st floor to purchase our tickets. As we reached the atrium of the building, this was our view.

At first, we were confused because we could have access to the museum without a ticket. We assumed tickets and information was on the first floor so that’s were we headed. It would be nice for the Museum to have signs indicating this but the only signs we saw were arrows pointing to Museum. The elevators were rather small but it fit a manual wheelchair and 4 people nicely. Any more and it would be too crowded.

We spent most of our time on the 3^rd floor where the center housed its museum. We toured Minnesota’s past through Minnesota’s Greatest Generation.

We walked through the Open House: If These Walls Could Talk exhibit, showcasing ten families from the first German family to Italians, African American and Hmong families who occupied

470 Hopkins St.

Our next stop was Weather Permitting were we walked through some amazing displays.

Our last stop was a quick view at the We the People: The First Official Printing of the US Constitution.

The history center offers a great view of the state capital.

For further information, please visit the Minnesota History Center's website

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

PAI West Side - Learning about "Green Roofs"

A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered withvegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. (The word "green" refers to environmentalism and not the color green, as with green roof tiles or roof shingles).

Green Roofs have a centuries-long history.

Modern green roofs, which are made of a system of manufactured layers deliberately placed over roofs to support growing medium and vegetation, are a relatively new phenomenon. However, green roofs or sod roofs in Northern Scandinavia have been around for centuries. The modern trend started when green roofs were developed in Germany in the 1960s, and has since spread to many countries. Today, it is estimated that about 10% of all German roofs have been “greened”. Green roofs are also becoming increasingly popular in the United States, although they are not as common as in Europe.
Some benefits of a green roof are:

-helps slow rain water flooding

-helps clean the rain water
-encourages bio-diversity in wildlife and especially bees
-helps clean the air we breathe

-doubles the life of an average roof

-less trash/materials needed to repair or replace the roof

-looks great and adds more usable space on a property

-food can be grown

-absorbs less heat from the sun and helps cool cities

-helps to insulate to keep heating/cooling costs low

-if air conditioners are on the roof, the air they have to cool starts at a lower temp and takes less energy to reach 70 degrees

Bellow are some great examples of what Green Roofs can look like:

Friday, April 6, 2012

Commerce East -- Guess what?

This week in Science class, we explored our world in microscopic details. Take a look at the pictures we've taken and guess what they look like in their macroscopic form.