Day 2 - Grand Rapids,
MI
Directions from Lansing to Grand
Rapids
Turn Left onto S. Cedar St/ US-27
BR S/ I-96 BL S.
Merge onto I-496 W.
Merge onto I-96 W toward
Flint/Grand Rapids
Take I-196 W toward Downtown Grand
Rapids/Holland.
Merge onto US-131 S via exit number
77B- on the left- toward Kalamazoo.
Take exit number 85B toward
Pearl St/ Downtown
Stay straight to go onto
Mt Vernon Ave. NW.
Turn left onto Pearl St.
NW.
Estimated travel time - 1 hour
and 15 minutes
Schedule of Events
|
8:00 a.m.
|
Breakfast on your own prior to
8:00.
Meet at the van and load luggage
in order to depart for Grand Rapids.
|
|
9:30 a.m.
|
After parking and unloading the
van, the group ventures to the Public Museum of
Grand Rapids - Van Andel Museum Center and Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium.
(Admission for adults is $7- museum only, or $10 -museum and planetarium.)
The museum is rich with Michigan History. The group will find an
eclectic series of collections ranging from A-Z, with special focus being
on "F is for fossils" and "R is for rocks and minerals".
(The rocks and minerals display opens in late 2003.) The displays
covering the history of Grand Rapids' industries and the ecological habitats
along the Grand River are also of importance. This stop should be
educational and enjoyable. The assignment for the day is to make
observations in field notebooks about Michigan's geologic history, and
Michigan's unique weather forecasting challenges. Notes should also
be made recording visible differences in the Grand River in Grand Rapids
vs. Lansing.
|
|
12:00 p.m.
|
Lunch at the Museum Cafe
|
|
1:00 p.m.
|
Roger B.
Chaffee Planetarium - 2nd Floor of Van Andel Museum Center. The
group will watch a 1 hour presentation about the natural forces that shape
the earth's weather systems and climate. Emphasis is placed on the
challenges that weather forecasters in Michigan have to face. The
presentation is hosted by local media and U.S. Weather Service meteorologists.
This program is also offered at 3:00 p.m.
|
|
2:00 p.m.
|
Exit Chaffee
Planetarium and head directly outside of the museum to observe the
differences between the Grand River in Grand Rapids vs. Lansing.
|
|
3:00 p.m.
|
Leave museum to check into hotel.
Accommodations should be found easily in downtown Grand Rapids.
|
|
4:00 p.m.
|
Settle into rooms. Relax.
Individuals should use this time to make comparisons in their field notebooks
regarding the different sites along the Grand River if they have not already
done so.
|
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5:30 p.m.
|
Dinner as a group.
|
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7:00 p.m.
|
Everyone is on their own to explore
downtown Grand Rapids or simply turn in for the night.
|
Why visit the Van
Andel Museum Center and Chaffee Planetarium?
Visiting
the Public Museum of Grand Rapids is important to this trip for many reasons.
The history of Grand Rapids is rich
with agriculture and industry due to the location of the city
with respect to the Grand River.
Chaffee planetarium allows newcomers to Michigan to get a
glimpse into the problems that arisewhen
forecasting weather in The Great Lakes State.
Another purpose of visiting this location
was to allow group members to have a little fun learning
about more than just TIG concepts
related to Michigan.
The Public Museum of Grand Rapids
The Pleistocene
(1.6 mya - 10,000 years ago) was an interesting time in Michigan history.
The area that is now the State of
Michigan was covered with glaciers. Toward the end of the
Pleistocene, as glaciers began to
retreat, a northern forest habitat started to appear.
Along with the new habitat came the
large mammals of the Pleistocene. The mastodon (one of
those Pleistocene mammals) made their
mark in Michigan. Males grew to be 10 feet tall at the
shoulder
and could have tusks up to 8.5 feet
long. Females were typically smaller. Mastodons fed on spruce
and fir trees, but as the climate
gradually got warmer those trees were replaced with oak and hickory
which were better suited for the warmer,
drier climate. These climate changes and hunting by
Paleo-Indians probably contributed
to the extinction of the mastodon. Studying the mastodons has
given us some geologic history but
it also allows us to see climate change as well as ecosystem changes
as the Pleistocene came to an end.
Mastodons appear similar to elephants and mammoths and
are part of the same order of mammals,
but it appears that their evolutionary
history has been separate for at least
20 million years.
In April of 2002, Michigan's Governor
John Engler signed a law making the mastodon
Michigan's state fossil. About
250 mastodon fossils have been found throughout Michigan so this declaration
is fitting. It is also interesting
to note that a group of middle school children from Ann Arbor
wrote letters of support and rallied
at the Capitol to bring this bill some attention.
An assortment of mastodon fossils ranging from tusks
and teeth, to skulls and vertebrae.
The Roger
B. Chaffee Planetarium is located on the second floor of the Public Museum
of Grand Rapids. Chaffee was
born in Grand Rapids in 1935 and later went on to be chosen as one of the
Apollo 1 astronauts. Chaffee
lost his life on January 27, 1967 during a countdown simulation.
Our visit to Chaffee Planetarium is
a bit unconventional. We will not see a typical planetarium
show, but a weather presentation.
Forecasting weather in Michigan can be challenging. This presentation
explains some of the challenges that
forecasters face trying to predict weather in a state
surrounded by the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes dominate Michigan weather. Lake effect snow squalls
bring heavy snow to western and northern
Michigan in the winter months. During the summer the cool water
in Lake Michigan chills the air near
the surface creating stable conditions and sunny days.
The Great Lakes moderate the weather
by keeping summer days cooler and winter days warmer.
The weather in Michigan is very dynamic!
Warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico and
cold, dry air from the Arctic both
affect Michigan's weather. Four distinct seasons are found throughout
the state. The water of
the Great Lakes also leads to humidity. It is this moisture
that leads to moderate rainfall and
sometimes large amounts of lake effect snow.
All of these factors make forecasting
weather in Michigan unique.
Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium
The Grand River flows through the heart
of Grand Rapids in much the same way it did
in Lansing. Students will make
observations and comparisons between the Lansing area
sites and the Grand Rapids site.
Some water quality testing (for bacteria or chemicals,
and turbidity) will be done in all
locations.
The Grand River in Grand Rapids
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