Label: Science Museums

August 26, 2010

May 28, 2010

We’ve written before about "The Tech Challenge," the annual team design challenge for grades 5 through 12 run by The Tech Museum in Silicon Valley. Teams who enter must use the scientific process to design a hands-on project intended to solve a real-world problem. This year’s topic was "Ridding the Universe of Space Junk," described as follows: You and your team need to design and build a solution that can help rid the Universe of Space Junk one item at a time from the deck of your temporary home - The International Space Station.

CLICK HERE to see a 5-minute video from April’s final competition - with teams of kids trying to get a simulated "inoperative satellite" to burn up on delivery by attaching two Hall Thrusters to its thruster docking ports. Size D batteries were used to represent the thrusters. Looks like it was a fun - and challenging - day! 

If your family is traveling in the Southern California area this summer, this museum is full of hands-on fun for kids of all ages. Well worth a stop.

May 25, 2010

One of the things that we really loved when we visited the Tech Museum in San Jose, California (the heart of Silicon Valley) was the presence of graduate students from the Genetics  department in Stanford University’s School of Medicine, doing hands-on genetics experiments like DNA Spooling with kids who were visiting the museum.

The day we were there we watched Dan Kvitek, a graduate student in Genetics, working with young visitors. Every graduate student who joins this program not only interacts with kids in the museum, but also writes for the website, answering questions submitted to Ask a Geneticist and researching and writing articles for Current News in Genetics.

The program is overseen by professor Barry Starr, who was present the day we visited. He told us that they saw an opportunity with the popularity of forensic-based television programs like CSI to get kids engaged with the science behind the mysteries…..and the collaboration between university and museum was born.

I am always updating and adding entries to my online Science Dictionary, because as we all know, science is much less about knowing the "right answer" than it is about asking good questions.  Our understanding of the world around us is always growing and evolving, especially in a field like genetics. On my list of definitions to add to the online dictionary are terms like forensics and DNA mapping. Like Dr.  Starr, I know that kids are fascinated by this fast-developing field,  which explores the fundamental "fingerprints" of our individual,  biological identities.

April 7, 2010

One of the things we thought was really great at THE TECH in San Jose is their annual competition.

Called "The Tech Challenge," it is an annual team design challenge for grades 5 through 12. Using the scientific process,  entrants design a hands-on project intended to solve a real-world problem.

Here is how they describe this year’s challenge:
You and your team need to design and build a solution that can help rid the Universe of Space Junk one item at a time - and your mission is to get an inoperative satellite to burn up upon re-entry by attaching two Hall Thrusters, Size "D" Batteries will be used to represent the thrusters,  to its thruster docking ports - and it must be done from the deck of your temporary home - The International Space Station.

There are lots more details on the Tech Challenge 2010 Website.

Whether you are entering yourself or simply going to see what kids have come up with, this is bound to be lots of fun. 

April 7, 2010

We’re in Silicon Valley this week, talking to various developers about educational apps that we might create with some of my content. While we were there, we visited THE TECH in San Jose - an excellent museum of technology and innovation.

While I was there I asked this robot: WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR? Press PLAY for his response!