If You Give a Geek a Camera App

Newest Member of the Family

Meet Olympia, Mikro's Chinese Water Dragon:



Doesn't big "sister" Amicus looked thrilled to welcome a new lizard into our home?



Actually, they are housed separately, on different floors. Amicus, a Bearded Dragon, is a desert creature, but Olympia is tropical. They would never have been able to be tankmates...

Bacteria Painting Results

This is the bacteria painting of a dragon Mikro did at Gentech's booth at the World Science Festival's Innovation Square. You can see more cool bacterial art at their Flikr page.

(Photo by Gentech.)

Last Science Sessions at SMLI till Fall

We had our last few science classes till fall. The kids studied butterflies one week, went seining in the Long Island Sound the next (catching mostly shrimp and Atlantic Silversides) and dissected squid at their last class.

Some photos:

Smart Bird and Air Penguin at World Science Festival Street Fair 2012

Some photos from the Science Street Fair at this year's World Science Festival:













And video of the awe inspiring Smart Bird and Air Penguin in flight:





The folks at Festo have the biodynamics down pat for all of their creature inspired robots, and it is truly a wonder to watch these things in action!

Innovation Square at the World Science Festival

This year the World Science Festival showcased robotics, game development, and some other cool high tech at Innovation Square in Brooklyn's Metrotech Center. My kid is utterly in love with robots, so this was a must do event. Mikro was overjoyed to see Festo's robot jellyfish, snakebots, soccer playing robots, a live demo of quantum levitation, and a space cruiser sim which kids got to "drive". He also had great fun painting with bacteria and glow in the dark oobleck.











Here's my video of the Aquajelly robot:



And quantum levitation:

Cool Jobs and Hot Contest at the World Science Festival

We had a blast at the Cool Jobs/Hot Contest event at the World Science Festival. Alan Alda presented the winning entry in the Flame Challenge, which was to describe what a flame is, in a way that an 11 year old would truly understand. He came up with the concept because he asked this question of a childhood teacher and got only the brusquest of answers: "Oxidation." The winning video was funny and musical and presented a thorough explanation.



The Cool Jobs panel was wonderful. Zoologist Jarod Miller introduced the audience to some live animals, including Mikro's favorite, the Fennec Fox. Biomechanical Engineer Cynthia Bir talked about using biomechanics to design protective gear, prevent injuries and improve athletic performance, and had kids from the audience demonstrate some of the software she uses by engaging in a basketball dribbling contest. Biomechanical Engineer Adam Wilson discussed developing direct mind to computer interfaces and how they might help people with disabilities. He had kid volunteers demonstrate by using EEG caps and their brain activity to send a text message. Neuroscientist and NYU professor Wendy Suzuki brought out a real human brain and talked about what the various parts of it do, and how exercise causes the brain to grow more neurons and show more electrical activity. She then led the audience in some Intensati-- exercise moves paired with verbal affirmations-- which she has observed yields improved memory and concentration.





Here's the video of this event:



Video streaming by Ustream

Icarus at the World Science Festival

Brian Greene, one of the founders of the World Science Festival, wrote a story called "Icarus at the Edge of Time", which is a retelling of the Icarus myth, in which Icarus is a boy who travels too close to a black hole to escape the effects of gravitational force on time, and is thrust 10,000 years into the future. In aid of their mission to get kids to engage with science, the WSF made free educator tickets available to teachers and schoolchildren, and homeschoolers! Brian Greene explained the science to the audience before the show. There was also an amazing teacher's guide that explained the science behind the movie, which Mikro and I went through at home in advance.





Our homeschool group participated, and we were lucky enough to see the show, which combines a computer animated film with a live orchestra and narrator. Levar Burton narrated. The setting was the incredible United Palace Theater on 175th Street and Broadway. It is incredibly ornate and dripping with motifs from India. I'm really glad this architectural treasure survived! We had a great time, and lingered after the show to take some photos of the theater after the house lights came up. Mikro and Kev were in the lobby waiting for me to come down from the ladies room when they saw Levar Burton being interviewed by the press. They were standing in the background listening when Levar said to the interviewer that he would rather be talking to "kids like this", and shook Mikro's hand and had a conversation with him about science! My kid has this amazing luck! He made sure to tell Mr. Burton how much he enjoyed Reading Rainbow.

Celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8th

Transit of Venus

Why does this little astronomy geek look so bummed out?



Well, this is what our sky looked like, which means he only got to see the Transit of Venus for a fraction of a second via the pinhole technique before it was blocked by the sky full of clouds...