The Site of Rik Panganiban
The field of digital learning professionals in science and natural history museums is a miniscule one. So when a new blog appears focusing on digital learning at a museum, it makes me very happy. My colleagues at the Field Museum of Chicago have just launched a new blog called Digital Field Notes focused on their …
I’m still so impressed with the new “Color of Life” exhibit at my museum, the California Academy of Sciences. “Color of Life” focuses on the many amazing ways that color communicates, conceals, and warns in the natural world. We have such talented exhibit and experience designers on staff, and it’s cool to see them unleash …
We often have need of headshots to use for conferences and events that we are participating in from our department. I realized last week that I don't have any nice portraits of me done in our museum, so I asked my colleague Jeff to run around the Cal Academy and shoot me in various locales. …
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the space shuttle Endeavour (OV-105), now housed at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. As a big space nerd, getting to be in the presence of one of the space shuttles was an enormous thrill! Five years ago, I had traveled to Florida, hoping to catch the last …
I’m jumping on a flight to LA for the Digital Media and Learning conference this weekend. But I am so so excited about our new “Color of Life” exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. Opening June 12, “Color of Life” explores how living things use color to attract, hide, repel, and deceive. I just got …
Yesterday, in the California Academy of Sciences there was a buzz of excitement about a very rare occurrence in our swamp tank: one of our five alligator snapping turtles had managed to get onto the heated rock in the middle of the swamp! A turtle on a rock, big deal, you might say. Well, if …
I'm excited to share the news that episode one of the podcast "Object Oriented" is now out! As a reminder, "Object Oriented" is a monthly audio podcast featuring my friends Barry Joseph, head of digital learning at the American Museum of Natural History, Eve Gaus of digital learning at the Field Museum in Chicago, and myself. Each episode, we talk about a …
California Academy TechTeens Kate, Victoria and Emma created this video project inspired by the "Habitat Earth" planetarium show. They asked our visitors whether they thought if was possible for humans to get to zero waste. Here's what they found out. For more about the TechTeens see http://www.calacademy.org/techteens . For more about San Francisco's Zero Waste initiative, …
For Mother's Day yesterday, the @calacademy twitter account reposted a pic from our swamp that I took. Classic. “Are you my mom?” Sometimes things get a little awkward in our Swamp. (Captured by @riktheranger.) pic.twitter.com/MgC2O0fFvJ — CA AcademyOfSciences (@calacademy) May 10, 2015
I'm so pleased to share the news that the California Academy of Sciences was recognized by disability support group The ARC SF as "Employer of the Year." With 6 interns and 4 employees with disabilities on staff, the Cal Academy was praised for our "commitment to creating an inclusive work environment." According to Academy executive director Jon …